Mohammed Alaa Ghanem is the Senior Political Adviser, Government Relations Director, and Strategist for the Syrian American Council in Washington D.C. He previously served as a professor at the University of Damascus, and has been involved in the Syrian Revolution since its early days as a peaceful protest movement. His work connects U.S. policy-makers and the Syrian-American community with the revolution inside Syria. Utilizing his extensive network of contacts at all levels of the Syrian opposition, he frequently travels to the liberated parts of Syria, participates in international conferences on Syria, and advises local administrative councils in liberated areas across Syria on international relations. In early 2013, he participated in monitoring the elections of the first democratically elected government in Aleppo. Ghanem is also a fellow with the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies. At SCPSS, he has been involved in SCPSS’ Syria Transition Roadmap, an ambitious post-Assad transition project. He holds a master’s degree in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He’s frequently quoted in the media, and his op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Politico, the Daily Beast, the Hill, the New York Post, the Huffington Post, Syria Deeply, and the Atlantic Council MENASource. He has appeared on CNN, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, HuffPost, RT, and CCTV America.