Upcoming Speakers
Blas Nuñez-Neto
December 11, 2025
Topic: Status of Asylum Laws and Practices
Blas Nuñez-Neto is a Senior advisor at WestExec. He is a leading expert on homeland security, counter-terrorism, immigration, and trade policy with extensive management experience and a broad range of contacts in the executive branch, Capitol Hill, foreign governments, and the private sector. In a number of key roles inside and outside the government, he has tackled some of the most challenging policy issues facing the country, negotiating landmark international agreements and brokering bipartisan legislation.
He most recently served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Migration and Southwest Border Coordination at the National Security Council, where he coordinated the whole of government response to migration and border management and helped formulate national policies designed to address migratory flows.
Prior to this appointment, Blas served as Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy and Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In these roles, he led the response to the unprecedented surge in global migration that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, and headed diplomatic engagements with countries in the Western Hemisphere to coordinate migratory policy and negotiate international agreements. He also held key leadership positions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the largest federal law enforcement agency, serving as the Chief Operating Officer and as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner.
Blas previously served as Associate Director and Senior Policy Researcher for the RAND Corporation’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center. Additionally he provided expert counsel for Members of Congress as a Senior Professional Staff Member at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and as an Analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
Blas holds an M.A. in Government Administration and a B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Pennsylvania.
Nader Habibi
January 12, 2026
Topic: The Economy of Iran in the Shadow of International Sanctions and the Supreme Leader
Nader Habibi is the Henry
J. Leir Professor of Practice in the Economics of the Middle East at Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. Before joining Brandeis University in June 2007, he served as managing director of economic forecasting and risk analysis for Middle East and North Africa in Global Insight Ltd. Mr. Habibi has worked in academic and research institutions in Iran, Turkey and the United States since 1987. He earned his master’s degree in systems engineering and his PhD in economics from Michigan State University. His most recent research projects are a) Economic relations of Middle Eastern countries with China, b) Impact of sanctions on Iran’s middle class, c) Analysis of the excess supply of college graduates in Middle Eastern countries, d) Economic relations of Turkey with Iran and Arab countries. Habibi served as director of Islamic and Middle East Studies at Brandeis University (August 2014-August 2019). Links to his publications are available here.
Christina Bobrow
February 9, 2026
Topic: Ice in the Mediterranean: Frozen Conflict in Cyprus
Christina Bobrow served three decades in diplomacy, foreign affairs, and intelligence from both Washington DC and the field. Complementing academic research with experience as a diplomat and intelligence analyst, Dr. Bobrow established herself as an expert on domestic politics and foreign policy of the Republic of Turkey and on the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean region. This region is home to rich and storied cultures, entrenched political polarization, separatist movements, and frozen conflict.
During the Obama Administration, Dr. Bobrow served in the White House as Director for Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus at the National Security Council, In that role she coordinated efforts across all agencies and departments of government on topics ranging from agricultural disputes to missile deployments. She subsequently led CIA analytic teams focused on global religious issues, demographics, and on the Eastern Mediterranean. She then shifted focus to manage global programs for CIA’s Directorate of Analysis. Over the course of her career, she provided analytic support to five Presidents of the United States; briefed Members of Congress; prepared and provided the Secretary of State’s daily intelligence briefing; and served as acting Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Europe.
Dr. Bobrow’s doctoral dissertation, from Georgetown University, explored the governing effects of arbitrary enforcement of laws and norms related to free expression in Turkey. She earned a Masters in German and European Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Languages from Georgetown. Christina has studied at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, University of Vienna in Austria, and University of Maine. She is a graduate of Saint Mark’s School in Massachusetts.
Dr. Bobrow has lived in Austria, Germany, and Turkey and has traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, and Europe. She speaks Turkish, German, and French. She was pleased to move back to her hometown of Farmington, Maine, with her husband Adam in 2025. They have two adult children.