Anna Dean is chief of staff at USIP.

Dean has worked alongside senior executives for more than 15 years in private, nonprofit, and government organizations to plan initiatives, implement programs, strengthen processes, and build relationships.

Before joining USIP, Dean was chief of staff to the president of Ipsos Public Affairs where she served as strategic advisor and as interim team lead for the U.S.-based international social research program. Prior to that she was senior advisor to the vice president of global strategy at Pew Research Center.

Dean spent more than a decade at the U.S. Department of State in a variety of program and project management roles. She began her government career as an analyst of European public opinion, focused on issues of international security, ethnic relations, and democratic and economic transitions. She later became chief of the Europe-Eurasia Division of INR’s Office of Opinion Research, responsible for developing an annual research agenda for policy makers and strategic communications practitioners.

Subsequently, Dean served as deputy director then acting director of the office, which conducts analysis of foreign opinion in dozens of countries each year to inform U.S. policy and Department principals. In her last assignment, she provided strategic direction and leadership for a complex evaluation of U.S. government programs aimed at countering violent extremism (CVE), using traditional and innovative methodologies.

Dean has a master’s in international affairs from the American University (DC) and a bachelor’s in history from Trinity College (CT).