Lauren David Seaman serves as the Senior Program Manager for West and Central Africa at the International Republican Institute (IRI). Lauren oversees democracy and governance programming in more than a dozen countries across the region including projects focused on preventing and countering violent extremism, political party capacity building, legislative strengthening, and empowering civil society. He has helped conduct several international election observation missions and managed long-term observer teams. Prior to joining IRI for a second time, Lauren was director of a nonprofit serving both the refugee community and survivors of human trafficking and worked at the Millennium Challenge Corporation covering the Senegal and Benin Compact Agreements.