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 funding, and built a team of 30 people, with offices & labs in Washington, DC, Seattle, WA, and Lima, Peru. Through our programs, CXL has supported or directly created over 121 innovative conservation solutions, from 67 countries, on 6 continents, funded them with $7.5M since 2017, and helped them raise $275,563,951 in additional investment.

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 be possible to protect them? Could we connect with the fiercely independent Afghan people and gain their confidence? There was also the larger question of the relevance of our project – conserving wildlife and establishing a trans-boundary national park – to the larger goals for Afghanistan—security, democracy, and economic viability. We needed to consider the opportunity costs of conservation. How would the Afghans, in the midst of returning as refugees, recovering from civil war and invading forces, religious conservatism, and democratic liberalism, react to efforts to create a park that was initially started in a different time in 1979?Winner of the 2020 Gold Medal for Heroic Journeys of the Nautilus Book Awards, selected by the journal Nature’s book editor as one of the top five science books of 2019, and by Mongabay as one of the top 10 environmental books of the year, and Amazon's Editor's Pick.

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 Massive Open On-line course in Innovation and Design for Global Grand Challenges taken by 5,000+ people in over 130 countries.- Co-organized the Duke Tropical Conservation Initiative, a university wide interdisciplinary initiative focused on creating new solutions for conservation, working with faculty from the Fuqua School of Business, the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Sanford Public Policy School, the Pratt School of Engineering, and Biological Sciences.- Supporting Duke's innovation & entrepreneurship initiative, and global programs & strategy, including through expanding the university's engagement with the developing world.-Taught innovation and entrepreneurship for conservation and development at Duke in Spring 2015-2019.

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 dedicated chief scientist (with rank of Assistant Administrator) in two decades. Led the Agency’s reform agenda (USAID Forward) around S&T. Member, Agency Leadership Council. • 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 over $428 million in non-USG funding for S&T initiatives.• 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 $133 million of outside funds. • Harnessed the power of federal science agencies for development by creating partnerships with NSF (PEER Science), NIH (PEER Health), NASA, USGS, and Smithsonian.• Created the Higher Education Solutions Network for the Agency, creating a series of Development Labs, to harness the power of universities for development. • Led efforts to strengthen the scientific culture at USAID, including bringing in technical professionals, creating a senior technical career track, drafting and implementing the Agency’s scientific integrity policy, providing access to scientific expertise, publications, conferences, and new technologies. • Vastly expanded the AAAS Science Fellowship Program at USAID to 65 fellows in 2013, including 20 fellows overseas, from an entering class of 2 in 2007, the most AAAS fellows in the fellowship's 40 year history. Worked with AAAS to create a new Data Fellowship Program

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 Cairo on June 4th, 2009.• 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 assistance”, “science diplomacy”, and on “development and climate change”.

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 Plateau, creating a system of protected areas, developing legislation for biodiversity conservation, implementing a comprehensive community conservation program and scientific capacity building.•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, Israel-Palestine Issue, and the Western Sahara Dispute, among others.•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 platform, part of the initiative to rebuild science, technology, and engineering in Iraq. This effort included bringing together multiple offices within the DOD, DOS, USAID and Dept. of Agriculture, as well as foreign and domestic NGOs, private companies, and foreign governments to create and fund an on-line science library for Iraq. • 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 coordinator on briefing issues for Secretary Rice’s first trip to the Middle East. • 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 (U.S. Shoe v. United States), and helped defined what constitutes a computer for U.S. law.• 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 in establishing the proposed Black Sea Biological Reserve.

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

J.D., International Law

B.S., Zoology, International Relations