Overview

HART

In the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Hoover Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster organized a group of Hoover staff and students who comprised the beginnings of the Hoover Afghanistan Research and Relief Team (HART).  Consistent with the overall mission, history, and tradition of the Hoover Institution, HART initially supported and filled gaps in the US government’s efforts to evacuate refugees. Herbert Hoover himself was a leader of humanitarian efforts beginning in World War I and during the periods of World War II and the Korean War. HART then transitioned to collect and preserve historical materials on the war in Afghanistan at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives for generations to come.

Learn More About the Program

Leadership
H.R. McMaster

H.R. McMaster

Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow

H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. From 2014 to 2017 McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

THE HART TEAM

Chelsea Berkey is Senior Research Program Manager to LTG (ret.) H.R. McMaster at the Hoover Institution. She leads HART’s relief efforts and manages General McMaster’s research program including book projects, oral histories, courses, and international security research initiatives. Berkey is proficient in Modern Standard Arabic and holds a B.A. in International Relations and a Master's in International Policy from Stanford University. 
 

Atiqullah Sahibzada (Atiq) is the HART Project Manager, where he overseas relief, relocation and resettlement activates for Afghans under duress. Prior to this Atiq was CEO and founder of NOMA Consulting, where he contributed to research and data collection projects across a variety of sectors. He has worked on projects including ethnographic research to assess the needs and barriers related to mobile phone usage, including for social media; updating IOM’s Afghanistan migration profile; and supporting other international organization’s monitoring and evaluation activities in Afghanistan. Atiq has a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from KARDAN University. He is proficient in English in addition to his two native languages of Dari and Pashto. As an Afghan, Atiqullah brings unmatched contextual understanding and insight to the Hoover Institution. 
 

Halima Kazem-Stojanovic is the HART Oral History Project Manager. She is also a Chancellors Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of California Santa Cruz and her research focuses on feminism, empire, and resistance in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries. Halima uses oral histories as a primary research method. She holds a PhD in Feminist Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz and Masters in Business and Economic Journalism from New York University. From 2012-2022, Halima was a journalism and human rights lecturer at San Jose State University. Before entering academia, she spent 17 years as a journalist and filmmaker, including a decade reporting on Afghanistan's war and rebuilding efforts. Her articles have been published in the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and Al Jazeera. She is the co-producer of Frontrunner, a documentary chronicling the campaign of the first female presidential candidate in Afghanistan.
 

Jean M. Cannon is Curator for North American Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University, where she specializes in acquisitions, education, exhibitions, and scholarly publications. She received a PhD in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on WWI poetry and fiction. Prior to her current position, she was the Literary Collections Research Associate at the Harry Ransom Center, where she co-curated the 2014 exhibition The World at War, 1914-1918. Cannon has also worked extensively in book publishing and advertising and as a freelance writer and editor. 
 

Haedar (Haidar) Hadi is the Curator of the Middle East and North Africa Collections and Digital Systems Manager for the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. He is responsible for the development, implementation, and security of a sustainable IT environment that ensures that digital assets are methodically preserved and perpetually accessible to a broad research community. Hadi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems with a sub-concentration in Data Analytics and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Hadi has completed several certifications in Project management, IT development, Cybersecurity, and Leadership programs. 
 

Lisa Nguyen is Head of Digital Services & Systems and leads a lean team that develops digital services and deploys information technology solutions to improve researchers' access to and engagement with the Hoover Institution Library & Archives' collection materials. Lisa has also worked with private donors and organizations to collect historical documentation regarding political and socioeconomic changes in modern Asia. We Shot the War, her most recent exhibition, examined how artistic technique and journalistic content intersected in photographs submitted to Overseas Weekly, a US military tabloid in Vietnam. Her educational background includes Chinese language and literature from UC Berkeley and National Taiwan Normal University, as well as Library and Information Science from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

overlay image