CEL Speaker Series: Alexandra Toma, “Everything You Wanted to Know About D.C. Policy (and Policymaking), But Were Afraid to Ask: Views of a Washington Insider”
Thursday, January 29 at 4pm in Fleck Hall 305
September 11, 2001, was a day that will live in infamy forever. It was also Ms. Toma’s first day of graduate school. Over her 10 years in the nation’s capital, Ms. Toma has successfully navigated dramatic shifts in both policy and politics, building her expertise and network along the way. She will discuss both what’s hot in D.C. right now (including the new Congress, immigration, and the Middle East [ISIS, Iraq, Syria, Iran]) and how she’s managed to stay above it all while continuing to make a difference in her field of foreign policy and national security.
Ms. Toma has experience at senior levels of politics, government, advocacy and philanthropic organizations, most recently as the Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a donors’ collaborative focused on incentivizing collaboration as a tool to meet today’s human rights, nuclear nonproliferation, and climate change challenges. While Director of the Ploughshares Fund’s “Peace and Security Initiative,” she launched the Fissile Materials Working Group, a non-governmental coalition of more than 75 U.S. and international organizations providing action-oriented policy solutions to keep the world safe from nuclear terrorism.
Prior to her nonprofit experience, Alex served as a foreign policy advisor to Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA). She enjoys teaching at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and speaking and writing extensively on national security, foreign policy, and philanthropy issues. In 2011, Alex was named a “Top 99 Under 33” foreign policy leader by Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. She earned an M.S. in Foreign Policy and Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a B.A. in International Affairs and Psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Virginia.