Barbara Petzen
Director, Training Initiatives, Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy
Director, Middle East Connections
Degree
Ed.M., University of Illinois
Biography
Barbara Petzen is director of training initiatives with the
Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy at CSIS. In this role, she designs and
delivers executive education and other training programs with a focus on
experiential learning in leadership, communication, innovation, negotiation,
temperament assessment, career development, and geopolitics. Beyond her work at
CSIS, she is director of Middle East Connections, a not-for-profit initiative
specializing in professional development and curriculum development on the
Middle East and Islam, global education, and study tours to the Middle East for
American educators. She is past president of the Middle East Outreach Council,
a national consortium of educators working to further Americans’ understanding
about the Middle East.
Petzen previously worked as education director at the Middle
East Policy Council. From 2001 to 2007, she served as outreach coordinator at
Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She has taught courses
on Middle Eastern history, Islam, and women's studies at Dalhousie University
and at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She also taught Arabic and
history at Harvard University while studying in the Ph.D. program in history
and Middle Eastern studies. Ms. Petzen earned an Ed.M. in learning design and
leadership at the University of Illinois, a B.A. in international politics and
Middle Eastern studies at Columbia College and a second honors B.A. as a Rhodes
scholar at Oxford University in Oriental studies. Her academic interests
include Ottoman and Middle Eastern history, the history and present concerns of
women in the Middle East and Muslim communities, the role of Islam in Middle
Eastern and other societies, relations and perceptions between Muslim societies
and the West, the necessity to globalize K-12 education, best practices in
diversity and inclusion, and technology-enhanced education.