Dr. Lisa Anderson was appointed president of the American University of Cairo in 2011. She is a specialist on politics in the Middle East and North Africa with an extensive background in university education. Prior to joining AUC, Dr. Anderson served in various capacities at Columbia University, including Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations, and Director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute. Dr. Anderson supported joint ventures with Network 20/20 while at SIPA. She has also taught government and social studies at Harvard University.

Dr. Anderson is the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-First Century, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980, and is editor of Transitions to Democracy and co-editor of The Origins of Arab Nationalism.

Dr. Anderson is a member emerita of the board of Human Rights Watch, where she served as co-chair of Human Rights Watch/Middle East; and she was president of the Middle East Studies Association in 2003. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, an MA in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a PhD in political science from Columbia University.