Holbrooke Fellow Moore Brings a Wealth of Experience to The Aleppo Project

This year Meghan Moore is serving as a Holbrooke Fellow and academic researcher with the School of Public Policy's Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery (CCNR). "It's an amazing opportunity to step back and look at conflict-related issues from a very different perspective," she explained. "I've particularly enjoyed my work with The Aleppo Project, a collaborative effort to gather information and start thinking about the future of Syria's commercial capital and one of the world's oldest inhabited cities."

As Moore and her CCNR colleagues know well, history shows that waiting until a conflict ends to plan for post-conflict reconstruction is too late. One of the primary goals of the team working on the Aleppo Project is to ensure that Aleppo's current and former residents play a key role in setting priorities for the city's eventual reconstruction.

Recently, Moore has been working with the team on an interactive crowdsourced map of Aleppo where people can add their stories and photos. "It's a great example of collaboration that makes working with The Aleppo Project so rewarding," she highlighted. Researchers at Columbia University's Center for Spatial Research designed the crowdsourcing platform, the U.S. Department of State shares U.S. Government-licensed commercial satellite imagery from Digital Globe, and The Aleppo Project curates information added to the map.

Moore has also been analyzing data from what began as an MPA student survey of 1,000 Aleppians. The survey collected information from Aleppians living in several countries to find out how they related to their city before the conflict, and whether they plan to return. She is also working with CEU students enrolled in The Aleppo Project course. "It's exciting to hear their ideas about reconstructing Aleppo and help them turn them into concrete policy recommendations," she enthused.

"I love working with a great team with different backgrounds and strengths - in particular, my two colleagues from Aleppo. At heart one is an activist, the other is an academic," Moore noted.

As a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Moore has worked in Washington D.C. and at U.S. embassies and consulates in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Colombia, Haiti, Pakistan, and Hungary. Later this year, she will move to Nigeria.