Andrea Walther-Puri

Andrea Walther-Puri (@amwalther) has worked at the intersection of conflict and stabilization operations for over 15 years as a program manager, implementer, and assessor. Andrea spent five years working for the State Department’s Bureaus of African Affairs and Counterterrorism, where she designed, managed, and assessed security and stabilization assistance programs in over 20 countries on the African continent. Prior to her time at State, Andrea served as the Chief of Party of a Civil-Military Relations Training program on behalf of the Special Operations Command Africa’s Joint-Special Operations Task Force Trans-Sahara, which brought civilian, military, and law enforcement officers together in national and regional settings to discuss development, security, and governance challenges in nine countries throughout North and West Africa.

Andrea is a PhD candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where her research focuses on what effects U.S. military counterterrorism training programs have had on longer-term security governance transformation in the Sahel. She also currently serves as a Visiting Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War & Peace Studies at the School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University and a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Andrea received her MA from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and her BA from Tufts University.