Alexandra Toma
| Alexandra Toma is the Program Director for the Connect U.S. Fund, where she manages the Fund’s programmatic operations in nuclear nonproliferation, human rights, climate change, and the civilian-military balance. In addition, she co-chairs the Fissile Materials Working Group (www.fmwg.org) and regularly convenes the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “Contact Group,” which works with the State Department in preparation for the May 2009 NPT Review Conference. Alex has a diverse professional background in national security policymaking, having worked previously as a policy advisor on Capitol Hill, a consultant to the National Defense University, a defense analyst for DFI International, and in the nonprofit sector. Alex has been named an emerging leader in U.S. foreign policy as both a Truman National Security Fellow and a Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Next America Fellow. She speaks frequently on nuclear weapons and nonproliferation issues.
From 2006 – 2009, Alex was the Director of the Peace and Security Initiative (PSI) at the Ploughshares Fund, the largest grantmaking foundation in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to nuclear nonproliferation. The PSI is a network of over 250 organizations working collaboratively and strategically to promote a more secure, peaceful, and just world. Through the PSI, advocacy organizations, grassroots groups, think tanks, academics, and funders work together to increase their capacity to influence U.S. national security policy. In 2009, Alex merged PSI with the Connect U.S. Fund. Previously, Alex was the foreign policy and defense advisor for Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), where she led the effort to secure $5 million in funding for landmine removal. She has also worked at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, where she assisted in developing civil-military programs for sub-Saharan Africa. Alex regularly brings her practitioner’s perspective into academia. In 2008, she taught “U.S. Foreign Policy in the 2008 Elections” as an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In fall 2010, she will teach a graduate-level class at the George Washington University focused on the multiple levers of U.S. foreign policymaking. In addition, she published “Global Perspectives on Politics and Public Health Policy” in Global Health Care: Issues and Policies (Jones and Bartlett Publishers) and on the CSIS Next America blog. Alex has a Master of Science in Foreign Policy and Security Studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, with a thesis on U.S. national security implications of sub-Saharan HIV/AIDS. While at the University of Virginia, she majored and received Bachelor of Arts degrees in international relations and psychology, with an honors thesis exploring Track-II conflict resolution in ethnic conflicts around the world. She is fluent in French and Romanian. |
