Patricia Karam is currently Senior Policy Advisor on Iran at Freedom House, where she plays a leading role in crafting Freedom House’s policy agenda and advocacy strategy for promoting democracy and human rights in Iran. She was, most recently, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Director at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where she oversaw a multi-million portfolio of programs focused on citizen-responsive governance, political party development, legislative strengthening, and civil society strengthening in the Levant, Afghanistan and the Gulf, and North Africa. Prior to that, as MENA director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, Karam was responsible for research, advocacy, grant-making, and technical assistance projects aimed at improving natural resource governance, administered through country offices she established in Lebanon, Iraq, Tunis and Libya. As deputy director at the International Center for Transitional Justice, Karam oversaw educational transitional justice programs in three languages in Barcelona, Morocco and South Africa, and spearheaded the expansion of a Documentation Affinity Group, a global network of action-oriented grassroots human rights documentation-focused groups. Karam has also held a combination of senior management, fundraising, and grants-making roles at the US Institute of Peace, the Iraq Foundation and the Iraq Embassy in Washington, DC, as well as New York University’s Trauma Studies Program. She has published widely on the politics of the MENA countries and the dynamics of authoritarianism and conflict in the broader Middle East region. Karam holds a dual Political Science/Religious Studies Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Brown University and a Master in Foreign Service Degree (MSFS) from Georgetown University. Her PhD work at New York University (NYU) revolved around identity politics in the Western Sahara.