Shamila N. Chaudhary was a nonresident senior fellow at the South Asia Center. She was also appointed President of the American Pakistan Foundation in August of 2019.

Chaudhary is an international affairs analyst specializing in U.S. foreign policy with a focus on U.S.-Pakistan relations, Pakistan internal politics, and regional issues in South Asia.

Her work is regularly cited and published in Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, the New York Times and she has frequently appeared on CNN, BBC News America, NPR, Fox News, and other outlets. She also writes on American socio-economic and political issues, including immigration, civic engagement, refugee resettlement, and identity politics.

She is a Senior South Asia Fellow at the Washington D.C.-based New America think tank and a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she previously served as Senior Advisor to Dean Vali Nasr from 2013 until August 2019.

She worked at the political risk firm Eurasia Group from 2011-2013 and has twelve years of experience working in the U.S. government, including at the White House as Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan on the National Security Council from 2010-2011.

Prior to her tenure at the White House, she served on the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where she advised Secretary Clinton and the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Chaudhary also served on the State Department’s Pakistan Desk from 2007-2009; Indonesia desk from 2004-2007; and worked on democracy and governance issues at the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2000-2004.

Chaudhary earned an M.A. in International Affairs from the American University’s School of International Service and a B.A. in English Literature and Women’s Studies from the University of Toledo. She served twice on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Pakistan and is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chaudhary was born in Punjab, Pakistan and moved to the United States when she was two years old. She is a native of Toledo, Ohio and has been a proud resident of the District of Columbia since 1999.