Staff

Jennifer Widner
Jennifer Widner, Director

Before joining the Princeton faculty in 2004-5, Jennifer taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan. Her current research focuses on the political economy of institutional reform, government accountability, and service delivery. She also remains interested in constitution writing, constitutional design, and fair dealing—topics of earlier research. She is author of Building the Rule of Law (W. W. Norton), a study of courts and law in Africa, and she has published articles on a variety of topics in Democratization, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Development Studies, The William & Mary Law Review, Daedalus, the American Journal of International Law, and other publications. She is completing work on a book about making government work in challenging settings, drawing on experiences in Africa, Asia, and parts of Latin America.

Jim Golder
Jim Golder, Production Specialist

Jim Golder is a graduate of Rider University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. He joined Princeton in 1998 working in the Woodrow Wilson School Finance Office. As ISS production specialist, he is responsible for logistical planning and data management associated with the oral history program, as well as budget and finance for the program.

Doug Hulette
Doug Hulette, Program Editor

Doug Hulette is a veteran of The Wall Street Journal copy desk, where he edited articles for the Asian and European editions as well as the U.S. publication. Besides newspapers, he also worked on wire services and websites for Dow Jones and other organizations. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor's in English.

Sarah Torian
Sarah Torian, Communications Specialist

Sarah Torian has been involved in issues of civil rights and social and economic justice professionally for the past fifteen years. For six years, she served as communications coordinator at the Southern Regional Council, writing and editing for the organization’s quarterly journal Southern Changes. Since 2002, she has worked with nonprofits and foundations as the principal of Torian+Whitley Consulting. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has been a client throughout that time and Sarah assists the Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site and Center for Community and Economic Opportunity in the qualitative evaluation and communication of their programs and results.  BA in History from the University of Virginia and a MA in the interdisciplinary study of the American South at the University of Mississippi.

Research Associates

Gordon LaForge
Gordon LaForge, Research Specialist

Gordon LaForge is a writer and global affairs analyst most recently with Predata, a predictive analytics firm specializing in geopolitical risk. He previously worked at the UN Mission to NATO and has conducted research in Brazil, Ghana, Czech Republic, and Indonesia, where he was a Fulbright scholar and journalist covering politics and corruption. He holds a master's degree from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a BA in literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

 

Leon Schreiber
Leon Schreiber, Research Specialist

Leon Schreiber has a Ph.D. in Political Science at the Freie Universität Berlin. Originally from the Namaqualand region of South Africa, he went on to earn BA and MA degrees from Stellenbosch University. His research interests include social policy, institutions, and the comparative political economy of development. His dissertation compared the development of social welfare policies in Brazil and South Africa since democratization, specifically the adoption of conditional cash transfer systems in Brazil and the reluctance to use this model in South Africa. Dr, Schreiber has worked with a range of political and social impact organizations, including the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth in Brazil, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany, as well as the University of Stellenbosch, the Democratic Alliance and the Western Cape Government in South Africa. Leon was recently elected as a member of parliament and works with ISS occasionally when the parliament is out of session. 

Andile Cele
Andile Cele, Research Associate

Andile Cele is a Research and Advocacy Consultant based in Durban, South Africa. For the past 8 years Andile has worked in the areas of policy, Parliamentary and budget analysis, working for both local and international organizations to strengthen fiscal transparency in government processes. In addition to her work with ISS, Andile works with the Public Service Accountability Monitor based at Rhodes University in South Africa and is also the Network Advisor for the Online Progressive Engagement Network (OPEN). Andile graduated from the University of Cape Town with a degree in Political Studies and Sociology.

Daniel Dennehy
Daniel Dennehy, Research Associate

Daniel Dennehy holds a M.A. in International Law and Economics from John Hopkins University (SAIS) and a B.A. in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University. While his career started in U.S. state politics, he eventually entered humanitarian affairs and the international law of migration. Prior to joining ISS, he served as a researcher for the Johns Hopkins 2022 International Human Rights Law Clinic on human trafficking in North Macedonia. Daniel is a proud Irish citizen, and has been active in Irish politics, reform movements, and archrival preservation.

Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff, Research Associate

Hilary Duff is a Canadian journalist and communications consultant who has worked with teams in more than 20 countries. Prior to joining ISS, Hilary authored an anthology of case studies for Harvard University examining the connections between human health and anthropogenic environmental change. Her interests lie at the intersection of entrepreneurship, environmental justice, urban planning, and international affairs—and she has dedicated her career to elevating solutions across these spaces so they can be scaled and replicated worldwide. Hilary holds a bachelor of journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. 

Alexis Bernigaud, Research Associate

Alexis Bernigaud joined ISS from the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics, where he worked as a Research Assistant on a project analyzing the Tanzanian health and social protection systems from a gender perspective. Prior to that, he worked for the French High Authority for Transparency in Public Life as an International Research Officer and conducted research with the OECD and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and his Master’s degree in Economics and Public Policy from Sciences Po in Paris, France.

Fatima Khan
Fatima Khan, Research Associate

Fatima is a recent MPA graduate from Princeton’s School of Public & International Affairs where she studied economics and international development. Previously, she worked at the provincial chief minister's office in Punjab, Pakistan on policy design and implementation focused on gender equity, taxation and climate action. She helped set up South Asia's first one-stop protection center for survivors of gender-based violence. She also led a province-wide women's mobility campaign which focused on increasing women’s participation in the labor force. She received her Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2016.

ISS has a small research staff whose members conduct interviews around the globe, throughout the year. It also collaborates with Ph.D. affiliates from Princeton University and other institutions on short-term projects. A faculty director and associate director manage the development of research lines with the assistance of advisers.