Senior Research Fellows
Scovia Aweko
Dr. Scovia Aweko is a Global Evidence Fellow with the RIPIL-LPI Research-Policy-Practice Partnership. Her research agenda focuses on how external shocks shape political behavior and preferences. She draws theories from social psychology and comparative politics to demonstrate the varying impact of political violence on preferences for migrants. Her work sheds light on how an individual's past experience with civil war shapes their attitudes towards refugees. She shows that those individuals who faced displacement or had family members killed during civil war are not more likely than their unaffected counterparts to prefer refugees who are fleeing the similar circumstance of political violence. Her research contributes to our understanding of refugee-host relations and the extant scholarship on the legacy of political violence in post-conflict communities.
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Lindsay Barclay
Lindsay Kurlak Barclay is a Senior Research Fellow at RIPIL and Project Manager for the State Department SEAL Partnership, and Translating Research into Action Center. She is also a PhD candidate in International Relations at American University’s School of International Service, where her research focuses on state-building, post-war transitions, political geography, and political violence.
Prior to academia, she was an international development specialist, managing USAID-funded programs focused on conflict mitigation and democratic governance in conflict-affected countries. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco and has conducted fieldwork in Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Morocco.
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Rachel A. George
Dr. Rachel A. George is a Co-Creation Fellow with Bridging the Gap and RIPIL. She is a researcher and policy analyst working at the intersection of development, diplomacy, and security. At a Co-Creation Fellow, she has led the development of a new training module on research co-creation and translation.
Rachel is currently a Lecturer in the Program in International Relations at Stanford University and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Women, Peace, and Security. Her work spans foreign policy, democracy, Middle East politics, emerging technologies, and the research-to-policy nexus. She has held positions at Duke University, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Overseas Development Institute, and her research has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Washington Quarterly, Just Security, and World Politics Review.
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Alex Maxwell
Dr. Alex Maxwell is a Global Evidence Fellow with the RIPIL-LPI Research-Policy-Practice Partnership. His research focuses on men’s roles and male allyship in Women, Peace, and Security programs in collaboration with community partners in Kenya.
He is an international development researcher with 12 years of experience in research, project management, and policy communication. Alex’s work focuses on development, sustainability, gender, and displacement in post-conflict and fragile contexts. He has collaborated with multilateral organizations (UNODC, UNIDO), international NGOs, and government bodies, and has a strong track record in qualitative research and policy engagement. He has regional expertise in East and Central Africa, particularly Uganda.
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Michelle Sief
Dr. Michelle Sief is a Senior Research Fellow with RIPIL and the Translating Research into Action Center, and a Visiting Scholar at American University’s School of International Service. She is a political scientist and global development specialist with over a decade of experience helping organizations generate and use data and evidence to drive social impact. Her work spans trade and investment, financial inclusion, gender equality, small business growth, and conflict stabilization. She designs practical MEL frameworks, translates complex data into compelling narratives, and supports evidence-based decision-making for diverse stakeholders. She has lived and worked in nine African countries and has led cross-functional, global teams. She holds a PhD from Columbia University.
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Aaron Stanley
Aaron Stanley is a Senior Research Fellow with RIPIL-LPI Research-Policy-Practice Partnership. He works on international peace and security issues spanning policy, research, and philanthropy, with a focus on East Africa and the Horn of Africa. Most recently, he managed the Africa Program at the Wilson Center, leading a network of 22 African think tanks focused on translating peace and security research for U.S.-Africa policy discussions.
He has worked and lived in Kenya and Somalia, leading initiatives connecting community-engaged research to international policy bodies, including the UN, World Bank, and development agencies. He previously worked at Carnegie Corporation of New York and regularly supports philanthropic organizations with network building, facilitation, and program development. He is completing his PhD on political legitimacy at The Graduate Center - City University of New York.
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Pauline Zerla
Dr. Pauline Zerla is a Postdoctoral Research Impact Fellow with the Translating Research for Action Center and RIPIL. Her research explores experiences of reintegration in the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. As a scholar, Pauline is interested in oral and visual histories of post-war transition, ex-combatants’ reintegration and communities return from war. She holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.
From 2020-2023, she was a research assistant on the XCEPT project, a King's project that examines violent and peaceful behaviors in conflict contexts, with a focus on trauma. Prior to joining King’s, she worked for various peacebuilding organizations in DR Congo, CAR, Nigeria, and others.
Follow her work here.