Kris joined Social Impact in 2024. Formally trained as a political psychologist and mixed methods research methodologist, Kris applies advanced technical knowledge and cutting-edge methodologies, analysis techniques, and MEL approaches to project work. She serves as a team leader, project director, trainer, facilitator, and/or technical advisor on a variety of contracts and in this capacity, designs and implements innovative MEL and adaptive management activities and approaches, leveraging data and evidence to improve policy and programmatic decision-making.
Prior to joining SI, she was the Senior Program Officer in the Program on Violent Extremism at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), where she led the creation of USIP’s preventing/countering violent extremism strategy and spearheaded the socialization and implementation of USIP’s Rehabilitation and Reintegration through Individual, Social, and Structural Engagement guide, working closely with teams in Iraq and Burma. Before joining USIP, she was the Senior Technical Advisor supporting Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) Strategy 2030 as part of an institutional capacity strengthening team to help CRS carry out its vision to catalyze humanitarian and development outcomes at scale.
As former Chief of Party for USAID/West Africa’s Peace through Evaluation, Learning, and Adapting (PELA I) activity, as well as former Senior Technical Advisor for USAID/MENA Bureau’s Countering Violent Extremism (CoVE-MENA) project, she specializes in innovative MEL and CLA approaches for complex programs in conflict-affected states.
Kris also spent seven years working for the Department of Defense and intelligence community as a counterterrorism analyst and Africa researcher, including a deployment to Afghanistan as the lead counter threat finance analyst in Kandahar. She founded and directed the Africa Research Initiative at the National Intelligence University. She has over 18 years of experience working on critical topics in Africa and specializes in peacebuilding, democratization, political economy, governance, war economies and countering terrorism/violent extremism.
She holds a doctorate in political science from the University of California, Davis and teaches part-time in the African Studies and Security Studies Programs at Georgetown University.