Executive Committee: Bios
Latin American IR:
Nanette Svenson has 20 years of professional experience in international development, academia and the private sector. She works as an Adjunct Professor of Florida State University and independent consultant for the United Nations and other national and international organizations involved in capacity development, particularly of higher education. She helped establish the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Centre for Latin American and Caribbean in Panama and worked there for four years in charge of research and knowledge management. She co-founded Pro Artesana, Panama’s first NGO dedicated to developing capacity for national artisans. Prior to that, she held various senior managerial positions in private sector service firms. Her education includes an MS and PhD in International Development from Tulane University; an MBA from IESE in Barcelona; and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University. She has experience teaching (at graduate and undergraduate levels), conducting research and program evaluations, and publishing in academic and international development journals. Nanette has been based in Latin America for the past 18 years and has lived and worked in the United States, Japan, Spain and Panama.
Asia:
Zakia Afrin is Legal Program Manager and Board of Immigration Appeals accredited immigration representative at Maitri, a Bay Area Domestic Violence organization serving the South Asian community. She is an adjunct professor of Law at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and teaches Introduction to Islamic Law and Intra-State Conflicts and Peace building. Dr. Afrin has authored numerous peer reviewed Articles on international criminal court and Gender sensitivity; domestic violence and international law, War crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh, Post Conflict justice in Iraq among others. An alumnus of The Hague Academy of international law, Dr. Afrin has an LL.B from Dhaka University in Bangladesh(1998), LL.M and an SJD specializing in public international law from Golden Gate University (USA, 2007)
Middle East/North Africa:
Imad Mansour holds a PhD in Political Science from McGill University and is currently teaching at Sciences-Po, Menton, France. His research includes foreign policy and decision-making, regional orders, protracted conflicts, comparative political economy, and with a regional focus on the modern Middle East. Dr. Mansour is Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at McGill, where he has been teaching since 2005. In 2009 he received Honourable Mention in the Arts Undergraduate Society’s 2008-2009 Excellence in Teaching Award at McGill University. He is involved in practice dimensions of public policy and decision making. In 2009 he was senior consultant in a study which designed a policy research institute for socio-political research and policy design in the Middle East. Also in 2009 he took part in a study on microfinance services in Syria.
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Charity Green-Onoriose is a Ph.D. candidate, and teaches International Relations, at the University of Aberdeen, UK. She has published articles on policy, development and climate change in South Asia.
Developing Eurasia:
Jason Strakes is a visiting scholar at the Centre for the Study of Caucasus and Black Sea Region at the University of Georgia, Tbilisi. He completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in international studies and political science at the School of Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University, USA. His research interests include foreign policy analysis, defense and security policy, Central Eurasia, and the international relations of developing and former Soviet states. He has published articles and coauthored chapters on these topics in various journals and edited volumes. Dr. Strakes currently serves on the editorial board of the Caucasian Review of International Affairs, and is an executive secretary of the Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES).
Secretary:
Clifford E. Griffin, Ph.D University of Rochester, NY, is Associate Professor of Political Science, School of Public and International Affairs, NC State University. His areas of research covers various aspects of Caribbean Political Economy, including democracy and political stability, regional integration, drug trafficking, money laundering and crime (national and transnational), migration (legal and illegal), and trade and development. He is a Contributing Editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies, Library of Congress and Editor of ARA—Journal of Tourism Research/Revista de Investigación en Turismo. He has also served as lead consultant on tourism and safety for the Sustainable Tourism Directorate of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). .
Treasurer
Seifudein Adem, is Associate Director/Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University. He has taught at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. Dr Adem has edited and authored seven books and has published more than three dozen book chapters and academic articles. Dr.Adem is President-Emeritus of New York State African Studies Association and founding member of International Association of Asia-Pacific Studies.
Newsletter Editor:
Diana Elsada Cassells, is a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. She specializes in the Caribbean and is writing a doctoral dissertation on a constructivist interpretation of Cuban foreign policy.
