Kristen McTighe is a trilingual Istanbul-based independent journalist covering Africa and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in the International New York Times, the Financial Times, NBC News, USA Today, the Globe and Mail and others. Previously based in Egypt and Tunisia, she covered the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Syria. While based in Cairo, she covered the election and presidency of Egypt's Mohamed Morsi, and the 2013 military coup and its aftermath. She reported on the Western Sahara conflict from both Moroccan-occupied territory and the Polisario-administrated refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. Kristen has Bachelor’s degrees in History and Spanish from the University of Washington and a Master’s in Global Communications from the American University of Paris. Before moving to the Middle East, she lived in Madrid, and prior to that, Paris, where she worked at the International New York Times.