Our Leadership

 

Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd

Member of the Board of Directors

Ms. AbuZayd served as Under Secretary General and Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), based in Gaza, from 2000 to 2012.  Since 2011 she has served as a pro bono Commissioner on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.  Her UN service has also included working in various capacities for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) in Sudan, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Geneva, and as Regional Representative for Washington, DC / Caribbean.  AbuZayd has taught Middle East politics at Makerere University in Uganda and Juba University in southern Sudan.  She is currently a member of several refugee and humanitarian boards, among them UNRWA USA (Washington, D.C.).  In 2016, she served as the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for the Global Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.  She is the recipient of Austria’s Grosse Goldene medal, and the Spanish UN Association’s Premier Peace Prize.  In 2015 AbuZayd was named the 2015 Chicago Woman Extraordinaire by International Women Associates in Chicago.  She holds a B.S. degree from DePauw University and an MA degree from McGill University.

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Mr. Richard Albright

Member of the Board of Directors

Richard Albright served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, and in 2021, as Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) at the U.S. Department of State, where he directed humanitarian assistance policy and programs in Asia, the Near East and Africa and guided PRM’s institutional relationships with humanitarian agencies. From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Albright was Deputy Assistant Secretary and Coordinator for Foreign Assistance in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. In prior Foreign Service assignments, he served as: Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations; Coordinator for Civilian Assistance at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad; Economic Minister-Counselor at Embassy London; Humanitarian Coordinator at Embassy Baghdad; Director of PRM’s Office of Assistance for Asia and the Near East; and Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi. He also held economic policy assignments in Cairo, Paris, and Riyadh and served as desk officer for Algeria.

Albright is the recipient of Presidential Rank, Superior and Meritorious Honor awards. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Chicago and MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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 Ms. Bassima Alghussein

 Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors (ex officio)

Ms. Alghussein has been the Council's Executive Director since January 1, 2021. Prior to joining the MEPC, she founded Alghussein Global Strategies, a government affairs and communications consulting firm. She has executed projects involving the U.S. Congress, U.S. Dept. of State, European Union, British Parliament, Egyptian Parliament, International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum. Ms. Alghussein is a Truman National Security Project Political Expert, a Board Member of Women of Color Advancing Peace & Security (WCAPS) and a member of the Meridian International Center Young Global Leaders Council. She frequently appears on international news outlets to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues. Ms Alghussein earned her master's degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Security Studies and her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College in International Relations.

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Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith

Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith was a professor for 14 years at the National War College in Washington, DC; she was named Outstanding Professor at the College in 2006, and was the first woman to Chair the College’s Department of National Security Strategy. Prior to her academic career, she was Legislative Director for Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Agriculture Committee. While living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2013, Dr. Breslin-Smith focused on higher education and outreach to women in the Middle East. She has written and lectured on Strategy and Culture, Macro-economics and Islam, and Women, Islam and Saudi Arabia. Her work includes “The Struggle to Erase Saudi Extremism,” which appeared in November 2015 in the New York Times, and co-authorship of The National War College: A History of Strategic Thinking in Peace and War. Dr. Breslin-Smith holds a B.A. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.

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Mr. Perry Cammack

Member of the Board of Directors

Perry Cammack has been the Peacebuilding program director at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019. Previously, he was a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Perry worked for more than a decade on Middle East issues in the United States government, including as an advisor to then-Senators Joseph Biden and John Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2003–2013 and as a member of the State Department policy planning staff from 2013–2015. Perry is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He holds a BA degree from the University of Maryland and a MA degree from Columbia University.

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Hon. Chas W. Freeman, Jr.

President Emeritus and Member of the Board of Directors (ex officio)

Ambassador Freeman served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992, a period which included operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  He is a Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm. Freeman has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.  His diplomatic postings also included Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangkok and Beijing, as well as service in India.  He was also Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and served as the principal American interpreter during President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972.  He is the author of several books, including America’s Misadventures in the Middle East (2010), Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige (2013), and America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East (2016). Freeman holds a BA degree from Yale University and a JD degree from the Harvard Law School.

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Ms. Anne Joyce

Vice-president and Member of the Board of Directors

Ms. Joyce was the editor of the Council's quarterly journal of political analysis, Middle East Policy, and director of MEPC’s publications from 1984 through 2022.  In 1993 she was named Vice-president of the Council and a member of the Board of Directors.  In her time as editor, Joyce supervised the production of more than 140 issues of the journal, as well as numerous conference proceedings and several special reports and books.  Before coming to the Council, she held positions at the American Language Institute of Georgetown University and at the University of Iowa.  She holds a B.A degree from Central Methodist University and MA degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Missouri.

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Dr. Philip Mattar

Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Mattar is Vice President of Circle in a Square Advisors, Ameriprise Financial, in Washington, DC.  He was owner of Rittenhouse Investments, LLC, from 2006 to 2016.  He taught history at Georgetown University, the City College of New York, and Yale University.  He has also been a Fulbright scholar, a Fellow at The Woodrow Wilson Center, and a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. He was a founder of and former President of the Palestinian American Research Center in Washington D.C.  From 1984 to 2001 he served as Executive Director of the Institute for Palestine Studies.  Mattar has published numerous articles and the book The Mufti of Jerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin Al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement.  He is the editor of the Encyclopedia of the Palestinians (2005, 2017 digital), and Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004).  He holds a B.A. degree from Samford University, and M. Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University.

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Hon. James P. Moran

Member of the Board of Directors

Congressman James P. (“Jim”) Moran represented Virginia’s 8th Congressional District from 1991 to 2015, where he was known for his bipartisan leadership. He served on the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs, Banking, Housing and Finance, and Government Reform and Oversight committees during his 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his time congress, Moran served as mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia (1985-1990). Congressman Moran’s other professional experience includes senior staff member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, senior specialist for budgetary and fiscal policy at the Library of Congress, co-chair of the Congressional Sovereign Wealth Funds Task Force, and acting director of the budget office for Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Congressman Moran holds a BA in economics from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and a Masters degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

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Hon. Ronald E. Neumann

Member of the Board of Directors

Ambassador Neumann served as Ambassador to Afghanistan (2005-2007), Bahrain (2001-2004), and Algeria (1994-1997).  He is currently the President of the American Academy of Diplomacy.  A career Foreign Service Officer, Neumann served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and in Sana’a, Yemen.  His diplomatic postings also included Baghdad, Iraq, Tabriz, Iran, and Dakar, Senegal.  His domestic assignments included Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near East Affairs and Director of the Office of Northern Gulf Affairs. Neumann is the author of The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan (2009). He is on the Advisory Committee of the non-profit School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA).   He was an Army infantry officer in Viet Nam and holds a Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantry Badge.  In Baghdad, he was awarded the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal.  He holds B.A. and MA degrees from the University of California at Riverside. 

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Hon. Anne W. Patterson

Member of the Board of Directors

Ambassador Anne W. Patterson was the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State (2013-2017). She served as Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), to Pakistan (2007-2010), to Colombia (2000-2003) and to El Salvador (1997-2000). She retired in 2017 with the rank of Career Ambassador after more than four decades in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Patterson also served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Patterson was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Top Global Thinkers in 2011. She is a two-time recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Service award. She has been appointed to two congressional commissions: the Commission on National Defense Strategy in 2017 and the Syria Study Group in 2019. 

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Hon. William A. Rugh

Vice Chairman Emeritus and Member of the Board of Directors

Ambassador Rugh served as Ambassador to Yemen from 1984 to 1987, and as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 1992 to 1995.  As a Foreign Service Officer, Rugh had nine diplomatic postings in the Middle East over his 31-year career, including Deputy Chief of Mission in Syria.  Between 1995 and 2003 he was President and CEO of AMIDEAST.  Rugh is a Trustee of the American University in Cairo and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is the author of several books, including: American Encounters with Arabs: the “Soft Power” of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World (2005), Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio and Television in Arab Politics (2008), and Front Line Diplomacy: How U.S. Embassies Communicate with Foreign Publics (2014).  He has a B.A. degree from Oberlin College, an MA degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

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Hon. Richard J. Schmierer

Chairman of the Board of Directors & President

Ambassador Schmierer served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from 2009 through 2012.  He completed his Foreign Service career in 2014 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA).  In 2013 Schmierer served as NEA Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary.  Previously he was the NEA Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, and Director of the Office of Iraq Affairs.  Schmierer was at Georgetown University from 2005 through 2007, where he published the book Iraq: Policy and Perceptions. He had prior diplomatic postings in Iraq, Germany and Saudi Arabia.  Schmierer holds a B.A. degree from Lehigh University and MA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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 Hon. James B. Smith

Member of the Board of Directors

Ambassador James B. Smith served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Smith held a variety of executive positions with the Raytheon Company. Smith spent a 28-year career in the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot, with over 4,000 hours of flight time. He flew combat missions during Operation Desert Storm, and held command positions at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. He served in a variety of staff assignments and taught at the National War College. Smith retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General on October 1, 2002. In April 2017, Smith was appointed dean of the newly-formed College of Engineering, Technology, and Aeronautics at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), a position which he held through May 2018. Smith holds a B.S. from the United States Air Force Academy and an M.A. from Indiana University. He is a graduate of the Naval War College, the Air Command and Staff College, and the National War College. He has received honorary degrees from SNHU and the University of Maryland University College.

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Hon. Patrick Theros

Member of the Board of Directors

Ambassador Theros served as Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998.  He is a former President and Executive Director of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in Washington, DC.  Theros was a career Foreign Service Officer from 1963 to 1999.  In addition to his Ambassadorship, his assignments included Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Political Advisor to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command, Deputy Chief of Mission and Political Officer in Amman, Jordan, Chargé d'affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Economic and Commercial Counselor in Damascus, Syria. He also served in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Nicaragua.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.  He holds a BA degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and has done advanced study at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

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Mr. Tom Walter

Member of the Board of Directors

Mr. Walter served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia, Inc., from 2013 to 2015.  Walter began his 37 year career with ExxonMobil as an electrical engineer in Saudi Arabia. Following that he held a variety of engineering and management positions with the company in refining, supply and marketing in the United States, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Egypt.  Before assuming his position as head of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia, Walter was ExxonMobil Egypt’s Chairman and Managing Director of Fuels Marketing, including responsibility for ExxonMobil’s fuels marketing activities across North Africa and in Cyprus. Walter holds a B.A. degree from North Dakota State University.

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Ms. Jasmine Zaki

Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors

Jasmine Zaki is a lawyer at ArentFox Schiff where she advises clients operating in the Middle East and North Africa on commercial transactions and arrangements, including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, commercial agencies, and franchising agreements. She assists clients with structuring commercial contracts, distribution agreements, and services agreements and provides legal advice related to public international law, banking, policy, and political risk, economic development, and investment. In addition, she advised clients on entering emerging markets in post-conflict countries and countries in transition in the Middle East and Africa, with an emphasis on negotiating political, regulatory, and formation matters. She has advised clients seeking investments in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and Middle Eastern and North African nations, including Syria, Iraq and Libya; numerous US- and UK-based companies on market entry, establishment and compliance in Iraq and the Kurdistan region, with political and risk analyses; and sovereign governments in public international law, policy, banking, investment, and transactional matters. Jasmine serves on the board of SEED for Change as the Kurdistan Board Member, is a media contributor on current events in the Middle East, and serves on the Iraqi Business Council. She holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a BA from University of Memphis (cum laude). Prior to attending law school, Jasmine worked at the United Nations as the Press Officer for the UN Mission to Iraq. She is fluent in English and Arabic.

 

 

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National Advisory Committee