Staff

Staff Biographies

Piero A. Tozzi, Staff Director

Piero Tozzi is the Staff Director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. His previous positions include Republican Staff Director of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Staff Director and Counsel for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations. He has also served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor and Counsel to Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ). Mr. Tozzi received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and his B.A. from Columbia University. Mr. Tozzi speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is the author of several works on international law and comparative constitutional law, including Constitutional Reform on Taiwan: Fulfilling a Chinese Notion of Democratic Sovereignty.

Matt Squeri, Deputy Staff Director

Matt Squeri joined the CECC staff in March 2021. As Foreign Policy Advisor for Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) from 2019-2021, he drafted significant legislation related to Uyghur human rights, Hong Kong, and Chinese government censorship, as well as other issues related to China, Taiwan, and refugees. From 2015-2019, he was a Legislative Assistant for Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). Previously, he served in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2010-2014, including two years as an East Asia policy advisor, and at the Center for Strategic & International Studies from 2006-2008 and again in 2010. Mr. Squeri holds a B.A. in political science from Stanford University and an M.A. in strategic studies and international economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Scott Flipse, Director of Policy & Media Relations

Scott Flipse came to the CECC from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom where he was Deputy Director for Policy. He also managed the Commission’s East Asia programs where he developed training and network capacity for human rights lawyers in China; built early warning defense systems, through social media, to monitor societal violence in Burma; assisted efforts to repeal ‘blasphemy laws’ in Indonesia by creating regional advocacy networks and media campaigns; and drafted two studies on conditions faced by North Korean refugees in China. His previous experience includes associate director and adjunct professor for the University of Notre Dame’s Washington Semester and legislative assistant for Representative Frank Wolf, with a portfolio that focused on defense, human rights, and foreign operations appropriations. Flipse holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, specializing in U.S. foreign policy in Asia.

Jen Salen, Senior Research Associate

Jen Salen joined the CECC staff in July 2012. Before joining the Commission, she managed China technical assistance programs in the areas of public interest law, civil society legal advocacy, and women’s rights for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and in rural women’s political participation and civil society capacity building for the International Republican Institute. Earlier in her career, Ms. Salen was involved in educational initiatives to expand Chinese language education and East Asian studies at U.S. elementary and high schools. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University.

Amy Reger, Research Associate

Amy Reger joined the CECC staff in July 2012. She previously worked as a researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). Ms. Reger has worked in the human rights and journalism fields, with a focus on China, for more than a decade. She is an alumnus of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, and traveled extensively throughout China and Asia during studies in Nanjing, Beijing and Taiwan. She speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Anna Scott Bell, Research Associate

Anna Scott Bell joined the CECC in January 2022. She was previously editor of the Party Watch Initiative and analyst at the Center for Advanced China Research, where she oversaw CACR’s flagship publications. Ms. Bell has worked on a range of Asia policy issues, with a particular focus on human rights, religious freedom, and civil society in China and Taiwan, holding past positions at the Global Taiwan Institute and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Ms. Bell holds an MA in Asian Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an MA in Theology from Regent College, Canada. She has lived, worked, and studied in Beijing, China, and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Deanna Pelsang, Research Associate

Deanna Pelsang joined the CECC as a professional staff member in April 2023 after having served as a Lui Xiaobo Fellow for the Commission in the Spring of 2021. Ms. Pelsang previously taught and studied abroad in Taiwan and China. She also served as an analyst for the U.S. Department of State, supporting parents of internationally abducted children and assisting U.S. citizens experiencing consular emergencies in China.  She also worked for a global security consulting firm.  Ms. Pelsang holds a B.A. in Chinese studies from Truman State Universtiy and an M.A. in Asian Studies from George Washington University and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.