Deborah Isser is Lead Governance Specialist at the World Bank, focusing on governance and the political economy of development. Currently based in Nigeria, she leads operational and analytical work on fiscal governance, service delivery and judicial reform. She held previous assignments in East Africa, the Pacific Islands, and in the Development Research group. She has published widely on governance, law and development and has taught courses at Georgetown and George Washington Law Schools. Before joining the World Bank in 2011, she worked at the United States Institute of Peace, directing projects on legal pluralism and land conflict with a focus on Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Liberia. She was senior policy adviser at the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and special adviser on peacekeeping at the United States Mission to the United Nations. From 1996-1998 she served as judicial clerk to the Honorable Justice Dalia Dorner of the Supreme Court of Israel. She received degrees from Harvard Law School, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Columbia University.