Environmental Policy Graduate Fellowship Program
Becca GillespieCarnegie Mellon University, H. John Heinz III College of Public Policy and Management
Ministry of the Environment (Quito, Ecuador)
Becca Gillespie graduated from Princeton University in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. From there, she started work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Propulsion Branch. At NASA, Becca helped complete the design, build and test phases of the Solar Dynamics Observatory Propulsion System. In 2008 she went to teach at the only Chuj-Spanish bilingual high-school in San Mateo Ixtatán, Guatemala called Seeds of Knowledge School (Yinhatil Nab’en). There she taught Math and Physics to high-school-aged students who were studying to become elementary school teachers in the Chuj-Maya region.
In 2009 she returned to the U.S. to pursue her interest in public policy. Before returning to graduate school she worked again at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; this time as a Technology Transfer Engineer, cataloging NASA inventions helping to decide which technologies should be patented for further commercial pursuit. In 2010 she started at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College as candidate for a Masters in Public Policy and Management. There, Becca is concentrating in Environmental Policy.
In 2009 she returned to the U.S. to pursue her interest in public policy. Before returning to graduate school she worked again at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; this time as a Technology Transfer Engineer, cataloging NASA inventions helping to decide which technologies should be patented for further commercial pursuit. In 2010 she started at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College as candidate for a Masters in Public Policy and Management. There, Becca is concentrating in Environmental Policy.
Logan D. A. WilliamsRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
United Nations Environment Programme (Nairobi, Kenya)
Logan D. A. Williams is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Science and Technology Studies department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (expected graduation May 2013). Logan graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2004 from Iowa State University, where she interned for Chevron-Phillips Chemical Company in Texas and IBM in Minnesota and Ireland. As an undergraduate she wrote a paper on alternative energy for microelectromechanical systems that was subsequently published in Colorado Engineer Magazine while she was a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder. There her master’s thesis (2008) was the design of a novel ultrasound imaging system for opaque microfluidics.
Also during 2008 and 2009, Logan was involved with the Buy Local Open Source project (sponsored by the Rensselaer Center for Open Source Software), where she worked with Professor Ron B. Eglash to manage undergraduate students writing open-source code for a website that was custom designed to facilitate the advertisement and sale of locally owned and/or produced products and services. This advocacy of local consumption is one way to encourage individuals to reduce their carbon footprint, but real sustainability will require changes at different scales. Logan has also worked with Professor David J. Hess and seven other graduate students in 2010 to produce the white paper “Building Clean Energy Industries and Green Jobs”, which surveys state and city “supply-side” policies that are supporting the creation of green businesses, especially for clean energy, around the U.S.A.
As a graduate student at Rensselaer, Logan's creativity, leadership, and responsibility has been recognized with the Founder's Award of Excellence in 2010.
Madeline Knaup
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
United Nations Development Program (New York, NY)
Madeline is currently working towards her Master of International Affairs concentrating in Energy and the Environment at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, which she expects to receive in May 2012. She is specializing in Applied Sciences and is particularly interested in environmental justice, equitable sustainable development, and environmental education. Madeline is involved on campus as a member of the Student Advisory Council to the Earth Institute, a founding member of the International Environmental Policy Association, and an Executive Board member of Columbia University’s inaugural Solar Decathlon 2013 Team.
While pursuing her B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, Madeline gained experience in a variety of international affairs settings. She interned at Teachers Without Borders to help marginalized communities gain access to education, received a grant to teach at a school for at-risk youth in Ghana, and researched conflict prevention in Africa as an intern at the United Nations Department of Political Affairs. It was at the UN that Madeline first became interested in the environmental aspect of international affairs due to the reoccurring pattern of environmental circumstances threatening security. After graduating cum laude, Madeline went to work as Field Organizer for a major political campaign and then received a grant from the Ministry of Education in Spain to integrate English into the curriculum at a public primary school in Madrid.
Madeline is enthusiastic about her work with the United Nations Development Program’s Environment and Energy Group and Gender Team.
Vidia Paramita
Cornell University
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Geneva, Switzerland)
Vidia Paramita is an Environmental Graduate Fellow at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. She graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering. Her interest in sustainable energy system brought her to pursue a Master's degree at Cornell University, where she works on conducting a life cycle analysis of algal biofuel to assess potential production pathways and their impacts on the environment. She will complete the degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Environmental Processes in August 2011 before leaving for Geneva.
Originally coming from Indonesia, she has an interest in renewable energy development and environmental management in the context of developing countries, especially in the Southeast Asia region. She volunteers for the World Resources Institute to provide information from local news on palm oil development and forest management policies in Indonesia. She hopes to gain a broader perspective of global collaboration in dealing with environmental issues while working at IPCC.
Jillian Cohen
Cornell University
European Environment Agency (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Jillian Cohen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, where she obtained a master of science degree in 2009. For her dissertation research, she studies how plant invasions affect aquatic food webs. Prior to her studies at Cornell, Jillian studied environmental science at McGill University and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 2006. She has worked at the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders in Rockville, Maryland, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, and Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. Jillian is interested in ecological restoration, with a particular focus on invasive species management. She will work on invasive species policy during her fellowship at the European Environment Agency.
Casey Garland
Cornell University
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Panamá, Panamá)
Casey Garland is an Environmental Graduate Fellow at La Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente in Panama. She is currently working towards a Master of Science in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. Her interests in water-borne pathogens have led her to projects in Chile and Ethiopia. She is an active member of Alpha Epsilon and works with Community Building Works building sustainable, green housing in New York State and abroad.
Casey graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina State University in May 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering with an Environmental concentration. She was awarded Engineering Senior Awards in Humanities and Outstanding Design Team (Member). For her capstone design project, she worked with a team designing a system to monitor groundwater contaminants with high spatial and temporal resolution. While at NC State she also worked in research and extension with local farmers, was involved with the International Student Program, and participated in cultural programs in India and Turkey. She has also worked with the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in biodiversity research.
Michaela TerAvest
Cornell University
Ministry of the Environment (Reykjavik, Iceland)
Michaela is from Michigan and received an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 2008. She is now finishing her second year in the MS/PhD program in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She is studying the application of microbial fuel cells in bioenergy and environmental monitoring, with an eye toward renewable energy and environmental protection. She is interested in bringing together science, engineering and policy to work on issues of energy and sustainability.
Michaela will be starting her placement in Reykjavik, Iceland with the Ministry for the Environment in mid-September. She will be working with the Environment Agency on environmental information management. As an aspiring scientist, Michaela is excited to learn more about the policy side of environmental protection and about how scientists and policy-makers can work together to make a big impact. She is excited to see how Iceland’s immense geothermal resources affect environmental policy and to observe the role of women in government in one of the most gender-equal nations in the world.
Gender and Public Policy Graduate Fellowship Program
Sara Hahn
Columbia University, School of Social Work
Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Sara Hahn is a graduate student at Columbia University, where she is studying for a M.S. in Social Work with a focus in International Social Welfare. She spent this past year as a social work intern in Harlem Hospital's Infectious Disease Unit, providing case management support to HIV-positive clients. Prior to graduate school, Sara lived in Jerusalem for one year and volunteered as a facilitator at Encounter, an educational organization that facilitates exchanges between Jews and Palestinians.
Sara spent three years working as a communications associate at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an international development organization that works to alleviate hunger, poverty and disease in the developing world. She has also lived in Mumbai, India, where she worked for Point of View, a women's advocacy organization. Sara graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, San Diego, in 2005 with a degree in Literature and Middle East Studies.
Natalia OviedoColumbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
Club of Madrid (Madrid, Spain)
Natalia Oviedo is a Masters of International Affairs student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Her concentration is in Economic and Political Development. Growing up in Colombia – a country overwhelmed by socio-economic problems – allowed her to gain awareness of the challenges that vulnerable people, particularly women are facing. It was a natural path for her to go into social and economic development.
Prior to attending SIPA, Natalia worked closely with foreign governments, domestic non-governmental organizations, senatorial election campaigns and the public sector within the context of the Colombian peace building process, while also being a volunteer in Children’s International Summer Villages , an international organization promoting peace education. She has an undergraduate degree in economics from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia.
Tanya Gassenheimer
Columbia University, School of Social Work
Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (Santiago, Chile)
Tanya Gassenheimer is a graduate student at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, pursuing her Master’s in Social Work in Advanced Generalist Programming and Practice with a focus on geriatrics. She recently completed her first year internship at the Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project, where she provided supportive counseling, case management, safety planning, and legal advocacy to victims of intimate partner domestic violence.
She came to graduate school after completing her undergraduate degree at Georgetown University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Spanish and Sociology with a concentration in Social Justice Analysis and a minor in German. She also hopes to pursue a law degree.
Tanya has maintained a longstanding commitment to the pursuit of social justice, a path she began in high school through school clubs and community involvement. In college, she completed a year-long thesis, researching the national poverty measure and the impact of Perry School Community Services, Inc. in eradicating poverty in the 47th Census Tract of Washington, DC. She also was involved in two presidential campaigns, an Alternative Spring Break trip to TN, Relay for Life, and Pride, Georgetown’s LGBT awareness group.
Tanya has been afforded many opportunities to travel in various capacities, including an exchange program to Germany, a semester abroad in Madrid, and a summer service trip to Santiago, during which time she taught a dance class to women of an impoverished community. She is ecstatic to be able to return to Santiago and is eager to work at Servicio Nacional de la Mujer.
Jennifer Lee
Columbia University, School of Social Work
The FW de Klerk Foundation (Cape Town, South Africa)
Jennifer Lee is a Management Fellow concentrating in International Social Welfare and Social Policy at the Columbia University School of Social Work. After receiving her B.A. in International Letters and Visual Studies from Tufts University in 2003, and her M.Ed. in Risk and Prevention with an Early Childhood focus from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2006, Jennifer began working for the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence in Boston, MA where she developed the Children’s Program and provided advocacy, counseling, and other various services to Asian immigrants and refugees.
Jennifer also has extensive experience in the corporate sector, having managed the business development division of Evidence Based Psychology LLC, a boutique consultancy specializing in emotional intelligence, organizational psychology, leadership, and executive coaching. Alongside her studies, Jennifer is currently interning with the Youth Development Office of the New York City Department of Education. Among other projects, she is developing a peace building curriculum that will connect students in Accra, Ghana with students in the Bronx, NY.
Jennifer’s professional and academic interests include child welfare/protection, intergenerational trauma related to violence and conflict, peace building in post-conflict regions, social welfare system development, comparative social work practice, education, and global governance.
Ria Rodney
Columbia University, School of Social Work
Minister of Human Services & Social Security (Georgetown, Guyana)
Ria completed her undergraduate education at The College of New Jersey in Ewing (TCNJ), where she studied Sociology and Women’s & Gender Studies. During this time, she utilized her skills in community organizing by becoming very involved with on and off-campus organizations focused on raising awareness of gender inequality.
Her previous intern and volunteer experience includes working for Womanspace Inc. of Mercer County (a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault), participating in Women In Learning & Leadership (WILL), the women’s organization of TCNJ, and serving as a Peer Educator for TCNJ Office of Anti-Violence Initiatives by facilitating primary prevention programs related to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
Ria has recently completed her second year at Columbia University where she studied Social Enterprise Administration and Public Policy at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her areas of research and work are addressing gender inequalities and maternal mortality within public health. Ria considers herself an experienced traveler, having visited Australia, Europe, and many islands in the Caribbean; including her parent’s homeland of Jamaica. She is looking forward to putting her advocacy skills to work this summer at the Department of Human Services in Georgetown, Guyana.
Maggie Pavelka
Carnegie Mellon University, H. John Heinz III College of Public Policy and Management
The Council of Women World Leaders (Washington, DC)
Maggie Pavelka is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, pursuing a Master’s of Science in Public Policy and Management with a focus on international development and policy analysis. She has accepted the 2011-2012 Graduate Fellowship with USAID, where she will complete the second year of her graduate degree in Washington DC. She also conducted timely research with CMU Biotechnology and Management program Director, Professor James Jordan, on a working paper calling for a national discussion on innovation, its inclusion of commercialization, current funding channels and the standardization of evaluation methods and schedules.
Prior to her graduate studies, Maggie worked for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for two years in event coordination, advocacy and strategic planning. She then served as a Rural Health volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. During her service, she constructed a rural health facility in collaboration with World Vision and USAID, making basic health care and education available to more than 8,000 rural Senegalese.
Her professional and academic interests include gender issues in security and economic development, governance and management in post-conflict areas, implementation and evaluation standards of humanitarian assistance programs, social innovation and its impact on critical populations the geographic focused on the region of eastern Africa.
Maggie is a native Nebraskan and graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Journalism in Advertising.
Nafessa Kassim
Columbia University, School of Social Work
Albright Stonebridge Group (Washington, DC)
Nafessa Kassim recently completed a dual master's degree (MPH/MSW) at Columbia University in the Mailman School of Public Health concentrating on Forced Migration, and the School of Social Work focused on International Social Enterprise and Administration, with a minor in Law. During her time at Columbia, she developed and implemented an evaluation tool for Save the Children, which assessed the long-term impact of microfinance programs on the well being of children after the Indonesian Tsunami. Nafessa's thesis further focused on the need for using social indicators in evaluating economic development programs to understand both economic outcomes and community impact.
Following her BA in Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, Nafessa was selected for the prestigious William J. Clinton American India Foundation fellowship program to work with the LEPRA Society in Hyderabad, India. As a fellow, she developed a skills-based livelihood program for widowed HIV positive women and worked to decrease the stigma of HIV/AIDS in government hospitals and communities. Independently from her fellowship, Nafessa helped create awareness about domestic violence and other social issues in Hyderabad through a controversial play, which she was assistant director, producer, and lead actress.
Nafessa’s previous work experience also includes grants and programming at charity: water, advocacy for sexual assault victims and a court advocate for incarcerated and previously incarcerated youth. She speaks Spanish and Hindi.
Allison Thomas
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University
UNICEF (New York, New York)
Allison Thomas is a 2012 Master of Science in Foreign Service degree candidate at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She is concentrating in International Development, with a certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies. As an undergraduate at Yale University, Allison double-majored in Psychology and International Studies, with a focus on intergroup relations and ethnic conflict. Her other academic and professional interests include health rights and healthcare, international children’s welfare, and gender and women’s issues.
During her undergraduate years she wrote sex and health education curricula for local public high schools, tutored bilingual inner-city elementary school students, and helped found a student organization to foster cross-cultural dialogue on women’s issues in the Middle East. After graduating in 2009, Allison received the United States Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Advanced Turkish in Istanbul. Upon her return to the U.S. she spent a year working as a pediatric medical assistant. She is proficient in Spanish, French, and Turkish, and is in the elementary stage of Arabic. She is thrilled to be a Fellow at the United Nations Children’s Fund this summer.
Alexandra dos Reis Stefanopoulos
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
The World Economic Forum (Geneva, Switzerland)
Alexandra dos Reis Stefanopoulos will be a second year Master of International Affairs student at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in the fall. Her focused area of study is political and economic development, with a concentration in gender studies. Alexandra is seeking to gain experience in the area of women's participation in peace processes in post-conflict areas.
Prior to attending SIPA, Alexandra worked in the field of international development in Malawi, and in conflict prevention and women's safety for two INGOs based in Montreal. She attained her B.Com in International Management in 2008 from the University of Ottawa.
She has significant experience working on the development of dialogues strategies in different fields principally between employers and workers, and also between women groups and government. She has participated in international conferences promoting social rights and conflict resolutions strategies. Paula has a Bachelor degree in Psychology and a Master degree in Economic and Regional Development in Chile, as well.
Dionne Jirachaikitti
Dionne graduated from the UC Berkeley in 2009 with a B.A. in Public Health and a minor in Asian American Studies. Dionne is a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow and has served on the boards of the University of California Students Association and the United States Students Association.
Tiffany Clarke
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
Ministry of Health (Apia, Samoa)
Tiffany Clarke is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, concentrating in Health and Social Behavior. Next year, she will also begin studies toward a Master of Public Policy at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy. After graduating from Columbia University in 2006 with a BA in English, she spent over two years working in the office of the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she cultivated her interests in public health and public policy.
Charmaine Crabaugh
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström (New York, New York)
A native Midwesterner, Charmaine graduated from Oberlin College in 2006 with a BA in biology. Following graduation, she worked with a malaria research group conducting drug discovery and biochemical research on P. falciparum at the University of California - San Francisco as a research assistant. From that, she transitioned into legal support with Farella Braun Martel & LLP in intellectual property litigation. Much of her work focused on pharmaceutical company litigation, and she also volunteered extensively with San Francisco Women Against Rape during this time. Charmaine has a Masters in public health in health policy from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Charmaine would like to work in the intersection of policy and science. She would like to promote understanding and prioritization of issues such as sexualized violence, mental health, and gender equity. She is also particularly interested in regional health disparities in the United States, rural health issues, and pharmaceutical policy. Charmaine was a 2010 Council of Women World Leaders’ Public Health Policy Fellow where she worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Zeenah Haddad
Harvard University School of Public Health
World Health Organization, Department of Public Health and Environment Gender Focal Point (Geneva, Switzerland)
Zeenah Haddad is a second year Masters Student in Harvard School of Public Health in the department of Society, Human Development and Health, concentrating in Health Communication as well as Women, Gender and Health. She is the recipient of the Joint Japan / World Bank Graduate Scholarship.
Prior to coming to the U.S. for a graduate degree, Zeenah worked in various non-governmental, non-for-profit organizations around the Kingdom of Jordan. Her experience varies from tackling issues related to poverty and development in rural areas, to behavioral changing in discrimination and in health. One of her widely acknowledged accomplishments is the creation of the Jordan Breast Cancer emblem.
Surabhi Joshi
Shirin Kakayeva
Mignon Lamia
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Ministry of Health and Medical Services (Tarawa, Kiribati)
Mignon Lamia will graduate from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in December 2011, with an MPH in Health Policy. After completing a BA in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in 2006, Mignon worked for two years as an Associate Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily newspaper, primarily covering the United Nations headquarters in New York. Following this brief stint in journalism, which only deepened her interest in international health and human rights advocacy, Mignon worked as an Associate in the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, before beginning her studies in Public Health at the Mailman School. She has since worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, conducting data analysis to support research on prison health conditions in Uganda. Mignon is thrilled to be working with the Kiribati Ministry of Health and Medical Services as a Public Health Policy Fellow this summer.
Swetha Manohar
Elisaveta Petkova
Elizabeth Stierman
Erica Trauba
Rachel Vanderkruik
Paula Narvaez
Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
UN Women (New York, NY)
Paula is completing her Master in Latin America Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. After she had worked during 14 years in the Chilean Government, she decided to move to the U.S for studying an important field for her: Government and Conflict Resolution. She also has relevant experience working in gender issues; for 8 years she worked at Servicio Nacional de la Mujer, the Women Ministry in Chile, where she applied her professional skills to improve the social women conditions, to develop women leadership trainings and to promote strategies against women violence.
She has significant experience working on the development of dialogues strategies in different fields principally between employers and workers, and also between women groups and government. She has participated in international conferences promoting social rights and conflict resolutions strategies. Paula has a Bachelor degree in Psychology and a Master degree in Economic and Regional Development in Chile, as well.
Public Health Policy Graduate Fellowship Program
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research (Geneva, Switzerland)
Dionne Jirachaikitti is a first year in the Masters of Public Health and Masters of Public Policy program at UC Berkeley. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Dionne worked to support families of immigrant youth in the juvenile justice system and promote anti-violence in Bay Area schools. She has also worked on promoting the health of immigrant API communities through policy at the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum and community health at Tiburcio Vasquez Community Health Center.
Dionne graduated from the UC Berkeley in 2009 with a B.A. in Public Health and a minor in Asian American Studies. Dionne is a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow and has served on the boards of the University of California Students Association and the United States Students Association.
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
Ministry of Health (Apia, Samoa)
Tiffany Clarke is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, concentrating in Health and Social Behavior. Next year, she will also begin studies toward a Master of Public Policy at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy. After graduating from Columbia University in 2006 with a BA in English, she spent over two years working in the office of the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she cultivated her interests in public health and public policy.
In addition to her coursework, Tiffany is currently participating in the early stages of research studying the association between the experience of race and health among African American women. She is also a graduate student assistant with the UC Berkeley Center for Health Leadership. Tiffany is grateful for the opportunity to work at the Ministry of Health in Samoa in the Health Promotion and Preventive Services Division. She plans to dedicate her efforts to improving the health of communities both domestically and internationally.
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström (New York, New York)
A native Midwesterner, Charmaine graduated from Oberlin College in 2006 with a BA in biology. Following graduation, she worked with a malaria research group conducting drug discovery and biochemical research on P. falciparum at the University of California - San Francisco as a research assistant. From that, she transitioned into legal support with Farella Braun Martel & LLP in intellectual property litigation. Much of her work focused on pharmaceutical company litigation, and she also volunteered extensively with San Francisco Women Against Rape during this time. Charmaine has a Masters in public health in health policy from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Charmaine would like to work in the intersection of policy and science. She would like to promote understanding and prioritization of issues such as sexualized violence, mental health, and gender equity. She is also particularly interested in regional health disparities in the United States, rural health issues, and pharmaceutical policy. Charmaine was a 2010 Council of Women World Leaders’ Public Health Policy Fellow where she worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Harvard University School of Public Health
World Health Organization, Department of Public Health and Environment Gender Focal Point (Geneva, Switzerland)
Zeenah Haddad is a second year Masters Student in Harvard School of Public Health in the department of Society, Human Development and Health, concentrating in Health Communication as well as Women, Gender and Health. She is the recipient of the Joint Japan / World Bank Graduate Scholarship.
Prior to coming to the U.S. for a graduate degree, Zeenah worked in various non-governmental, non-for-profit organizations around the Kingdom of Jordan. Her experience varies from tackling issues related to poverty and development in rural areas, to behavioral changing in discrimination and in health. One of her widely acknowledged accomplishments is the creation of the Jordan Breast Cancer emblem.
Zeenah was also an active community service volunteer, as she trained the Jordanian swimming Special Olympics team, and worked for the Directorate of Public Security / Traffic Control as a civilian traffic controller. She was also an avid promoter of youth volunteerism and an international marathon organizing consultant. Zeenah, a Jordanian national, received her Bachelor’s degree of Science in Pharmacy from the Jordan University of Science and Technology in early 2004. She also has a certificate in International Relations and Diplomacy from Al Balqa’ University / Princess Alia University College.
Juveeza Chadha
Harvard University School of Public Health
Harvard University School of Public Health
Ministry of Health (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
Juveeza Chadha, a medical doctor and economist from Sweden, is a 2011 candidate for a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health. Born in Stockholm to Indian parents, Juveeza grew up in Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Tanzania with a strong interest in humanitarian issues and international development. This led her to work at the World Health Organization in Geneva, UNICEF in India, and Partners in Health in Boston, primarily on projects concerning HIV/AIDS policy in resource-constrained settings. During her time as a medical student in Uppsala, Sweden, Juveeza was selected to study abroad at Oxford University and was granted a SIDA-funded scholarship to research antiretroviral treatment delivery by international NGOs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
For the year directly prior to her studies at Harvard, Juveeza worked on a community healthcare model to provide and strengthen existing primary health services for villages in rural Punjab in northern India. As a part of her MPH degree practicum project, she is currently researching the role of local state response in humanitarian aid management at the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. Juveeza speaks four languages and has travelled to over forty countries but has never been to East Asia: she is delighted to be posted at the Ministry of Health in Mongolia as a Public Health Policy fellow.
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
National Institute of Health and Welfare “STAKES” (Helsinki, Finland)
Surabhi Joshi is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Institute of Policy Studies, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where she is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar. Her specialization is in the Health Policy and Management.
She graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India in 2007 where she specialized in Urban and Rural Community Development. After graduating, Surabhi served as Technical Officer in the National AIDS Control Organization, Ministry of Health, Government of India in New Delhi. During this tenure, she helped establish Community Care Centers that aimed to provide care, support and treatment to HIV/AIDS affected people across the country.
She has worked with different international organizations which include INGO Timor Aid, Timor Leste; UNDP- Iraq; and Global Fund, Geneva. During this period she gained experience on health care, good governance and civic society. She is a recipient of the Government of Netherlands funded Fellowship on HIV/AIDS in 2009.
Surabhi has special interest in the area of improving equity in access and quality of health care systems across the countries. She considers the opportunity to be a Council of Women World Leaders Fellow as a great step towards building deeper understanding of international health policies.
Surabhi Joshi is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Institute of Policy Studies, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where she is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar. Her specialization is in the Health Policy and Management.
She graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India in 2007 where she specialized in Urban and Rural Community Development. After graduating, Surabhi served as Technical Officer in the National AIDS Control Organization, Ministry of Health, Government of India in New Delhi. During this tenure, she helped establish Community Care Centers that aimed to provide care, support and treatment to HIV/AIDS affected people across the country.
She has worked with different international organizations which include INGO Timor Aid, Timor Leste; UNDP- Iraq; and Global Fund, Geneva. During this period she gained experience on health care, good governance and civic society. She is a recipient of the Government of Netherlands funded Fellowship on HIV/AIDS in 2009.
Surabhi has special interest in the area of improving equity in access and quality of health care systems across the countries. She considers the opportunity to be a Council of Women World Leaders Fellow as a great step towards building deeper understanding of international health policies.
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ministry of Health & Prevention (Dakar, Senegal)
Ministry of Health & Prevention (Dakar, Senegal)
Shirin Kakayeva will be working at the Ministry of Health and Prevention in Dakar, Senegal. She is pursuing her Master of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in International Health from Bloomberg School of Public Health. Originally from Turkmenistan, a post-Soviet country in Central Asia, she is interested in building partnerships of civil society groups with public agencies to deliver health services in low and middle-income countries.
She currently is a research assistant for the Center of Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University. At the same time she assists with the GLOBUS evaluation study of HIV prevention programs among marginalized populations in Russia conducted by Bloomberg’s Center of Public Health and Human Rights.
She currently is a research assistant for the Center of Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University. At the same time she assists with the GLOBUS evaluation study of HIV prevention programs among marginalized populations in Russia conducted by Bloomberg’s Center of Public Health and Human Rights.
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Ministry of Health and Medical Services (Tarawa, Kiribati)
Mignon Lamia will graduate from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in December 2011, with an MPH in Health Policy. After completing a BA in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in 2006, Mignon worked for two years as an Associate Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily newspaper, primarily covering the United Nations headquarters in New York. Following this brief stint in journalism, which only deepened her interest in international health and human rights advocacy, Mignon worked as an Associate in the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, before beginning her studies in Public Health at the Mailman School. She has since worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, conducting data analysis to support research on prison health conditions in Uganda. Mignon is thrilled to be working with the Kiribati Ministry of Health and Medical Services as a Public Health Policy Fellow this summer.
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ministerial Leadership Initiative (Washington, DC)
Swetha Manohar completed her MSPH at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in International Nutrition with a focus on Human Nutrition. Swetha was born in Singapore and has since lived in Bahrain, Malaysia and the United States. She completed her BS in Human Nutrition at UMass, Amherst following which she completed a dietetic internship through the University of Maryland, College Park to become a Registered Dietitian. She has worked as a Clinical Dietitian at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center providing medical nutrition therapy to a varied patient population from general medicine to pediatric to oncology patients.
More recently, Swetha spent time in Vietnam working with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as part of the M&E team for the Gates Foundation funded Alive & Thrive Initiative which seeks to improve child under-nutrition through improving infant and child feeding practices. She has also provided research support to Johns Hopkins faculty on the ‘Interactions of Malnutrition & Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development’ (MAL-ED) study as well as to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) on sampling methods to use in their research on urban refugee populations.
More recently, Swetha spent time in Vietnam working with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as part of the M&E team for the Gates Foundation funded Alive & Thrive Initiative which seeks to improve child under-nutrition through improving infant and child feeding practices. She has also provided research support to Johns Hopkins faculty on the ‘Interactions of Malnutrition & Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development’ (MAL-ED) study as well as to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) on sampling methods to use in their research on urban refugee populations.
Swetha hopes to focus her work in public health on addressing widespread malnutrition & adverse health outcomes in populations inflicted by poverty and/or experiencing human rights violations using evidence-based interventions.
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
Federal Ministry of Health (Berlin, Germany)
Elisaveta Petkova is a Doctor of Public Health candidate in Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Her current research is focused on the morbidity and mortality impacts of urban air pollution and temperature extremes.
Previously, she has served as a consultant and project manager on a variety of initiatives related to public and occupational health risk assessment, communication and management. She is also holds a Master of Public Health degree in Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota. After graduation, Elisaveta plans to pursue a career in international environmental and health policy. She is thrilled to be a Public Health Policy Fellow at the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin, Germany.
Elisaveta Petkova is a Doctor of Public Health candidate in Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Her current research is focused on the morbidity and mortality impacts of urban air pollution and temperature extremes.
Previously, she has served as a consultant and project manager on a variety of initiatives related to public and occupational health risk assessment, communication and management. She is also holds a Master of Public Health degree in Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota. After graduation, Elisaveta plans to pursue a career in international environmental and health policy. She is thrilled to be a Public Health Policy Fellow at the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin, Germany.
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
World Health Organization, Department of Public Health and Environment Gender Focal Point (Geneva, Switzerland)
Elizabeth Stierman is a Masters in Public Health students at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she is focusing her studies on international health systems and financing, with a particular interest in primary health care in low-resource settings.
Prior to her graduate studies, Elizabeth served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia where she worked closely with a local NGO on their “Healthy Homes” initiative. She led a successful pilot sanitation project, training community members in the construction of ecological latrines and rainwater catchment tanks, and worked alongside the team’s health educator to educate families about disease prevention and environmental hygiene.
World Health Organization, Department of Public Health and Environment Gender Focal Point (Geneva, Switzerland)
Elizabeth Stierman is a Masters in Public Health students at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she is focusing her studies on international health systems and financing, with a particular interest in primary health care in low-resource settings.
Prior to her graduate studies, Elizabeth served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia where she worked closely with a local NGO on their “Healthy Homes” initiative. She led a successful pilot sanitation project, training community members in the construction of ecological latrines and rainwater catchment tanks, and worked alongside the team’s health educator to educate families about disease prevention and environmental hygiene.
After her Peace Corps service, Elizabeth worked with a HIV Counseling and Testing Center in northern Uganda, providing technical support in health promotion and helping to develop a marketing strategy to better target services towards high-risk populations. Additionally, Elizabeth has been involved with a number of community-based research studies, including projects in southern Peru, the U.S.-Mexico border region, and with Houston’s refugee community.
Elizabeth is a native Texan and graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and a minor in Spanish.
University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Monrovia, Liberia)
Erica Trauba is currently pursuing two Master’s degrees in Public Health and City Planning at the University of California – Berkeley, with emphases in health and social behavior and community development. Her career goal is to promote health in the developing world through participatory planning, equitable service delivery, and comprehensive policy design. She is passionate about studying and working to address disease prevention and health promotion challenges in resource-poor settings. Erica holds bachelor’s degrees in Human Biology and Development Studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Her undergraduate studies culminated with a senior thesis entitled, “Waste, Water, and Wellbeing: The Effect of a Healthy Environment on Development in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.”
Erica’s interest in West African health and development issues began after her sophomore year of college in 2005, when she first traveled to Bamako, Mali to conduct qualitative research on women’s social and cultural perceptions of HIV/AIDS. She fell in love with the country and returned to Bamako the following year to help found the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP) with close friends and many community leaders. Her experiences working with MHOP, a community-driven grassroots NGO, have greatly informed her educational and career path and established her interest in health and development issues in West Africa.
Domestically, Erica has worked as a clinical care outreach assistant at LifeLong Medical in East Oakland, California, as well as a refugee resettlement and health intern for the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City, UT. She has also interned with the organization WASTE, based in Gouda, the Netherlands. As part of the internship, Erica traveled to Bamako to work with a team of Malian researchers to elucidate the challenges of Bamako’s waste management system for inclusion in the UN-Habitat book, “Solid Waste Management in the World’s Cities.”
Erica has traveled to seven countries in West Africa and is excited to add Liberia to that list. She is fluent in French, and conversant in Bambara as well as Wolof. She is incredibly excited for the opportunity to work with the Ministry of Health in Monrovia this summer and feels fortunate to have been selected to participate in the Council of World Women Leaders’ 2011 MPH internship program.
Harvard University School of Public Health
World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland)
Rachel Vanderkruik is a Public Health Fellow at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Rachel graduated from Bowdoin College in 2007 where she majored in Biology and Psychology. Her junior year, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark where she attended the Medical Practice and Policy Program at DIS. Following graduation, she worked for 2 years as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, MA.
Rachel recently graduated from Harvard University`s School of Public Health with a Master’s of Science, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health (MCH), and Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention. She has a strong interest in promoting physical and mental wellbeing of children and women, and fostering gender equity. In her free time, Rachel enjoys playing sports, being outdoors, and reading.
