Megan Doherty is Mercy Corps' Senior Director for Policy and Advocacy. She previously served in the U.S. Department of State as a Senior Advisor in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau and as Senior Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Libya. She also served as the White House National Security Council Director for North Africa from 2015-2016.
Ms. Doherty has spent more than a decade designing, implementing, and overseeing conflict mitigation, governance, and civil society programs in the Middle East and North Africa. She served with the National Democratic Institute in Benghazi and Tripoli from 2011-2012. While in Libya she worked with nascent political parties, transitional governing institutions, and civil society organizations, including Libya’s first election observation network. She also trained women candidates who later won seats in Libya’s first elected parliament and conducted extensive public opinion research on post-Qadhafi Libya.
In 2010 she co-authored "Confidence, Capacity, Connections: A Young Woman's Guide to Leadership." She also held positions with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Ms. Doherty graduated from the University of Virginia.