Asha Castleberry is an adjunct faculty professor at Fordham University. She teaches U.S. Foreign Policy, International Politics, and United Nations Peace Operations. A U.S. Army veteran, Asha recently completed a 30-month deployment in the Middle East. Since the 2014 ISIL incursion in Iraq, she served for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Kuwait.

From December 2012 to June 2014, Asha served as the Kuwait Desk Officer for International Military Affairs, U.S. Army Central. During the Obama Administration, she worked with the U.S. Mission to the United Nations at the State Department. Asha also has extensive experiences in Latin America. She was an election observer for the 2009 Presidential Election Observer in El Salvador and worked on USSOUTHCOM’s peacekeeping operations in Nicaragua.

Asha serves on the Board of Advisors of America’s Impact, and Women Veterans and Families Network. She is a member of the Truman National Security Project’s Defense Council, a global fellow at the Project on the Study on the 21st Century (PS21), Adjunct Fellow at the American Security Project and a co-founder of International Youth Council. She was recently awarded the 2016 Aspen Institute Ideas Scholarship and a scholarship recipient for the Socrates Program.

A graduate of Hampton University and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Asha is a proud study abroad student studying Law and Business in China and international politics at the University of Oxford New College Program. She received her certification at New York University Center for Global Affairs. She is a New Leaders Council Fellow and was chosen as one of the Diplomatic Courier’s Top 99 Under 33 Foreign Policy Leaders and The 2015 Root100 Top Rising Leaders.

Asha is currently Senior Advisor in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.