Board of Directors

Nicolle Galteland is a freelance journalist and audio producer. Her work focuses mostly on issues of public health including the opioid crisis, health system disparities, water and sanitation, and Covid-19. Before starting working as a journalist, she spent several years in the nonprofit world working for Safe Water Network. She spent a year conducting research in Tajikistan. She holds degrees in journalism and international relations from New York University and the University of Washington.

Dr. Erica Marat is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Regional and Analytical Studies Department at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on violence and mobilization, security institutions, and mobilization in Eurasia, India and Mexico. She has authored several books, including most recently The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries (Oxford University Press 2018).

Dr. Dirk van der Kley is a Research Fellow concurrently at the Australian National University’s (ANU) School of Regulation and Global Governance and the National Security College. He is a member of the ANU Working Group on Geoeconomics. Dirk was previously Program Director – Policy Research at China Matters. His research focuses on China’s economic relations with Asia, in particular Central Asia. Dirk holds a PhD from the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the ANU. He has worked at the Lowy Institute for International Affairs and in China as a translator and in business development.

Lawrence Washington is a seasoned real estate and finance specialist who has worked at financial firms including the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. He has extensive experience in nonprofit management roles, including for Rock Creek Village and the Metropolitan Tennis & Education Group. Mr. Washington graduated Summa Cum Laude from Tennessee State University with a B.S. in Political Science. He holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in Real Estate Finance from Georgetown University. He is the Chair of the United States Tennis Association.