Emily Solis-Cohen: Gervase Programs: Learning to Lead

Emily Solis-Cohen is a senior in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service hailing from the Philadelphia suburbs. She majors in International Politics and Security Studies, and her main research interests lie in the Middle East. She was awarded a 2009 Lisa J. Raines Summer Research Fellowship to conduct research on the Human Terrain System and is continuing to study how to measure the effectiveness of such programs that infuse counterinsurgency strategy with cultural knowledge for her Senior Honors Thesis. Emily has studied a wide range of issues relating to Middle East security as an intern at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and as a research assistant for Dr. Daniel L. Byman, the director of Georgetown’s Center for Peace and Security Studies.

Emily also is an avid student of Arabic and French and studied at The American University in Cairo during the Spring 2009 Semester. She was inducted into the Georgetown chapter of Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and will graduate in May 2010. Emily plans to pursue graduate work in international security studies and then hopes to work on national security policy for the U.S. Government.

In her spare time, Emily can usually be found on long-distance runs through downtown Washington, cooking, reading The New Yorker and The New York Times, or cheering on the Philadelphia Phillies.