Renee Ferrara is passionate about international affairs, organizational culture, relationship building, well-being, and DE&I. She most recently was the Training & Programming Facilitator at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD). Prior to that, Renee was CPD's Assistant Director for Operations and Programming and the senior administrator of USC’s Department of Middle East Studies. She also held positions at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, American Institutes for Research, RAND, and other organizations. She received an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of California at San Diego. She is also known as Renee Almassizadeh.