Where are they now?

Jeff Achen, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Nepal '02-'03), graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Masters in Communication in 2005 after completing a summer internship with the IPJ in 2004. From 2005 until 2009, Jeff served as an online editor and multimedia producer at a community newspaper group serving the southern suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota. Today Jeff is an Interactive Media Strategist with Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation pursuing his passion for nonprofit and philanthropic work. In addition to his role in the Foundations Marketing and Communication Department, Jeff also serves as the Interactive Media Strategist for GiveMN.org, a new charitable giving website that raised more than $14 million in one day in November 2009 for nonprofits across Minnesota. Jeff also owns his own photography and videography company. He lives in Apple Valley, Minnesota with his amazing wife Jennifer and beautiful daughter Kaitlyn.

Hany Besada, who served an internship with the IPJ in Fall 2001, has published a new book entitled: Crafting an African Security Architecture: Addressing Regional Peace & Conflict in the 21st Century. Hany served for a number of years as the Senior Researcher working on the Weak and Fragile States research program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Canada.

NEW! Elisabetta Colabianchi is off to Mozambique in June 2011, where she will be serving with the Peace Corps. In 2009 Elisabetta graduated from the University of San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Spanish and minors in Peace & Justice Studies and Italian. Her theses focused on alternative energies and the promotion of global food security through sustainability. She then served with AmeriCorps as a member of the Anti-Hunger and Empowerment Corps, where she worked in low-income areas of New York City assisting hundreds of clients, manyof whom are refugees and recent immigrants, receive public benefits, job training assistance, nutrition guidance, and financial advice, while promoting self-sufficiency. Elisabetta earlier participated in a study abroad program with NYU’s Center for Global Affairs at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where she heard from diplomats, UN officials and NGO affiliates on current global issues. Elisabetta interned at the IPJ in fall 2008.

Andrew Chua graduated in 2008 from the University of California, San Diego, with degrees in International Studies and Economics. During the fall semester 2007, he completed an internship at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, researching topics of public health policy in sub-Saharan Africa. In his research Andrew focused on approaches to tackling the malaria epidemic in that region, and on the need for adequate regulation of trade in prescription drugs.  He has also worked at the office of the International Relations/Pacific Relations Graduate School at UCSD, and interned at the San Diego office of marcus evans, an international business events and information company.  Andrew has studied at the Universidad Del Belgrano in Argentina, and has volunteered at a number of agencies including National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC.  In fall 2009 he started service with AmeriCorps, working at Tenacity, a non-profit serving youth through literacy, life-skills and tennis, and located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dawoon (Donna) Chung lives in New York City and works for the UN Global Compact. Simultaneously, she is finishing up her doctoral dissertation in peace studies from Bradford University. Donna received her M.A. from the University of San Diego's Graduate Program in Peace and Justice Studies in summer 2004. Subsequently, during the fall of 2004, she was selected to be a Writing Assistant for the Institute for Peace & Justice's Women PeaceMakers Program.  Donna worked with Shreen Saroor from Sri Lanka, documenting her peacemaking story and writing a narrative published by the IPJ. During the summer of 2005, Donna worked with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Seoul, South Korea, for four months as an External Relations Intern, where she was involved in organizing a series of World Refugee Day events. Her research theme at Bradford has been the role of civil society in building conflict resolution capacity in politically transitional countries.

Carolina Cometto graduated in 2006 from UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. Her studies focused on International Development and Nonprofit Management. Since then she has been working at Winrock International, an international development NGO based in DC. As part of the New Business Unit, Carolina assists in preparing grant proposals in a variety of program areas including agriculture, the environment and civic empowerment and engagement.

Lucas Cometto graduated in 2008 with a Masters from UConn. He lives in Brooklyn and was recently hired as a Grants Coordinator at CancerCare, a national health non-profit organization located in New York.

Lara Cunanan, upon completion of her internship at the IPJ in Spring 2004, , briefly served as the Internship Coordinator for the IPJ until beginning her MA in Post-war Recovery Studies at the University of York, UK. During her graduate studies, Lara conducted research into the long-term effects of displacement on Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and also completed an internship with GTZ in Uganda investigating the reintegration of ex-combatants. After graduating from the University of York, she returned to the United States to work for ICF Macro managing international research projects examining child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. In 2007, she married her husband, Andrew McMaster, and returned to the UK. She is currently based in Oxfordshire and is the Europe Programme Coordinator for Lattitude Global Volunteering, an international youth development charity.

Bree Del Sordo served as an intern with the IPJ in the fall of 2004. Subsequently, she went on to volunteer with the IPJ program, WorldLink ~ Connecting Youth to Global Affairs. She then spent several months with the International Rescue Committee, San Diego Chapter followed by two years as a Facilitator for Amnesty International’s Human Rights Education Service Corps at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Washington, DC. During this time, Bree also participated in Global Majority’s “Promoting Peace through Dialogue” conference and seminar held at the United Nations Leadership Institute in Amman, Jordan. Bree received her Master’s Degree in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs from American University in Washington, D.C. in 2008 and a dual Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Politics and Philosophy in 2004. Additionally, Bree spent a semester studying at Cambridge University, UK in 2003. Bree is currently the Mission Coordinator at Variety Children’s Lifeline and the Program Coordinator at Water for Life International, both international non-profit organizations based in San Diego, CA.

Shawna Fehrman served as an intern with the IPJ in spring 2009, and graduated from USD that year with a double major in International Relations and English. She currently serving with the Peace Corps in Thailand, teaching in two local schools and working on community projects-- mostly involving youth development.

NEW!!! Cory Felder, Summer 2009, came back to the IPJ during the summer of 2010 after graduating from Cornell University with a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies. He spent the summer at IPJ helping Chris Groth - together with Cameron Khodabakshsh (Summer 2010) - to staff the World Link Program after Karla Alvarez's departure for Notre Dame. Cory has now been hired (as of November 2011) as a research assistant to former Middle East envoy Ambassador Dennis Ross at the Washington Institute.

Anna Gabriele, who served as an IPJ intern in spring 2003, graduated from the University of San Diego the same year with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities.  In 2009, she received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.  During law school, Ms. Gabriele, among other community and academic involvements, interned for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, and the City of San Diego, Office of the City Attorney.  She is a member of The State Bar of California and the San Diego County Bar Association.  

Breyn Hibbs, who also served with the IPJ in spring 2009, is currently in the Masters in Peace and Justice Studies at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies; her area of specialization is Human Rights. She will be spending the summer as an intern with the Child and Women Empowerment Society in Pokhara, Nepal, where she will also be narrowing her focus for her capstone research. She will graduate from the program in December 2010. Breyn also works as the Graduate Assistant in USD's Women's Center, through which she had the opportunity to present at and attend the International Leadership Association (ILA) Conference in November 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Chelsea Hanson, after her internship at the IPJ, spent a semester of study in Prague, and then another semester in Kenya. Chelsea interned during Summer 2003 for the Central Asia Institute (www.ikat.org), a grassroots organization, located in Bozeman, MT., which builds schools in northern Pakistan and the rural mountain regions of Central Asia. Central Asia Institute is the only organization in the area permitted to build secular schools for Muslim children and one of its goals is to increase female enrollment in the schools.

NEW! Jael Jordan, who graduated rom USD in May 2004 with a MA in International Relations and a JD, served an internship with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland and currently works in the legal department of the US Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Assistance. Jael has recently accepted a position as an Intelligence Analyst with an undisclosed federal agency and is awaiting her training class start date. Jael also volunteers through her church as a liaison to the Christian Women's Leadership Development Program (CWLDP), a program that is part of Heartfelt International Ministries andthat educates and empowers women to become effective leaders. Currently she is working with groups of women to create ministries that promote Domestic Violence Awareness, Breast Cancer Awareness, that provide local teens with Mentors, and that provide local parolees and recovering addicts and alcoholics with employment and career training.

NEW! Katie Kilcline was an IPJ intern in the summer of 2008 and since then, she has been attending graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis for a Masters in Social Work. Katie's concentration is in trauma mental health, with a focus on international populations. She will graduate in August 2011 and is hoping to find a job that will allow her to continue working with war trauma and cross-cultural mental health. Katie graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2005 with a B.A. in Psychology and a concentration in International Peace Studies.  From 2006 - 2008 she worked in Kathmandu, Nepal, through Jesuit Volunteers International, as a project assistant at the Godavari Alumni Association, where she organized volunteer training, fundraisers, and health awareness programs through the social service unit at a pediatric hospital. Before that, she spent the year after graduation working in Chicago with AmeriCorps, working as a case manager at the Marjorie Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture and living in an intentional community, Amate House.  Katie first became acquainted with the IPJ through its volunteer program.

Brian Israel graduated from Berkeley Law in May 2009, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of International Law. In the Spring of 2009, Brian worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser for Human Rights and Refugees at the State Department, and joined the State Department as an attorney following graduation.

Maya Lau is currently a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kolda, Senegal. She is keeping a record of her experiences on her blog at http://mayaenroute.wordpress.com.

Jared Leiderman graduated from Swarthmore College with High Honors in May 2005, where he majored in Religion and minored in Peace & Conflict Studies and English Literature. After working for economic development in central Ohio, Jared was awarded an Insight Fellowship to apply negotiation, effective communication, and conflict management techniques in a series of international placements. He focused on communication with senior mediators at the International Criminal Court in The Hague; on developing effective structures for reconciliation in northern Uganda; and on enhancing civil society through conflict management techniques in Jordan. In Fall 2007, Jared will pursue a Master of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was awarded a Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship.

NEW! Andi Lovano served as an intern for the IPJ in Spring 2008. After graduating from the University of San Diego in 2008 with degrees in Sociology and History, she served as a volunteer for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Sacramento, California. During her time as a volunteer, Andi worked at Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization offering survival services to the homeless population. She is currently pursuing her Masters Degree in Public Policy from UCLA, where she is concentrating on social policy, specifically issues of poverty, housing and homelessness. She is also interning with the City of West Hollywood, Social Services Division.

Vanessa Lucas graduated from the University of San Diego in December 2003 with joint J.D. and MBA degrees. While attending USD she was actively involved in mediation training, the Human Rights Education Programs, and the San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program “AIDS Team.” After graduation, she moved to the East Coast to pursue her various interests. In the spring of 2006, Vanessa represented the National Lawyers Guild on a visit to the Philippines, organized by the GABRIELA Network and co-sponsored by the Vanguard Foundation, to investigate “the prosecution, the extrajudicial killings, the targeting of women leaders, and the Philippine and the U.S. Government’s role in these human rights violations."

Amir Masliyah is a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department. He is currently posted to the Consular Section at Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador. After his internship at the IPJ, Amir worked as an Economic Analyst at the San Diego Association of Governments where he helped publish a report related to transportation and binational border issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. He then served as the Director of Operations at ACCION Southern California, a non-profit organization that provides credit and training to groups who have historically faced barriers to obtaining business financing, such as women and minorities. Amir holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and a minor in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.

NEW! Carolyn McMahon is studying for a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, focusing on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Development Economics.   During the summer of 2010 she traveled in India. She is currently working in Boston at ACCION, the internationally renowned microfinance organization. For her M.A. thesis, she is conducting research on savings groups and peacebuilding, to look more closely at the peace implications of the savings side of microfinance. In May 2008, Carolyn graduated from the University of California at Berkeleywith a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies and minors in French and History of Art. Shen then worked for a time at JAMS (a firm specializing in conflict resolution through mediation and arbitration) in commercial Alternative Dispute Resolution.  Carolyn interned at IPJ in summer 2007.

Sanaz Meshkinpour was born in Tehran, Iran, and moved to the United States with her parents and older sister when she was five years old. Meshkinpour grew up in Orange Country, Cal., and attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied political science with a focus in international relations and the Middle East. She interned at the IPJ during summer 2005. After graduation, she worked for three years as a communications coordinator for a human rights organization in San Francisco. This experience allowed her to travel to the Middle East to learn about major changes in the region. Meshkinpour debated between pursuing public policy and journalism, but a radio internship in Berkeley, Cal., quickly cemented her love for broadcast journalism. She soon found that capturing someone’s voice, telling a personal experience was both powerful and intimate. Meshkinpour is currently at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, concentrating in broadcast journalism. She hopes to focus on cultural and political issues in immigrant communities. Her goal is to become a well-rounded journalist and to, one day, make audio and video documentaries.Meshkinpour currently writes about Iran and the Iranian Diaspora for Tehran Bureau, a project of PBS Frontline/World.

Alana Miller  recently graduated from Smith with a major in Latin American Studies, minor in Environmental Science, and has accepted a two year fellowship with US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), organizing on social issues, such as public transportation and making higher education more affordable. Alana served as an intern at the IPJ in summer 2008.

NEW! Sarah Montgomery will graduate from UCSD with a double-major in Political Science (international relations) and Cognitive Science (neuroscience) in June of 2012.Sarah is studying abroad for a semester at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia where she will be studying both human rights and the neuroscience of social behavior. Her main goals in her semester abroad are to work in a brain-imaging lab and to further understand the limitations of human rights legislation from a different country’s perspective. Sarah sits on UCSD’s judicial board, which is responsible for adjudication during study-body elections and other proceedings. She remains active with Amnesty International and other clubs. She co-founded a club called WAVEAIDS, an organization dedicated to fighting pediatric AIDS in South Africa by using surf culture and global health. After graduating in 2012, Sarah will be pursuing either a law degree or a Masters in cognitive neuroscience.   

NEW! Clint Morrison will be starting Harvard Law School in August 2011. He worked at a public strategies and government relations firm in Washington, D.C. for over a year. 

Eoin O'Sullivan is currently working as a sub-editor for The Irish Examiner, one of Ireland's leading newspapers. He also serves as the foreign desk editor from time to time.

Beth Rogers-Witte has, since leaving the IPJ, worked for International Relief and Development, working in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2005 tsunami; for Mercy Corps where she was Deputy Program Manager in Southern Sudan; and for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Washington, DC. Beth is now living in San Francisco, having moved there from Washington, D.C. after completing an MPH in Global Health and an MA in International Development. She is working as a grantwriter for Global Exchange and recently got married.

Abigail Ruane graduated in May 2010 with a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) School of International Relations (B.A., Psychology, Cornell University, 2002; M.A., International Relations, USC, 2006). Her dissertation develops a constructivist approach to pursuing more inclusive interest and behavior, illustrated using historical negotiations over women's human rights in the United Nations. She is also working on a book with Patrick Jamies using Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to teach International Relations. In August 2010, the Peace Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), announced that Abigail's essay, “Pursuing Inclusive Interests, Both Deep and Wide: Women’s Human Rights and the United Nations,” had won the 2010 Kenneth Boulding Award competition. Abigail will be recognized as the competition winner at the 2011 ISA conference in Montreal. She is currently living in New York City and is married to Alex Ruane; they have one child.

Heidi Serochi, after her internship at the IPJ, graduated from the University of San Diego in 2001. She then worked at an international children's camp in England, and later at Pacific Intercultural Exchange in San Diego overseeing the placement and counseling of high school aged foreign exchange students throughout the U.S. After leaving Pacific Intercultural Exchange, Heidi worked as a program manager and event manager at the MIT Center for International Studies, then at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) as Conference Coordinator. She went back to UCSD recently to complete an MA in International Relations and is now a Project Manager at IGCC.

NEW!! Alissa Skog graduated from USD in 2008 with a B.A. in International Relations and a minor in Peace and Justice Studies. Immediately after gradudation, she spent 3-months volunteering for an HIV organization in Gulu, Uganda. For the past three years, Alissa has been living in Washington, D.C., working in the Crisis Mitigation & Recovery sector of Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI). She has supported programs in conflict and transitioning countries including Tunisia and Libya. In October 2011, Alissa accepted a position as Program Officer for East and Horn of Africa at Freedom House, in Washington, D.C.

After interning at IPJ in Spring 2004, Hilary Stauffer earned her J.D. from University of San Diego School of Law in May 2005, where she was a Comments Editor for the San Diego International Law Journal. While in San Diego, Hilary interned at Casa Cornelia Law Center, assisting with the asylum applications of San Diego's refugee population. Upon graduation, Hilary was granted a Fellowship at International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) in Geneva, an NGO that focuses on criminal justice legal reform in developing countries. In 2006, she was recruited to be the Adviser for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva, where she worked closely with other diplomats in various U.N. forums. In 2009, Hilary worked in Monrovia, Liberia with the Transnational Law Institute to help reform the Liberian judicial sector, where she designed a project to relieve prison overcrowding. Before moving to Singapore, she worked as a research attorney with Reprieve, a legal charity in London that represents detainees in Guantánamo Bay. Hilary has relocated to Singapore to open IBJ’s Justice Training Center, a regional hub for IBJ’s operations in Southeast Asia.

Saurav Thapa completed the first year of a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree at The Fletcher School of Tufts University. He is currently interning at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University for their Conflict Prevention and Multilateral Diplomacy program. He interned at IPJ in the summer of 2007 and came to the IPJ from Nepal by way of Amherst College, having previously worked in Nepal as a journalist and as an intern at the United Nations Development Programme.

Elise Vaughan served as an IPJ intern during the summer of 2007, and graduated in 2008 from the University of San Diego with degrees in International Relations and Economics. She currently works as a Research Associate for the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.

Diana Vlasova, who served as an IPJ intern in the spring of 2003, g raduated from USD in 2005 with a B.A. in International Relations with a Business Minor. After working for a time as a Legal Assistant in the Law Offices of James L. Pocrass, in Beverly Hills, she enrolled in Whittier Law School and graduated in May 2009. She is currently living in Encino, working as an attorney for Landegger, Baron, Lavenant and Ingber. This law firm focuses on Employment and Labor Law and Workers' Compensation.

NEW! Paige Wopschall will be graduating with a B.S. in Social Sciences with a concentration in International Development and a minor in International Relations from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in June 2012. She is going to become a trained Sexual Assault Crisis Counselor and volunteer with the Sexual Assault Recovery and Prevention (SARP) Center in San Luis Obispo. She was accepted into AmeriCorps and plans on continuing her work in the field of gender-based violence, specifically with intimate partner violence in San Luis Obispo. She interned and volunteered with the San Luis Obispo Women’s Shelter Program working with victims of intimate partner violence. Since completing her Domestic Violence Prevention Training in September 2011, Paige is officially a mandated reporter. She provides assistance for clients and answers the Crisis Hotline for victims at the Safe House. Paige also continues to be an activist for the anti-human trafficking movement. In March 2011, she completed her senior project entitled “Human Trafficking in San Luis Obispo County: Assessing the Local Law Enforcement Mechanisms for Prevention” in which she interviewed two FBI agents, four police departments, and two victims of human trafficking and included three main recommendations to the local law enforcement on how to prevent this crime in the county. She served as guest lecturer at Cal Poly presenting on human trafficking in freshman Anthropology and Women/Gender Studies classes.     

Information marked "NEW" is from June 2011.