Mona Yacoubian is the vice president of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the United States Institute of Peace. She brings more than 30 years of experience working on the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has centered on conflict analysis, governance and stabilization challenges, and conflict prevention. Since returning to USIP as a senior advisor in 2017, her work has focused on Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Her additional research interests include Russia’s role in the Middle East and violent extremism. In 2019, Yacoubian served as the executive director of the congressionally mandated Syria Study Group, which USIP was appointed to facilitate. Yacoubian joined USIP after serving as deputy assistant administrator in the Middle East Bureau at the United States Agency for International Development from 2014-17, where she had responsibility for Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Prior to joining USAID, Yacoubian was a senior advisor at the Stimson Center focusing on the 2011 Arab uprisings, with an emphasis on Syria. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, she served as a special advisor on the Middle East at USIP, where her work focused on Lebanon and Syria as well as broader issues related to democratization in the Arab world. From 1990-98, Yacoubian served as the North Africa analyst in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Yacoubian was a Fulbright scholar in Syria, where she studied Arabic at the University of Damascus from 1985-86. She held an international affairs fellowship with the Council on Foreign Relations and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She earned a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s in public policy from Duke University.