IDCE Fellows

Elizabeth Allen, ES&P (U.S) graduated from the University of Oregon in 2006 with dual degrees in biology and anthropology. She monitored wetland restoration projects in Oregon and collected marine fisheries data in the Bering Sea. She has traveled and volunteered in Tanzania and Nepal. For the past two years she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer at a school in rural Armenia where she worked to establish a community-led environmental monitoring project. Her primary research interests are fisheries and water resource conservation.

Cassie DeFillipo, IDSC (U.S) received her B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon Honors College in 2007. While in school, she studied abroad in South Korea, Italy, and Ghana. She returned to Ghana in 2008 to volunteer at a microfinance organization along with two Ghanaian-based nonprofit organizations that focused on access to education. Most recently, she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in Lewiston, Maine, where she worked at a housing development with Somali immigrants and refugee families by coordinating aspirations programs for the youth along with parental education opportunities with the goals of empowerment and acculturation. Her current research interests include education, sustainable resource development, refugee, and immigration issues, and Africa.

Hari Dhakal, CDP (Bhutan) is originally from Bhutan and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2009 after staying in the confirmed refugee camp for 20 years. He graduated with a degree in English from T. U Nepal. He is working to help newly arrived refugees (like himself) get adjusted to the main stream American society so that they become respected and contributing self sufficient members of this society.

David Eitelberg, GISDE (U.S.) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with B.A. in environmental studies and geography. While at UNC he was a decathlete on the track and field team, spent a summer abroad in Siberia, another in Ecuador and a semester at a biological research station in Highlands, North Carolina where he held an internship with the U.S. Forest Service studying upland peat bogs. After graduating he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua working on sustainable agriculture and food security projects, including integrated pest management and nontraditional sources of nutrition, through a rural coffee cooperative. His research interests include GIS applications for the social ecology of climate change and water resources.

Tung Huynh, ES&P (Vietnam) graduated from Stetson University (DeLand, Florida) this past May with a double major in environmental science (B.A.) and geography (B.S.) and a minor in international studies. As an undergraduate, his research interests included international environmental policy and sustainable development in economically marginalized countries. His senior research project assessed the sustainable development contribution aspect of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism through an analysis of registered CDM projects in Vietnam. Huynh has interned at the Volusia County Environmental Management (DeLand, Florida) and the Lyonia Environmental Center (Deltona, Florida). He was a member of Stetson University’s Greenhouse Gas Audit team and the co-author of the university’s 2009 GHG Audit. In addition, he’s a member of the Bonner Scholar Program, Phi Beta Kappa, and Omicron Delta Kappa.

Lori Johnson, GISDE (U.S.) received a B.S. in biology from SUNY Albany and an M.S. in conservation biology from Antioch University. Recently she has worked closely with the MA Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program doing research for the protection of rare reptiles, amphibians, and dragonflies. Prior to this she worked as a vegan chef for several years. Throughout these experiences her focus has been on advocating environmental sustainability. She is currently interested in integrating GIS and remote sensing techniques with her experience as a field biologist to promote biodiversity conservation.

Jenkins Macedo, IDSC (Liberia) spent fourteen years of his life as a Liberian refugee in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Ghana before coming to the U.S. in 2006. Before leaving Ghana, he served as program coordinator for RESPECT Ghana, and an associate of RESPECT International in Canada creating awareness and education about refugee issues. Throughout his life as a refugee in West Africa, he assisted refugee youth in gaining self-confidence and empowerment through skills training in creating social change. He earned his associate degree in agriculture education from the West African College for Sustainable Development in Accra, Ghana in 2006. Upon resettling in the U.S. he was matriculated at Worcester State College where he graduated in 2010 with a B.S. in sociology and geography with a concentration in environmental science. He was awarded the Colleges of Worcester Consortium Worcester State College 2010 Community Engagement Award for volunteering at the African Community Education Program (ACE) where he worked as a mentor and math instructor. Academically, his main research interest surrounds refugees’ issues such as local integration, warehousing refugees and sustainable development. In 2008, Jenkins was hired to become a part of the Bridging Barriers Research Project as a research assistant. He also has conducted quantitative research on the integration of Liberian refugees in local Ghanaian communities, environmental impacts of warehoused refugees in Ghana, geocoding the resident locations of students of the ACE program in the City of Worcester using GIS and a research project on the human impacts of the war in Iraq.

Emanuel Moss, IDSC (U.S.) received his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Since then he has worked as an archaeologist and GIS specialist throughout the U.S. in cultural resource management. He has worked on diverse development projects for various environmental consulting firms, as well as state and local agencies. His interests include globalization and development, environmental and cultural sustainability, and economic geography.

Heather Tomlins, IDSC (U.S.) spent five years in and around Missoula, Montana, as an AmeriCorps member, nonprofit organization development consultant, HIV/AIDS prevention program manager, and professional trainer and facilitator for community-based organizations and AmeriCorps programs. Her professional and academic interests revolve around linking organizational development practices, project evaluation, and non-traditional education and training methods. She is a very recently returned Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in the NGO development sector in the Republic of Macedonia (2007-2010). She received her B.A. in sociology from Vassar College in 2002.

Hanna Yatskevich, IDSC (Russia) graduated with a B.A. in economics from Purchase College. Her undergraduate work focused on the political economy of development and the impact of neoliberal globalization on women in developing world. She presented a research paper on neoliberalism and gender inequality in Thailand at NWSA conference in Ohio. In addition, she participated in a U.N. Practicum organized by the WILPF which allowed her to get an insider’s perspective on the challenges facing NGOs within the U.N. system and beyond. Yatskevich was born in Far East Russian and subsequently lived in Egypt, Syria, Belarus, and Hungary. She began her education in Minsk, Belarus but when the government closed down the university, she was forced to abandon her studies and after overcoming a number of obstacles was able to continue her intellectual pursuits at Purchase College.

CLASS OF 2011

Helaine Alon, ES&P (U.S) graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.A. in international health and development with a minor in anthropology. During her undergraduate studies, Alon was a student organizer around issues of international trade justice and global health. Most recently she worked in Israel with an NGO called Bustan, where she coordinated volunteers and assisted the Children’s Power Project, providing solar panels to Bedouin families who lacked access to electricity, all in order to care for the children’s health needs. Her research interests include environmental health, sustainable food systems, indigenous rights, and traditional medicine.

Patrick Bird, ES&P (U.S.) comes from Westminster, MA, a small town in north of Worcester. He received his B.S. from the University of Vermont in public recreation management in 2007. Bird has worked with the National Park Service at Cape Cod National Seashore as a park ranger, conducting public programs on the seashore’s natural and cultural resources. His interests include public land management, marine fisheries, and climate change. Bird is also a member of Massachusetts Power Shift, a non-partisan network of young professionals advocating for solutions to climate change through clean energy initiatives.

Shelagh Cooley, IDSC (U.S.) earned a B.A. in public policy analysis with an emphasis in economics from Pomona College in Claremont, California. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bangladesh where she worked with women and youth on education, health, and employment. Upon returning from Peace Corps, she started a non-profit, BELIEVE, Inc. partnered with two local NGOs in Bangladesh to positively enhance the impact of the local leaders on the community. She hopes one day to expand BELIEVE’s capacity and dedicate all her time to it. For the past two years she has worked for Boston Public Schools Department of Extended Learning Time, Afterschool and Services working with youth in afterschool and measuring the impact of afterschool on the child. She hopes to use her graduate school experience to gain the skills to a more effective agent of grassroots development.

Consuelo Fernandez, CDP (Bolivia) received her B.A. in architecture at the University of San Andres. Currently, she is working in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a NUNV Specialist in the Project “Practical tools of Youth volunteerism in municipal strengthening and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in Bolivia”. She is also the leader of a nationwide non-profit organization named VAMOS BOLIVIA that works to support the local development of impoverished communities through implementing interdisciplinary projects to improve living standards. Fernandez has also has written two publications regarding housing, gender and leadership concerns, and she has produced a documentary video “Un Nuevo Paradigma” focused in the local development achievements through the municipal strengthening. Additionally, she has worked on a project focused to revitalize depressed natural areas in the urban area of the city of La Paz. Her principal interests include leadership, gender, housing, sustainable development, and governance.

Christy Gillmore, IDSC (U.S.) is currently a second year IDSC MA candidate, focusing on peace and development and human rights. Originally from Roanoke, Virginia, she received a BA in Anthropology and Economics in 2006 from the University of Virginia. She joined the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa, working to empower women in a rural community through natural resource, health, and small business projects. She has also worked in refugee resettlement and served as a Peace Fellow for The Advocacy Project during the summer of 2010, gathering and telling the stories of marginalized people from the settlements (slums) of Kenya.

Elizabeth Lock, IDSC (U.S.) received her B.A. in anthropology and political science from Hamline University. There, she also completed an independent study on the Somali community in MN and their interactions with the local social service non-profits. She also has spent time studying abroad in Amsterdam, Mexico, and Peru. Most recently Lock has spent a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA working with Lutheran Social Service of MN as an Employment and Resource Developer, working largely with refugee clients.

Morning Star Padilla, IDSC (U.S.) graduated with a B.A. in international studies and German. She has worked as an advocate for marginalized communities concerning access to communication services. She has also served as an AmericCorps member with the American Red Cross, where she taught emergency preparedness, First Aid/CPR, and responded to local and national disasters. Her interests are in helping communities negotiate, organize, and take action around issues of land use, displacement, and environmental justice.

Jordan Reeves, IDSC (U.S.) received his B.A. in political science from the University of California, San Diego in 2003. He spent three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, where he worked for two years with a local fishermen’s association to design and implement a sea turtle conservation and ecotourism project. His third year was spent evaluating rural communities’ needs and capacity to work with incoming volunteers in preparing them to serve in those communities. He has also worked eight summers for a non-profit organization leading wilderness whitewater rafting trips in California, Idaho, and Oregon in order to promote river conservation and environmental stewardship. His research interests include political ecology, environmental justice, and rural development and natural resource management issues, with a focus on Latin America.

Jeff Schuhrke, IDSC (U.S) received his B.A. in history from Colorado State University in 2004, where he then joined AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps in Washington, D.C. He then did a second year of AmeriCorps with Habitat for Humanity in Omaha. Schuhrke was next an English teacher with the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan, and worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the American Red Cross in San Francisco. Most recently, he was an intern with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in India. His interests include crisis prevention, management and recovery, transnational civil society, radical democracy and global governance, nonviolence and peace-building, and critical theories of social change.

Sumayal Shrestha, ES&P (Nepal) received her B.A in economics and fine arts from Wilson College, Penn. Shrestha became interested in climate studies after she learned about the carbon market in a finance class, and became interested in climate legislation and trade policy when she moved to Washington, D.C. to test the waters in a “green” career. In addition to her academic background, her work experience at mission-driven organizations such as The World Food Programme and Carbon Fund has channeled her focus towards sustainable resource management. Her research interests include global climate policy/market and its impact on resource efficiency in emerging economies. She also continues to pursue her passion in the arts by partaking in community event and web activities.

Amy Tran, CDP (U.S.) received her B.A. in environmental analysis and design from the University of California, Irvine. Upon graduation, she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member for Experience Corps, an intergeneration program connecting older adults to tutor and mentor youth in San Francisco public schools. After the completion of her service, Tran joined the Chinatown Community Development Center, a San Francisco-based grassroots nonprofit that specializes in neighborhood planning, affordable housing development, property management, tenant services, housing counseling and community organizing. She has been with the organization for the past three and a half years as a tenant services coordinator empowering residents in the Chinatown community. Tran is passionate about her work in the community development field. In particular, she would like to promote civic engagement, build social capital, and revitalize communities.