Marc Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at The George Washington University and director of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He served as the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at GW from 2009-2015. Lynch is also a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a contributing editor at The Monkey Cage blog for the Washington Post. He is the co-director of the Blogs and Bullets project at the United States Institute of Peace. In 2016, he was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.
He is the author of The New Arab Wars: Anarchy and Uprising in the Middle East, (2016), The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East (2012), Voices of the New Arab Public: Al Jazeera, Iraq, and Middle East Politics Today (2006), and State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan’s Identity (1999) and edited The Arab Uprisings Explained: The New Contentious Politics of the Middle East, (2014).
Lynch blogged as Abu Aardvark for seven years before joining Foreign Policy as a blogger and columnist. In 2010 Lynch, launched the Middle East Channel on Foreign Policy, which he edited until March 2014. He can now be found online at The Monkey Cage.
Prerna BalaEddy is an Assistant Director of POMEPS. Prior to joining POMEPS, she was a Program Assistant at George Washington University Law School, receiving the GW Law Staff Recognition Award for three consecutive years. In her previous positions at a variety of nonprofit organizations in DC and NY; she conducted research, managed grants, performed fundraising, and assisted in general operations. Prerna has lived and studied in Jordan, learning Arabic through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). She holds a Master’s in International Affairs and International Law and Organizations from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East from American University.
Tessa Talebi is an Assistant Director of POMEPS. She received her Master’s degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Global Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. During her time at Cal, Tessa created and taught an upper-division course on the intersection of hip hop and political activism – the first of its kind to be offered for academic credit at UC Berkeley. Tessa has lived and studied in Lebanon, earning a certificate in Arabic Language and Culture from the American University of Beirut. She also conducted field research in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, exploring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before joining POMEPS, Tessa has interned at various nonprofit organizations nationwide, including The Carter Center.