Host Country: Guatemala
Placement: Ministry of Education

Megan Banick is currently an Educational Researcher in the Guatemalan Ministry of Education, consulting on various education topics such as intercultural-bilingual education quality, civic education through student government, and international standardized testing. She is leading a project for the Ministry on academic disinterest and cultural perceptions in Guatemala. Previously interning at a local NGO, she supported an agriculture and microbusiness training program in the same rural area where her current work will take place. Further, as an observer of a local mayoral candidate's campaign, she gained a stronger understanding of the complex challenges facing democracy and public participation in rural, indigenous areas.

Ms. Banick has experience in preschool through adult education, having spent time working with bilingual education in Spain, vocational training in Chile, and immigrant/refugee education in the United States. Recently completing an MA in International Development at the University of Denver, her research interests include education reform and political economic development in Latin America. She received her BS in Modern Languages and Marketing Communications from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. As a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow, she hopes to further her understanding of institution building in a development context, how to support large-scale educational reform, and methods for integrating marginalized populations into public life.

Host Country: Cote d'Ivoire

Placement: National Institute of Public Health

Rebecca Bartlein is a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow in Cote d'Ivoire's Ministry of Health, National Institute of Public Health (INSP). She is interested in health system strengthening in peri-conflict areas. Ms. Bartlein is working in several capacities during her Fellowship, including: rehabilitating the INSP library and archives, evaluating patient retention of HIV+ patients in antenatal care to inform future policies and guidelines, and helping to establish an ethics committee and research ethics training at the INSP. She is also mentoring 3 teams to develop public health program evaluation protocols. In addition, she is participating in the strategic reorganization of the Ministry of Health, including better defining the INSP as the central place for public health research and training in the country.

Prior to being a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow, Ms. Bartlein was the research coordinator for the Global Medicines Program in the University of Washington Department of Global Health. In this capacity, she focused on the development and integration of pharmacovigilance programs into health systems. Ms. Bartlein received her MPH from the University of Washington (2010) in the Leadership, Policy and Management track and a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University (2004). Ms. Bartlein also served with the Peace Corps in Senegal as a health educator and previously worked with the International Organization for Migration in the Philippines resettling displaced persons.

Host Country: Cote d'Ivoire
Placement: Ministry of Justice

Joshua Dankoff will be placed in the Ministry of Justice, Department of Civil and Criminal Affairs, Child and Youth Protection in Cote D'Ivoire.  Mr. Dankoff graduated magna cumlaude from Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2011), where he was a ChildLaw Fellow. Licensed to practice law in Illinois, he works as a consultant focusing on strengthening child protection and juvenile justice systems in Africa. Mr. Dankoff carried out an assessment of the juvenile justice system of Cameroon. His research interests include the relationship between formal and informal justice mechanisms in Africa.

Mr. Dankoff has a Masters in Development Practice (2007) from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Bachelors of Arts (2002) from Wesleyan University, Connecticut. Previously, Mr. Dankoff worked for three years at the Firelight Foundation, in Santa Cruz, California. He has lived and worked in Cameroon and Nigeria, and traveled extensively in West Africa. With this Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, Mr. Dankoff hopes to gain insight into the workings of a post-conflict Justice Ministry.

Host Country: Cote d'Ivoire
Placement: Ministry of Education, Directorate of Pedagogy and Continuing Education

Justine Davis is serving in Cote d'Ivoire's Ministry of Education, Teaching and Continuing Education Branch. Ms. Davis holds a dual-language Master's degree in International Affairs, Conflict Resolution and Civil Society Development from the American University of Paris and the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Originally from North Carolina, Ms. Davis graduated from Elon University with a Bachelor's degree in International Studies, African concentration. She then worked in the French education system as an English instructor for two years. She has spent considerable time in West Africa, studying abroad in Ghana and Senegal, and completing field research for her Master's thesis in Côte d'Ivoire. Her thesis examines the Commission Dialogue Vérité et Réconciliation in post-conflict Côte d'Ivoire and its relationship with civil society actors.

During her fellowship, Ms. Davis is contributing to the reconciliation process in Côte d'Ivoire, by collaborating with the Ministry of Education on the implementation and evaluation of the newly instated Human Rights and Citizenship Education curriculum. Specifically, she will assessing how teacher's adapt the program to the various age levels, while also asses student's learning and behavior changes regarding human rights. She anticipates developing a repertoire on education policy that incorporates civic values as a form of conflict resolution in Africa.

Host Country: Haiti
Placement: Ministry of Public Health and Population

Hannah Hoover's placement is in the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Haiti, where she is embedded with the l'Unité de Planification et d'Evaluation (UPE). Through her fellowship, she is co-facilitating an inter-ministerial task force to pilot a collaborative model for the registration, coordination and evaluation of NGOs in Haiti. In addition, Ms. Hoover is supporting the UPE team's work to conduct a census and mapping project of Community Health Workers (CHWs) throughout the country, and to develop a standardized training curriculum and accreditation system for CHWs. Ms. Hoover holds a Masters in Public Health from DePaul University and a BA in English from Earlham College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa; she is also a Certified Health Education Specialist. She speaks French and Haitian Kreyòl and has worked with international communities in the U.S. and abroad for more than nine years. Prior to accepting this fellowship, Ms. Hoover served as the Associate Director of Refugee Health Programs at Heartland Health Outreach in Chicago. She has previously lived and worked in Haiti in several capacities since 2003: post-earthquake, she conducted research on culturally-specific manifestations of stress and participated in the development of a training on best practices for delivering trauma-informed care for front line service providers; she also coordinated community-based HIV-related programming in northern Haiti for several years.

Host Country: Bangladesh
Placement: Ministry of Primary and Mass Education

Ali Horton is currently working at the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education in Bangladesh. Her work includes critical examinations of education policies in the developing world, and the effects of those policies on national-level strategies for social equality and poverty alleviation. Ms. Horton is a PhD student in Geography at Rutgers University. In 2011, Ali worked as an intern for BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), conducting fieldwork to evaluate their non-formal education program. Inspired by the Bangladeshi people and their dedication to improving access to education, she has since focused her studies on Bangladesh, development, and the Bengali language. Now, as a Public Policy Fellow, Ali is working directly in the Ministry of Secondary Education in Dhaka. She is assessing the impact of the world-renowned Female Secondary Education Stipend Program, which provided small financial incentive to all girls to remain both unmarried and enrolled in school. Since 1994, the initiative has succeeded in greatly increasing girls' enrollment in secondary schools, and is credited with reducing national rates of fertility and early marriage. Currently in its third phase, the program has shifted to a "Pro-Poor" philosophy, and now provides stipends to the country's poorest girls and boys. Ali is synthesizing all existing data on this new adaptation, and conducting additional field work in both rural and urban schools. She is looking to critically assess how the recent program changes are impacting enrollment, drop-out rates, and early marriage. Additionally, she is working with village populations to evaluate how the change may be effecting prevailing social norms surrounding education and gender.

Host Country: Guatemala
Placement: Ministry of Education

doaku Camilla Ihenetu's placement is in Guatemala's Ministry of Education.  Ms. Ihenetu was previously a special assistant in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the Department of Energy.  Prior to this position, she served as an Associate Director of Policy in the Office of the First Lady, working to support the Let's Move!and Joining Forces initiatives. Prior to joining the First Lady's Office, she served as a special assistant in the Office of the Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior. Ms. Ihenetu received her B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Division I athlete. She also received her M.A in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  A native of Denver, Colorado, Ms. Ihenetu has completed extensive research on Latin American culture and politics and hopes to explore the engagement of youth in civil society as a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow.

Host Country: Dominican Republic
Placement: Ministry of Industry and Commerce

Katie Jajtner's placement is at the Dominican Ministry of Industry and Commerce in economic research for international trade. Her main task is to update an existing Ministry publication from five years ago pertaining to relative competitiveness of Dominican goods in the European market. Additionally, she assists co-workers in fulfilling routine consultation requests regarding reported values of external trade and participates in continuing education with the WTO's online learning courses. Ms. Jajtner grew up in Port Washington, Wisconsin and lived two years in England with her family. She reports owing her interest in cultural affairs to her family who exposed her to many different cultures by living abroad and hosting twelve foreign exchange students. As an undergraduate, Ms. Jajtner studied International Economics and Cultural Affairs and Spanish at Valparaiso University in Indiana. She has recently completed two Master's degrees at Fordham University in New York in International Political Economy and Development and in Economics.

Ms. Jajtner's was a small business volunteer with the Peace Corps. She also completed a summer internship at the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca, Morocco with the Economic and Political sections. Ms. Jajtner plans to pursue a doctoral degree in Economics and a career in international economics.

Host Country: Thailand
Placement: Ministry of Justice

Aaron Johnson's professional placement is in the Office of the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Thai Ministry of Justice. He is currently assigned sole responsibility to research and author a report analyzing Thailand’s ability to adhere to the United Nations’ standards for treating prisoners and those on probation. This project allows him to focus on the challenges that the Thai criminal justice system faces in providing adequate living conditions for those incarcerated, adults and juveniles, as well as the provision of rehabilitative services. In addition Mr. Johnson had the opportunity to assist the Republic of Zambia’s Department of Justice’s visit to Thailand this past September, which examined best practices within the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection and to serve as a Ministry of Justice representative to a high-level meeting with several stakeholders in a program called the Southern Thailand Empowerment and Participation (STEP). Co-partnered with the United Nations Development Programme, the STEP project is to enhance community empowerment and public participation in local governance processes in Southern Thailand.

Mr. Johnson is a doctoral candidate majoring in political science at Northern Illinois University. He has professional experience in both academic and non-academic fields, as a Congressional Relations intern at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, as a policy analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and as a professor of political science at the College of Staten Island. Mr. Johnson also has had extensive international experience. He received an MA in International Studies from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (2006). He studied abroad at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand (2009). And as a Boren Fellow (2011-12), Mr. Johnson spent the past year in Thailand conducting research for his dissertation which explores the role of the judiciary in Thai politics and society as well as studying Thai language at the University of Payap and Chulalongkorn University, respectively. He anticipates that the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship will enhance his own professional development and his understanding of the Thai bureaucracy.

Host Country: Bangladesh

Placement: Ministry of Health

Sabrina Khan is currently serving in a placement in the Ministry of Health- Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of the Government of Bangladesh. She collaborates with colleagues from the DGHS, USAID and Japan International Cooperation Agency and is currently serving as a key author in a report reviewing the current status of the vital statistics data collection system and identifying areas requiring improvement and prioritizing actions according to a WHO framework. She is also working on the Annual Report for 2013. She routinely assists as an editor/translator for various quick turnaround deliverables and expects to hold training sessions for SPSS and Biostatistics. Ms. Khan was previously employed by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where she served various clients including the U.S. Army, the IRS, and the U.S. Coast Guard on projects that primarily involved conducting quantitative and statistical analyses, resulting in providing data-driven policy-related recommendations.

Ms. Khan graduated from Harvard University with an SM in Biostatistics. She received a BS in Mathematics from the University of Colorado. Ms. Khan worked as a graduate student intern at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, where she analyzed data from a clinical trial to study the effectiveness of Zinc supplement in preventing acute diarrhoeal episodes in children under five. In addition to fluency in Bengali, she has basic conversational knowledge of Arabic.

Host Country: Bangladesh

Placement: Ministry of Law

Roushani Mansoor is working for the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs in Bangladesh. She is assisting with various projects including strengthening alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, supporting corruption prevention practices, and digitizing the land registration process. She will be conducting her research in conjunction with the Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association focusing on access to justice issues. Roushani recently graduated with honors from the Washington College of Law at American University and is awaiting admission to the New York Bar. Her legal research has focused on public international law including access to justice, state recognition, and ceasefire negotiations. Roushani worked as a Senior Research Associate for the Public International Law & Policy Group managing a team to facilitate legal and policy work product. Previously, Roushani worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Commercial Law Development Program, assisting with programs on commercial law topics such as technology transfers and intellectual property protection standards. Roushani received a BA in International Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley. During her Fellowship, Roushani hopes to build upon her public policy experience, contribute to the cultural exchange between the U.S. and Bangladesh, and gain a better understanding of effective justice mechanisms for women.

Host Country: Cote d’Ivoire
Placement: Ministry of Planning and Development

Josh Martin holds a professional placement in Strategic Coordination Cell of the Ministry of Planning and Development of Cote d’Ivoire., where he is helping Cote D'Ivoire assert its self-driven development priorities by facilitating more efficient donor-host relationships. Mr. Martin is a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School's Master in Public Policy program, concentrating in Political and Economic Development. Prior to graduate school, Mr. Martin was a research specialist at Princeton University's Empirical Studies of Conflict project, program manager at the Cordoba Initiative, and leader of an election monitoring team in Darfur, Sudan. He has also consulted for USAID, the World Bank, the National Democratic Institute, and Caerus Associates in Washington, DC. In addition to his professional experience, Mr. Martin has performed original research on international aid practices throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including a studies on donor-host relationships in Lebanon, Jordan and Sudan. He has also published on the politics of development aid in Sudan during the 2011 referendum. Mr. Martin received his BA from New York University in Middle Eastern Studies and Economic Development. He speaks fluent Arabic (and passable French), with additional proficiency in Farsi.

Host Country: Jamaica
Placement: Ministry of Industry and Commerce

Marsha McIntyreis currently serving in the Government of Jamaica's Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce focusing on international trade and economic development issues. In particular, Ms. McIntyre is working on the Ministry’s priority economic development initiative meant to radically transform Jamaica’s economy by establishing Jamaica as a global logistics and shipment hub. She also assists Jamaica’s trade and investment promotion agency, JAMPRO, in strategic projects aimed at assisting exporters and prospective investors to capitalize on existing trade and investment agreements and to explore future agreements.

In these roles, Ms. McIntyre is using the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship to gain a deeper understanding of the economic development challenges facing Jamaica. She plans to use the experience gained to inform U.S. foreign policy towards Jamaica and the Caribbean. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University (2001) with a degree in anthropology, Ms. McIntyre graduated from Harvard Law School (2004), where her thesis research focused on the development of legal institutions within Jamaica. She previously worked in the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Legal Adviser where she advised the Department's Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs on international trade law and policy issues. Since 2008, she has worked as an international trade attorney helping private sector clients advocate for changes in U.S. government international trade policy and navigate the complex international trade regulatory scheme.

Host Country: Cote d’Ivoire
Placement: Ministry of Agriculture

Alex Merkovic-Orenstein is currently serving in a professional placement at the Ministry of Agriculture of Cote d’Ivoire. Prior to his placement in Cote D'Ivoire, Mr. Merkovic-Orenstein worked for the World Food Programme in Rwanda as a Technical Assistant to the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion. He has previously worked with Action Against Hunger in Chad, The MicroLoan Foundation in Malawi and a number of Government Agencies across Rwanda. Mr. Merkovic-Orenstein holds a Masters in Development Studies from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies and a BA in Middle East Studies from Florida State University, where was a 2009 Truman Scholar. Alex speaks fluent French and can argue with taxi drivers in Arabic and Kinyarwanda.

Host Country: Thailand
Placement: Ministry of Transport
 
Joshua Monthei is serving in a professional placement in the Government of Thailand's Ministry of Transport, Office of the Permanent Secretary. His current duties include conducting comparative research on high speed rail plans in Thailand and the United States. He is also working with the Ministry at a series of public meetings throughout Thailand identifying key infrastructure projects. Mr. Monthei received his BA in Sociology from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan and holds an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Michigan with a concentration in urban planning and development in Thailand. His Master's thesis focused on transportation planning and social equity issues in Bangkok. His previous professional experience includes time as an Asia Pacific Leadership Fellow and Research Delegate with the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and as an International Coordinator for the Urban Development Institute Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In addition, Mr. Monthei has studied sustainability and environmental leadership issues in northern Thailand with the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute. His studies focus on equity and access challenges tied to transit services for low-income residents. The Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship will allow Mr. Monthei a unique opportunity to work alongside Thai policy makers in a country where urban growth continues to present unique challenges.

Host Country: Dominican Republic
Placement: Ministry of Youth

Kimberly Renk's placement is in the Dominican Republic Ministry of Youth, whose mission is to support the development of Dominicans ages 15-35. In the Ministry of Youth, Ms. Renk is working within the Vice Ministry of Public Policy to develop and supervise programs related to health, the environment, culture, employment, sports, education, and the promotion of rights. Before participating in this Fellowship, Ms. Renk was an associate at the law firm WilmerHale in Washington, DC. At WilmerHale, she worked on a number of litigations and investigations, including a case representing the Government of Puerto Rico and a pro bono land rights suit on behalf of an African tribe. Prior to her work at WilmerHale, Ms. Renk worked as a legal advisor in the Liberia Ministry of Labor as a Transnational Law Institute/Carter Center Law Fellow. In this capacity, she helped coordinate the completion of the Ministry's draft labor code and managed a public awareness campaign on new laws and policies.

Ms. Renk received her law degree from New York University School of Law. While in law school, she interned at the Center for Assistance to Indigenous Peoples in Bluefields, Nicaragua and the Rural Development Institute in Beijing. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in Mass Communications and minored in Spanish. Ms. Renk speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Host Country: Guatemala
Placement: Ministry of Energy and Mines

Yuliya Shmidt's placement is in the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Guatemala. She works for the General Directorate of Energy on renewable projects especially those pertaining to rural electrification. Prior to the Fellowship, Ms. Shmidt was the lead analyst for renewable Energy policy for the Division of Ratepayer Advocates at the California Public Utilities Commission. She has served as an expert witness on major renewable facility proposals as well as contributed to numerous renewable electricity proceedings on behalf of California's consumers. Prior to working on renewables, she was an analyst on demand response and other customer programs. Ms. Shmidt holds a Master of Environmental Science degree from Yale University and a Bachelor's in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz; both with an emphasis in international policy. She wrote her master's thesis on Tikal National Park in Guatemala where she lived for three months while conducting interviews to understand the management of natural resources and tourism. With the Public Policy Fellowship she hopes to expand her expertise in renewable energy to Latin America.

Host Country: Haiti
Placement: Office of the Prime Minister

Taylor Steelman received a placement in the Prime Minister's Office.  Ms. Steelman grew up in North Carolina and received her BA in International Studies with highest honors from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2007).  After graduating she researched security sector reform in Burundi with a local NGO that trained political, military and police leaders. She returned to Burundi to volunteer with a microfinance institution starting the country's first partnership with Kiva.org.  She has also worked for the Benin and Ghana country teams of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, helping implement U.S. foreign aid programs in agriculture, infrastructure, legal reform, land tenure, credit access and private sector development.  She received her MA in International Relations from Yale University where she focused on governance and development in fragile states.
Ms. Steelman worked in Port-au-Prince studying procurement practices of international organizations on behalf of the NGO Building Markets (2011).  The resulting report advised steps to increase local procurement to stimulate the Haitian construction sector.  During her Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, she plans to investigate strategic development planning while working in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Host Country: Haiti
Placement: Ministry of Planning

Andrew Tarter's professional placement is in the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation within the government of Haiti. Born and raised in Haiti, Mr. Tarter has always maintained a keen interest in all things Haitian. His master's research, which was fully funded through two US Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships in Haitian Creole (2008-2010), culminated in an anthropological outcome-evaluation of Haiti's largest tree-planting project. Mr. Tarter is currently finishing a PhD in anthropology from the University of Florida, where he has taught undergraduate courses for the Department of Anthropology as well as the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. His PhD coursework has been fully funded through the National Science Foundation's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship (2010-2015).

Mr. Tarter's dissertation research, which focuses on Haitian farmers who have independently elected to grow trees as a cash-crop, has been jointly-funded by both the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. He is currently working with the governmental unit that coordinates the activities of NGOs operating in Haiti, helping to implement policies for NGO registration, and monitoring and evaluation. These measures will help ensure that the activities of NGOs meet the existing laws, policies, priorities and best-practices of the democratically-elected Haitian Government as it takes steps to strengthen its autonomy.