Dr Sousan Abadian

Dr. Sousan Abadian is currently a Fulbright Scholar in the Specialist Program and has been invited to go to Canada to work on “Indigenous perspectives in a changing world.” Dr. Abadian earned a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University, an M.P.A. in International Development from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and an M.A. in the Anthropology of Social Change and Development, also from Harvard University.

Her earlier research on healing the effects of long-standing collective trauma and cultural damage to indigenous communities, a key contributing factor in violence and impoverishment, was described by Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen as “pioneering” and “highly original.”

She now teaches, speaks, and consults internationally on leadership, managing change processes and her ARIA creativity principles. She builds on her earlier work at Cambridge Leadership Associates facilitating workshops and speaking on Adaptive Leadership. Between June 2017 to June 2019, Dr. Abadian served as a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Her portfolio included preventing violent extremism, gender-based violence, rights of religious minorities in the Middle East and South Asia, and restoration of people and cultures following atrocities. She has also served as a Fellow at M.I.T.’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values as well as at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.