Julia Martin is the Assistant Director for Research and Finance at the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative (MEI) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). Prior to joining MEI, she worked at the Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Secretariat based at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at HKS. She holds a Master’s of Theological Studies (2010) from Harvard Divinity School, where she focused her coursework on Judaism and Islam. While in graduate school, Julia also worked for the Hauser Institute’s Humanitarian & Development NGOs and Justice and Human Rights programs. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies (2007) at Florida State University, where she also minored in studio art. Julia has studied various ancient and modern Semitic languages over the years, and is currently learning Egyptian dialect.