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Bruce W. Jentleson is William Preston Few Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Other positions include Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He was the longtime Co-Director and now Senior Advisor for the Bridging the Gap project promoting greater policy engagement among academics.
He has served in a number of US foreign policy positions involving the Middile East and other policy areas including Senior Advisor to the State Department Policy Planning Director (2009-11), a senior foreign policy advisor to the 2000 Gore presidential campaign, and the US negotiating team for the Middle East Arms Control and Regional Security talks (1993-94).
His most recent books are Economic Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2022) and The Peacemakers: Leadership Lessons from 20th Century Statesmanship (W.W. Norton, 2018). His articles have appeared in both scholarly and policy journals as well as blogs and media. He is often quoted in the press. He has lectured internationally in numerous countries including Israel, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Career awards include the 2018 American Political Science Association (APSA) International Security Section Joseph J. Kruzel Award for Distinguished Public Service and the 2020 Duke University Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and Master’s from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Alec D. Gallimore is the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Duke University. Prior to his recent appointment at Duke (2023), Dr. Gallimore held multiple leadership roles over his 30+ year career at the University of Michigan, including the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, associate dean for academic affairs, associate dean for research and graduate education, and associate dean at the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
Dr. Gallimore is a leader in the field of advanced spacecraft propulsion and founded a laboratory at the University of Michigan that is developing the plasma drive system that may ultimately propel humans to Mars. His work has been recognized by lifetime achievement awards such as the Wyld Propulsion Award from the AIAA, the Ernst Stuhlinger Medal from the Electric Rocket Society, and induction into the National Academy of Engineering.
Before the start of his career in academia, he solidified his credentials as a rocket scientist first at Rensselaer (RPI), where he received his BS degree in aeronautical engineering, and then at Princeton, where he received his MA and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering with a focus on plasma physics and advanced spacecraft propulsion. He is the author of over 360 publications, has worked at NASA (JPL and GRC), and has been the advisor to 44 Ph.D. students and 14 master’s students.
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Abbas Benmamoun is the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Linguistics. In his role as Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement since 2017, he provides leadership, guidance, and oversight of University-wide strategies and programs to support faculty excellence. The office oversees faculty development programs and partners with Duke schools, departments, and other academic programs to advance faculty careers and enhance faculty success at Duke. Benmamoun earned his BA from the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, master’s degree from University College London, and PhD from the University of Southern California. He served on the faculty and administration of the University of Illinois and the faculty of the University of Wisconsin and the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies. Benmamoun’s research focuses on the comparative syntax and morphology of natural language and heritage languages, particularly on issues of language maintenance and loss within immigrant communities. His publications include The Feature Structure of Functional Categories: A Comparative Study of Arabic Dialects (Oxford University Press), Arabic Syntax (Cambridge University Press), and The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics (Routledge).
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Dr. Seth Cohen is professor with tenure in the Duke Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences. He performs clinical care and research focused on patients with voice, airway, and swallowing problems. Dr. Cohen's research interests include the epidemiology and public health impact of voice, airway, and swallowing problems, health services research, and evidence-based treatment of voice, airway, and swallowing problems. Dr. Cohen works with organizations that support the Israeli healthcare system and its trainees (medical students, residents, and fellows).
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Dr. David Hasan is a scientist neurosurgeon in the Duke Department of Neurosurgery with extensive experience in management of cerebrovascular diseases and skull base tumors. He is a fellowship - dual trained open cerebrovascular and endovascular with a background of treating over 2500 brain aneurysms using very innovative techniques including awake surgery. He is an international authority in cerebrovascular research with over 300 peer-reviewed PubMed publications, multiple NIH grants, and member of several editorial boards of high impact medical and surgical journals.
Dr. Hasan has been very active with the humanitarian efforts in Gaza & leads the largest & only coalition of American, Palestine, & Israeli NGOs to help with these efforts.
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Erika Weinthal is the John O. Blackburn Distinguished Professor of Environmental Policy. She is Chair of the Environmental Social Systems Division in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and a member of the Bass Society of Fellows. Dr. Weinthal was a prior Chair of Duke’s Academic Council. She currently serves on the Provost’s Middle East Initiative.
Dr. Weinthal specializes in global environmental politics and environmental security with an emphasis on water and energy. Dr. Weinthal is author of State Making and Environmental Cooperation: Linking Domestic Politics and International Politics in Central Asia (MIT Press 2002), which received the 2003 Chadwick Alger Prize and the 2003 Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize. Recent books include Water Quality Impacts of the Energy-Water Nexus (Cambridge University Press 2022) and The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics (2023). Her current research looks at the targeting of civilian infrastructure during war with attention to the wars in the Middle East and North Africa and Ukraine. At Duke, Dr. Weinthal teaches classes on environment, conflict, and peacebuilding and is currently co-teaching a Bass Connections class on Humanitarian Impacts of the War in Gaza: Shelter, Water and Sanitary Solutions.
Dr. Weinthal was also a founding Vice President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. In 2017 she was a recipient of the Women Peacebuilders for Water Award under the auspices of “Fondazione Milano per Expo 2015.”
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Pranav Mukund is an undergraduate student studying biomedical engineering at Duke University. With hopes of being a future physician-scientist, he works closely with the Pratt School of Engineering, School of Medicine, and Margolis Institute for Health Policy to research and develop medical devices that enhance human health and well-being. Pranav is also engaged in humanitarian projects addressing critical challenges relating to energy access for vulnerable populations.
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The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery is the Dean of Duke University Chapel and Professor of Homiletics and African and African American Studies. He holds faculty appointments in Duke’s Divinity School and the Department of African and African American Studies in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. A national leader in the theological study of the art of preaching (homiletics), Dean Powery regularly delivers sermons at Duke Chapel as well as churches throughout the United States and abroad. He is often a keynote speaker and lecturer at educational institutions, conferences, symposia, and retreats.
His teaching and research interests are at the intersection of preaching, pneumatology, music, and culture, particularly expressions of the African diaspora. His book Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race received the 2023 Book of the Year from the Religious Communication Association and also the Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of Spirit Speech: Lament and Celebration in Preaching; Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope; Ways of the Word: Learning to Preach for Your Time and Place (with Sally Brown); Rise Up, Shepherd! Advent Reflections on the Spirituals; Were You There? Lenten Reflections on the Spirituals; Getting to God: Preaching Good News in a Troubled World (with John Rottman and Joni Sancken); and most recently, Living the Questions of the Bible. He is a general editor of the nine-volume lectionary commentary series for preaching and worship Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.
Powery was ordained by the Progressive National Baptist Convention and has served in an ecumenical capacity in churches throughout Switzerland, Canada and the United States. He is a member of several academic societies and the recipient of numerous scholastic fellowships and awards, including his induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College in 2014 for his ethical and spiritual leadership. He received his Bachelor of Arts in music with a concentration in vocal performance from Stanford University, his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Theology from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto.
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Rabbi Elana Friedman (she/her/hers) is the Campus Rabbi and Jewish Chaplain for Jewish Life at Duke. Since she came to Duke in 2015, Rabbi Elana has found deep meaning in working with Duke’s Jewish students: “I love being part of Jewish students’ journeys, and walking that walk with them; both asking and contemplating the big questions in life.”
At Duke University, Rabbi Elana, as she’s known on campus, serves as chief Jewish educator and spiritual leader of the campus Jewish community. In her role as Campus Rabbi, she provides counseling for students, offers opportunities for Jewish learning, and serves as liaison for Religious Life, which includes convening the Interfaith Round Table of fellow Duke chaplains. She facilitates the observance of Jewish holidays, supervises the kashrut of the Freeman Center Cafe’s kosher kitchen, and holds duties related to educating the greater campus community about Judaism, Jewish observances, and challenges facing the Jewish community, including antisemitism.
Rabbi Elana was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where she earned her Masters in Hebrew Letters, receiving the Rabbi Kenneth and Aviva Berger Memorial Prize in Practical Rabbinics. She brings rich rabbinical experience to her role here at Duke. Her previous roles included serving as a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, interning at Hillel at Temple University, mentoring at a teen interfaith program in Philadelphia, serving as a Text Fellow for the Transformative Text Project, working as a Rabbinical Student Fellow for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights during her year of study in Israel, interning at the Abramson Senior Center, serving at The Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore on Long Island, working at Rosh Eidah, and serving as Education Director at Camp Havayah.
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Mbaye Lo is associate professor of the practice of Asian and Middle Eastern studies and international comparative studies at Duke University. Originally from Senegal, Lo completed his undergraduate and graduate training in classical Arabic language and literature at the International University of Africa, Khartoum and Khartoum International Institute for Arabic Language, Sudan. He also received an MA in American history from Cleveland State University where he also earned his PhD from from the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs with a dissertation on Re-inventing Civil Society-Based Governance in Africa: Theories and Practices.
Professor Lo is a recipient of several awards including the National Humanities Center fellowship, the American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship on Luce/ACLS Program in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs, DukeEngage Program Director Award, and Duke University Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
Professor Lo is the author and editor of nine books in both English and Arabic that examine the intersection of intellectual and social discourse of Arabic/Islamic and African cultures. He has written widely on political Islam, Arabic literary traditions in West Africa, and ideas of civil society and governance.
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Mara Redlich Revkin joined the Duke Law faculty in 2022 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a fellow at the Center on National Security and the Law. Her primary research and teaching interests are in armed conflict, peace-building, transitional justice, migration, policing, and property with a regional focus on the Middle East and Africa. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science.
Professor Revkin holds a J.D. from Yale Law School (2016) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University (2019) where her dissertation examined the Islamic State's governance of civilians in Iraq and Syria. She uses qualitative and quantitative empirical methods including surveys, experiments, interviews, and archival research, and has conducted field research in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and South Sudan. In addition to her academic research, she has worked with and advised United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations on the design of evidence-based programs and policies that aim to strengthen rule of law and the protection of human rights, support peaceful reconciliation after conflict, and mitigate the root causes of political violence and extremism.
Professor Revkin's work has been published or is forthcoming in The Journal of Politics, The American Journal of Political Science, The Yale Law Journal, The American Journal of Comparative Law, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Journal of Global Security Studies, World Development, The Yale Journal of International Law, The Harvard National Security Journal, The Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Foreign Affairs, and The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace, Innovations for Poverty Action, the National Science Foundation, and the Folke Bernadotte Academy, among others.
Before entering academia, she was the Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Middle East Program), a Critical Language Scholar in Jordan (Arabic), and a Fulbright Fellow in Oman. She holds a B.A. in Political Science with minors in Arabic and Anthropology from Swarthmore College.
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John Rose is a professor of practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a nationally known expert on teaching civil discourse. He will also direct the Morehead-Cain Scholarship Foundation’s Dialogue and Discourse Program. At Duke University, he served as the associate director of The Civil Discourse Project.
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Chaplain Joshua Salaam has strong roots in the American Muslim community. He started attending national Muslim youth camps at the age of 12 and continued as a participant, counselor and speaker for over 30 years. Joshua entered the U.S. Air Force in 1995 and served as a Police officer for four years. He was a key contributor in establishing Friday prayer services on base for Muslim military members and went on to serve as an Imam in Goldsboro, NC for several years. After the military, Joshua immersed himself in community activism. He managed the Civil Rights department for the Council on American-Islamic Relations from 2000-2004 and helped oversee a Baltimore Muslim community and neighborhood development project from 2004-2007. Before starting at Duke in July 2018, Joshua worked with youth and families for 11 years at one of the largest Muslim communities in America. His diverse background gives him a unique perspective on many issues and helps him connect with students. He holds a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies and a Doctorate of Ministry from Hartford Seminary.
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Charlotte Sussman is Professor of English at Duke, and current chair of the English department. She chairs Duke’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, Free Expression, and Engagement. Her books include Peopling the World: Representing Human Mobility from Milton to Malthus, Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender, and British Slavery, 1713-1833, Eighteenth-Century British Literature, 1660-1789, The Palgrave Handbook of European Migration in Literature and Culture (co-edited with Corina Stan), and the Oxford Handbook of Literature and Migration (co-edited with Hadji Bakara and Josephine McDonagh, forthcoming 2025). She has co-authored two recent articles on the Middle Passage: “Died a Small Boy: Re-Centering the Human in Geospatial Data from the Middle Passage” (archipelagos 2023) and “Commemorating the Middle Passage on the Atlantic Seabed in the Area Beyond National Jurisdiction” (Marine Policy 2020). From 2017-2019, she was a co-convener of the Representing Migration Humanities Lab.
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Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His publications include Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It (Chicago 2010) (with James Feldman); Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996), "Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work," International Security (1997), "The Determinants of International Moral Action," International Organization (1999); "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," American Political Science Review (2003); and "Soft Balancing against the United States," International Security (2005). His recent research includes: “Understanding Campus Fears After October 7 and How to Reduce Them” (CPOST Research Report, March 2024); "The Political Geography of the January 6 Insurrectionists," with Kyle Larson and Keven Ruby, PS: Political Science and Politics (April 2024); “Hamas is Winning: Why Israel’s Failing Strategy Makes the Enemy Stronger,” Foreign Affairs (June 21, 2024): “Understanding the Impact of Military Service on Support for Political Violence,” with Keven Ruby, Kyle Larson, and Kentaro Nakamura, Journal of Conflict Resolution (August 2024). His commentary on national and international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Face the Nation, The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity. He is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.
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Noah Pickus is Associate Provost at Duke University, with responsibilities in academic strategy, global initiatives, and educational innovation. A faculty member at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy for 25 years, he also serves as Dean for Academic Strategy and Learning Innovation at Duke Kunshan University, where he previously led curriculum design and faculty hiring, and as Director of the Institute for Global Higher Education.
At Duke, he co-authored the university’s academic strategic plan, managed the Duke 2030 strategy team, and, as the Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, he led a signature university-wide interdisciplinary program for ten years.
Pickus has also served as Chief Academic Officer for Minerva Project, which designs and develops top-tier educational programs for new and established universities. As Founding Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues under former Governor James B. Hunt Jr. at NC State University, he established a university-based venture in shaping public debate and public policy. He has also served as Cohort Co-Director of the Arizona State University-Georgetown University Academy for Innovation in Higher Education Leadership Intensive Program and as Co-Director of the Brookings-Duke Immigration Roundtable.
His publications include The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century (Princeton University Press) and True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism (Princeton University Press), and he has written widely on innovation and globalization in higher education and on immigration and citizenship. He received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University and a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.