Eleanore Taft is a senior operations specialist at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, where she manages logistics, budgets, and contracts for a wide range of programming. Taft has a strong background in hospitality and performing arts, having managed and worked at top restaurants in New Orleans and Iowa City and, as a trained professional dancer, performed and taught dance in Iowa, New Orleans, and San Francisco. An interest in Iowa politics led Taft to become a reporter and editor at Little Village magazine and later a regional field director and communications assistant for an Iowa gubernatorial campaign. Taft has a BFA in modern dance performance from the University of Oklahoma.