Barak

I am the Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. Prior to coming to Georgetown, I held numerous academic and public sector posts.  I was a research fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.  As an en economist at the United States Department of the Treasury, I worked on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief program and on reform of IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs.  As an economist at the United States Agency for International Development, I developed programs to raise incomes for small farmers.  I also served as a Research Associate for the Federal Reserve.

I have worked in international development for a number of years.  My most current project is conducting the first-ever exit polls sub-Saharan African elections that examine the determinants of vote choice in the region’s electoral contests.  I have also conducted extensive research on local government in sub-Saharan Africa.  I have received grants from the National Science Foundation, the University of California’s Institute for Global Cooperation and Conflict, and the National Security Education Program, and was a Fulbright Scholar.

I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego, and my BA and MA in Economics from Brandeis University and Michigan State University, respectively.