Catherine Baylin currently works at the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She is also the co-founder and Executive Director of Marhaba: Volunteers in the Middle East, a new organization that encourages cross-cultural understanding between the United States and the Arab world by offering service-learning summer programs for young Americans. She has also served as a volunteer health educator in Tanzania. Catherine was graduated with Honors in Political Science from Stanford University where she was a Public Service Scholar and a recipient of the Spirituality and Service Fellowship. Her research focused on the relationship between democratization and poverty rates since 1985. This fall she is beginning an MA program in Middle East Studies at AUC.