Brooke Stearns Lawson is a Senior Conflict, Governance and Crime Advisor with USAID’s Africa Bureau (USAID/AFR), who provides technical assistance, program management, and policy guidance on a wide range of conflict and governance issues. Her work focuses on transnational organized crime (including wildlife trafficking), Southern Africa and the Great Lakes region, non-state armed groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army, political economy analysis (PEA), and private sector engagement.

Prior to joining USAID, Brooke was a Doctoral Fellow at the RAND Corporation where her work focused on the intersection of development and security. Brooke has more than twenty years of experience in international development, relief, and reconstruction.

She earned a PhD in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and a masters degree in international relations from Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po). She is a member of MENSA and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a 2009 White House Fellows Regional Finalist, founding member of the Rotary Club of Dupont Circle, 2003-2005 Rotary World Peace Scholar, and 2001 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.