She is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Washington, DC think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Security, and Lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where she focuses on issues at the intersection of economics and national security, most recently on the impact of sanctions and counterterrorism measures on humanitarian action. Previously she served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration in the Clinton Administration and on the staff of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

From 1998-2016, Ms. Eckert was Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, directing projects on UN targeted sanctions, terrorist financing, and cybersecurity, working with the UN bodies and Member States to enhance the effectiveness and reduce unintended consequences of coercive measures. She co-led the Targeted Sanctions Consortium, an international research initiative resulting in the creation of two new databases, a new online tool (SanctionsApp), and the book, Targeted Sanctions: The Impacts and Effectiveness of UN Action.

Since 2017, she consults with the World Bank on de-risking and financial access issues to address financial exclusion of humanitarian nonprofit organizations, based on her previous research, Financial Access for U.S. Nonprofits.