Emerging Experts

Emerging Experts - Archive - 2020-2021 cohort

Emerging experts have expressed an interest in addressing the humanitarian, economic and other implications of arms transfers, security assistance, and weapons use...and are at an early stage in their career.

2020-2021 Emerging Experts

Program participants (mid-2020 to early-2021) were based in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Inclusion in this list is meant to strengthen our community, but does not indicate agreement with or endorsement of the opinions of others. Institutional affiliation, where indicated, is for identification purposes only. To learn more about the Emerging Experts list and program, click here.

Katherine Aguirre Tobón

Alexander Bertschi Wrigley

Jordan Cohen

Alžbeta Djurbová

Ryan Fletcher

Whitney Grespin

Matt Korda

Yanitra Kumaraguru

Owen LeGrone

Xiaodon Liang

Candelaria López

Gabriel Mondragón Toledo

Osebhahiemen Okooboh

Juan Ordóñez

Hannah Papachristidis

Michael Picard

Natália Pollachi

Jillian Rafferty

Melissa Robbins

Jennifer Spindel

Tom Watts

Katherine Aguirre Tobón is a Colombian researcher at Igarapé Institute (Brasil) working in the fields of armed violence and development. Her interests include local arms control initiatives and gender perspectives of disarmament. She is a coordinator of the Women in Security and Defense Network in Latin America and the Caribbean – Amassuru and also participates in the The Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control. Email katherine [at] igarape [dot] org [dot]br || @katheaguirreCOL || LinkedIn

Alexander Bertschi Wrigley is an independent researcher who holds a master’s degree in International Security from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from SOAS, University of London. His research interests include security assistance, peacebuilding, security sector stabilization, and humanitarian disarmament, with a specialization in North Africa and the Sahel. abertschiwrigley [at] gmail [dot] com || @BertschiWrigley || Linkedin:

Jordan Cohen is a Political Science Ph.D. student at George Mason University. His dissertation examines when U.S. security assistance is effective at regional balancing. He holds a master’s degree in Middle East and Islamic Studies from George Mason University. Cohen frequently writes op-eds on weapons sales and is a coauthor on Cato Institute’s Arms Sales Risk Index. Email jcohen13 [at] gmu [dot] edu || @jbcohen92 || LinkedIn || +1 216-408-3573

Alžbeta Djurbová is an independent researcher focusing on the law of the Hague, conflict studies and conventional arms control, particularly landmines and cluster munitions. She holds a master’s degree in International Relations and currently is completing her second masters in Law at Comenius University. Email djurbova [dot] a [at] gmail [dot] com || @djurbova

Ryan Fletcher is a Research Associate with the Conventional Defense Program at the Stimson Center where he researches the global arms trade and the provision of security assistance. He holds an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with concentrations in international law and security studies. Email rfletcher [at] stimson [dot] org || @fletchr

Whitney Grespin is writing her Ph.D. with King’s College London’s Defence Studies Department and has worked in contingency contracting, institutional transformation, educational programming, and development on five continents. Her work focuses on the U.S. use of contractors to deliver security force assistance. Email whitney [at] sloanmanor [dot] com || @whitneygrespin || LinkedIn

Matt Korda is a Research Associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. He is also the co-director of Foreign Policy Generation––a group of young people working to develop a progressive foreign policy for the next generation. Korda received his MA in International Peace & Security from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Email mkorda [at] fas [dot] org || @mattkorda

Yanitra Kumaraguru lectures at the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, while also serving as Coordinator of the Sri Lanka Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. She holds a Master’s Degree in Law from Harvard University. Email yanitra_k [at] hotmail [dot] com || @yanitra_k

Owen LeGrone is a graduate student of geospatial intelligence at Johns Hopkins University. A GIS consultant in the Washington DC area, he maintains an active interest in the arms trade and has written for Arms Control Today and the blogs Looking Ahead and Arms Control Now. Previously he interned for the Arms Control Association, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and the US Department of Energy. Email olegron1 [at] jhu [dot] edu || LinkedIn

Xiaodon Liang is a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he studies how civil-military relations affect arms procurement and production in middle-income countries. Other interests include third-party agents in the arms trade and security policy in East Asia. Email xiaodon [dot] liang [at] tufts [dot] edu || LinkedIn

Candelaria López is an Argentinian researcher on armed violence, arms control, development and gender with a focus on Latin America. López has a bachelor's degree in Political Science from UBA (Argentina) and postgraduate studies in economics and politics with a focal point in development. She
currently works with the Asociación para Políticas Públicas and collaborates with the SEHLAC network. Email lopez [dot] candelaria [dot] nsr [at] gmail [dot] com || @LatinCandel || LinkedIn

Gabriel Mondragón Toledo is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Hamburg who also conducts research on narrative strategies for disarmament within a Working Group at the Center for Sustainable Society Research. His areas of expertise include conventional weapons, global governance of disarmament, legal arms transfers and their impacts on society and human rights. Email mondragontoledo [at] hotmail [dot] com || @mondragontoledo

Osebhahiemen Okooboh is a lawyer and a progressive foreign policy enthusiast. She holds a Masters degree in Conflict Management with a concentration in International Advanced Mediation. Her research areas includes realigning US landmine policy with the Mine Ban Treaty and re-centering multilateral governing systems within modern warfare context. Email okoobohose [at] gmail [dot] com || @okooboh_ose || LinkedIn

Juan Ordóñez is a lawyer/researcher with a Master´s Degree in Law received as an OAS- GCUB scholar with experience working across the Americas in the fields of dual-use, arms trade controls, ammunition research and SALW controls, public security, conflict resolution and human rights. Email juanordonez [at] protonmail [dot] com || @ordonezjuanj || LinkedIn

Hannah Papachristidis is a project officer at Transparency International Defence & Security, where she works on the 2020 Government Defence Integrity Index. Prior to joining Transparency International, she completed her MA in International Affairs at Columbia University. Her areas of interest include arms export controls and corruption risk. Email hpapachristidis [at] transparency [dot] org || @Hannah_Papa

Michael Picard is an independent researcher who has worked primarily on small arms and light weapons and armed violence in Southeast Asia. Picard has worked for several NGOs concerned with armed violence, including the Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. Email picardme93 [at] gmail [dot] com || LinkedIn

Natália Pollachi is a project manager at Instituto Sou da Paz in Brazil. Since 2013, Pollachi has worked on arms and ammunition control conducting investigations, developing public policy proposals and advocating focused on SALW regulation and human rights. She has a master's degree in International Relations from Universidade de São Paulo with researches on peace negotiations.. Email natalia [at] soudapaz [dot] org || @napollachi || LinkedIn

Jillian Rafferty is a Redstone Fellow working for the Women͛s International League for Peace and Freedom on issues relating to international counterterrorism law, disarmament, and the arms trade. She worked for two years while in law school with the humanitarian disarmament movement. Email jrafferty [at] jd20 [dot] law [dot] harvard.edu || @jiraffe8 || LinkedIn

Melissa Robbins is a cybersecurity and emerging technologies consultant at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in the Scientific & Technical Affairs team. Her areas of interest include the intersection between emerging technologies and nuclear weapons systems, arms control and nonproliferation, and great power competition. Robbins has a M.A. in International Relations from St. John’s University. Email melissamrobbins [at] outlook [dot] com || @melissarobbins_ || LinkedIn || +1 917-935-5313

Jennifer Spindel is an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire. Her research focuses on international security and foreign policy, with a specialization in the global conventional weapons trade. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota. Email jennifer [dot] spindel [at] unh [dot] edu || @JenSpindel || LinkedIn

Tom Watts is a Teaching Fellow in War and Security at Royal Holloway. His research interests include remote warfare, military assistance and the political economy animators of American counterterrorism policy. He is particularly interested in the retooling of US security assistance/security cooperation activities during an era of great power competition. Email Thomas [dot] watts [at] rhul [dot] ac [dot] uk || @tfawatts || LinkedIn || Researchgate