Berkley Center

David Hunsicker is a conflict mitigation and peacebuilding specialist with more than two decades experience working on religious engagement internationally for the U.S. government and is a member of the Strategic Religious Engagement Hub Advisory Board, an initiative hosted by the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He most recently served as senior conflict and peacebuilding advisor and the Middle East Team leader in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention, where he served as one of the primary drafters of USAID's Strategic Religious Engagement policy. Previously, he also served as the USAID Central Asian Republics' religion, state and society specialist. He has a B.A. in Islamic studies from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in Near Eastern languages and civilization from the University of Washington. He is currently an independent consultant and the founder of Ounce of Prevention - Community Preparedness LLC in Pennsylvania, which supports faith-based and community organizations in addressing their preparedness needs and mitigating vulnerability to targeted violence.

Peter Mandaville is a Berkley Center senior research fellow and a professor of government and politics at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he also serves as the director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center. From April 2024 to January 2025 Mandaville served as director of the Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships and senior advisor for faith engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and from 2022 to 2024 as senior advisor on religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. Previous government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff (2011-2012) and as a senior advisor in the department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015-2016). He has also been a visiting senior fellow at the Pew Research Center. His research focuses on the intersection of religion and international affairs, with a primary focus on Islam and the Muslim world. His publications include, among others, The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy (2023), Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam and Politics (2014, 2020), Global Political Islam (2007), and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001). He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Kent and has studied at the American University in Cairo.

Melissa Nozell is a strategic religious engagement fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, where she supports an initiative dedicated to documenting and strengthening the U.S. government’s capacity for strategic religious engagement in the contexts of diplomacy, development, and defense. She served as the senior program officer for religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where she led initiatives to research and support the effective engagement of religious actors in conflict prevention and resolution. Prior to joining USIP in 2014, Melissa supported humanitarian aid efforts for Syrian refugees in Jordan and researched religious trends in the United States through the Pluralism Project at Harvard University and in the Middle East through the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a master of theological studies from Harvard University.

Knox Thames is a globally recognized human rights lawyer, advocate, and author who has worked for over two decades to promote human rights, defend religious minorities, and combat persecution worldwide. His 20-year government career spans service under the George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, reflecting a nonpartisan approach to diplomacy. As a reflection of this, he was named the first special advisor for religious minorities at the U.S. Department of State, working under both the Obama and Trump administrations to address persecution in the Middle East and South/Central Asia. Thames currently serves as the executive director of the Everett Center for Global Religious Freedom at Dallas Baptist University and is a member of the Strategic Religious Engagement Hub Advisory Board, an initiative hosted by the Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He previously directed the Program on Global Faith and Inclusive Societies at Pepperdine University, a research initiative supported by the Templeton Religion Trust, His book Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom (2024) comprehensively explores strategies to combat religious oppression worldwide. He was also the lead author of International Religious Freedom Advocacy: A Guide to Organizations, Law, and NGOs.