Ariana Schmidt, a doctoral student at American University’s School of International Service, has more than five years of humanitarian aid experience in Europe and the Middle East with forcibly displaced populations. She spent the majority of this time in Iraq, arriving during the Mosul Offensive and staying through the ensuing early years of recovery and rebuilding. Working on an international NGO’s senior management team, she led program development and implementation efforts including managing UN and U.S. government funded projects. While double majoring in International Relations and French at Wheaton College, she completed two internships with the Department of State in Washington, D.C. and Cambodia working on economic policy and public affairs. She grew up in Niger. She currently serves as a Research Manager for the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL). Her research interests include force migration, refugee networks, refugee integration in low- and middle-income countries, the Humanitarian-Development Nexus, and international aid more broadly.
