Perry World House Announces 2024-25 Cohort of Visiting Fellows

Perry World House (PWH) – the University of Pennsylvania’s hub for global affairs – is proud to announce its incoming visiting fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year. Over the course of the year, Penn students, staff, faculty, and other members of the PWH community will have the chance to connect with this cohort of outstanding experts and together will work to solve some of the most urgent challenges facing the world today. Representing nine countries and coming from government, think tanks, NGOs, higher education, and the private sector, Perry World House visitors inspire new approaches to research and foster global policy engagement on campus.  

“This year’s visitors represent some of the brightest minds on the world stage, all of whom are doing incredibly impactful work on the most urgent threats to global stability — democracy, climate change, security, and global justice and human rights,” said Marie Harf, PWH executive director. “Perry World House’s incoming cohort of visitors bring substantial knowledge and experience in these fields and will help to inform not only the work being done by Penn scholars, but all those who turn to us for policy insights and expertise. We are proud of the impact our visitors have on our community at Penn and beyond and look forward to the work we will do alongside this year’s distinguished cohort.” 

Since 2016, Perry World House’s Visitors Program has brought internationally renowned global policy leaders, scholars, and practitioners to Philadelphia to engage with the Penn community and the public. As part of their time on campus, visitors provide input to academic research, participate in conferences and workshops, guest lecture in classes, and meet with Penn students to discuss both critical foreign policy issues as well as career paths and development. They brief faculty on their work and relevant global developments, from global conflicts to the landscape of climate vulnerability to emerging defense technologies, while also taking part in public programming that allows Perry World House to reach key stakeholders worldwide. 

This year's visiting fellows are:

Tulio Andrade is the Head for Climate Negotiation at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as climate negotiator from 2010 to 2018 and had postings in London and Tokyo. Graduated in Law, he holds a master’s degree from Harvard Kennedy School and research from the Tokyo University of the Arts. His academic pursuits include research on "Cybernetics and New Ecology" at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he explored the role of contemporary art in fostering climate action and resilience.

Sasha Baker is the former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. In this role, she served as the primary assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in formulating, coordinating, and integrating national security policy and plans within the Department of Defense. She also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council from 2021-22. She previously served as national security advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and as Deputy Chief of Staff for Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, for which she received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Hussein “Huss” Banai is an Associate Professor of International Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he is also faculty affiliate in the departments of Political Science, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Central Eurasian Studies. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Center for International Studies at MIT. Banai's research interests lie at the intersection of political thought and international relations, with a special focus on topics in democratic theory, non-Western liberal thought, diplomatic history and theory, US-Iran relations, and Iran’s political development.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes about authoritarianism, propaganda, and democracy protection. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships and appears frequently on MSNBC She publishes Lucid, a Substack newsletter on threats to democracy in the U.S. and abroad.

Paul Bodnar is the Director of Sustainable Finance, Industry, and Diplomacy at the Bezos Earth Fund. He most recently served as Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, where he helped build the firm's $500 billion sustainable funds business, and served as Head of Sustainability Policy and Engagement.

Samantha Bradshaw is the director of the Center for Security, Innovation & New Technology at American University, as well as assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service. She is a research fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation. Prior, she was a fellow at Schmidt Futures International Strategy Forum (North America), as well as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University working at the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law the Digital Civil Society Lab, and the Program for Democracy and the Internet.

Antonio T. Carpio was sworn in as member of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on October 26, 2001. He penned 935 decisions, 79 dissenting opinions, 30 concurring opinions, 13 separate opinions and 4 concurring and dissenting opinions. Justice Carpio was awarded in 1998 the Presidential Medal of Merit by then President Fidel Ramos. Justice Carpio has lectured extensively on the West Philippine Sea issue in various local and international fora.

Richard Fontaine is the Chief Executive Officer of CNAS. He served as President of CNAS from 2012–19 and as Senior Fellow from 2009–12. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council (NSC), and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fontaine served as foreign policy advisor to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently as the minority deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prior to that, he served as Associate Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the NSC from 2003–04. He also worked on Southeast Asian issues in the NSC’s Asian Affairs directorate. At the State Department, Fontaine worked for the deputy secretary and in the department’s South Asia bureau. Fontaine began his foreign policy career as a staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focusing on the Middle East and South Asia.

Des Freedman is a Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of books including The Politics of Media Policy (2008), The Contradictions of Media Power (2014), Misunderstanding the Internet (2017, with James Curran and Natalie Fenton), and the forthcoming Capitalism and the Media. His edited collections include War and the Media (2003), Media and Terrorism (2012) (both with Data Thussu) and Capitalism's Conscience: 200 Years of the Guardian (2021). He writes on media for Declassified UK and led the 2016 Inquiry into the Future of Public Service Television chaired by the film producer David Puttnam. He is a founding member of the UK Media Reform Coalition and co-organizer of the annual Media Democracy Festival.

Mara Karlin, is a professor at Johns Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. She served in national security roles for six U.S. secretaries of defense, advising on strategic planning, defense budgeting, the future of conflict, and regional affairs. Most recently, she served as assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities, leading the development and implementation of the 2022 National Defense Strategy. She advised the secretary of defense on forces, plans, posture, emerging capabilities, and security cooperation, including historic modernization of U.S. force posture in Asia and AUKUS implementation. Previously, she led DoD’s relations with nearly 150 countries. Karlin was on the defense policy team for the Biden-Harris transition. Karlin wrote two books on military history and defense policy, and is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Irene Khan was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression in June 2020 and is the first woman to hold this mandate. An internationally recognized advocate for human rights, gender equality and social justice, she was Secretary-General of Amnesty International from 2001 to 2009 and Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) from 2010 to 2019. Ms. Khan is affiliated with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and has been Consulting Editor of the Daily Star, Bangladesh’s largest English newspaper.

Denis Mukwege is a world-renowned gynecologist, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate from east Congo. He has become the world’s leading specialist in the treatment of wartime sexual violence and a global campaigner against the use of rape as a weapon of war. He has worked to increase protections for women and to advocate that those responsible for sexual violence be brought to justice, including the Congolese government and militia groups laying siege to eastern DRC. Dr. Mukwege is the founder of the Panzi Foundation.

Eleni (Lenio) Myrivili is the global chief heat officer with UN-Habitat and Arsht-Rock Resilience Center. She is also a senior adaptation and resilience advisor with Atlantic Council, and a board member of the EU Mission for Adaptation, European Commission. Myrivili is the former elected deputy mayor of the City of Athens.

Khadeeja Naseem is a climate change expert from the Maldives who previously served as the Maldives’ Minister of State for Climate Change. She was also the lead negotiator from the Maldives in international climate change negotiations and represented the Alliance of Small Island States on the Transitional Committee of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage. She played a key role in setting up the architecture for the new fund. Presently she serves as a Senior Advisor to the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group and she is also a Global Facilitator for the Systematic Observations Financing Facility of the World Meteorological Organization.

Amy Pope became Director General of the International Organization for Migration on 1 October 2023, bringing a wealth of experience in addressing complex migration issues and passion for changing the global narrative about people on the move. She is the first woman to hold the post in IOM’s 73-year history. Before joining IOM, DG Pope served as the Senior Advisor on Migration to US President Biden and served as the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama. While at the White House, Ms. Pope developed and implemented comprehensive strategies to address migration in areas such as countering trafficking in persons, resettling refugees, and vulnerable people, and preparing communities to respond and adapt to climate-related crises. Ms. Pope has also occupied positions at the US Department of Justice and US Senate and was a Partner in the London-based law firm, Schillings.

Marvin Rees was the first person of Black African heritage elected as mayor of any major European city, serving as Mayor of Bristol from 2016 to 2024. His tenure was marked by a blend of political and social leadership, earning him numerous awards and an international reputation for his impactful governance. Before entering politics, Rees worked with Tearfund, the BBC, and the National Health Service, where he focused on reducing health disparities. His is graduate of Operation Black Vote played a pivotal role in his journey, equipping him to navigate and challenge systemic barriers and he is a Yale World Fellow. In Jan 2024 he was named an OBE in eth New Years Honours List for services to local government.

Francisco Sagasti is a professor at the Graduate School of the Universidad del Pacífico and an affiliated senior researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies. He has been President of the Republic in the Transition and Emergency Government, a member of the Congress of the Republic, spokesperson for the Purple Party caucus, and president of the Commission on Science, Innovation, and Technology. He has been the founder and executive director of the think-tank FORO Nacional Internacional, and advisor to international organizations, government agencies, and private entities on strategic issues. He has been President of the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Program (FINCyT/InnóvatePerú) in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Peru, member of the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Center (Canada), member of the Advisory Council of the Lemelson Foundation, member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Environment and Development, director of the Agenda: PERU program in FORO Nacional/International, Head of Strategic Planning at the World Bank, and President of the Advisory Council on Science and Technology for Development at the United Nations.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the National Leader of Belarus, the Head of the United Transition Cabinet, and the President-elect of Belarus, who independent observers agree won the presidential election on August 9, 2020, against the long-lasting dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka. In 2020–2023, Tsikhanouskaya became a symbol of the peaceful struggle for democracy and strong female leadership. Among dozens of distinctions, she is a recipient of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament, the 2022 International Four Freedoms Award, and the Charlemagne Prize. In 2021 and 2022, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Members of the Norwegian Parliament, respectively. Tsikhanouskaya was recognized in Bloomberg’s Top 50 Most Influential People, Financial Times’ Top 12 Most Influential Women, and Politico’s Top 28 Most Influential Europeans.

Tamara Cofman Wittes became the fourth president of NDI in 2024. Before joining the Institute, she served as Director of Foreign Assistance in the U.S Department of State. Previously, she led the Russia sanctions effort for the State Department's sanctions coordination office. Dr. Wittes also served in the State Department from 2009 - 2012 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, coordinating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. Dr. Wittes spent nearly twenty years as a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution, including as director of its Center for Middle East Policy. Her analysis focused on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, political and economic change in the region, and the Arab-Israel conflict. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, where she has taught courses in international relations, Middle East policy, and security studies.

Tarek Zeidan is a sexual and bodily rights activist from Lebanon advocating for the rights and protection of LGBT communities in the MENA region. He is a fellow at the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School concentrating on digital rights for LGBTQ populations in the global south. Tarek served as the head of Helem, the first LGBT rights organization in the Arab World from 2012 till 2024. His expertise lies in global LGBTIQ movements, strategic advocacy, digital rights, and policy reform. Tarek is an Ashoka Foundation global changemaker and a Ford Foundation global fellow. He previously worked as the head of communications and strategic planning for the MENA region at the Brookings Institution and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He obtained his MPA in human rights advocacy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.