What do an Olympic champion, a CNBC co-anchor, and a Pitt grad have in common? They’re all joining the NYU School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS) Hall of Fame this year.
Dr. Colin P. Clarke (PhD ’12) was one of eight NYU SPS alumni recognized at the school’s annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony last month. The honor celebrates alumni and industry leaders who have demonstrated exceptional achievement, leadership, and influence across their professions, reflecting the school’s commitment to excellence and global impact. This year’s class included Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin and CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” co-anchor Morgan Brennan, among others.
Clarke is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism, extremism, and geopolitics and serves as the Executive Director of The Soufan Center, an independent nonprofit research organization that provides cutting-edge research, analysis, and strategies to anticipate and counter the world’s most urgent security challenges. He received his master’s degree from NYU in 2007 before coming to Pittsburgh and the School of Public and International Affairs for his doctorate.
“We’re proud to share that our Executive Director, Colin P. Clarke, PhD, will be inducted into the NYU School of Professional Studies Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the study and practice of counterterrorism and international security,” The Soufan Center said in a post on LinkedIn. “This honor reflects Dr. Clarke’s dedication not only to advancing our mission but to shaping the future of the global security field.”
Prior to his role at The Soufan Center, Clarke served as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching courses on terrorism, insurgency, and conflict to undergraduate and graduate students at the Institute for Politics & Strategy. He also spent more than a decade as a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Clarke has testified before Congress on numerous occasions as an expert witness on a range of terrorism-related issues and appears frequently in the media to discuss national security-related matters.
Today Clarke is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) – The Hague and a non-resident Senior Fellow in the Program on National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), among other things. Yet despite his busy schedule, he still finds time to stay involved here at SPIA. A Senior Research Associate at SPIA’s Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, he frequently engages with the Center as a panelist, speaker, and collaborator on joint programs and events.