Adam Lichtenheld

I am a Senior Advisor and former Executive Director of the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University and an Affiliated Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. I have worked with governments, donors, and NGOs around the world to design and evaluate policies and programs on migration and displacement, socio-economic development, violence prevention, conflict resolution, and governance. I am the author of Guilt by Location: Forced Displacement and Population Sorting in Civil Wars, a finalist for the 2025 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year. My research, analysis, and commentary has appeared in a number of academic and policy journals, along with the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, NBC News, Just Security, the New Humanitarian, and the Conversation. I have also taught university courses on forced migration and conflict, trained development practitioners on research and evaluation, and lectured at the Institute for Security Governance.

I received my Ph.D. in political science (international relations) from the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, I was Senior Researcher at Mercy Corps and a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. I have also worked as a consultant for UNHCR, the World Bank, the Danish Refugee Council, Refugees International, and USAID; reported for National Geographic in Jordan; and managed USAID-funded stabilization and political transition programs in Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan.

Ein Issa Displacement Camp, Raqqa, Syria