Anne Speckhard, Ph.D.

Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, Georgetown University, and Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE). She currently runs the Breaking the ISIS Brand - ISIS Defectors Counter Narratives Project at ICSVE where she has interviewed over 60 ISIS defectors, returnees and prisoners, most captured on video, which are then edited down to short video clips to disrupt ISIS’s online and face-to-face recruitment. The Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narratives video clips are being used for prevention, interventions and rehabilitation by imams, teachers, psychologists, rehabilitation counselors and police in multiple countries spanning four continents. Dr. Speckhard has also interviewed over 500 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world including Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Gaza, West Bank, Chechnya, and many countries in Western Europe. In 2007, she was responsible for designing the psychological and Islamic challenge aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000 + detainees and 800 juveniles. She has been working in the field of counter-terrorism and psychology since the 1980’s and has extensive experience working in Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. She is a sought after counter-terrorism expert and has consulted to NATO, OSCE, foreign governments and to the U.S. Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CIA and FBI and frequently appears on CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, and in Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, London Times, the Daily Beast and many other publications. She lectures on subjects related to her books and research. She is the author of seven books including: Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs”, Fetal Abduction: The True Story of Multiple Personalities and Murder, Bride of ISIS, and co-author of ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate, Undercover Jihadi: Inside the Toronto 18—Al Qaeda Inspired, Homegrown Terrorism in the West and Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender.