Current Democracy Fellows
Democracy Fellowships provide professional development through practical experience working with democracy and governance programs. Fellows work in such activities as:
- Providing policy analysis and expert advice
- Developing democracy strategies, evaluation methodologies, and indicators
- Providing technical comment on USAID plans or activities
- Helping USAID contractors to provide electoral planning assistance; work with civil society organizations; or strengthen legislatures, local governments, and the rule of law.
Robert Dahl
USAID/DCHA/DRG | Elections and Political Transitions Team
Washington, DC | November 2011 – Present
Robert Dahl serves as a Democracy Fellow in the Elections and Political Transitions Team (EPT). The primary focus of his fellowship is on constitutional design in post-conflict and post-authoritarian countries.
Robert has extensive experience as a practitioner in political law and as a consultant to democratic development programs throughout the world. He served as Executive Assistant to a member of the U.S. Federal Election Commission from 1985 to 1991, and practiced law in the U.S. in the areas of political finance regulation, officeholder ethics rules, and general election law.
For 20 years, Robert has also been a legal policy advisor to democratization projects in numerous countries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, and in Central, South and Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia). His consulting work has been primarily in the areas of election complaint adjudication and dispute resolution, political finance regulation and transparency, electoral systems, constitutional design, and electoral law reform.
Robert Dahl received a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a M.A. in political science from the University of Maryland.
Joshua Haynes
USAID/DCHA/DRG | Civil Society and Media Team
Washington, DC | September 2011 – Present
Joshua Haynes serves as a development technologist with the Civil Society and Media Team (CSM) with a specific focus on democracy and internet-related initiatives. Most recently, Joshua was a development technologist at DAI, working on ICT-related projects in Jamaica, Belize, Haiti, Tunisia, and Libya in the areas of stability, democracy, and mobile financial services. Joshua has also been involved in technology implementation projects across Europe, as well as international development-focused ICTs projects in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean, and South Asia, focusing on the areas of banking, tax, agriculture, literacy, election monitoring, microfinance, community-based savings, community development, applications for development, and the mobile gender gap. Prior to joining the Democracy Fellows Program, Joshua also previously worked in the private sector in software consulting and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. He speaks a number of languages including Arabic, French, and Spanish.
Joshua Haynes received a M.A. in International Business from The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Leah Maxson
USAID/DRG / SPANS | Special Programs to Address the Needs of Survivors
Washington, DC | November 2011 – Present
Leah Maxson serves as a technical advisor for disability under the SPANS programs within the Human Rights Team (HT). In this role, she works to advance disability and further inclusive development programs and practices within the Agency and its Field Missions.
Leah has extensive experience as a community organizer and teacher in schools for the deaf in Africa, Asia, and the United States. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya and uses both American Sign Language and Kenyan Sign Language.
Leah Maxson received a B.A. in Deaf Education from Kent State University and an M.A. in International Development with a focus on working with people with disabilities from Gallaudet University.
Heather LaRue McGee
USAID/DCHA/DRG | Learning Team
Washington, DC | January 2012 – Present
Heather LaRue McGee serves as an Impact Evaluation Advisor in the Learning Team (LT). Accordingly, her key tasks are to contribute to the design of impact evaluations of selected USAID DRG projects throughout the developing world and to assist the DRG Center in analyzing and applying evaluation results to enable evidence based programming. Heather also works to establish the DRG Center as a learning organization and to create communities of practice of USAID DRG experts in Washington and field missions.
Heather’s current research interests include the evaluation of NGO work related to natural resource governance and conflict resolution, as well as the assessment of community-based resource management initiatives. In addition to nine months of field research in Kyrgyzstan, Heather has studied and worked in Russia and Ukraine, and speaks Russian.
Heather LaRue McGee received a joint Ph.D. in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She also received a M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in International Relations and Russian Studies from Johns Hopkins University.
William Mishler
USAID/DCHA/DRG | Learning Team
Washington, DC | June 2012 – Present
William Mishler serves as Senior Survey Expert for the Learning Team (LT). He facilitates the collection, analysis, and use of high quality, public opinion surveys in DRG Assessments and will assist both the DRG Center and various field missions in collecting and analyzing survey data in order to enable evidence based decision making in the development and evaluation of DRG programs.
William previously held tenured positions at Duke University, SUNY Buffalo, and the University of South Carolina, where he was James B. Byrnes Professor of Government and served on two occasions as Director of the Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation. A specialist in public opinion and survey research, he has conducted and analyzed more than 100 surveys in 25 countries, including most of the post-communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and, more recently, in several emerging Asian democracies.
William is the author of seven books and 60 articles broadly focused on the dynamics of popular support for democratic institutions and leaders.
William Mishler received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University and is on leave from the University of Arizona, where he is Professor of Political Science and Editor of The Journal of Politics.
Eric Mvukiyehe
USAID/DCHA/DRG | Learning Team
Washington, DC | August 2012 – Present
Eric Mvukiyehe serves as an Impact Evaluation Advisor in the Learning Team (LT). As a Democracy Fellow, he contributes to the success of USAID’s DRG learning agenda and efforts by participating in and supporting the design and implementation of rigorous impact evaluations of identified DRG projects. He also is developing USAID’s in-house capacity to design and carry out rigorous impact evaluations through hands-on training of DRG staff in impact evaluation methods and strengthening collaboration with academic experts.
Eric Mvukiyehe is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Columbia University. His research focuses on peace building and democratization in countries emerging from civil war. His dissertation investigates how international interventions interact with local settings in which they are carried out to shape postwar outcomes and uses experimental and non-experimental empirical data to adjudicate among competing theoretical claims.