Khalil Kilani

Khalil Kilani of Maine is a second-year MIA candidate pursuing a concentration in International Security and Diplomacy with an East Asia regional minor. Alongside his studies, Khalil serves as a Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellow and will join the US Foreign Service following graduation.

Before attending Columbia SIPA, Khalil served two terms as class president of Bowdoin College, engaged in humanitarian work in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, and led a public service immersion trip to Washington, DC. Khalil studied abroad in Morocco and Denmark and spent a summer volunteering in Peru as a Global Citizens Fellow. He is an alum of the US Foreign Service Internship Program and has interned at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. He has also supported refugees across Cyprus, Greece, and Türkiye as a Pamela Harriman Foreign Service Fellow.

This past summer, Khalil served as a foreign policy aide for Congressman Jonathan L. Jackson, focusing on US policy in Africa and Latin America. He came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee in 2009.