After the incredibly practical literature degree from the University of Chicago, award-winning, pushcart-nominated Maia Brown-Jackson then braved the myriad esoteric jobs that inevitably followed, ultimately straying to Iraq to volunteer with survivors of ISIS genocide. Inspired with a new focus, she caffeinated herself through a graduate degree in terrorism and human rights and now investigates fraud, waste, and abuse of humanitarian aid in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Also, she writes.