Michelle Barsa

As Inclusive Security’s Deputy Director for Policy and Conflict Programs, Michelle Barsa focuses on expanding the roles of women in peace and security processes globally. In addition to advising on broader US foreign policy related to women, peace, and security, she oversees Inclusive Security’s programming in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan. Ms. Barsa travels frequently to Afghanistan and the Syrian border where she leads consultations with women in civil society, government, and the security forces to discuss the impact of ongoing peace and security processes on women and identify their proposals for how to advance women’s inclusion in those processes. In Afghanistan, she focuses primarily on reform of the ongoing process for demobilization and reintegration of insurgents, and strategic integration of females in the Afghan National Security Forces.

Ms. Barsa regularly advises the US government, UN, and NATO on how to improve the effectiveness of security assistance provided to partner nations. This work includes designing and leading training for military forces and civilian professionals deployed to combat support missions abroad, as well as for national police and government officials working to improve the impact of counterterrorism and counter violent extremism measures in their countries.

Previously, Ms. Barsa worked in Afghanistan as an emergency program manager with Catholic Relief Services. Prior to that, she was employed in CRS’s Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza office and by the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan. Ms. Barsa has a background in community organizing, having worked for several years with a coalition of Latina street vendors in New York. She holds a master’s in gender and conflict from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a bachelor’s in finance and philosophy from Boston College.