Dr. Morton Halperin, President

Morton H. Halperin is Director of U.S. Advocacy at the Open Society Institute and Executive Director of the Open Society Policy Center. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Dr. Halperin served in the Clinton, Nixon and Johnson administrations, most recently as Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State (1998-2001). From 1975-92, Dr. Halperin directed the Center for National Security Studies, a project of the American Civil Liberties Union which sought to reconcile requirements of national security with civil liberties. From 1984-92, he also directed the Washington Office of the ACLU where he was responsible for its national legislative program. Dr. Halperin has published a number of books --including Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy, The Democracy Advantage, and Protecting Democracy - and articles on subjects including civil liberties and American foreign policy. He has testified often before Congressional Committees. Dr. Halperin is Chairman of the Board, Democracy Coalition Project, a member of the boards and Chair of the Executive Committees for both DATA Foundation and DATA Action, and a member of the boards of The Constitution Project and the Center for Democracy and Technology. He is the chair of the Advisory Board of the Center for National Security Studies and Chairman of the Board of the Health Privacy Project, Georgetown University.

Areas of Expertise: Global Democracy, National Security, Civil Liberties, Arms Control

Region of Expertise: Europe

Dokhi Fassihian, Acting Executive Director

Ms. Fassihian brings ten years of experience in research, non-profit management, and international development to the Democracy Coalition Project. Before joining DCP, she was the Executive Director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a civic education and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., which serves to empower Iranian Americans through civic engagement. Ms. Fassihian has also worked as a research analyst of the Middle East and national security policies for the CNA Corporation. Her work in international development and advocacy has focused on governance, civic empowerment, and human rights. In the late 1990s, during the height of the reform movement in Iran, Ms. Fassihian worked for the Governance Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Tehran. Before that, she worked for the Sisterhood Is Global Institute, an international women's rights NGO. Ms. Fassihian holds an M.A. in Advanced International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies with a focus on the Middle East and International Economics. She has lived and worked in the Middle East, and travels to the region regularly. Ms. Fassihian is fluent in Persian and has received advanced training in Arabic and French.

Areas of Expertise : Post 9/11 Civil Liberties and Immigration Policies, Civil-Military Relations, U.S.-Mideast Policy, Governance, Human Rights

Region of Expertise: Middle East

Sarah Rivard, Program Associate

Sarah Rivard holds the position of Program Associate at the Democracy Coalition Project. Most recently, she worked on the Nicaraguan Election Observation Mission with The Carter Center, assisting in the coordination of the delegation and serving as an international elections observer. In the summer of 2005 she worked for Catholic Relief Services in Recife, Brazil, were she coordinated an emergency relief project to help victims of flooding in the state of Pernambuco. She has previously served as an intern for the United States Mission to the Organization of American States at the State Department, where she worked on issues of terrorism, anti-corruption and money laundering.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Rivard graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland with a B.A. in International Studies. During her undergraduate studies, Ms. Rivard spent three months studying abroad in Santiago, Dominican Republic at Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. She is an alumnus of the Atlanta International School, where she received a bilingual International Baccalaureate Diploma. She is fluent in Spanish and English, and has a working command of Portuguese.

Areas of Expertise : Democracy, Anti-Corruption, Governance, International Relief

Region of Expertise: Latin America and the Caribbean

Busi Langa, Project Assistant

Busi Langa is a Project Assistant at the Democracy Coalition Project. Prior to joining the DCP, she spent two years as a litigation project assistant at the Chicago office of Jenner & Block LLP. There she worked on matters of reinsurance, intellectual property, pro bono representation, and provided document translation services.

Originally from South Africa, Busi is currently pursuing her M.A. in Public Policy with a concentration in International Development at The George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. She received her B.S. in Biology from Purdue University in 2003. She has a working command of German and Zulu.

Area of Expertise: Human Rights, Social Welfare and Development

Region of Expertise: Africa