Sara Zeiger is the Program Manager for the Department of Research and Analysis at Hedayah and also co-leads a capacity-building program at Hedayah on P/CVE and education for teachers. In addition to producing research reports and publications, Sara supports the Director in managing the Department’s resources and programs, including the Counter-narrative Library, Hedayah’s non-resident Fellowship Program and Hedayah’s annual International CVE Research Conference. Sara focuses her research on a number of CVE topics, including the role of education in CVE, the role of women in CVE, counter-narratives and messaging, the private sector’s role in CVE, and monitoring, measurement and evaluation (MM&E) of CVE projects and programs. She was also the lead content developer for Hedayah’s App “MASAR” that provides practical guidance on MM&E for CVE. In addition to her duties in the Department of Research and Analysis, Sara also initiated and developed a capacity-building program to train teachers on PVE and education in partnership with key institutions such as UNESCO IICBA in East Africa and UNDP in South and South East Asia.
Sara was also Hedayah’s liaison with the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) to support the development and drafting their framework document, the Abu Dhabi Memorandum on Good Practices for Education and CVE and follow-up Action Plan. Some of her publications include Planting the Seeds of the Poisonous Tree: Establishing a System of Meaning through ISIS Education; Evaluate Your CVE Results: Projecting Your Impact; Violent Radicalisation and Far-Right Extremism in Europe; and three “How-To Guides” on Undermining Violent Extremist Narratives, (South East Asia, the Middle East & North Africa, and East Africa). Sara is also currently a Non-Resident Fellow in International Relations and Counter-Terrorism for TRENDS Research & Advisory.
Prior to joining Hedayah, Sara worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. She also served as a Head Teaching Fellow for the Harvard Extension School where she taught courses on anthropology in the Gulf, politics in the Middle East, and Islam in the West. Sara was also a Graduate Assistant at Boston University, conducting research on politics and society in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Sara holds an M.A. in International Relations and Religion (concentrations: Security Studies and Islam) from Boston University, and graduated as valedictorian with a B.A. in Psychology and Religion from Ohio Northern University.
