Shelly Culbertson

About Shelly Culbertson

Shelly Culbertson is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focus includes disaster recovery, post-conflict stabilization, international development, education, workforce development, innovation policy, and the Middle East. She is currently conducting research about disaster recovery in the U.S. and post-conflict stabilization in the Middle East. She has a led a portfolio of studies about education, jobs, and assistance models for refugees. She has conducted studies related to the education to jobs transition in the U.S, including in Louisiana and the Appalachian region. She co-led a multi-year effort to advise the Ministry of Education of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq on improving its K-12 and vocational education systems. She coordinated RAND\'s project to design programs for the Qatar National Research Fund, which has supported over a billion dollars in research grants. Prior to RAND, she worked at the U.S. State Department on the Turkey Desk, and at LMI Government Consulting. She has written commentaries for Foreign Affairs, CNN.com, FoxNews, U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, National Interest, and other outlets. She received a B.S. in mathematics and political science from the University of Pittsburgh and a master\'s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of The Fires of Spring: A Post-Arab Spring Journey Through the Turbulent New Middle East (St. Martins, 2016).

Experience

1. Senior Policy Researcher

   RAND

   Jul 2017 — Present · US

Education

• Princeton University

  MPA, Public Policy and International Relations

  2002 — 2004

• University of Pittsburgh

  BA / BS, Mathematics, Polical Science, Philosophy

  1994 — 1998

• The American University in Cairo

  Diploma, Arabic Language

  1998 — 1999

• Université Paris Cité

  Diploma, French language

  1996 — 1996

Skills

• Public Policy
• Program Evaluation
• Intercultural Communication
• Ngos
• Proposal Writing
• International Relations
• Research
• Capacity Building
• Stata
• Government
• Data Analysis
• Africa
• International Development
• Global Health
• Human Rights
• Political Risk Analysis
• Civil Society
• Qualitative Research
• Non-Profits
• Economic Development
• Policy
• Economics
• Political Science
• International Security
• Politics
• Policy Analysis
• Quantitative Research
• Foreign Policy