Speakers Bureau

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.

Dr. Craig Considine is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Rice University. He is known for his contributions to interfaith dialogue and is currently focusing on topics like the Abraham Accords and the Marxist–Islamist alliance. Dr. Considine’s acclaimed scholarly work includes The Humanity of Muhammad – A Christian View (Blue Dome Press, 2020) and People of the Book – Prophet Muhammad’s Encounters with Christians (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2021). A sought-after speaker, Dr. Considine has addressed audiences at various universities, conferences, and community events worldwide, including Oxford University, New York University (Abu Dhabi), the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies (Abu Dhabi), the University of Edinburgh, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Doha). Considine has also been featured in numerous news media outlets and regularly engages with the press. He holds a PhD in sociology from Trinity College Dublin, an MSc in international relations from Royal Holloway – University of London, and a BA in international relations from American University. His latest book – Beyond Dialogue – Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims (Polity Press) – was published in November 2024.

Joe Adam George is the research lead for Islamist threats in Canada at the Middle East Forum. Based in Ottawa, he is also a foreign policy and national security analyst with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, covering Islamist extremism in the West, terror financing, and geopolitical developments in the Middle East and South Asia and their impact on Canada and the U.S. Joe previously worked in the Parliament of Canada as press secretary and advisor to the leader of the opposition party, and as a research intern at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Political-Military Analysis. His work has been featured in the National Post, The Globe and Mail, The Hill Times, The Hill, Real Clear World, The Times of India, and The Economic Times.

Saeid Golkar is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Department of Political Science and a senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran.

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.

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.

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, Newsweek, the Forward, the Algemeiner, 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.

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).

Dexter Van Zile, the Middle East Forum’s Violin Family Research Fellow, serves as managing editor of 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.

Sam Westrop has headed Islamist Watch since March 2017. Before that, he ran Stand for Peace, a London-based counter-extremism organization monitoring Islamists throughout the UK.