Alicia Ellis

Alicia Ellis is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of the MA in Global Security program. She has developed and taught graduate & undergraduate coursework on national security, economic statecraft, geopolitics, war & conflict, and international relations. Alicia was appointed as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2012, during which she served as an analyst at the Department of Treasury’s Office of Financial Research and later as a policy analyst for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. While assigned to the State Department, she studied Russian language at the Institute of World Politics, including six weeks immersion training in Odessa, Ukraine. A former Air Force officer, she served two deployments as an Air Battle Manager in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, including three months as the Joint Air Operations Center Liaison Officer. She received her B.S. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University, her M.A. in International Relations from St. Mary’s University, and her PhD in Political Science from Arizona State University. Alicia published her dissertation on how the structure of state-industry relations in the agriculture sector impacts democratic accountability. She is a committee member with the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, and currently working on several articles on the impact of political risk on industry and strategic vulnerabilities in the food supply chain.