Lisa Anderson

Special Lecturer and Dean Emerita at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Anderson served as president of the American University in Cairo for five years, from 2011-2016, having been the University’s provost, from 2008-2011. She was the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University from 1997-2007. A political scientist, she has conducted research on state formation in the Middle East and North Africa; on regime change and democratization in developing countries; and on social science, academic research and public policy around the world. Among her books are The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 and Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century.

Anderson is a trustee of the Aga Khan University, Tufts University and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, a member emerita of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch, and member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.