Jumaina Siddiqui is the senior program officer for South Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

She joined USIP after working with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), where she served as the program manager for Pakistan, working on political party development, election observation and reforms, and increasing the participation of women and youth in the political process. Siddiqui was also a U.S.-Pakistan program fellow with the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, where her research focused on education reform efforts by political actors in Pakistan and the relationship between donors, civil society, politicians, and the government to move these reforms forward.

Prior to joining NDI, she worked at Global Communities on a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project to increase stability in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan by providing improved livelihood and economic growth opportunities.

Siddiqui has extensive experience in program design and management as well as policy research and analysis. She has held positions at the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative focusing on programs in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Thailand, as well as thematic programs related to media legal defense and access to justice in Asia; at the Stimson Center examining nontraditional security issues in South Asia; and at the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University, conducting research on international human trafficking and managing a training program on human trafficking in the United States.

Siddiqui holds bachelor’s in political science from American University and master’s from New York University, where her work focused on democracy promotion and the rule of law in the Muslim world, culminating in a thesis on rebuilding justice systems in post-conflict Afghanistan. She also holds a graduate certificate in environmental policy and management from the University of Denver.