Program Staff: Conflict Resolution

Elana Aquino, M.A.
Director

Elana Aquino's passion and commitment to being of service as a practitioner and academic in the field of global peacebuilding is the through line in her career. She has experience in both international development and diplomacy — with a portfolio of strategic and operational leadership, and impact, in both areas. She is the former U.S. executive director at Peace Direct, with 20 years of experience in international development and peacebuilding.

In Sudan, Aquino supported community-driven solutions for the return of internally displaced South Sudanese people. As a peacebuilding program officer, she focused on supporting locally driven women’s empowerment initiatives, recognizing women as a crucial factor in solidifying peace gains. In Kenya, Aquino was researcher and then head of the key coordination secretariat between the government of Kenya and 17 international development agencies. She led the production of the national joint assistance strategy for Kenya. She organized the first National Development Partnership Forum in Kenya, co-chaired by the prime minister and the regional head of the World Bank, with key participation from U.N. agencies in the region.

Aquino is an International Career Advancement Program fellow; a fellow of the International Peace and Security Institute; a former board chair of Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation; a board member at World Learning; and a member of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security. She is passionate about global peacebuilding, conflict transformation and prevention, and poverty reduction.

Aquino has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Carol Daniel-Kasbari, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director

Carol Daniel-Kasbari oversees all of the Center’s global conflict resolution initiatives. With over 20 years of experience, Daniel-Kasbari is a recognized leader in designing and directing strategic programs that address conflict, promote mediation, and implement sustainable interventions in conflict-affected regions, with a particular focus on the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

Daniel-Kasbari’s career has centered on developing comprehensive strategies to address complex conflicts through targeted programming and mediation efforts. She has successfully led the design and execution of large-scale, multimillion-dollar initiatives focused on conflict-sensitive reporting, peace journalism, and advocacy for equal rights, working with notable organizations such as Search for Common Ground and Catholic Relief Services.

Her extensive global experience includes collaborations with prestigious institutions like USAID's Conflict Mitigation and Management Program, the U.S. State Department, UNESCO, IREX, and the German GIZ. Daniel-Kasbari has spearheaded high-impact programs and interventions in some of the world’s most challenging political environments. She has facilitated hundreds of mediation sessions and participated in second-track diplomacy between adversaries. Her work spans across regions such as Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, and Bosnia, where she has played a critical role in conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts.

Before joining The Carter Center, Daniel-Kasbari served as chief programs officer at Generations for Peace International, where she led the global expansion and strategic development of the organization’s programming. In addition to her practical fieldwork, she has held academic roles, including as a professor at George Mason University's Carter School for Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding, where she earned her doctorate. She continues to contribute thought leadership as a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, publishing policy and briefing papers on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and broader Middle Eastern issues. Daniel-Kasbari also delivered a TEDx talk in 2011, demonstrating her deep commitment to using mediation and strategic programming to address conflicts in highly complex environments.

Abby Guy
Program Associate

Abby Guy serves as a program ssociate supporting the Conflict Resolution Program’s Middle East projects — Syria and Israel-Palestine — as well as general program management involving budget tracking and forecasting, gender and inclusion, and cross-departmental coordination. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and foreign language (Spanish) from Mississippi State University. She interned at the Center with the U.S. violence mitigation team before transitioning to Middle East projects. Aside from gender and inclusion, her interests include economics, international diplomacy and governance, and religion. Guy speaks proficient Spanish and is learning French.

Rana Shabb, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Middle East, and Data and Analysis

Rana Shabb is the associate director for the Middle East, and for data and analysis, in the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program. She earned a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics and international relations from Tufts University, a master’s in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a doctorate in international affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. Shabb previously worked on U.S. policy toward the Middle East in Washington, D.C. Internationally, she has worked with The Carter Center designing, fundraising, managing, and implementing peace-promoting projects in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. She worked with the U.N. and a rural NGO in Lebanon to help build community resilience and sustainable livelihoods to undercut incentives to engage in violent conflict. Her research interests center on international development, specifically focusing on the connection between the private sector and conflict longevity and peace.

Nancy Azar
Senior Program Associate, Syria

Nancy Azar joined the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program in January 2016 and supports the implementation activities of the Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Extremism project. Prior to joining the Center, Azar coordinated all aspects of regional drug prevention programs in more than seven Arab countries for Mentor Arabia, the regional branch of the Mentor International Foundation, established and presided over by Queen Sylvia of Sweden. Azar holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Université Saint Joseph in Beirut. Her professional and academic interests include the role of youth, women, and religion in peacebuilding. She was born and raised in Lebanon and speaks Arabic and French.

Annie Charif, M.A.
Senior Program Associate, Syria/Data and Analysis

Annie Charif began her work in the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program in June 2016 as a program assistant to the Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Extremism project. In June 2019, she began supporting the Syria project, helping to implement and coordinate activities. Charif holds a master’s degree in political science with a concentration in international and comparative politics. Her academic interests include conflict resolution and the role of non-state actors in failed states. She was born in Lebanon, speaks Arabic, and is conversant in French.

Hari Prasad, M.A.
Program Associate, Syria/Data and Analysis

Hari Prasad joined the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program in April 2020 as a program associate focused on research with the mapping unit of the Syria team. He previously worked with the Hudson Institute and the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. His academic interests include armed non-state actors, political violence, and religious politics in the Middle East and South Asia. He earned his master’s degree from George Washington University, where he focused on Middle East and South Asian politics and security.

Jennifer Phillips
Program Associate, Israel-Palestine

Jennifer Phillips is a program associate focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her work at The Carter Center began in 2014 when she interned for the China Program. Shortly after her internship, Phillips joined the Center's Democracy Program, coordinating election observation missions, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, Phillips transitioned to the Conflict Resolution Program, pivoting her focus toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Syria Transition Dialogue initiative. Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international affairs from Georgia State University.

Frederic Deycard, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Mali Peace through Health and Sahel Climate-Conflict 

Frederic Deycard is the Associate Director for Mali and the Sahel at The Carter Center in Atlanta. Since 2017, he has developed and managed the Peace through Health initiative in central Mali, an integrated, community-driven approach to peacebuilding, leveraging health to foster trust and social cohesion. This program includes a mental health, psychosocial, and peacebuilding project that fosters social cohesion in marginalized communities subjected to violence. Other projects in the Sahel include data-driven research on the nexus of climate and conflict, and locally led efforts to counter misinformation. Before joining the Carter Center, Deycard worked as a consultant on conflict in Niger, Mali, and Chad. He is an expert in political violence, peacebuilding, and conflict analysis. He holds a docatorate in social anthropology, a master’s in conflict analysis from the Political Studies Institute of Bordeaux, in France, and a master's in contemporary history from the Michel Montaigne University of Bordeaux.

Maddie Warman, M.A.
Senior Program Associate, Mali Peace through Health and Sahel Climate-Conflict

Maddie Warman is the Senior Program Associate for Mali and the Sahel in the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program. Since 2021, when she first began working with CRP as an intern, Warman has been a part of the Peace through Health in central Mali initiative team, supporting the project’s community-driven approach to resolving conflict and fostering social cohesion by leveraging health and development as an entry point for peace. In 2024, she led the development of the Mental Health for Peace pilot in central Mali, integrating mental health and psychosocial well-being into conflict mitigation. Warman holds an M.A. in conflict resolution with a concentration in peacebuilding in Sub-Saharan Africa from Georgetown University, where her research focused on the role of INGOs in international mediation and inclusive peacebuilding. She graduated from Scripps College with a bachelor’s degree in international relations & interdisciplinary humanities, and a minor in French.

Ben Spears, M.A.
Associate Director, Sudan Youth Citizen Observer Initiative and East Africa Peace Health 

Before joining the Conflict Resolution Program in 2018 to focus on Sudan, Ben Spears interned with The Carter Center in 2013 and joined as program associate in 2016. He was promoted to associate director in 2022. With the Democracy Program, Spears coordinated election observation and transition monitoring in the Middle East,North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Spears previously managed field operations for multiple political campaigns, coordinated outreach for Congressman John Lewis’ district office, and directed programs for Ultimate Peace, a peer-to-peer sports initiative in the Middle East. Spears studied Arabic in North Atlanta High School’s International Baccalaureate program, liberal arts at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, earned a bachelor’s degree in international development at George Washington University’s Elliott School, and a master’s in nonprofit management at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

Sierra Ballard, M.A.
Senior Program Associate, Sudan Youth Citizen Observer Initiative and East Africa Peace Health

Sierra Ballard is a Senior Program Associate with the Carter Center’s Conflict Resolution Program. She specializes in operational management and strategic planning for the Sudan team, overseeing the development of a network of Sudanese youth who report on conflicts and support peacebuilding efforts within Sudan.

Before joining the Center, Ballard was a research assistant with CSIS's Humanitarian Agenda program, specializing in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, international human rights law, and humanitarian protection. She also supported CSIS's Project on Fragility and Mobility and managed USAID contracts aimed at social change in Tunisia. Internationally, she gained experience in Brussels as a research trainee for GLOBSEC and as a national representative for the NextGen Climate advocacy group.

She holds an advanced M.S. in international relations and diplomacy from Leiden University in the Netherlands, where she studied international negotiations and conflict resolution under the Dutch Clingendael Academy, and a B.A. in political science from Iowa State University.

Lauren Daley
Program Associate, Sudan Youth Citizen Observer Initiative

Lauren Daley began her journey with The Carter Center in March 2022, as a temporary program assistant in support of the Mental Health Program and has since steadily advanced in roles to support the Center’s mission of improving health and resolving conflict. In her current role as a program associate for the Conflict Resolution Program’s Sudan team, Daley plays a key role in logistical coordination, budget management, and stakeholder engagement for youth-led peacebuilding projects in Sudan. Prior to her current role, she worked as an administrative assistant for an international customs and trade compliance company, and as a research assistant intern at the Overseas Development Institute London, where she contributed to research on international economic development projects in Africa and Asia, enabling her to gain a diverse skill set in administrative support, research, and project coordination. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology at Boston University in 2019.

Aaishah Karim, M.A.
Program Assistant, Sudan Youth Citizen Observer Initiative

Aaishah Karim is a public policy and research professional with a background in international development, humanitarian affairs, and peacebuilding. She has worked in Iraq, Bangladesh, and Canada, supporting field operations, conducting qualitative research, and coordinating multi-stakeholder advocacy initiatives. Before joining the Center, she contributed to policy development, strategic planning, and logistics coordination for the International Labour Organization, the REACH initiative, and Global Affairs Canada, addressing conflict recovery, human rights, and social protection. Karim holds a master’s degree in global affairs from the University of Toronto and brings a detail-oriented, collaborative, and mission-driven approach to advancing sustainable peace and development.

Nathan Stock, M.A.
Associate Director, Strengthening Trust and Resilience

Starting in the summer of 2020, Nathan Stock designed a new Carter Center project to mitigate political and identity-based violence in the United States. Through this work, he is building diverse networks of citizens, from across the political spectrum, to serve as community advocates for electoral democracy and the peaceful resolution of disputes. He is also working to strengthen community infrastructure for violence mitigation, building trust and connections across various lines of difference. Stock has taught undergraduate courses on political dialogue in the U.S. and published on U.S. polarization.

In addition to his work on U.S. conflicts, Stock is a nonresident scholar with the Middle East Institute. He has 15 years of experience working to reduce violence and strengthen democracy abroad, including nearly a decade working on Middle East conflicts with The Carter Center. Stock has written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has lived and worked in Afghanistan, Gaza, and China. Stock holds a master’s in international peace and conflict resolution from American University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Colgate University.

Tom Crick, M.S.Sc.
Project Advisor, Strengthening Trust and Resilience

Tom Crick joined the Center in 1994, first as a research assistant in the Conflict Resolution Program, becoming executive assistant to the director of peace programs, then assistant director of the Center's China Village Elections Project, and finally associate director of the Conflict Resolution Program. Crick has worked on numerous Carter Center election and conflict resolution projects, primarily in Africa, including the Carter Center-brokered 1995 Guinea worm cease-fire in Sudan, the Great Lakes peace initiative from 1995-1997, and the Center's mediation between Sudan and Uganda. Crick led a long-term peacebuilding project in Liberia and, most recently, has been working to mitigate violence in the U.S.

Crick received his bachelor's degree from Bristol University and his master's degree in Irish political studies from Queen's University of Belfast. He has conducted doctoral research at the London School of Economics and at Emory University. Prior to joining the Center, he lectured in political science at a number of polytechnics in the United Kingdom and worked as a journalist and as a project leader at an interdenominational youth project in Northern Ireland. Crick has been a licensed mediator in the state of Georgia and an adjunct faculty member at Emory Law School.

Dana Smiley
Program Associate, Strengthening Trust and Resilience

Dana Smiley joined The Carter Center as a program associate in 2024. She works on the U.S. Strengthening Trust and Resilience project, focusing on proactive conflict transformation via dialogue, community leadership, and youth engagement. She also supported this project as an intern in fall 2022. Prior to her work at the Center, Smiley served as the inaugural executive student director of the Emory Votes Initiative, promoting civic engagement on Emory University’s campuses. She has spent years in education and youth-focused spaces supporting literacy programming with the Covington Housing Authority and student engagement in decision-making processes with Oregon Student Voice. Smiley received training as a facilitator through her role as a Doha Debates ambassador, leading a series of eight post-debate dialogues in Qatar at the 2023 Doha Debates. Her Arabic studies and undergraduate research exploring associations between the migrant crisis of 2015 and right-wing politics in Europe influence her approach to countering polarization in the U.S. today.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in human health and philosophy, politics, and law from Emory University.