Emilia Pierce is the deputy director of operation and finance for the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East programs. Pierce has focused on human rights and community development in post-conflict and fragile environments throughout her career. She has lived in Cambodia, Uganda, and Nigeria, working for grassroots human-rights organizations, conducting business development and fundraising work, refining organizational operations, and managing programs on land rights, gender-based violence, post-conflict reconstruction, and small-holder farmer rights.

Additionally, Pierce spent several years as a Department of Defense civilian with the US military in Kuwait and Afghanistan. After moving back to the United States, Pierce attended Georgetown University Law Center where she obtained her JD and spent time as a fellow at the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and a nonprofit called Civilians in Conflict. Her work after law school focused on First Amendment rights in the United States and then on emergency response, humanitarian aid, and civilian evacuation in both Afghanistan and Ukraine. Most recently, Pierce’s work focused on anticorruption and human-rights documentation and investigations in Yemen and Sudan.

She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives in Virginia with her husband, kids, and three dogs.