Doja Daoud is CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa representative. Before joining CPJ in March 2022, Daoud worked for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed as a writer and news editor focusing on press freedom and media monitoring. She also contributed to Lebanese news outlets and co-founded Alternative Press Syndicate, a local union group for journalists. Follow…
Yeganeh Rezaian is a senior researcher at CPJ. An Iranian journalist living in Washington, D.C., she previously worked as the communications director at the World Affairs Council-Washington, D.C., and has written pieces for The Washington Post and The Lily. In Iran, Rezaian covered Iranian political, social, and economic news for Bloomberg News and The National…
Waliullah Rahmani is an Asia researcher with CPJ. From 2016 to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, he was founder and director of Khabarnama Media, one of Afghanistan’s first digital media organizations; he has also worked as a government adviser and researcher in Afghanistan. Asia program coordinator Steven Butler lived and…
Shazdeh Omari joined CPJ in 2011 and served as deputy editor for news and later news editor, before joining the development department in 2015. She was the copy chief at The Village Voice for four years and has worked as a reporter, writer, editor, medical editor, and copy editor in the United States and Greece….
Nick Lewis joined CPJ as a Central Asia and Caucasus correspondent in April 2021. Prior to CPJ, he worked as editor of the Central Asia-focused Fergana News Agency’s English website. He speaks Russian and French and has extensive experience working with sources in a range of Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and Caucasian languages.
Lucy Westcott became director of CPJ’s Emergencies Department in October 2021. She oversees CPJ’s assistance and safety work worldwide. Prior to joining CPJ as James W. Foley research associate in 2018, Westcott was a staff writer for Newsweek, has reported for outlets including The Intercept, Bustle, The Atlantic, and Women Under Siege, and was a…
Sonali Dhawan joined CPJ as an Asia researcher in 2021. Previously, she served as a program officer with the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights and worked with Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International USA. Dhawan holds a bachelor’s degree in government and Arabic and Islamic studies from Georgetown University. She…