Where are they now?

NEW! Jeff Achen, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Nepal '02-'03), graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Masters in Communication in May 2005 after completing a summer internship with the IPJ in 2004. Today he is the online editor and multimedia producer for Thisweeklive.com, a community newspaper group web site serving the southern suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota. Jeff also started his own photography and videography company in 2006 and continues to provide photography and video production for weddings, events and commercial applications. Jeff, his wife Jennifer and daughter Kaitlyn live in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

NEW! Elisabetta Colabianchi recently graduated cum laude from the University of San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Spanish. Her theses focused on sustainable biofuel production and the promotion of global food security through sustainability. This summer she will be staying in San Diego to work in Marie Simovich’s conservation biology laboratory, part of the Biology Department at the University of San Diego. As a lab assistant, she will carry out research on endangered vernal pool species. Findings will help form policy concerning wetland protection and management. After the summer she plans to leave San Diego and pursue a career in alternative energy and sustainable development. Elisabetta interned at the IPJ in fall 2008.

NEW! 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 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 that will be published with the other women peacemakers' stories. 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. In the fall of 2005 she began post graduate research in peace studies at Bradford University, in the United Kingdom. Her research theme is 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.

NEW! Lucas Cometto graduated in 2008 with a Masters from UConn. He lives in New York City and works at the Foundation Center, a non-profit organization that serves as a financial information resource for other non-profits and grant seeking individuals. Lucas researches and categorizes foundation grants so that those seeking information on funding can find it readily. He anticipates going on to work at another non-profit.

Lara Cunanan, after completing her internship with the IPJ, joined the staff as the Internship Coordinator for the Spring 2004 term.  In October 2004, she will begin her graduate studies at the University of York in England, where she will be a student in the MA program on Post-war Recovery Studies.  While pursuing her masters degree she intends to focus her attention on issues concerning the rehabilitation and social reintegration of children in post-conflict societies.  

NEW! 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.

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. Chelsea anticipates graduating from Connecticut College in Spring 2004.

NEW! 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.

Heidi Knuff, after her internship at the IPJ, graduated from University of San Diego in 2001. She then worked at an international children's camp in England. She is currently working at Pacific Intercultural Exchange in San Diego overseeing the placement and counseling of high school aged foreign exchange students throughout the U.S.

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.

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 has 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! 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 graduated from the University of San Diego in 2002 and relocated to the Washington, D.C. area shortly after graduation. After spending several months in 2005 with a relief organization in Aceh, Indonesia, she decided to pursue a Master's degree in Global Health and a Master's Degree in International Development Studies at the George Washington University. Currently she is taking a one-year leave of absence from school to work in southern Sudan for the international NGO, Mercy Corps, after completing a summer internship in Sudan with the same organization in 2006. In Sudan, she manages a regional office in a village along the border of north and south Sudan for a USAID-funded civil society program called LINCS – Localizing Institutional Capacity in Sudan. She will return to graduate studies in D.C. in September 2007.

Abigail Ruane is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) School of International Relations (B.A., Psychology, Cornell University, 2002; M.A., International Relations, USC, 2006). She is fascinated by opportunities for intercultural conflict resolution and has visited over 20 countries. Abigail has enjoyed assisting in teaching and researching about international conflict resolution and gender at USC, and her dissertation draws studies how women’s rights have been negotiated in the United Nations. She has also advocated for student interests at USC, edited the Journal of Public and International Affairs, published in International Studies Perspectives, and interned in the U.S. Senate and in conflict-resolution-focused nongovernmental organizations. After graduation, Abigail hopes to pursue a career that promotes public policy which enables more just conflict-resolution practices and greater security and opportunities for vulnerable people. Abigail was recently awarded a Josephine De Karman Trust Dissertation Fellowship, a nationally competitive fellowship, which she intends to use to help complete her dissertation in 2007/2008.

NEW! 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.

Diana Vlasova graduated 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 plans on graduating in 2009.

Updated 6/2009