Our Team - Women In International Security

The WIIS team is comprised of dedicated thought leaders who are committed to advancing the role of women in the field of international peace and security.

Lauren Van Metre

Dr. Lauren Van Metre is the President and CEO of Women In International Security (WIIS), bringing over two decades of experience as a leading expert in peace and security. Her distinguished career includes key roles at the U.S. Department of Defense, the State Department, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the National Democratic Institute, where she contributed to major conflict resolution and prevention initiatives. Her leadership has provided an invaluable contribution to policy and programming in some of the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Prior to leading WIIS, Dr. Van Metre served as the head of the National Democratic Institute’s Peace, Security, and Democratic Resilience initiative, where she strengthened governance programs in states experiencing conflict and instability and foreign authoritarian influence. She also led the Institute’s Environmental Governance and Resilience (EGAR) initiative, reflecting her growing focus on the intersection of environmental change and political fragility. Her work has consistently emphasized the importance of fostering democratic resilience in the face of violence, climate disruption and foreign authoritarian manipulation.

At the State Department, Lauren served as the deputy office director for the Office of Kosovo Peace Implementation, leading an initiative on postconflict reconciliation and standing up an independent media. At the Pentagon, she was a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs, managing the Western Hemisphere and South Balkans Defense Ministerials.

Dr. Van Metre is a recognized authority on community resilience to violence and climate shocks. She has led field research and initiatives around the world and has published extensively on these topics. Some of her recent works include The War on NonProfits, Strengthening Democracy is a Better Counter-terrorism Strategy, From the Frontlines of Democracy in Ukraine, Deepening Understanding of Success and Failure in Postconflict Reconciliation, From Self Defense to Vigilantism: A Typology of Community Based Armed Groups, and Community Resilience to Violent Extremism in Kenya. Her pieces False Promises: The Authoritarian Development Models of China and Russia and The Trip from Donbas: Ukraine’s Pressing Need to Defend its Veterans were published as Issue Briefs for the Atlantic Council.

In addition to her role at WIIS, Dr. Van Metre is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. She is also a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where she teaches strategy and leadership in the Master’s in International Policy and Practice program. Dr. Van Metre holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Russian studies and an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Georgetown University.

Director of Development

Karin Johnston

Dr. Karin L. Johnston is the Director of Development at Women In International Security (WIIS) and adjunct professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland-College Park, and American University. She is an experienced policy analyst and project manager with government, non-profit, and academic experience in international security, foreign and security policy analysis, U.S.-European relations, and gender, peace and conflict analysis.

Dr. Johnston has served as a WPS trainer at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Institute for Security Governance in Monterey, California and Bogota, Colombia, and as a speaker on gender and WPS for the Inter-American Defense College and the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington, D.C.

A recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s Franklin Fellowship, Dr. Johnston served in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, focusing on the Bureau’s security sector portfolio and stabilization strategies. She helped expand CSO’s security sector expertise in security sector reform (SSR), Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of armed groups, and foreign assistance and stabilization strategies. While at CSO, Dr. Johnston co-authored a practitioner’s guide on DDR and defections with the UK Stabilization Unit that has been utilized in SSR efforts in Cameroon, Mozambique, and West Africa.

Dr. Johnston has written on German policy decision-making and the politics of military intervention, international public opinion and media and politics, U.S. and transatlantic foreign and defense policy, and gender equality in the European Union. Fluent in German, Dr. Johnston was a Mercator Fellow at the University of Duisburg-Essen and a former fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland-College Park and an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

Director of Programs and Partnerships

Layla Hashemi

Dr. Layla M. Hashemi is the Director of Programs and Partnerships at Women In International Security (WIIS). Previously, Layla was a researcher and data analyst at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) focusing on international supply chains, cybercrime and illicit trade. She earned her PhD in Public Policy at George Mason University’s Schar School and her Masters in International Relations and Comparative Politics at New York University with a concentration in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. She has held positions at governmental and non-governmental organizations including Forum 2000 and the Journal of Civil Society where she is currently Managing Editor. She was a professor at Montgomery College’s History and Political Science department for over 10 years and currently teaches at George Mason University and George Washington University. Her volunteer work includes moderating the Anti-Corruption Advocacy Network (ACAN), board member and research manager at the Security, Gender and Development Institute (SGDI) and Political Economy Project (PEP) coordinator at the Arab Studies Institute (ASI). She has presented her research — among other places — at NATO, the United Nations and professional conferences. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, academic journals and other outlets and she co-edited the Routledge volume Antiquities Smuggling in the Real and Virtual World (2022).

Women, Peace and Security Fellow

Mahathi Ayyagari

Mahathi Ayyagari (she/her) is the Howard S. Brembeck Women, Peace and Security Fellow at Women In International Security (WIIS), where she manages the “1325@25” Initiative and supports the programmatic, research, grants, and strategic convening of the organization. Previously, Mahathi worked at the International Peace Institute (IPI) in the Women, Peace, and Security program, where she contributed to research on a range of issues including women’s political participation in peace processes, environmental peacebuilding, and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR); organized events that convened civil society and high-level UN member state representatives; and authored original analysis for The Global Observatory. Prior to joining IPI, Mahathi earned an MSc in Gender, Peace, and Security at the London School of Economics (LSE). There, she achieved the Betty Scharf Prize for Best Dissertation in Gender and Religion, which is awarded annually to the best dissertation that not only relates to religion, but is also thought to have the greatest significance for the future of global societies. Mahathi completed her BA at the University of Chicago with a double major in Economics and South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and a minor in Human Rights, for which she additionally studied abroad at the University of Vienna.

Distinguished Global Fellow

Louise Shelley

Dr. Louise Shelley is a leading scholar and founder of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at George Mason University, renowned for her pioneering research on transnational organized crime, corruption, and illicit economies. She is a leading expert on the relationship among terrorism, organized crime and corruption as well as human trafficking, transnational crime and terrorism with a particular focus on the former Soviet Union. She also specializes in illicit financial flows and money laundering. She is the recipient of the Guggenheim, NEH, IREX, Kennan Institute, and Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships and received MacArthur Grants to establish the Russian Organized Crime Study Centers and to study the role of non-state actors in nuclear proliferation. Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime and Terrorism was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. She is the author of Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective (Cambridge 2010), Policing Soviet Society (Routledge, 1996), Lawyers in Soviet Worklife and Crime and Modernization, as well as numerous articles and book chapters on all aspects of transnational crime and corruption. Professor Shelley has also served on the Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade and Organized Crime of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and was the first co-chair of its Council on Organized Crime. Professor Shelley is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has spoken at various international fora and at many universities both in the United States and abroad on transnational crime, terrorism, human trafficking, illicit trade and corruption. She testifies before Congress on many aspects of transnational crime and its relationship to terrorism. Additionally, she often appears on television and radio, including appearances on CNN, NPR’s Marketplace and Takeaway, PBS, A&E, the History Channel, C-span, Tavis Smiley, Kojo Nnamdi and 60 Minutes as well as in the European media such as BBC, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Die Welt. Dr. Shelley received her undergraduate degree cum laude from Cornell University in Penology and Russian literature. She holds an M.A. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

As a Distinguished Fellow, Dr. Shelley will bring her deep expertise in transnational crime and illicit networks to WIIS, advising on key issues, mentoring the next generation of security leaders, and contributing to high-level dialogues shaping the field.

Senior Fellow

Duilia Turner

Duilia “Dui” Turner is a Leadership and International Relations advisor focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean. She retired from the United States Air Force after 25 years of service, holding key positions in crisis response, human capital development, science, and global management. As the first Chief of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at the United States Southern Command, she reached 36 countries and over 350,000 people globally in efforts ranging from tactical military exercises to strategic and ministerial-level advisement. Duilia is an international lecturer and speaker who has collaborated with the United Nations, the Organization of the American States, the Wilson Center, and the Special Operations Community. Passionate about women’s professional development and leadership, Duilia has received three congressional recognitions and a City of Doral Women of Legacy Award. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology, a Master of Business Administration, and a Master in International Relations.

Senior Fellow

Joan Johnson-Freese

Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese served as a University Professor and Chair of the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval War College (NWC) between 2002-2022. She has also been part of the Government Department faculty of Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School since 2004, where she teaches courses on Women, Peace & Security, Leadership in War and Peace, and Grand Strategy and US National Security.

As a political scientist, she has published multiple articles on aspects of Women, Peace & Security, particularly focusing on raising awareness regarding the framework generally and within security communities specifically, believing that you can’t implement what you don’t know about. She is the author of Women, Peace & Security: An Introduction (2018) and Women v Women: The Case for Cooperation (2022). Over the arc of her academic career, her research also focused on space security, authoring seven books in that field and over 100 published articles, many with a particular focus on the Chinese space program. She has testified before Congress on multiple occasions about space issues and served on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board.

Senior Fellow and Legal Advisor

Brenda Oppermann

Brenda Oppermann considers herself a “pracademic,” having extensive experience as a practitioner and academic working on conflict, peace, security, and gender equity. A senior advisor and subject matter expert, Brenda has 30+ years of experience — including more than seven (7) years in conflict-affected countries — working with DOD, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, USAID, the United Nations, U.S. Institute of Peace, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), NATO, and assorted NGOs. Specializing in women, peace, and security, stability operations, organizational change, human rights, and traditional justice, she has extensive experience working in Africa, Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Brenda currently serves as an Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College and as Chief GameChanger at GameChangers 360, a social enterprise dedicated to creating positive change through gender equity. She has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Yale University, the UN, Naval Postgraduate School, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and National Defense University among others. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine, an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University, and a J.D. from Western New England University School of Law.

Senior Fellow

Ellen Haring

Dr. Ellen Haring is a senior fellow at Women in International Security where she directs the Combat Integration Initiative. Haring’s research and work focus on women and gender in the military. She is a West Point graduate and a retired U.S. Army colonel. She holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and she has taught at the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army War College, and Georgetown University. Haring has published numerous articles and papers on a wide array of military and security related topics. She has been a guest speaker on foreign and domestic news shows. She guest lectures and has testified before Congress.

Senior Fellow

Jana Wattenberg

Dr. Jana Wattenberg is a UKRI postdoctoral fellow (Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme for Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship) at American University and Aberystwyth University. She is also a Senior Fellow with Women in International Security (WIIS) and a Lecturer in Security at Aberystwyth University. Jana is a founding member of the Emerging Voices Network of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) and on the Executive Board of British Student Young Pugwash.

Jana’s research focusses on nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament, women in the nuclear weapons field and gendered dimensions of nuclear discourses. Her project ‘Women and the Bomb’ was awarded a UKRI postdoctoral fellowship (Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme for Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship). For this project, Jana is currently conducting research on the roles and experiences of women in the U.S. nuclear weapons field in Washington D.C.

Senior Fellow

Loredana Teodorescu

Expert in EU policies and migration, actively involved in gender-related issues, Loredana Teodorescu is the Head of European and International Affairs at Istituto Luigi Sturzo, a foundation based in Rome, and Research Associate of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels. Since February 2020 she is the Secretary General of WIIS Italy.

After graduating in International Relations, she obtained a PhD in Political Science-European and International Studies at the University of Roma Tre, focusing her research on the link between internal security and external action of the EU in the migration field.

Her areas of interest include migration and asylum policy, link between internal security and external relations, EU’s foreign and neighbourhood policy, security and borders, women’s rights and gender issues. On these topics she develops and coordinates research projects, holds university lectures and participates in working groups and debates, writes articles and analysis.

She collaborates with the chair of EU law and institutions and the Altiero Spinelli Center of excellence (CeAS) of Roma Tre University, and with numerous international think tanks and organizations. In 2014 she worked for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of the Italian EU Presidency.

Senior Fellow

Diorella Islas Limiñana

Dr. Diorella Islas is a security and intelligence advisor for governmental and private entities, lecturer at the School of Social Sciences and Government, Tec de Monterrey in Mexico, and adjunct faculty member in the Countering Transnational Organized Crime (CTOC) program at the Marshall Center. Dr. Islas has more than 15 years of experience working as an analyst and operative in countering transnational organized crime, national security, and intelligence project management. From 2021-2022, she served as Deputy Director of Research at the Mexican Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection in Mexico, where she worked closely with the Ministry’s Gender Unit and as Director of Professionalization of the Graduate School of Intelligence in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She is an external contributor to Jane’s Intelligence Review, and in 2021 she served as a WPS trainer at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Institute for Security Governance in Mexico City, Mexico. Her research interests include assessing gender equality policies and the role of women in the security community, analyzing intelligence as a tool to forecast and diminish threats, and the evolution of transnational drug trafficking organizations and cocaine routes to Europe. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics, Languages, and International Studies from the University of Bath and a master’s degree in international studies from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

Defense Fellow

Tahina Montoya

Tahina Montoya is the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Multi-lingual, International Affairs Strategist & Women, Peace and Security Expert working at the tactical, operational and strategic levels within the Continental United States (CONUS) and Outside of the Continental United States (OCONUS). She is a Political/Military analyst in the Air Force Reserves and Doctoral student at Georgetown University.

Global Security Leadership Fellow

Molly Middlehurst

Molly Middlehurst is a feminist and queer leader who is passionate about helping mission-driven organizations grow their impact and serve their communities. She’s worked domestically and internationally with diverse women and gender expansive folks to build political leadership skills, enhance economic opportunity, expand access to education, and create safe spaces for solidarity and mutual support. She currently serves as the Philanthropy Manager for National Senior Communities, Inc. (NSC). In this role, she leads the development and execution of mission-related programs and funds, and works with corporate, not-for-profit, and other stakeholders to drive community impact and support NSC’s culture of philanthropy.

As a Global Security Leader Fellow, Molly will contribute her expertise on gender disinformation, online violence, and hybrid threats to WIIS’ programming and policy initiatives, expert roundtables and dialogues, publications, mentorship, and more. Her work examining how gendered information manipulation and technology-facilitated abuse intersect with democratic resilience will add critical depth to WIIS’ efforts to expand substantive leadership on today’s most pressing security challenges.

Fellow

Ana Laura Velasco Ugalde

Ana Velasco is a feminist security researcher and consultant with experience in government, media, and civil society. Winner of the international essay contest 1325andBeyond in 2020, Velasco has specialized in the Women, Peace and Security agenda from a Global South perspective and has published on the subject in international and Mexican media. She is co-author of the report “Increasing Security: Women’s Participation in Security Forces in Latin America and the Caribbean” published by Women In International Security (WIIS). Currently, she is a fellow of WIIS and a Research Associate at the University of Bremen.

Fellow

Antonieta Rico

Antonieta Rico is a Combat Integration Initiative fellow at Women in International Security, where she supports research on women’s integration into combat arms units. She most recently worked as a Women, Peace, and Security Gender Advisor for the U.S. Army; and is the former Director of Communications and Policy for the Service Women’s Action Network, the leading national nonprofit advocating for service women and women veterans. She is a former Deputy News Editor at Army Times and has been published in USA Today, TIME, and various military-focused news outlets. She served in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2008 as a public affairs Soldier and non-commissioned officer (NCO) and has deployed to Iraq, embedding with various infantry units during combat operations. She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, with a concentration in Global Politics and Security, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from George Mason University.