I am a professor of leadership studies at the University of San Diego. My research focuses on the philanthropic and international non-governmental sectors. I emphasize lessons for practice, including how activists can become more effective as well as more responsive to populations they claim to serve. I received my PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in San Domenico di Fiesole/Italia. I am the co-founder and former Research Director of the Transnational NGO Initiative at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs/Syracuse University.

Recent research outputs include the co-authored book Between Power and Irrelevance. The Future of Transnational NGOs (Oxford University Press, 2020). My research has also been published in academic journals, including Comparative Politics, Health Policy and Planning, Human Rights Quarterly, International Studies Review, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Public Performance & Management Review, Review of International Studies, or Voluntas.