ISD

Amarnath Amarasingam is a Senior Research Fellow at ISD. He currently serves as Assistant Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada and is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs. He has conducted over 50 interviews with former fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) throughout the former war zones of Sri Lanka in 2012 and 2013. At the Turkey-Syria border, Amarasingam spoke with dozens of injured fighters, refugees, as well as former and current activists of the Syrian revolution. He has also conducted field research in Somalia, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and amongst different ethnic and religious groups in North America and Europe. As co-director of a study of Western foreign fighters in Syria, he has conducted dozens of interviews with jihadists in Syria and Iraq, supporters of jihadist movements online, as well as family members and friends of individuals who have joined the fight abroad. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Social Movement Activism and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Canada (2015) and the editor of Sri Lanka: The Struggle for Peace in the Aftermath of War (2016), The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News (2011) and Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal (2010). He is also co-author of the ISD reports No Platform for Old Men, Barriers to Online Youth Civic Engagement and P-CVE in Europe, An imprecise science: Assessing interventions for the prevention, disengagement and de-radicalisation of left and right-wing extremists, and “I Left to be Closer to Allah”: Learning about Foreign Fighters from Family and Friends.

Will Baldet MBE is a Fellow at ISD. He also serves as a Regional CVE Coordinator in the UK and a Senior Advisor to the UK Government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy. He has been a practitioner in Countering Violent Extremism since 2008, working in both policing and policy. In 2020 he received an MBE for his counter terrorism work as a Prevent Coordinator protecting communities in the UK. It was in this role that he has developed and managed projects to empower civil society responses to radicalisation with a particular focus on youth, women and education. Will has been a consultant for the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and is a member of the EU-funded Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) Europe and has supported Governments with the development of their national CVE programmes, including the Netherlands, Malta and Kazakhstan. He appears regularly in the media, including BBC News, Channel 4 News, BBC Newsnight and Sky News and writes for several online media outlets. He is also a Policy & Practitioner Fellow at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR).

Jonathan is a Senior Policy Fellow at ISD. Until 2020, he was ISD’s Deputy Director with responsibility for Research, Policy and Cities work, overseeing ISD’s policy work and networks including the Policy Planners’ Network and the Strong Cities Network, as well as overseeing ISD’s work on education policy and programming. At ISD, Jonathan authored

• Mapping hate in France: A panoramic view of online discourse (2020),
• Smearing Sweden: International Influence Campaigns in the 2018 Swedish Election (2018),
• Counter-Conversations: A model for direct engagement with individuals showing signs of radicalisation online (2018),
• The Impact of Counter-Narratives (2016),
• Lone Actor Terrorism: Policy Paper 3 – Motivations, Political Engagement and Online Activity (2016),
• and edited An Online Environmental Scan of Right-wing Extremism in Canada (2020).

Prior to joining ISD, Jonathan was Head of Programme at the UK cross-party think tank Demos, where he published over forty research reports on topics including violent extremism both Islamist (The Edge of Violence, 2010) and Far-Right (The New Face of Digital Populism, 2011). Jonathan has also written extensively on education (The Forgotten Half, 2011), social and emotional learning (Character Nation, 2015), youth social action and attitudes towards politics (Tune In, Turn Out, 2014), digital politics and marketing (Like, Share, Vote, 2014), trust in government (Trust in Practice, 2010) and religion and integration (Rising to the Top, 2015), among other topics. Jonathan holds a Master’s degree (with distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Philosophy from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Iris Boyer is an Advisor to ISD France. She was previously Deputy Head of the Communications, Education and Networks team at ISD, overseeing a number of programmes supporting and amplifying civil society’s efforts against extremism through scaled partnerships with tech companies and grassroots organisations. Previously, Iris worked at YouTube on the development and coordination of the global campaign Creators for Change, after having managed counter speech and social good programmes at Facebook for their EMEA policy team. Prior to that, she spent some time working for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a junior policy analyst in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as for the French Ministry of Finance, as an economic attaché covering the South Caucasus region. She is the co-author of ISD reports Information Manipulations Around COVID-19: France Under Attack, Building Digital Citizenship in France: Lessons from the Sens Critique project, Mapping hate in France: A panoramic view of online discourse, Building Digital Citizenship in France: Lessons from the Sens Critique project, and the Young Digital Leaders Impact Report. Iris holds a French 5-year diploma in social sciences and humanities from Sciences Po, as well as an international Master in Public Affairs from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and the London Metropolitan University.

Julia Ebner is a Senior Research Fellow at ISD, specialising in far-right extremism, reciprocal radicalisation and European terrorism prevention initiatives. Julia advises parliamentary working groups, frontline workers and tech firms, and delivers workshops in schools and universities. She regularly writes for the Guardian and the Independent and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, ZDF, ARD, France24, Al Jazeera, LBC and others. She is the author of The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism and is co-author of the ISD reports The Online Ecosystem of the German Far-Right, The Great Replacement: The Violent Consequences of Mainstreamed Extremism, Mainstreaming Mussolini – How the Extreme Right Attempted to ‘Make Italy Great Again’ in the 2018 Italian Election, The Fringe Insurgency – Connectivity, Convergence and Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right, and Hate at the push of a button. Julia holds an MSc (Dist) in International History from London School of Economics and an MSc (Dist) in International Relations from Peking University. She completed her undergraduate studies with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and a BSc in International Business.

Dilwar Hussain is a Fellow at ISD, and an independent consultant working on social policy, Muslim identity and Islamic reform in the modern world. He is founding Chair of New Horizons in British Islam, a charity that works on Muslim identity, integration and reform; Research Fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, University of Coventry; and Lecturer at the University of Leicester. Dilwar also teaches courses on Islam in contemporary society, and is the author of several publications in this field. He has previously worked in academic research, political consultancy, and training for more than 15 years, delivering contracts for private sector groups as well as various governmental departments.

Alex Krasodomski-Jones is a Fellow at ISD and a researcher at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM). His main research interest is political extremism and its reportage on social media. He also manages CASM’s analytics capability, including data collection, analytics, and visualisation. Alex is a frequent media commentator, and writes regularly for the Huffington Post and Spectator. Before joining CASM, Alex worked at Accenture Digital in visual analytics.

Hadiya Masieh is an expert in the area of community cohesion, interfaith relations, counter extremism, and women’s involvement in extremism. She has been a counter extremism consultant for various Governments and NGOs in the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Denmark, and Spain. She has also worked with non-profit and commercial organisations including Google Jigsaw. She was appointed to the UK government’s “National Muslim Women’s Advisory Group” which advised senior government officials on theological development, community cohesion, and empowering women from ethnic minorities. Hadiya was one of the authors of the report “Radicalisation and violent extremism-focus on women: How women become radicalised and how to empower them to prevent Radicalisation”, which was produced the European Parliament committee on Women’s Rights and Gender equality. Hadiya was an ambassador for Women Without Borders promoting counter extremism narratives and facilitating discussions within conflict areas. She was appointed to the board of the internationally renowned and award winning peacekeeping organisation The Bereaved Families Forum based in Palestine and Israel, promoting their message of peace within conservative Jewish and Islamic Institutions in the UK. Hadiya was one of the first women to work on the UK channel programme where she has worked closely with scores of women affected by radical and extremist views. She has been interviewed by Radio 4, BBC World Service, BBC Asian Network, CNN, The Guardian, and Vogue Magazine. Hadiya has worked with ISD as a consultant since 2013 on the One to One programme.

Farah Pandith is a Senior Advisor at ISD. She is a world-leading expert and pioneer on countering violent extremism, having served as a political appointee in the George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations at the National Security Council, US Agency for International Development and US Department of State. Most recently she was the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities (2009-2014). Farah is a senior fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She served on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council from 2015-2017 and is the author of "How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat."

Zeenat Rahman is a Fellow at ISD, as well as an expert on global youth issues, interfaith, and diversity engagement. She is also a former diplomat. Her experience ranges from national security, foreign policy, and leadership development to work in government, the private sector, and NGOs. Zeenat was recently a Presidential Political Appointee, serving as a Special Advisor to Secretaries Clinton and Kerry on global youth issues at the U.S. Department of State. While in this field, she encouraged foreign governments to respond to youth issues through policy change, and created opportunities for young people to pursue their economic and civic goals.

Louis Reynolds is a Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and has worked across counter-extremism education, research and policy within the Institute. He holds a Masters in Intelligence and International Security from Kings College London and a Bachelors in War Studies from Birmingham University.

Erin Marie Satlman is a Fellow at ISD who has worked in academic, NGO, and private sector roles developing innovative research and approaches for counter-extremism and counterterrorism efforts. She currently works for Facebook, where she is a Policy Manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism. She has produced a range of action-oriented research and developed programs on preventing and countering violent extremism, promoting youth activism in challenging hate speech and extremism, as well as analysing the radicalisation of women into violent extremism networks.

Melanie is a Fellow, assisting with ISD’s social media analysis projects. Melanie is currently an Intelligence Analyst at Graphika, where she uses social media and other open-source data to understand flows of disinformation and propaganda. Her work at ISD focused on the involvement of women in violent conflict, lone-actor terrorism, and the online behaviours of extremists from across the spectrum. Melanie has co-authored reports and articles on these subjects, regularly presenting her findings to governmental audiences as well as national and international press. Previously a Researcher at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London, Melanie built and cultivated the largest known online database of female members of ISIS. She holds an MA in Geopolitics, Territory & Security from King’s College London and a BA in Geography with Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese from the University of Exeter.

Heather is currently a Senior Fellow for the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD) where she is serving in both an advisory and research capacity focused on U.S. efforts to build social cohesion and community resilience to counter violent extremism in all its forms. Prior to joining ISD, Heather served as the Senior Community Engagement Coordinator for Columbus, Ohio under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Community Partnerships. Previously, Heather spent a decade working for the U.S. Department of State focused on counterterrorism, countering violent extremism, and promoting Muslim civil society engagement across the globe. Heather has also worked in the philanthropic sector with Innovation Fund America and in the private sector with the Gap Foundation and the Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and history from The Ohio State University, a master's in international security from George Washington University and a master's in business administration from New York University.