Staff

Daniel Pipes, a historian, has led the Middle East Forum since its founding in 1994. He taught at Chicago, Harvard, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Naval War College. He served in five U.S. administrations, received two presidential appointments, and testified before many congressional committees. The author of 16 books on the Middle East, Islam, and other topics, Mr. Pipes writes a column for the Washington Times and the Spectator; his work has been translated into 39 languages. DanielPipes.org contains an archive of his writings and media appearances; he tweets at @DanielPipes. He received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. The Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” Al-Qaeda invited Mr. Pipes to convert and Edward Said called him an “Orientalist.”

Gregg Roman functions as the chief operations officer for the Forum, responsible for day-to-day management, communications, and financial resource development. Mr. Roman previously served as director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. In 2014, he was named one of the ten most inspiring global Jewish leaders by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He previously served as the political advisor to the deputy foreign minister of Israel and worked for the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Mr. Roman is a frequent speaker at venues around the world, often appears on television, and has written for the Hill, the Forward, the Albany Times-Union, and other publications. He attended American University in Washington, D.C., and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel, where he studied national security studies and political communications.

Benjamin Baird is a public affairs specialist who organizes grassroots advocacy campaigns in support of Middle East Forum projects. He mobilizes constituencies to support MEF policy objectives, coordinates effective public pressure campaigns, and uses bold and creative techniques to disrupt the policy-making arena. Mr. Baird is a U.S. Army infantry veteran with a B.A. from American Military University. His writing can be found at National Review, New York Post, Jerusalem Post, and other prominent media outlets.

Matthew Bennett is a senior development officer, leading the Forum’s annual fundraising campaigns, planned giving program, and donor engagement strategies. He previously served as managing director of the American Committee for the Tel Aviv Foundation, national director of development for the Zionist Organization of America, and was the Israel & Jewish Community Relations Director for Jewish Federation of Atlantic & Cape May Counties in New Jersey. He studied finance, international marketing, and information technology at American University in Washington, D.C., the European-American Institute of Technology in France, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Jim Hanson is Chief Editor for the Middle East Forum. He previously served in U.S. Army Special Forces and conducted counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and foreign internal defense operations in more than two dozen countries. He is the author of several books including “Winning the Second Civil War - Without Firing a Shot” and “Cut Down the Black Flag - A Plan to Defeat ISIS”.

Ahnaf Kalam is the digital media specialist and podcast producer at the Middle East Forum, where he has been a writer and researcher since 2017. He writes regularly on issues of national security, counter-extremism, and foreign policy. His work has appeared in The American Spectator, The Gazette, Daily Wire, The Daily Caller, and other publications. He holds a B.A. in political science and international studies from the University of Colorado, Denver.

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.

Thelma Prosser has been in charge of the Middle East Forum office since 1995. She previously worked at the Foreign Policy Research Institute for over twelve years.

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Middle Eastern countries, particularly Iran and Turkey. His career includes time as a Pentagon official, with field experiences in Iran, Yemen, and Iraq, as well as engagements with the Taliban prior to 9/11. Mr. Rubin has also contributed to military education, teaching U.S. Navy and Marine units about regional conflicts and terrorism. His scholarly work includes several key publications, such as “Dancing with the Devil” and “Eternal Iran.” Rubin earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in history and a B.S. in biology from Yale University.

Alex Selsky is a senior adviser to the Israel Victory Project and serves on the board of directors of Middle East Forum-Israel. Mr. Selsky currently serves as a reserve major in the IDF Homefront Command emergency information unit. He is also a lecturer at the School of Politics and Journalism at Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem. Previously, Mr. Selsky served as an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spokesperson for the Israeli National Economic Council, member of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, member of the executive board of the World Zionist Organization, and CEO of the International Israel Beytenu Movement.

He holds a B.A. in Business and an Executive Master of Public Policy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Jonathan Spyer oversees the Forum’s content and is editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Mr. Spyer, a journalist, reports for Janes Intelligence Review, writes a column for the Jerusalem Post, and is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and The Australian. He frequently reports from Syria and Iraq. He has a B.A. from the London School of Economics, an M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. He is the author of two books: The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict (2010) and Days of the Fall: A Reporter’s Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars (2017).

Anna Stanley is a research associate at the Middle East Forum. Anna previously worked as an Open-Source Intelligence Analyst at the British Foreign Office and as an Intelligence Researcher and Investigation Practitioner for UK Police. She has delivered OSINT training internationally. Her writing has been featured on UK Television, The Spectator, The JC, JNS, Fathom, The Telegraph and Ynet.

Marilyn Stern is communications coordinator at the Middle East Forum. She has written articles on national security topics for Front Page Magazine, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, and Small Wars Journal.

Miky Teshale is the Development Operations Data Manager at the Middle East Forum, where he brings extensive expertise in data analysis and business intelligence to drive strategic decision-making. With a strong command of advanced analytics and data visualization tools, Miky integrates and analyzes large datasets to support business development and achieve organizational objectives. He holds an M.A. from George Washington University and a B.S. in Quantitative Economics and Finance from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh.

Sandra Tolliver is the deputy editor of the Middle East Forum Observer. She began her journalism career in 1976 and has worked in newspapers, television news and a wire service, as well as corporate and government public relations. Her most recent news jobs were editing opinion articles for The Hill and The Messenger in Washington, D.C.

Sam Westrop has headed Islamist Watch since March 2017, when MEF absorbed the counter-extremism unit of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), where he was the research director. Before that, he ran Stand for Peace, a London-based counter-extremism organization monitoring Islamists throughout the UK.

Liron Yadin oversees a wide range of operations within the Forum to ensure cross-functional streamlining of communications, programmatic initiatives, development operations and strategy, project and staff management, governance, and growth. She is an expert in content marketing, community-building, and strategic development in both the NGO and private sectors. Previously, she worked for AMIT, an education non-profit organization, and the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles. Ms. Yadin also served as Director of Foreign Relations for World Likud and Director of Marketing for Aardvark in Israel. She has a B.A. from Temple University and an M.A. from Tel Aviv University.

Dexter Van Zile is managing editor of the Middle East Forum publication Focus on Western Islamism. Prior to his current position, Van Zile worked at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis for 16 years, where he played a major role in countering misinformation broadcast into Christian churches by Palestinian Christians and refuting antisemitic propaganda broadcast by white nationalists and their allies in the U.S. His articles have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, the Boston Globe, Jewish Political Studies Review, the Algemeiner and the Jewish News Syndicate. He has authored numerous academic studies and book chapters about Christian anti-Zionism.