Belfer IGA Fellows 2009-2010
The Belfer International Global Affairs Fellowship Program prepares a community of high-achieving Harvard Kennedy School students to cultivate 21st century, global ideas. Belfer IGA creates an environment that fosters innovation in the modern international affairs arena. The Belfer Center provides Belfer IGA Fellows with strong analytical leadership skills necessary to excel in the global arena. With the completion of the program, the Belfer Center will impart to students the importance of community, service and leadership.
Francisco Aguilar is a Master's in Public Policy candidate at the Kennedy School and is originally from Costa Rica. Since graduating from undergraduate studies in government in 2005, Francisco has worked in energy markets and as a non-profit consultant. As an energy analyst, Francisco operated in de-regulated electricity markets primarily in the northeast United States. After three years in the private sector, Francisco joined the Bridgespan Group, a non-profit consultancy. In this role he advised leading non-profits and foundations on strategy, management, and operations. Over the summer before the 2009-2010 academic year, Francisco worked with a Maasai development and empowerment NGO in Kenya to develop income generation options for a community whose traditional livelihood has been threatened by climate change.
Ashley Asdale graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2009 with a B.S. in English. She has worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and most recently worked at the Commander's Action Group at U.S. Southern Command, providing specialized support for the General in charge. There, she researched military support of humanitarian aid delivery and health initiatives, specifically in Latin America. She has spent time abroad in Spain at the Spanish Naval Academy, and will join the Surface Warfare Officer community in the Navy after completion of her degree, serving as an officer aboard a destroyer, the Farragut, DDG-99. She is currently a candidate for a masters degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Carl Allen is a candidate in Public Policy and Urban Planning at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Graduate School of Design. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2004 with degrees in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. He has also worked as a consultant and engineer in Chicago with Trading Technologies, a derivatives trading software firm, and Fair Isaac Corporation. Allen later served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Northern Ghana, teaching mathematics for two years and working for a third year with the Carter Center and a number of other NGOs on household-level water treatment programs. In the summer of 2009, Carl worked for the Presidential Office for the Millennium Development Goals in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, performing research on the city's new Metro system.
Randy Bell is a New York-based independent filmmaker and a Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. In the summer of 2009 he interned with the International Crisis Group in Islamabad, Pakistan, working on policy reports about political and economic reform in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and police and justice system reform. For the 2009 - 2010 academic year, he is a Film Study Center Harvard Fellow, where he will be completing a long-term documentary film about a group of orphans growing up in the slums of Nairobi. Bell's documentary films, which explore subjects such as American popular music, the AIDS orphan crisis in Kenya, and the Armenian Genocide, have won awards and been honored by the Cleveland International Film Festival, the New England Film and Video Festival, the Ivy Film Festival, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the African Studies Association, and Harvard University. He contributes video work to WSJ. Magazine online, and a new music video he made for the indie rock band Bishop Allen premieres on MTV2 in October 2009.
Josh Drake worked for the U.S. Department of State from 2004 to 2009 in support of American political, security, and humanitarian policies and programs for Africa. During that time, Drake designed and managed over $400 million in contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements to stabilize and transform Sudan. He coordinated these efforts closely across the U.S. Government, with international organizations, foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and key business. In Uganda, he served as a political officer in the American Embassy in Kampala, traveling regularly throughout the country. Drake has additional experience in domestic renewable energy policy and advocacy. Drake is a current candidate for a Masters degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Sayce Falk is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University with a B.A. in Economics. From 2005 to 2009, he served as an infantry officer in the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment. He deployed twice to Iraq, as a platoon commander and company executive officer, and took part in combat operations, security force training, and community reconstruction while there. His interests within the HKS community include macroeconomics, national and international security, the Harvard Kennedy School Citizen, and rugby. He is currently a candidate for a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Charles Gomez graduated from Duke University with a BSE in Physics, Philosophy and Electrical Engineering and with an MS from an Applied Physics doctoral program at Columbia University. Gomez worked for Accenture, a management and IT consultancy, where he was a member of a development team that was involved with new business intelligence platforms. He has also assisted with non-profit ventures such as a student-centered collaboration wiki for career and resume advice called studentwikiresume.com. This summer, Gomez worked for the Program on Networked Governance (PNG), where he used agent-based modeling to examine the interplay between network architecture and diversity of perspectives in complex problem spaces. His interests include complex-adaptive systems, organizational architecture and computer simulations. Gomez is currently a candidate for a Masters degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Naima Green is a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, which places her on track to become a Foreign Service officer upon completion of her Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. After spending her middle and high school years in Cairo, Egypt, she attended Stanford University where she received a degree in International Relations with Honors. Naima speaks Zulu and Arabic, and has also studied Spanish. She is interested in the intersection of culture and diplomacy, especially in Africa, and plans to work in public affairs and public diplomacy at the State Department. Last summer, Naima worked on U.S. political, public affairs, and military collaboration with the African Union at the U.S. Mission to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Between problem sets and memos at the Kennedy School, Naima has spent her time working with Professor Samantha Power on a campaign surrounding her book, Chasing the Flame, and serving as co-chair for the 2009 and 2010 Black Policy Conferences.
Emily Janoch graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in 2005 with a BA in International Studies and a minor in French. After her graduation, she moved to Mali, where she worked as a Peace Corps Health Education Volunteer, teaching health and hygiene to women in a small rural village, and nutritional monitoring techniques to health workers in the area. After two years in the village, she moved to the capital city where she worked with CARE International's national health project to design and implement training programs to help community members take charge of and manage their own health clinics. She also worked extensively on developing new Peace Corps training methods for the health sector in Mali. Emily's primary interest is working to increase the effectiveness of civil society organizations in Africa in order to empower communities that receive aid to make decisions about their own development needs. She is also interested in the United Nations system, and the accountability of large transnational aid organizations. She is currently a candidate for a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Carla Laroche graduated Princeton University with a BA in History. Before enrolling at HKS, Ms. Laroche volunteered as a teacher in Tanzania, worked at a charter school in Harlem and then became a Court Representative at the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services. She spent this past summer in Zimbabwe interning at International Bridges to Justice. She plans to graduate with a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a JD from Columbia Law School as a joint degree student.
Ewan MacDougall was born and raised in New York City. He attended Yale as an undergraduate where he studied Grand Strategy and spent his summers completing Officer Candidate School for the United States Marine Corps and interning as a research assistant at the Naval War College in Newport, RI. He graduated with a BA in History in 2003, whereupon he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. Ewan served as an infantry officer for five years, deploying three times with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. Assignments included platoon commander in Ramadi, Iraq; officer of the guard at the Government Center in al-Anbar; training Filipino Marines; a friendship building exercise with the Chinese; and setting up medical, dental, security training in the Maldives. After a tour as an executive officer, he was promoted to captain and then left the service to attend the Kennedy School as a Belfer IGA Fellow. Ewan spent the summer of 2009 in Afghanistan embedded with the Kapisa Province PRT and the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade researching the relationship between development and security in a counterinsurgent environment and the structure and functioning of the provincial reconstruction team model.
Shamis Mohamud was an intern at the State Department's Office of East African Affairs, primarily on issues relating to Kenya and the Comoros. She recently spent the summer interning in the Ambassador's office at the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. She is Somali-American, and has a great interest in East African political and social development. She is a Pickering Fellow, which will place her on track to become a Foreign Service officer upon completion of her Masters degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, Ms. Mohamud was an intern at the State Department's East Africa Office, primarily working on issues relating to Kenya and the Comoros. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
Lindsey Robinson graduated from the US Air Force Academy with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. She cofounded the Academy's chapter of Engineers Without Borders and set up projects for students to apply appropriate technology to development challenges. Through Harvard Kennedy School's Public Policy program, Lindsey hopes to further pursue the role of engineering in humanitarian projects, especially those related to energy.
Nadia Naviwala came to the Kennedy School from the U.S. Senate, where she served as a Legislative Aide on National Security for a member of Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her professional experience includes work with the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Committee for UNDP, and a prominent government relations firm. She has lived in Pakistan and traveled there frequently, as well as spending significant time in Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Lebanon. During the summer of 2009, Ms. Naviwala worked for The Citizens Foundation, Pakistan's largest schools-building NGO. Ms. Naviwala received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Jacob Stefanik is currently a candidate for a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He previously served as Counselor for North American Affairs at the World Bank, where he was responsible for the Bank's external affairs, strategy and outreach among U.S. policy-makers in the legislative and executive branches. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Stefanik served as the Director for Legislative Affairs for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, overseeing all legislative activity and interaction with the U.S. Congress. Over this past summer Stefanik interned at the World Food Programme (WFP) headquarters in Rome, Italy, where he undertook an in-depth review of WFP's program information management process, proposing specific policy recommendations to improve the monitoring and evaluation process. Stefanik spent nine years living and studying in Mexico, in addition to serving as a translator for volunteer teams implementing health projects. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Spanish from Oregon State University, and holds a certificate in International Development from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Alvin Sheng Hui Tan is a Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. This summer, Tan worked in the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General in New York on Global Health, Biotechnology, Climate Change and a Global Impact & Vulnerability Alert System, a project he continues to work on from Cambridge. Tan has served as a Captain in an armoured battalion in the Singapore Armed Forces, and a defence analyst at the Ministry of Defence, where he specialized in counterterrorism, pandemics, peacekeeping, and humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Tan was also a speechwriter for a Member of Parliament in Singapore, and worked on poverty, health and education issues at the legislative and grassroots level. Tan graduated with First Class Honours in Economics from the University of Sydney on a Singapore government scholarship, and was awarded the 2008 Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship for his studies at Harvard.
Jingyi Zhang graduated from Peking University with honors in Economics and Spanish Language & Literature in 2009. She is currently a MPP candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. Jingyi speaks Mandarin, English and Spanish, and studies international relations between the US, China, and Latin America. During a year off during her undergraduate studies, she did hands-on research with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations (ECLAC) in Chile. She also analyzed Chinese investment in Latin America as an intern with Inter-American Dialogue, a think-tank based in Washington D.C.
