Angela Conway, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, has 18 years experience in international development and has worked on rule of law initiatives in 27 countries. Ms. Conway has led assessments and authored reports on legal system development throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. The MENA Division currently maintains offices and/or supports programs in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Turkey. It has also supported programs in Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Oman. Prior to establishing the MENA Division in 2003, Ms. Conway served as the ABA Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI) program director for Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, and as director of research for ABA CEELI. She holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from the University of Kansas. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Kansas Bar. You can contact Angela Conway at angela.conway@americanbar.org.

Omar Badawi, Program Manager, returned to the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division in 2011. Most recently, he worked in private practice representing employers in labor relations and employment law matters. Mr. Badawi previously served for three years as program officer for the MENA Division. He holds a J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, an M.A. from McGill University in political science and developing areas studies, and a B.S. from Concordia University in biology and political science. You can contact him at omar.badawi@americanbar.org. 

Emily Perkins, Program Officer, joined ABA ROLI’s Middle East and North Africa Division in November 2010 after researching international corruption and election issues for a European geopolitical consultancy. Prior to transitioning into international relations, she served most recently as a business development and program manager for Blackboard following similar roles at education and medical technology associations. Ms. Perkins holds an LL.M. degree in international law with international relations from the University of Kent’s Brussels School for International Studies, where she focused on the role of the United States in both the international legal system and Palestinian statehood. She also holds a B.A. in political science from Boston College. You can contact Emily Perkins at emily.perkins@americanbar.org.

Kimberly Riddle, Program Officer, joined ABA ROLI's Middle East & North Africa Division in February 2011 after working with the National Endowment for Democracy, where she supported the development of the organization's overall policy and strategy. For two years, she was also a program manager at a non-profit organization that serves the Vietnamese community, both domestically and internationally. There, she managed a case management program for survivors of human trafficking, torture and other trauma. Ms. Riddle received her B.A., with dual concentration in philosophy and religious studies, from the University of Virginia. She also holds a master's degree in religion, ethics and politics from Harvard University. You can contact Kimberly Riddle at kimberly.riddle@americanbar.org.

Andrew Stahl, Administrative Assistant, joined ABA ROLI in March 2011. Prior to joining ABA ROLI, he worked on the campaign staff of Rep. Patrick J. Murphy. He also served as a senior intern and research assistant in Rep. Murphy’s congressional office.  Mr. Stahl holds a B.S. in international history, with a certificate in African studies, from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has also studied at the University of Paris IV—Sorbonne and in Senegal. He is fluent in French. You can contact Andrew Stahl at andrew.stahl@americanbar.org. 

Claude Zullo, Senior Advisor, joined the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s MENA Division in June 2008. Mr. Zullo has more than 11 years of professional experience in development and governance issues in Europe and Eurasia, working for organizations such as the National Democratic Institute, ABA ROLI and the Eurasia Foundation. He first began working for ABA ROLI as the regional deputy country director for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in 2004. Mr. Zullo holds a B.A. in history and international relations from Muhlenberg College and an M.A. in international political economy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He has spent time as a fellow for the Honorable Barbara Milkulski, a consultant to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a research assistant at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Zullo is also fluent in German, with a working knowledge of Spanish, Italian, Georgian and Russian. You can contact Claude Zullo at claude.zullo@americanbar.org.

Paul Simonett, Program Director, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, has worked with ABA ROLI in Azerbaijan and the Philippines, providing rule of law technical assistance to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of courts. Prior to beginning his tenure as program director in Bahrain, Mr. Simonett served as senior rule of law advisor for the United States Agency for International Development in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he developed and supervised technical assistance programs to improve court operations and assist in Indonesia’s fight against corruption. Mr. Simonett practiced law in the United States for 10 years and also served as an assistant attorney general in the Federated States of Micronesia. He holds a J.D. degree from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kathryn Monahan Ainsworth, Country Director, Egypt, assumed her current position with ABA ROLI in 2011. Prior to this assignment, she served as Deputy Regional Director for ABA ROLI’s Middle East & North Africa Division, stationed in Jordan, for four years. She has served as senior policy advisor for the Governor of Maine and was a partner in Gosline, Reitman & Ainsworth, a mediation, facilitatio, and arbitration firm.  She is a lawyer and mediator and has taught alternative dispute resolution at the University of Maine School of Law. In addition to working in all three branches of government in Maine, she has consulted or trained in more than a dozen countries. Ms. Ainsworth is a past president of the Maine Association of Mediators and the Maine Bar Foundation, and is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the American Bar Association. She has received honors for her work to ensure justice for all and for advancing the role of women in the legal profession. You can contact Kathryn Ainsworth at kainsworth@abaegypt.com. 

Jeff Gold, Legal Education Advisor, Egypt, joined ABA ROLI in June 2011. In Egypt Mr. Gold works to develop continuing legal education (CLE) practical skills classes for young Egyptian lawyers. Previously, Mr. Gold worked for eight years as a staff attorney at Indiana Legal Services, where he handled a variety of civil cases for low-income clients. During that time he also created and supervised two law school clinics (an elder law clinic and an eviction defense project) for the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. He holds a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and a B.A. in history and Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. You can contact Jeff Gold at jgold@abaegypt.com. 

Stephen Rosenbaum, Legal Education Advisor, Egypt, joined ABA ROLI in 2011. In Egypt, Mr. Rosenbaum collaborates with law schools to develop clinical legal education and organize national oral advocacy and legal writing competitions. He is Of Counsel, Law Offices of Michael Sorgen (San Francisco) and has been a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law since 1988. He teaches professional skills and other courses in the social justice curriculum and has also taught at the Stanford, Golden Gate and University of San Francisco law schools. Mr. Rosenbaum practiced with various non-profit legal services offices for almost 30 years. In 2007, he was asked to help establish a legal aid clinic at the Université de Lomé, Togo in conjunction with a bar association pro bono program, and was named a chercheur associé with the Centre d’Éthique et Procédure, Université d’Artois, Faculté de Droit (France). Mr. Rosenbaum received his J.D. and M.P.P. from the University of California, Berkeley. He has a B.A. from the University of Michigan. You can contact Stephen Rosenbaum at srosenbaum@abaegypt.com.

Maha Shomali, Program Director, Jordan, joined ABA ROLI in 2004. Previously, she worked as a prosecutor for the Office of the State’s Attorney and a law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland. She has also taught legal English at the Judicial Institution of Jordan and the American Language Center in Amman. She holds a B.A. in international relations from the College of Notre Dame and a J.D. from the University of Maryland, where she graduated summa cum laude. She is fluent in French and Arabic. You can contact Maha Shomali at mshomali@aba-mideast.org.

Zarir Merat, Juvenile Justice Advisor and Acting Country Director, Morocco, joined ABA ROLI in September 2010. Previously, he served as head of mission for Avocats Sans Frontieres in Rwanda, where he provided technical legal assistance and legal aid. In addition, he has 27 years of experience in the human rights field. This work included conducting needs assessment missions in Iran and Afghanistan on alternative custody and prison reform for Penal Reform International; and implementing the UN Office on Drug and Crime’s juvenile justice program in Lebanon. Mr. Merat is a prolific writer on human rights issues and currently serves as an editorial board member of the Journal of Human Rights Practice in Oxford. He studied political philosophy, political sciences and sociology in France (Licence, Maitrise, and DEA at the EHESS in Paris). He is also fluent in French and Persian.

Marlana Valdez, Program Director, Qatar, joined ABA ROLI in 2010. Previously, she was the director of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General in Baltimore, MD. She has also been an independent consultant on strategic management of public sector organizations and NGOs. Ms. Valdez has dedicated much of her career to legal education as an assistant dean, director for externship programs and professor at American University Washington College of Law, The George Washington Law School, and the Georgetown University Law Center focusing on family law, children and the law, women and the law and torts, among other areas. She has also worked as general counsel for the Texas Probation Commission and has experience in private practice. Ms. Valdez received both her J.D. and her B.S. (Communication) degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Juvenile Justice. You can contact Ms. Valdez at marlana.valdez@americanbar.org.

Aline Matta, Senior Regional Advisor, has practiced law in Australia and the United States and provided technical legal assistance in the Middle East and North Africa. This work has included performing research to support of Eritrea’s claim in the arbitration of a territorial dispute with Yemen; providing legal advice to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department in relation to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations; and supporting justice sector rehabilitation in southern Iraq. Ms. Matta holds an LL.M. in international legal studies from New York University and an LL.B. from the Queensland University of Technology. Ms. Matta joined the ABA in 2005 and has served as a deputy regional director for gender programs and as co-director on several Iraq programs.You can contact Aline Matta at aline.matta@americanbar.org.

Kathleen O’Keefe, Election Law Specialist, Tunisia, is an American election lawyer from New York who joined the ABA ROLI in June 2011. For the previous 10 years, Ms. O’Keefe worked as a legislative counsel for the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, providing elections advice, drafting numerous bills, and successfully negotiating laws to promote voters’ greater participation in elections, the fair and efficient administration of elections and, for the first time in 100 years, the adoption of a new type of voting machine in 2010. She is a specialist in election law litigation in areas such as voter registration, ballot access for candidates and post election recounts. Ms. O’Keefe graduated from the State University of New York in 1990 with a B.A., cum laude, in women studies. She graduated from Rutgers University School of Law in 1994. 

John Porter, Program Director, Turkey, first joined ABA ROLI in December 2000 as a liaison in Azerbaijan, where he later served as country director. In 2004, he transferred to the Kosovo office, which he led until June 2005. From March 2008 to October 2009 Mr. Porter served as ABA ROLI’s program director in Bahrain. He has 33 years of experience as a practicing attorney in banking, commercial and corporate law including extensive commercial and banking litigation. Mr. Porter served as a board member of several national banks and as counsel for numerous state and national banks and financial organizations. He received both a B.A., with honors, in philosophy and a J.D. from Stanford University. He speaks Portuguese, German and Spanish. You can contact John Porter at john.porter@americanbar.org.