Dr. Corinne Graff serves as head of the Institute’s newly established Strategy, Research and Learning Unit. Before assuming this role, she served as acting chief of staff, senior advisor, and senior policy advisor to the Task Force on Violent Extremism in Fragile States.

Prior to joining USIP, she was a deputy assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she oversaw Sudan and South Sudan programs and Africa Bureau democracy promotion and stabilization initiatives. She also served as director for development and democracy at the National Security Council and senior advisor to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (USUN).

Before joining government, Dr. Graff was a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

She teaches graduate courses as an adjunct professor at George Washington University and Georgetown University.

Graff received her doctoral degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland) and her bachelor's from Smith College. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.