Personal Background

Andrew Doran is an author and research fellow with a background in public service, nonprofit advocacy, and consulting. He has published widely on foreign affairs, human interest, and culture.

Prior to joining the Philos Project, he served at the State Department in various capacities over thirteen years, including three years on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, the office founded by diplomat George Kennan. He founded a nonprofit advocacy organization, In Defense of Christians (IDC), which played a pivotal role in the U.S. government’s recognition of the genocide by ISIS against religious minorities and the delivery of aid to those communities in the Middle East. 

Originally from the Southern Tier of Western New York, he enlisted in the military at age seventeen, and deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995-96. (By chance, he encountered his older brother in Bosnia, an Army officer deployed with another unit.) After his tour and honorable discharge, he went to college and later law school, before nearly two decades engaged in foreign affairs. 

His published work (selected pieces of which are included here) touches on various subjects, including foreign policy veterans, trauma, survivors, homelessness, religion, and culture. He recently joined friend and mentor Mary Eberstadt on a project related to upstate New York.