Valerie Szybala is a specialist in Middle East affairs who recently returned from studying Arabic in Syria. She has worked for Dr. Jason Lyall at Yale University studying civilian casualties from coalition air strikes in Afghanistan and spent one summer as a researcher with the Israeli-Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) in Jerusalem where she worked on peace process policy and track II negotiations. Valerie also worked for several years at the American Council of Young Political Leaders in her native Washington, D.C. Valerie graduated from Stanford University in 2010 with her M.A. in International Policy Studies.