{"id":1935,"date":"2025-06-12T11:28:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T15:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/?post_type=cu_story&p=1935"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:21:28","slug":"jessica-davis-bridging-research-and-practice-in-counter-terrorist-financing","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/story\/jessica-davis-bridging-research-and-practice-in-counter-terrorist-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Davis: Bridging Research and Practice in Counter-Terrorist Financing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Jessica Davis: Bridging Research and Practice in Counter-Terrorist Financing\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Davis came to NPSIA with a wealth of experience in national security\u2014but the PhD program offered her something new: the chance to bridge policy and academia in a way that would redefine her career.\u00a0 A former intelligence analyst with experience at Global Affairs<\/a>, FINTRAC<\/a>, and CSIS<\/a>, Davis brought a wealth of practical knowledge to her doctoral studies. Encouraged by her longtime colleague and friend, Dr. Stephanie Carvin<\/a>, she applied to NPSIA\u2014 \u201ca bit of a fluke,\u201d she admits\u2014with the goal of conducting policy-relevant research on terrorist financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That decision led to a uniquely interdisciplinary and productive experience. Co-supervised by Dr. Carvin and Dr. Dane Rowlands<\/a>, Davis found a collaborative environment that shaped her dissertation into something that bridged the gap between academic theory and policy application. \u201cThe academic work wasn\u2019t talking to the policy world, and the policy world wasn\u2019t listening to academics,\u201d she explained. \u201cI tried to bring those two sides together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While completing her doctorate, Davis also ran her consulting business, Insight Threat Intelligence<\/a><\/em>, published a widely read newsletter, and launched the Secure Line<\/a><\/em> podcast. With NPSIA\u2019s encouragement, she pursued media commentary, research partnerships, and co-authored projects with faculty like Dr. Alex Wilner<\/a> (she later had the opportunity to brief the U.S. Special Representative for Hostage Affairs on their joint work on kidnapping-for-ransom).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cNPSIA had this incredible flexibility and a culture that encouraged public engagement, it gave me room to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2023, her work was nationally recognized with a SSHRC Impact Talent Award\u2014an honour that affirmed the relevance of her research in a field often overlooked. \u201cCounter-terrorist financing is niche and complicated,\u201d she said. \u201cTo have it recognized at that level was really validating.\u201d And this week, she will be awarded a University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work at the Doctoral Level\u2014a prestigious honour presented at convocation to recognize exceptional academic achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary, Davis continues to research illicit finance, currently focusing on how state and non-state actors use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. She\u2019s also turning her dissertation into a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her advice to future PhD students? \u201cListen to your advisors. That back-and-forth is how the ideas get sharper.\u201d At NPSIA, she found not just guidance but mentorship\u2014professors who challenged her thinking, encouraged public engagement, and supported her ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was always a team effort,\u201d she said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have asked for a better environment to do this work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Davis came to NPSIA with a wealth of experience in national security\u2014but the PhD program offered her something new: the chance to bridge policy and academia in a way that would redefine her career.\u00a0 A former intelligence analyst with experience at Global Affairs, FINTRAC, and CSIS, Davis brought a wealth of practical knowledge to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":1949,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[78],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1935","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-2025-spring-grad-profiles"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1938,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1935\/revisions\/1938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}