Abdullah Alaoudh

Abdullah Alaoudh serves as the Saudi Director for the Freedom Initiative. He was a Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Elliott School at George Washington University and served for two years as a Senior Fellow at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He also was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law School at the Center for Islamic Law and Civilization between 2017-2018.

Before joining the Freedom Initiative, Alaoudh served for three years as Director for the Gulf at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the nonprofit organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi.

Alaoudh is the Secretary General and co-founder of the National Assembly Party (NAAS), Saudi Arabia’s first openly declared political party, which calls for an elected parliament and constitutional safeguards in Saudi Arabia. He is also a signatory and one of the drafters of the Saudi People’s Vision for Reform, a blueprint for democracy and human rights in Saudi Arabia.

Alaoudh has published extensively on Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf and appears regularly in the media as a commentator. His work has been featured in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and Foreign Policy.

Alaoudh obtained his S.J.D. and L.L.M. from the University of Pittsburgh in comparative international law. While at the University of Pittsburgh, he completed his dissertation on religious institutions and the influence of the ulama (body of Muslim scholars) in post-revolutionary Arab countries. He received his B.A. in Islamic Law from Qassim University in Saudi Arabia.

Allison McManus

Allison McManus brings over a decade of experience in research on critical human rights issues with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining The Freedom Initiative, she worked as research director at the Tahrir Institue for Middle East Policy from 2014 to 2020. Her writing has been published in academic, policy, and media venues, including the Social Movement Studies Journal, the Intercept, Foreign Affairs, and the Carnegie Institute, among many others. Allison holds a M.A. in Global and International Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.A. from Tufts University.

Laura Rheintgen

Laura is a senior level fundraising executive with more than 20 years of experience working with international and educational nonprofit organizations. She has held positions at prestigious organizations such as the U.S. Institute of Peace, American Research Center in Egypt, and most recently The Global Good Fund. Laura holds an M.A. in International Affairs from The American University and has lived and traveled in Europe and the Middle East. Laura also volunteers her time as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Land Trust of Virginia.

Todd Ruffner

Todd Ruffner leads legislative and executive branch policy efforts at The Freedom Initiative. Prior to joining Fi, he spent more than six years on the advocacy team at the Project on Middle East Democracy. Todd holds an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in International Relations from Elon University.

Mohamed Yassen

Yousuf Abdelfatah

As the Freedom Initiative’s Case Liaison, Yousuf is responsible for monitoring case updates and working cross-departmentally to develop and implement case strategies. Yousuf holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Rutgers University and an M.A. from Georgetown University in Data Science for Public Policy. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Politics at Princeton University.

Bethany Alhaidari

Bethany holds a PhD in International Human Rights Law, a Masters in Middle East and Islamic Studies, and is an alumna of the University of Washington School of Law. She spent nine years living in Saudi Arabia conducting ethnographic research on various human rights issues.

Madeleine Hall

Madeleine Hall earned her BA in History from West Virginia University in 2017. Between 2016-2020, she lived in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt, where she worked in journalism and translation and completed the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) Fellowship at the American University in Cairo. In May 2022, she graduated from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service with an MA in Arab Studies. Prior to joining FI, Madeleine interned at The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), in addition to working as an Assistant Editor at Protest, an academic journal dedicated to the expanding global phenomenon of contentious politics.

Case Manager

Case Specialist

Communications Coordinator

Research Manager

Senior Communications Manager