2020-2021 Summer Scholars
TALISA ANDERSON | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : FIJI Fellowship
Talisa Anderson is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with a focus on gender and human rights policy. She is from New York and holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.
Talisa is a social justice activist with over 10 years of experience working with cause-driven organizations that reshape societal norms to be more inclusive of the rights of disenfranchised populations. As a community development volunteer in India, she bolstered funding for child labor and gender-based violence initiatives. Her time in Kanchipuram motivated her to become a certified crisis counselor for survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault in New York. Most recently, she developed and managed programs that supported the academic and socio-economic advancement of low-income youth of color throughout the United States. She is committed to dismantling systemic roadblocks that prevent underserved individuals from fully self-actualizing.
Talisa is very excited to intern remotely for the UNFPA’s Pacific Subregional Office in Suva, Fiji, where she is supporting the implementation of its Adolescent and Youth program.
MADELEINE DEJEAN | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : JOHANNESBURG Fellowship
Madeleine Dejean is currently an MPA-Development Practice program candidate at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), focusing on gender, social inclusion, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning. She is from Los Angeles, CA, comes from a French-American background, and has split her time between the United States and France. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Arizona.
Prior to SIPA, Madeleine worked as a Business Development Associate at Dexis Consulting Group, a prominent Washington, DC-based international development consulting firm. In this role, Madeleine was responsible for managing proposal responses for multi-million dollar bilateral programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the U.S. Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Madeleine is interning remotely for the UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg as a Research and Knowledge Management Summer Scholar.
Read about Madeleine's experience in our Summer Scholars Blog!
NAREESA DHALLA | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : SOMALIA Fellowship
Nareesa Dhalla is currently a candidate at New York University completing a dual-degree program, pursing a Masters in Public Health with a focus on Global Public Health and a Masters in Public Administration with a focus on Health Policy Analysis. She is from Toronto, Canada and holds a Bachelors of Honours Health Sciences with a specialization in health promotion from Western University.
Nareesa has an array of experience in the health sector both within Ontario and internationally. She had previously participated in a volunteer trip to teach health education to students residing in Bali, Indonesia. It was through this challenging experience where she noticed the lack of opportunities available to help these students succeed. At an individual level, there was not much that she could do besides trying to enhance the program itself, which she successfully accomplished through regulation and establishing continuity of educational material. She was quick to realize that health policy planning and strategy is a key aspect in order to make large scale changes. This experience led to her desire to pursue not only her Masters in Public Health but also her Masters in Public Administration.
Nareesa had also previously worked for a health agency situated under Ontario’s government. It was within her role, where she had the opportunity to partake in a pilot project to enhance the integration of home care and community services to better align with the patient’s journey. This incorporated the moment an individual was presented to the emergency department, admitted into the hospital, and their discharge back into the community. In her role, she was responsible for managing the data collection and reporting, along with data analysis and presentation. This pilot project was deemed successful resulting in large scale organizational changes to better serve the needs of Ontario citizens.
Currently, Nareesa is working in collaboration with the World Health Organization to complete a research study that assesses Universal Health Coverage and governance in Somalia.
Nareesa is excited to spend the summer with the UNFPA Policy, Strategic Information and Planning Branch as the Data Analytics and Visualization Intern. She looks forward to bringing her past experiences to this position, and to continually learn and strengthen her skills.
Read about Nareesa’s experience in our Summer Scholars Blog!
ERIC GERO | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : UNICEF Fellowship
Eric Gero is currently a Peace Corps Coverdell Fellow at Fordham University, where he is pursuing a dual degree in IPED (International Political Economy and Development) and Economics. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, he holds a double bachelor’s from George Mason University in Political Science and Mandarin. Robert served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in China from 2016-2018, where he worked as an educational advisor for Guiyang University in Southwest China. In 2018 Eric transitioned to working at the GSA, a assisting in innovative government finance and acquisition projects designed to enhance the way government did business. He now does work with the Fordham Bedford Housing corporation in the Bronx, assisting with equitable housing initiatives in the Belmont area.
He is particularly interested in equitable development in Southeast Asia and using his skills to better inform policy in the region. Eric speaks fluent Mandarin and is currently preparing to take the HSK 6 test to prepare for future research in that language. Because interns are unable to go abroad this summer, Eric will be working with the Migration Education and Learning in Humanitarian Contexts program for his fellowship with UNICEF.
Read about Eric’s experience in our Summer Scholars Blog!
Eric is one of our 2020-2021 SAP Summer Scholars
FADUMO GUHAD | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : NAIROBI Fellowship
Fadumo Guhad is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Social Work at Columbia University with a focus on International Social Welfare, as well as a minor/focus in law. She is a Somali-American from Virginia and has a BS in Sociology & a minor in Women & Gender Studies from Virginia Tech.
Prior to attending CSSW, Fadumo worked with the Department of Labor as an immigration case processing analyst. She has extensive experience working within the refugee/immigrant population, this is where Fadumo discovered a deep passion for gender equality, which initiated an adolescent girls' leadership program as a result. Along with her mentor, Fadumo co-created Imani Nailah (“Faith in One Who Succeeds”), an after-school program for refugee girls from Africa and the Caribbean. They provided a space each week for the girls, ages 11-18, to explore their identities, passions, and sisterhood.
Furthermore, this led her to co-author a chapter in Difficult Dialogues about Twenty-First-Century Girls (SUNY Press, 2015). In their chapter, “It Means that I Am Knowledge’: GirlPAR as an Emergent Methodology,” Fadumo and her co-author discussed relational activism and explored questions around identities, specifically assumptions around African Blackness and how these assumptions shape our identity and impact how we navigate broader U.S. culture.
Fadumo is excited to intern remotely with UNFPA in Nairobi for the End FGM Program. She hopes to apply the skills she has learned throughout her graduate experience. She is eager and equally excited to pull from her experience/knowledge to support this program’s mission.
Read about Fadumo’s experience in our Summer Scholars Blog!
Fadumo is one of our 2020-2021 SAP Summer Scholars
LEIGH NUSBAUM | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : NAMIBIA Fellowship
Leigh Nusbaum is an MPA-Development Practice program candidate at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), with a primary focus on International Organizations and Technology, Media & Communications. She is from Norfolk, VA (NATO's home in North America). She holds a B.A. in International Relations and Middle East Studies from Brandeis University.
Leigh's career after undergrad has focused on both Democratic political campaigns and legislative offices. Though she spent time on U.S. Senate races in Hawaii and Louisiana, most of her career was spent in her home state of Virginia on campaigns and in the state legislature. Prior to joining SIPA, she served as Chief of Staff to the first woman to serve as Minority Leader (and later Speaker) of the Virginia House of Delegates. Working in the legislature, she helped draft and pass legislation related to consent education, child safety in car seats, expanding access to contraceptives, and improving savings accounts for those with disabilities. She is excited to work on communications-related issues with UNFPA-Namibia this summer.
OSCAR OROZCO | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : JOHANNESBURG Fellowship
Oscar San Roman Orozco is currently pursuing his Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health and an Advanced Certificate in Public Health Disaster Science, Policy, and Practice at New York University. He completed Medical School in Queretaro, Mexico, at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro (UAQ / Autonomous University of Queretaro). His field of study focused on programs/projects creation and development, Under-five and Maternal Health and Disaster Management. He also holds a Technical Degree in Pre-hospital Care (EMT) and a University Expert Degree in Hospital Management by the University of Cadiz, Spain.
While in medical school, he was president of the Med-Student Council and afterwards the University Student Council, where he created the Health Squad for Marginalized Communities, “For Life and Health." The health brigades focused on bringing to indigenous and poor communities holistic medical attention by doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, and other health professionals.
He has worked with different international NGO's like SMILE Network International Missions in Puebla, Mexico and the Newborn Foundation in Bolivia and Mexico, where he was the Project Manager of the BORN Project (Birth Oximetry Routine for Newborn), which is the first global health initiative leveraging mobile pulse oximetry technology to combat neonatal mortality. In the disaster response field, he is the Medical Director of an NGO called Technical Rescue Queretaro, focusing on training and responding to different disaster settings.
Currently, he is managing a Covid-19 Clinical Follow-up Response Team in Queretaro, Mexico. This team belongs to a screening program of the Autonomous University of Queretaro's response in the state. After a patient tests positive, a group of physicians, phlebotomists, and nutritionists evaluate, monitor and educate patients and families at no cost.
Oscar is excited to intern remotely for the UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg, South Africa where he will be in close consultation with the Regional Director.
Oscar is one of two SAP McDermott Summer Scholars
GHAZAL REZVANI | Summer Scholars 2020-2021 : NAMIBIA Fellowship
Ghazal Rezvani is currently a candidate at Columbia University School of Social Work, pursuing Advanced Clinical Social Work Practice with a focus on International Social Welfare and Services to Immigrants and Refugees. She is a proud Iranian-American from the San Francisco Bay Area, who supports individual growth alongside addressing systematic societal injustices, through an anti-oppressive and anti-racist lens. She holds a BA in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley, with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice.
Ghazal has worked in a variety of non-profit settings with vulnerable communities in workforce development and conducting basic digital literacy programming under the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco. She has also interned at the International Rescue Committee in Oakland, CA, where she assisted clients in the resettlement process, and interpreted in Farsi during various social service appointments. During her graduate studies, Ghazal and her colleagues created a trauma-informed research study in partnership with Istanbul-based NGO, INSEV, to relay the experiences of non-Syrian refugees in Turkey, and build a greater understanding of the well-being, strengths, and needs of the population. She is passionate about immigrant and refugee rights, alongside broader accessibility and utilization of health and mental health care services, particularly for women-identifying individuals.
Ghazal is very excited at the opportunity to contribute to, and learn from the UNFPA Namibia Country Office in Windhoek, surrounding the implementation of sexual and gender-based violence programming.
Ghazal is one of two SAP McDermott Summer Scholars