Alex Bruens

Alex Bruens is an Assistant Research Professor at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Bruens earned a PhD in Government and Public Policy from the University of Arizona in 2024, having previously completed a Master of Arts in the same field there in 2021, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology from Florida Atlantic University in 2019. During doctoral training, Bruens served as a Teaching Associate at the University of Arizona's School of Government and Public Policy. Research interests include violent extremist organizations, leader influence tactics and organizational lethality, terrorism, human rights, and civil war, with published work addressing both fentanyl trafficking and multilevel analysis of leadership in extremist groups.