William (Bill) Braniff will join the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the School of Public Affairs at American University as the center’s new executive director. He will also serve as a research assistant professor in SPA’s Department of Justice, Law, & Criminology (JLC). Prof. Braniff brings a wealth of experience and leadership in the field of violence prevention and has been among the nation’s most prominent advocates of a public health approach to preventing violent extremism.

“There was never a question that Bill is the absolute best possible person to spearhead PERIL at this important time of growth for our lab as we bring to scale our rigorously tested interventions that prevent a host of harms,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Director, Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). “That became even clearer as the future of the U.S. Government’s investments in prevention research and practice are uncertain. This is a moment for the non-governmental sector to step up and ensure that communities across the country have access to evidence-based, innovative tools and solutions to ensure their safety.”

Braniff and Miller-Idriss will jointly lead the lab with Miller-Idriss assuming the new role of PERIL’s chief vision officer.

“We are thrilled to have Bill join SPA and PERIL,” SPA Interim Dean Alison Jacknowitz said. “His experience in both academia and in government will be a huge asset to our already strong team of scholars focusing on political violence and national security.”

A veteran of the U.S. Army and a co-founder of We the Veterans and Military Families, before joining AU, Braniff served as the Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Partnerships and Programs (CP3). He also served as Director of the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). with previous leadership experience at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). During the White House United We Stand Summit on Preventing Hate-Fueled Violence in 2022, Braniff and PERIL’s founding director Prof. Miller-Idriss presented the joint keynote framing address.

“Given my term-limited appointment at CP3, I knew it was possible that I would not be able to carry the prevention mission forward from within the government,” Braniff said. “It was important to me to find a team and an organization that could serve as an institution outside of government, and one that had a shared vision for evidence-based prevention work. I arrived as a proponent of prevention due to my experiences with traditional counterterrorism. Cynthia arrived in the field of terrorism and harm prevention from her experiences and training in sociology and education. We met in a shared middle-ground on a public health-informed approach because we share the belief that with rigorous measurement and evaluation, it can be effective at scale. PERIL can help make that happen.”

About the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL
The Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) is an applied research lab at American University’s School of Public Affairs preventing radicalization to violent extremism by strengthening community resilience. It uses a public health approach to design, test, and scale-up evidence-based tools and strategies that effectively reduce the threat of radicalization to harmful online and offline content including conspiracy theories, mis/disinformation, propaganda, and supremacist ideologies. As an alternative to security-based approaches that rely on surveillance, censorship, and incarceration, its work takes a multidisciplinary and pre-preventative approach to address hate, bias, and radicalization before they manifest into violent extremism. This work supports individuals and communities to reject propaganda and extremist content, as well as empower them to intervene and interrupt early radicalization. 

About American University’s School of Public Affairs
Established in 1934, American University's School of Public Affairs (SPA) is ranked No.13 in the nation (and first in the D.C. area) by U.S. News & World Report, offering undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and executive-level programs to build and enhance careers in public service. The school offers a unique pairing of access to Washington, D.C. with world-renowned faculty and transformational research, driving progress in policy, politics, public administration, justice, law and criminology, terrorism and homeland security policy, political science and political communications. SPA is also ranked third in the U.S. and first in the D.C. area for public affairs research impact.