Dr. Rebecca J Clendenen, PhD

Rebecca Clendenen is a political scientist and refugee services leader specializing in refugee integration, civic participation, educational inequality, and the long-term impacts of displacement after resettlement. She works with Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA), a Chicago-based nonprofit serving refugee students and families through intensive educational and community support programs.

Her work focuses on the experiences of refugee communities after arrival in the United States, including barriers to education, economic mobility, political participation, and social integration. She has particular expertise in refugee populations affected by interrupted formal education, including Rohingya and Afghan communities.

Rebecca holds a PhD in Political Science from University of Illinois Chicago and is a Fulbright Program alumna whose fieldwork examined social movements, public space, and civic identity in Turkey. She is also a member of the Scholar Strategy Network and speaks Turkish.

She has appeared on WGN-TV and KNWA-TV discussing refugee issues, community organizing, and the aftermath of the Türkiye earthquakes, and has participated in numerous podcasts, guest lectures, and public speaking engagements on refugee policy, democracy, human rights, and immigrant integration.

Sub-specialties:
Refugee integration and post-resettlement experiences
Refugee education and interrupted formal education (SLIFE students)
Rohingya and Afghan refugee communities
Human rights and forced displacement
Language access and systemic barriers to public services
Refugee experiences in urban school systems
Chicago refugee communities and refugee-serving infrastructure
Turkey, migration, and regional displacement issues
U.S. refugee resettlement systems and nonprofit direct service delivery