Amra Sabic-El-Rayess is an associate professor of practice at Columbia University’s Teachers College and an international expert on corruption, education and social transformations. Originally from Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabic-El-Rayess survived ethnic cleansing and more than 1,100 days under the Serbian and Serbs' military siege. She emigrated to the United States in 1996, earning a BA in economics from Brown University. Later, she obtained two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Columbia University, where she currently studies how and why societies fall apart and what role education can play in rebuilding decimated countries. She has published extensively on education-related issues and has lectured around the world to adult and adolescent audiences. Sabic-El-Rayess is the author of an upcoming memoir, "The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival" (Bloomsbury, September 2020).