Dr. Gwendolyn Bevis is a political scientist trained in comparative politics and research methods, with 30 years of experience in democracy, human rights and governance and regional expertise in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Gwendolyn specializes in restrictive and conflict environments, with a focus on civil society, inclusion, violent extremism and the use of digital platforms in such settings. She has conducted democracy, human rights and governance, political economy, conflict, and scenario planning assessments for USAID in such countries as Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She regularly conducts evaluations of democracy, human rights and governance-related interventions, designs results frameworks and performance monitoring systems, and provides M&E training for USAID and Department of State programs and partners working in such countries as Lebanon and Syria. For over six years, she supervised a program of research on DRG issues in a highly restricted country context, and she co-authored a paper for USAID on democracy, human rights and governance assistance in authoritarian settings. Gwendolyn holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree with distinction in development studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.