Basma Alloush

Basma Alloush is the External Relations Officer with UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Washington, DC. As the External Relations Officer, Basma regularly engages with the U.S. government, NGOs, think tanks, and other policy-influencing actors to advance UNHCR’s global priorities.

Prior to joining UNHCR, Basma was the Policy Advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) leading the policy team's work on the Middle East, Afghanistan, and restrictive measures. Before ICRC, Basma was the Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) USA where she spent over six years leading NRC USA’s advocacy in Washington DC and New York. During her time at NRC, Basma organized and managed many advocacy tours for field colleagues and she conducted multiple field missions to Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Yemen.

Additionally, Basma is a guest lecturer at George Washington University’s The Elliott School of International Affairs where she teaches a graduate course on conflict and humanitarian crises in MENA. Basma is a former Nonresident Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) where she focused on researching humanitarian crises in MENA.

Basma obtained her master’s degree at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, completing her thesis project on the role of diaspora in transitional justice processes, with a particular focus on the Syrian and Liberian cases, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Northeastern University.