Elmira Bayrasli is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Interruptrr, a weekly foreign policy newsletter. She is the author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, a book that looks at the rise of entrepreneurship globally. She is also the Director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program based in NYC. 

Elmira has lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she was the chief spokesperson for the OSCE Mission from 2003–2005. From 1994–2000 she was presidential appointee at the United States State Department, working for Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, respectively. Elmira provides analysis on foreign policy, particularly on Turkey, global entrepreneurship, and gender issues. Her work has appeared in Reuters, Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, Quartz, Techcrunch, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Bayrasli sits on several boards, including Invest2Innovate, Turkish Women’s International Network, Turkish Philanthropy Funds, and Our Secure Future. 

She earned her BA in political science and Middle Eastern studies at New York University and her MA in Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Columbia University. A lifelong Brooklynite, Elmira loves the Mets.