Anna Adeola Makanju was born in the former USSR and after a dozen or so moves (that included Germany, Nigeria and Kuwait) eventually ended up in the Pacific Northwest.  She received a BA from Western Washington University in Bellingham (spending a year abroad at the University of Nantes, France) and a law degree from Stanford University Law School, where she was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the the Law Review President's Award for her work on the managing  board of the Stanford Law Review.  After law school, she worked for the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Judge Theodore McKee on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.   Following her clerkships, she worked with the international arbitration group of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she also handled a number of successful pro bono litigation matters.  During the 2008 presidential election, Anna worked as a field organizer for Obama for America in Wisconsin.  Since 2009, she has worked for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.