People

Dr. Juliana Geran Pilon
Director
Dr. Pilon is a professor of Politics and Culture at the Institute of World Politics. She also teaches at the National Defense University and the Air Force Culture and Language Center. Her books include: Soulmates: Resurrecting Eve, Cultural Intelligence for Winning the Peace (edited), Why America is Such a Hard Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice; The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe — Spotlight on Romania; Notes from the Other Side of Night; and Every Vote Counts: The Role of Elections in Building Democracy, co-edited with Richard Soudriette. She has also contributed chapters to Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda, and Political Warfare and The Public Diplomacy Reader, edited by IWP Professor J. Michael Waller, and has written over two hundred articles and reviews. She was born in Romania, received all her degrees from the University of Chicago, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Amir A. Fakhravar
Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer
Mr. Fakhravar is an Iranian writer, founder of the Iranian Freedom Movement, serves as the Chair of the Confederation of Iranian Students, and is President of Iranian Freedom Institute, a think thank based in Washington DC. For his role in leading Iran’s pro-democracy student movement, Fakhravar spent a total of five years and three months in Iranian prisons, including Evin Prison, sadistically run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, suffering countless beatings and tortures. He has testified before the United States Senate, as well as the British and Italian Parliaments regarding Iran’s internal unrest.

Louise Oliver
Distinguished Fellow and Chair of the Ambassadors’ Forum
From 2004 to 2009, Ambassador Oliver served as the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). As the first U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO in twenty years, Ambassador Oliver led the U.S. re-engagement with the Paris-based organization. Her leadership at UNESCO was particularly valuable in areas such as global literacy, particularly for women and girls, clean water, and freedom of expression, which included training journalists and promoting freedom of the press. Prior to her appointment at UNESCO, Ambassador Oliver worked with a variety of non-profit organizations. In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable and of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Ambassador Oliver served on the boards of six educational institutions, including the American University in Bulgaria. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and served as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Children.

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Katie Bridges, Administrator
Collin R. Figley, Research Assistant

Former Research Assistants
Rachel Abdoler
Charlotte Bouchot
Margaret Conroy
Thomas Dumoulin
Gabriella Gervasio
Emily Hampsten
Jonathan Jero
Ramy El Kaliobi
Meagan Lilley
Mallorie Marino
Thamirys Mendes-Lunardi
Thomas Moullin
Robinson Myles O’Brien-Bours
Katarina Pancirov
Ella Peterson
Caitlin Plowfield
Travis Tipton