The below profiles reflect current students’ interests in and experiences of Eastern Mediterranean Affairs at The Fletcher School. As you will note, the students span degree programs, fields of study, and disciplines, and they have incorporated regional analysis into their academic coursework, research, summer internships, and professional paths. These profiles are updated frequently, so please check back soon! If you are a current student focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean or related topics in your Fletcher coursework, internship, or capstone, and you want to be featured on the site, please click here to fill out this survey.
Kate Hibbert, Senior Assistant
MALD 2024
Kate is studying leadership in foreign affairs, conflict resolution, and the Middle East. During the summer of 2023, she provided political analysis and research support to the U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen at the Department of State. Prior to Fletcher, she managed major fundraising campaigns and events and coordinated data projects across departments at a nonprofit tuition-free middle school dedicated to serving newcomer refugee girls in Decatur, Georgia, U.S.
Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in World Languages with a minor in TESOL from Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, during which she studied in France, Argentina, and Jordan to learn French, Spanish, and Arabic. Her hometown is Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Yael Krifcher, Research Assistant
MALD 2024
Yael is a second-year MALD student, focusing on International Development and Human Security. Yael graduated from Wesleyan University in 2019, and has spent the last three years based in Jerusalem, where she first worked for a local human rights NGO focused on spatial planning rights for Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and then as a UN contractor working within the Palestinian energy sector. Originally from the DC area, Yael is fluent in Hebrew and proficient in Arabic, and is excited to support the work of the Fares Center this year.
Leen Hayek, Robinson Fellow
MALD 2024
Leen is a second-year MALD student from Jordan, interested in the intersection of technology, innovation, energy, and global business. Leen has a B.S. in Engineering Sciences with focus on renewable energy. Leen worked as an advisor in the international development sector across multiple projects focusing on labor market reform, refugee capacity building, and promoting private-public partnership models in the renewable energy and ICT sectors in Jordan.
Ariel Daniels, Research Assistant
MALD 2024
Ariel is a 2024 MALD candidate studying conflict resolution and international security. During the summer of 2023, she interned in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs – Office of North African Affairs, managing the Tunisia desk portfolio. At Fletcher, Ariel serves as a Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant for the Fares Center and Center for Strategic Studies Afghanistan Assumptions Project.
Ariel holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Affairs with a minor in French from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. During summer 2018, Ariel studied Arabic at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco on a Benjamin A. Gilman scholarship. Her hometown is Milledgeville, Georgia.
Frizia Rounak, Staff Assistant
MALD 2025
Frizia is a first-year MALD student specializing in International Information and Communication, with a focus on digital rights and inclusion. She studies the role of AI in enhancing access to information and safeguarding digital freedoms, aiming to bridge technology and human rights to support a more inclusive digital world. Prior to Fletcher, she worked with the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN and other organizations as a human rights and communications intern where she helped in drafting policy briefs and official statements for several sessions of the Human Rights Council. Frizia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Affairs.
Aryama Bhattacharyya, Staff Assistant
MALD 2025
Aryama is a 2025 MALD student focusing on Conflict Resolution and Human Security. She is also a cross-registered student at the Harvard University where she focuses on Negotiation and Climate Action. In addition, she is a staff writer at Praxis – The Fletcher Journal of Human Security. Prior to joining Fletcher, she was interning with the Global Governance Initiative. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Calcutta.
Angelina Grosso, Communications Assistant
MALD 2024
Angelina is the graphic designer for the Fares Center and is a second-year MALD student. Her fields of study are technology & international affairs and global governance & international organizations, with a specific interest in public diplomacy.
Arda Mert Sehan, Staff Assistant
MATA
Bio coming soon.
Ciara Moezidis
MALD 2024
Ciara is a second-year MALD student also pursuing a dual degree at Harvard Divinity School. She focuses on human rights issues of ethnoreligious persecution, apartheid, and genocide in the MENA region. She is also passionate about bringing a more human-rights-centered and religiously-literate approach to U.S. foreign policy. Born and raised in California, Ciara attended Santa Clara University, where she served as student body president and held internships on Capitol Hill, at the Project on Middle East Democracy, and with the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. She spent last summer in Palestine/Israel and speaks Spanish, Farsi and dabbles in Levantine Arabic.
Zaina Basha
MALD 2024
Zaina is a second-year student concentrating in International Security and Comparative and Regional Studies. Zaina spent the past ten years exercising her entrepreneurial skills by opening a small business that offered resources to support immigrants and newcomers with their aspirations to join the local workforce. Previously, Zaina worked as a Policy Analyst and a Researcher in the foreign policy field. Zaina has over five years of experience running projects about the Levant and the Middle East regions.
Kasidit is Thailand’s Foreign Ministry Scholar focusing on Middle East Studies. Prior to joining The Fletcher School, Kasidit obtained a B.A. in Arab and Islamic History from the University of Jordan. Kasidit also spent 2 years studying Fusha and Ammiya Arabic at the Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman. After completing his MALD, Kasidit will be working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Thailand.
Miriam Silverman-Israel
Miriam is in her second year as a dual-degree student at the Fletcher School and the Harvard Divinity School studying environmental policy and the role of faith communities in combatting climate change. She previously worked at a refugee resettlement agency as well as at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, supporting inclusive governance and political organizing by LGBTQI+ individuals, people with disabilities and religious and ethnic minorities. She grew up in Maryland and speaks Hebrew, Arabic and French.