Alex Dehgan Email & Phone Number

Washington, District Of Columbia, US

Created, launched, and lead Conservation X Labs, an innovation and technology startup focused preventing the Sixth Mass Extinction. Conservation X Labs both builds new technologies for addressing the underlying drivers of extinction, and harnesses open innovation & mass collaboration to attract new solvers and new solutions. Raised over $30 million of.

Tempe, AZ, US

Honored to be part of the Global Futures Lab and at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, including helping organize the Global Futures Conference, and teaching Hacking Conservation & Development.

New York, NY, US

The Snow Leopard Startup tells the story of building Afghanistan’s first national park and conducting the first intensive wildlife surveys of the country in 30 years. It is the story of a startup that sought to answer whether Afghanistan’s iconic wildlife, including its snow leopards and Marco Polo sheep, survived three decades of war, and if so, would it.

Durham, North Carolina, US

- Served Duke's inaugural Rubenstein Fellow appointed in the Office of the Provost & Office of Global Strategy and Programs to help the university engage global grand challenges and translation of research for greater broader interests.- Served as the Chanler Innovator in Residence with Duke's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program.- Created a Coursera.

Washington, District Of Columbia, US

• Conceptualized and led the creation of the US Global Development Lab and its programs. Directed efforts to transform US development policy & practice through restoring science & technology as the Agency's first.
• Designed, launched, funded, staffed & leading the Agency’s first independent Office of Science & Technology in two decades, from scratch, building a team of 80 people and $100 million budget in 3.5 years. Leveraged.
• Helped build the Agency’s Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning.
• Launched the Agency’s Geospatial Center and efforts to rebuild the use of data for development.
• Created and launched the Agency’s Grand Challenges for Development program to address the biggest emerging global challenges. The GCD program has supported more than 200 new innovators to date, and leveraged well over.
• Harnessed the power of federal science agencies for development by creating partnerships with NSF (PEER Science), NIH (PEER Health), NASA, USGS, and Smithsonian.

Washington, DC, US

• Developed strategy for using science & environmental diplomacy in the Near East, Levant, and North Africa, including leading the Global Engagement S&T track which implemented the President’s “New Beginnings” speech in.
• Worked with USAID leadership to improve USG foreign assistance by strengthening how S&T is used within our development policies. Developed USAID & State transition papers on “improving the role of science in foreign.

Washington, DC, US

• Worked with Amb. Dennis Ross to launch the Obama's Administration's engagement efforts with Iran, including pioneering the use of science diplomacy as a diplomatic tool to create a foundation for the formal negotiations.
• Advised on Iran policy with respect to Iran internal political dynamics, Iran external dynamics with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Iran environmental security.
• Served as the liaison to Amb. Richard C. Holbrooke, the President’s Special Representative for Afghanistan/Pakistan, to coordinate our policies on Iran and Afghanistan.

Bronx, New York, US

• Created the WCS Afghanistan Program (with Peter Zahler), leading to the development of Afghanistan's first National Park at Band-e-Amir.
• Implemented a USAID cooperative agreement for biodiversity conservation in Afghanistan, including conducting the first comprehensive biological surveys in 30 years in Nuristan, Wakhan Corridor, and the Hazarajat.
• Launched, staffed, and managed an office of 60 Afghan and international scientists and staff, and more than 25 affiliated Afghan scientists, government counterparts, and researchers.
• Worked cooperatively with the Afghan government, academic organizations, USAID, development banks, NGO’s, and UN Agencies to push for biodiversity conservation in Afghanistan.
• Raised 4.3 million dollars by beginning of second project year beyond initial 6.9 million dollar funding from USAID.

Washington, DC, US

• Developed a longer term, strategic view of global trends, and framing recommendations for the Secretary of State to advance U.S. interests and American values. Portfolio included the Syria-Lebanon Conflict.
• Applied scientific and legal expertise to issues in science policy, emerging infectious diseases, & foreign policy.

Washington, DC, US

• Co-created and directed the Iraqi Virtual Science Library initiative, which provided nearly all major Iraqi universities with full-text access to 17,000 digital science & engineering journals through an online.
• Drafted briefing checklists, information memos, legal briefs, and Congressional testimony for the Secretary and senior members of the State Department on science-policy issues, and bilateral and regional relations.
• Coordinated the briefing of Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice and the Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick on Near Eastern and North African issues for their confirmation hearings and served as the State Department’s.
• Coordinated the United Nations General Assembly meetings for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
• Advisor to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Collaborative Biological Research (CBR) program review.

• Redirected WMD scientists in Iraq to civilian research and activities in support of reconstruction efforts and implemented international scientific and environmental initiatives.
• Created and served as interim director of the Iraq International Center for Science & Industry.
• Increased budget from 2 million to 62 million dollars.
• Served as the U.S. negotiator with the Iraqi Governing Council on accession to the Additional Protocol of the Nonproliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• Co-created the Iraq Radiation Source Regulatory Authority & the Iraq Nonproliferation Program Foundation.

• Studied the role that behavior and its evolutionary constraints play as proximate and ultimate causes behind extinction-driven biogeographic patterns in lemurs for doctoral dissertation.
• Led an international team of 22 researchers & field assistants in remote tropical rainforest field sites over 3 years and raised and oversaw 1.1 million dollars through 24 separate grants to fund research.

• Worked on multiple high-profile cases, including five cases reviewed & upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, seminal cases concerning trade and the environment, a novel constitutional interpretation of the Export Clause.
• Drafted opinions for the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade in trade and customs cases.
• Prepared bench memoranda when the Chief Judge sat by designation in U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York.

Served as a legal adviser to the Russian Federation on developing and updating Russian Environmental Law. Reviewed and drafted amendments for "On the Protection of the Natural Environment," the primary framework for environmental protection in the Russian Federation. Supported the development of Russian environmental litigation group - EcoJuris. Assisted.

Ph.D, M.S., Committee On Evolutionary Biology

J.D., International Law

B.S., Zoology, International Relations