Layla Picard is the founder and executive director of the Yemen Peace Project, America’s only national advocacy organization devoted entirely to Yemeni and Yemeni-American affairs. Founded in 2010, the YPP seeks to empower Yemenis to participate in the US policy-making process. Layla is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the history, politics, and cultures of Southwest Asia. She has conducted extensive research on Yemen’s 20th- and 21st-century conflicts, and on the rise of anti-state social movements. More recently, Layla has written about the war in Yemen for Just Security and LobeLog, and has appeared on and been quoted by major international outlets including NBC, Foreign Policy, Huffington Post, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera.