I am a Predoctoral Visiting Scholar at The Elliot School for International Affairs, George Washington University, a Civil War Paths Fellow at the University of York, and a PhD Candidate at Washington State University’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA). I hold an MSc in Democracy and Comparative Politics from University College London, and an MA in Political Science from Washington State University. I also have a strong practitioner background, having been the former MEL Specialist for the USAID Trust2Peace intervention in Northern Ghana, focussing on building social trust and cohesion in order to mitigate violent extremist mobilization. Alongside this, I was a Co-Pi and the Senior Researcher on the Minerva/U.S. Department of Defence funded project: Mapping Societal Cohesion, Disinformation, and Adversary Influence Operations, and Group Formation in African Crisis Regions.

My areas of expertise are Comparative Politics and International Relations, and I focus on issues of social cohesion, peacebuilding, conflict processes, and political psychology. At the heart of my research lies social movements and trust-building, civic engagement and civil associations in conflict affected regions and the use of social means to mitigate violent extremist mobilization. I have a global comparative approach, with particular attention to and experience within the African continent, with fieldwork experience in numerous Sub-Saharan States.

I am keenly interested in producing scholarship that engages within the sphere of development policy, collaborating with local partners and scholars globally. As part of my roles with USAID, Minerva and the D.o.D. I regularly visited sub-Saharan Africa to coordinate with local partners and state-funded partners. Additionally, I have previously gained experience working overseas on a DFID-funded project in Togo, whereby I aided the facilitation of community, actor-based interventions with local partners. I have since returned numerous times, including to conduct in-country field research during my masters study.

I am passionate about pursuing a career in academia, which involves engaging in the Washington State scholarly environment wherever possible. I have proudly represented my peers as an elected WSU PPPA Graduate Student Association member. Furthermore, I have also been awarded the WSU 2025 Doctoral Achievement Award, the WSU 2023 College of Arts and Sciences Master’s Student Achievement Award, and the WSU PPPA departmental Graduate Student of the Year Award for 2023 internally, alongside external awards such as the British PSA (PSA, ECN) 2024 Outstanding Paper Award.