Elham Seyedsayamdost is a PhD student in the Political Science department at Columbia. Her research interests include political economy of development, authoritarianism, social movements, and democratic transitions. Currently, she is studying variation in natural resource management and its political consequences while comparing cross-regional experiences. She is particularly interested in how economic policies and institutions affect political stability in authoritarian regimes.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Ms. Seyedsayamdost spent several years working with the United Nations and the World Bank. At UNDP, she worked on poverty reduction policies, mainly focusing on the Millennium Development Goals and their implementation at the local level. At the World Bank, she worked at the Office of the Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), investigating issues pertaining to gender and economic policy. At the UN, she worked as policy advisor supporting the Under-Secretary General and UN Coordinator working on avian and pandemic influenza while frequently traveling and offering training to UN country offices in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She has also worked at UNDP in Kathmandu, Banque Internationale Arabe du Tunisie in Tunis, and Amnesty International in Cape Town. During the past two years, she has been involved in a project at Princeton University titled "Iran Social Science Data Portal," where she compiles data pertaining to various aspects of Iranian society, economy, and polity.