Research Fellows
Eric Baran
Eric Baran is a Research Fellow at RIPIL, currently collaborating on the NSF-funded project, Networks of Influence and Support between War and Peace. Eric graduated from American University in December 2024 with a master’s in data science. His skills in this area have played an integral role in helping to finalize the three international aid network datasets stemming from the NSF project. At RIPIL, Eric’s work focuses on researching and evaluating programmatic methods for extracting data from standard or machine-readable documents, applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques, in particular large language models (LLMs), to develop, label and classify data, and network analyses techniques to quantify connections between organizations.
Follow his work here.
Grace Benson
Dr. Grace Benson is a Research Fellow at RIPIL and the Translating Research into Action Center. She holds a PhD and MPhil in International Relations from the School of International Service at American University, and a BA with honors in Public Policy and Ethics from Duke University. Informed by her background in resettlement and case management, her research explores forced displacement, humanitarian aid, and global comparative refugee policies.
Dr. Benson was awarded the Cosmos Club Foundation Scholars Prize for her development of a new global dataset and typology of resettlement services, which offers insights to strengthen international collaboration and improve policy.
Follow her work here.
Cecilia Cavero
Cecilia Cavero is a Dual Title Ph.D. student in International Relations and Social Data Analytics at the Department of Political Science at Penn State. She is also a Project Manager for Networks of Influence and Support between War and Peace and Research Fellow at RIPIL. Her academic interests center around peacebuilding, dispute management, and post-conflict reconstruction. She graduated with a double B.A. in International Studies and Political Science at Carlos III University of Madrid. She also holds a Master of Research in International Relations from the University of Essex and a Master of Arts from Penn State.
Before her graduate studies, she was a writer for the Berkeley Review of International Conflict and Security, interned for the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and interned as an Intelligence Analyst at the Cyber Counter-Threat Intelligence team at Deloitte.
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Madeline Faye Fleishman
Dr. Madeline Faye Fleishman is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Security Data and Policy Institute at the University of Virginia. She received her PhD in Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also a Project Manager for Networks of Influence and Support between War and Peace and Research Fellow at RIPIL. Her research primarily focuses on civil conflict, specifically cooperation in conflict management by international organizations.
She is currently working on different projects studying the networks of aid in various conflict contexts. Her work has appeared in Conflict Management and Peace Science, the Journal of Peace Research, and in the Monkey Cage Blog. She previously worked as an Adjunct Researcher at RAND Corporation.
Follow her work here.
Reva Resstack
Reva Resstack is a Research Fellow with RIPIL and the Translating Research into Action Center. She is a PhD candidate in Economics at American University, where she studies economic impacts of foreign aid and migration policy in countries of origin and destination. She also teaches a graduate course on Economic Development at the School of International Service.
Reva previously worked under Dr. Michael Clemens and Dr. Thomas Ginn at the Center for Global Development, supporting their work on migration and displacement, and as a Research Fellow for the Central America Monitor at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). She has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and for over 10 years, she has been working on grassroots projects with partners in El Salvador.
Follow her work here.