Authors

Multidisciplinary to the core—global in outlook and approach—our authors are steeped in the challenges of delivering development solutions in the field. They are committed to sharing our innovation and experience to inform international development practices worldwide.

Aaron Hoagland

Aaron Hoagland is an Associate in DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States. Since joining DAI in June 2017, Aaron has helped support a variety of governance and countering violent extremism projects for the Center primarily in Pakistan and Kenya. He works closely with program staff and project managers to deliver program excellence and provides general operational and logistical support to the CS3 sector and new business opportunities.

Aaron manages the Checkpoint blog and conducts research with CS3’s Subnational Fragility Index in northeastern Nigeria, analyzing DAI’s Fragility Index polling data to predict violent extremist events. Before joining the Center, Aaron worked for both state and federal congressional representatives in Washington, D.C. and Nebraska.

Adeel Jafferi is consulting for CS3 as a Senior CVE Technical Specialist. Adeel has nearly 20 years of experience conceptualizing, designing, managing and implementing international programs in countering violent extremism, behavioral change, communications and strategy development for counter-radicalization and counter-terrorism for USAID, OTI, US Departments of Defense and State, the British Council, Ministry of Defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development and the Research and Information Communications Unit, amongst others. Over his career, Adeel has worked on CVE programs in Asia, Africa, Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, where he has provided technical expertise and training to development stakeholders, foreign ministries and other government agencies.

Asha Harrison has designed and implemented development projects worldwide since 2004, specializing in stabilization activity design and project implementation in transitional environments. Since beginning her professional career, she has worked on projects in Costa Rica, East Timor, Liberia, Philippines, Thailand, and the United Kingdom; designed activities for programs in Nigeria and Trinidad; and led activity implementation in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, and Sri Lanka. Asha comes to us most recently from the U.S. Agency for International Development mission in Mali, where she worked as Conflict and Governance Advisor with the Peace, Democracy, and Governance Office. Asha’s relationship with DAI began with her second tour to eastern Sri Lanka in 2010. She finally joined the DAI family as a permanent member of the Center for Secure and Stable States in 2018, bringing her expertise to the countering violent extremism portfolio.

Christy Martins is a Senior Project Manager in DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States and provides support to the NiWajibu Wetu program in Kenya. She has 15 years of experience managing and implementing community development programs in transition, post-conflict, and post-disaster situations including in long-term field positions in South Sudan and Sri Lanka. She is also the mother of two young daughters and believes in raising strong girls.

Erin Greenwalt is the Development Assistant for DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States, where she is participating in a rotation program at DAI for junior-level staff. Through this program, Erin will gain experience in the business development, project delivery, and finance units.

India Scribner is an Assistant for DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States where she supports business development and project management for Stabilization, Transition, and CVE programming. Prior to joining DAI in April 2018, she managed project operations for USAID-funded gender and social inclusion programming in the DRC, Mali, and the MENA region.

Janene Sawers is the Checkpoint blog manager and project manager for DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States, where she provides technical and operational oversight to countering violent extremism (CVE)-related programs. For the three years prior, she managed development results within DAI’s governance, CVE, transition, and stabilization portfolio in complex environments including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Pakistan, Tunisia, and the West Bank.

Kevin Casey is an applied researcher with experience bringing innovative methodologies to research in conflict, transitional and stabilization contexts. Kevin has designed and executed research in complex environments for USAID, Office of Transition Initiatives, U.S. Army Africa and U.S. Forces in Iraq. In each case, Kevin focused on developing processes for discerning research needs, designing methods that are suitable and practical to specific contexts, and translating research findings into actionable recommendations to drive programmatic responses and strategy. Kevin has researched extensively in the technical areas of countering violent extremism, conflict and reconciliation, security cooperation, and political transition in places such as Botswana, Ghana, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tanzania, and Tunisia.

Lauren Reese is an Associate with DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States, where she provides operational and financial management support to stabilization programming. Currently, she supports a governance program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She also contributes to CS3 business development efforts, helping to ensure proposals reflect the expertise of DAI in delivering innovative and impactful programming in complex environments. With DAI, Lauren previously served as a Senior Project Associate for the USAID Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative. Based in Monrovia, she led the project’s learning and communications activities, co-created grant activities with civil society organizations and government entities, and facilitated civil society capacity assessments.

Leland Howard is the Strategic Recruitment Manager for DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States. Leland brings 10 years of international development recruitment experience, with a focus on good governance, public financial management, countering violent extremism (CVE), and stabilization programming in fragile and transitioning states.

Megan Bromberg is a Project Associate in DAI’s Center for Security and Stable States, providing administrative and operational support to two projects based in Pakistan. Before joining DAI in August 2016, Megan worked as a monitoring and evaluation intern at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations where she performed research on best practices for countering violent extremism and helped design surveys and indices for ongoing monitoring and evaluation projects in North Africa.

Sara Hiller is a Project Manager for DAI’s Center for Secure and Stable States, where she provides technical and operational oversight to transition and stabilization programs. Since joining DAI in 2012, Sara has supported a variety of governance, countering violent extremism, and stabilization programs in complex environments such as Pakistan, Iraq, and the West Bank.

Sean Caselli-Mechael is the New Business Manager for the Center for Secure and Stable States. Since joining DAI in 2014, Sean has supported DAI’s Office of Transition Initiatives, countering violent extremism, governance, and information and communications technology practices in a variety of roles. He specializes in business development and portfolio strengthening, assessments, and startup operations for political and post-conflict transition programming.

In her role as Project Team Director within the Center for Secure and Stable States, Skye Perske is focused on ensuring excellence in DAI programming, thought leadership in countering violent extremism (CVE), and new business activities. She oversees DAI’s CVE project portfolio, including programs in Kenya and the Philippines.

Tine Knott is the Vice President of the Center for Secure and Stable States where she provides strategic leadership of DAI’s work in fragile states. For the three years prior, she was DAI’s Managing Director for Governance, Transition, and Stability, where she was responsible for the company’s portfolio of good governance, stabilization, political transition, preventing and countering violent extremism, peace building, citizen security, and public financial management work. From 2011 to 2013, Tine held senior business development and technical expert positions with DAI.