John Ifediora is President of the Council on African Security and Development. He previously held the position of Director and Editor-in-Chief at the council until July, 2020, and is currently on the faculty of New York University, Washington, DC, and  Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin.

He is a practicing  economist, and an International Human Rights lawyer with expertise on public policy analysis, law and economics, and development economics. In recent years he lectured widely in his fields of specialty at American University in Washington, DC, and various universities in the United States, Europe, and Africa; and has served as a consultant to governments in Africa, and to state governments in the United States. In 2019 he established and continues to direct two Dakota Wesleyan University offices in Nairobi and Abuja. In previous years he consulted for the World Bank on its Human Capital Project in Africa, advised the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on its Tax Incidence Study, served as a special consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and advised Illinois State Senate on the economic impact of the state lottery on the economy of Chicago. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Dakota Wesleyan University until 2019.