Delegation Biographies
(alphabetical order)
Melissa Dalton is a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her research focuses on U.S. security cooperation reform and Middle East regional security.
She joined CSIS from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where sheserved in a number of positions in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2007 to 2014. Most recently, she was the senior adviser for force planning, providing analysis and policy recommendations for DoD's 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review report anddefense planning guidance. Previously, she served as the special assistant to the under secretary of defense for policy, as a policy adviser to the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan, and as the country director for Lebanon and Syria. In 2012, she was a visiting fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
Prior to her DoD service, she taught English to middle and high school students in Damascus, Syria, in 2006. From 2003 to 2005, she served as an intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Ms. Dalton is the author and co-author of a number of reports, book chapters, articles, and opinion pieces. She holds a B.A. in foreign affairsfrom the University of Virginia and an M.A. in international relations and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Jacob Freedman is a Senior Director at Albright Stonebridge Group, where he serves as a speechwriter and advisor to the firm’s Chairs and assists the firm’s leadership and clients in planning and communications.
Jacob has been working for more than ten years at the intersection of national security, politics, and communications. Prior to joining ASG, Jacob served as the Chief Speechwriter for Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta. In that capacity, Jacob managed a team of writers and researchers and was responsible for all of the Secretary’s speeches, testimony, and press statements. As a member of the Secretary’s public affairs team, he also helped formulate the Defense Department’s public engagement strategy, played a role in crisis communications, and accompanied the Secretary on official visits to nearly 40 countries. Jacob began his tenure at the Pentagon in June 2010 as a speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, affording him the unique opportunity to work closely with three different Secretaries of Defense.
Before he joined the Defense Department, Jacob worked at the Atlas Project, a political research organization, and served on President Obama’s 2008 general election campaign as a data director in Virginia and Georgia. He began his career as a journalist working in Washington for Congressional Quarterly, where he covered the financial services and economics beat.
Jacob graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in history, and earned a master’s degree with distinction in International Relations and European Studies from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. In 2014 he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Pentagon’s highest civilian honor.
Alice Hunt Friend is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. She is also a senior affiliate at CSIS and a PhD student at American University’s School of International Service, where she performs research on U.S. foreign policy, security studies and use of force decision-making.
From 2012 to 2014, she was the principal director for African Affairs in OSD Policy where she focused primarily on Libya, Mali, South Sudan, and the Great Lakes region. She joined the Department of Defense in 2009 as special assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and also served as senior advisor to the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Forces and country director for Pakistan.
She has held a research position the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Her international experience includes work with the International Labor Organization in Geneva and with the Senegalese Association for Research, Study, and Aid to Development.
Ms. Friend is the author of numerous opinion pieces and book chapters, contributor to and editor for several reports, and has appeared as a guest on C-SPAN and as a witness before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from American University and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Government from Smith College. She speaks French and Spanish.
Brian Harding is Director for East and Southeast Asia for the National Security and International Policy team at Center for American Progress (CAP). In this role, he is leading a major expansion of CAP’s work on the U.S.-Japan alliance and regional engagement in Southeast Asia. He concurrently serves as a senior analyst at Eurasia Group, where he advises major multinational corporations on political risk in Asia.
From 2009 to 2013, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy) as country director for Asian and Pacific security affairs, where he managed defense relations with key U.S. partners in Southeast Asia and Oceania—including Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand—and advised senior Department of Defense leadership on Asia-Pacific regional strategy. In this position, Harding played an instrumental role in several high-profile defense policy initiatives, including agreements to station U.S. Marines in Darwin, Australia, and littoral combat ships in Singapore.
Prior to working at the Department of Defense, Harding was a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he focused on Southeast Asia and Japan. As a research associate, Harding helped build the first Southeast Asia policy program in the Washington, D.C. think-tank community and managed several initiatives aimed at strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance. Previously, he was a Fulbright scholar in Indonesia, a research assistant at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a research assistant at the Institute for National Strategic Studies. Harding holds an M.A. in Asian studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, a B.A. in history and Japanese studies from Middlebury College, and has studied at GadjahMada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.
Reza Marashi joined the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) in 2010 as the organization’s first Research Director. He came to NIAC after four years in the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to his tenure at the State Department, he was an analystat the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) covering China-Middle East issues, and a Tehran-based private strategic consultant on Iranian politicaland economic risk. Marashi is frequently consulted by Western governments on Iran-related matters. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and The National Interest, among other publications. He has been a guest contributor to CNN, NPR, the BBC, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among other broadcast outlets.
Erin M. Simpson is the Chief Executive Officer of Caerus Associates. She previouslydirected all of Caerus’ classified research and support to the defense and intelligence communities.Dr. Simpson is a leading specialist in identifying data and research requirements for complex environments. She has lectured extensively on emerging technologies, data design, and the role of intelligence in irregular warfare at the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU), Defense Intelligence Agency, MIT’s Lincoln Labs, Google Ideas, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining Caerus, Dr. Simpson served as the Strategic Advisor to ISAF’s Counterinsurgency Advisory and Assistance Team, where she regularly advised senior military commanders throughout Afghanistan on issues related to campaign metrics, strategic assessments, local-defense forces, and illicit networks. Before deploying to Afghanistan sheserved as an Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Marine Command and Staff College in Quantico, VA.
Dr. Simpson holds a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University and a BA in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Kansas.
Ken Sofer is the Associate Director for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, where his work focuses on U.S. policy in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific. In his three years at American Progress, Ken has authored 35 public policy papers; organized senior delegations to China, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Israel; and conducted original field research on the civil war in Syria. His work has been cited inThe Washington Post, BBC World,Foreign Policy, and Al Jazeera. Ken is a native of Hermosa Beach, California, and graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied political science and international relations with a focus on U.S. foreign policy. He studied Arabic and Middle East politics in both Cairo, Egypt, and Amman, Jordan. Ken previously completed internships at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus. Prior to joining American Progress, Ken worked on foreign affairs and defense issues as an intern with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Ariella Viehe is a Senior Fellow for the National Security and International Policy team at American Progress, on a one year fellowship from the U.S. Department of State. She brings expertise in conflict and post-conflict stabilization and the Middle East.
At the Department of State, she served in the Near East Affairs Bureau, Office of Assistance Coordination, primarily responsible for coordinating U.S. assistance to North Africa in 2013-2014. From 2009 to 2013, she served in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) focused largely on Afghanistan issues including development of and support to the Afghan National Security Forces, negotiations for the U.S.-Afghanistan Security Defense and Cooperation Agreement and regional and international support to Afghanistan. She was a 2009 Presidential Management Fellow, completing two rotations, first as the U.S. liaison to the German SRAP in the German Foreign Ministry and second as Special Assistant for Pakistan to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
Before joining the Department, Ms. Viehe worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as an Action Officer on Iraq economic and reconstruction policy. From 2006-2007, she completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Amman, Jordan, where she studied Arabic and, with other
Fulbrighters, launched the Global Youth Conference. Prior to Amman, she was amanagement consultant with BearingPoint, Inc, supporting the company’s projects in Baghdad, Iraq and Washington, D.C.
Ms. Viehe holds an M.A. in strategic studies and international economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University, a B.S. in international history and Arab studies from Georgetown University, and has studied at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.
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