Ms. Elliott holds an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and currently works on civil-society strengthening and political process monitoring projects in the MENA region. Mr. Ciesielski also holds an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the Elliott School, and previously worked with international NGOs in Jordan, Israel and Morocco. Ms. Birkholz is a Middle East Studies M.A. student at George Washington University and is currently a Program Associate for the Iraq programs at IREX.