I lived in Berlin in 1989 during the twilight of the Cold War--this experience got me quite interested in new concepts of national security--and I saw conflict resolution and peacebuilding as a natural follow-on. I went to grad school at Stanford in economics (but really was interested in conflict resolution) and then got involved in politics. I worked in Congress for nearly a decade--convening on new national security issues.....I am very interested in helping Americans act on their citizenship skills to impact this policy arena.