Digital Strategy Internship: AJ Fletcher Foundation
Current Graduate Students
Kevin Bastian
(entered 2008) received his B.A. in history with a minor in political science from Washington University in Saint Louis in 2006. While there he conducted significant research into the civil rights movement, writing a senior honors thesis, Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball Players and the Civil Rights Movement. This research motivated him to extend his knowledge and passion into direct action. After graduation in 2006 he was accepted into Teach For America and was placed in the Eastern North Carolina region.
Garima Bhalla
(entered 2011) Garima has worked as an Associate at the Drug Access Team of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), working with generic anti-malarial manufacturers to ensure sustainable supply of affordable artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs).
Scott Brees
(entered 2011) Scott Brees is a graduate of Georgetown University (BS Foreign Service, 1990) and the University of Kansas (MA Political Science, 1991). He recently retired as a Commander following a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy, and he is looking forward to a new career in academia. His primary research interest is exploring the crossroads between education policy and international development policy.
Paul Brodish
(entered 2010) Paul Henry Brodish is an Applications Analyst with the MEASURE Evaluation project at the Carolina Population Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he provides analytical and technical assistance on USAID-funded projects in sub-Saharan Africa, reporting to the Deputy Director of Field Programs. Prior to his involvement with MEASURE he was an Applications Analyst for the Carolina Population Center’s National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) project, responsible for helping to prepare Wave IV survey data for dissemination.
Shanyce L. Campbell
Ashley Chaifetz
(Entered 2010) After graduating from the University of Houston in 2000, Ashley Chaifetz worked in electoral politics across the country, including New York, Virginia, Texas, and Oregon, participating in all aspects of the campaign, from organizing to fund-raising to campaign management. In 2005, she earned a Master of Arts in Women's History from Sarah Lawrence College; her thesis focused on the community/survival programs of the Black Panther Party.
Jongmin Choi
(Entered 2012) Jongmin Choi is from Seoul, Republic of Korea and received a Bachelor of Public administration from Seoul National University of Science and Technology in 2009. After graduation, he earned a master of Public administration from Korea University in 2012.
Lisa Goble
(entered 2005) is a technology transfer professional currently managing the Office of Technology Transfer at UNC-Greensboro. She graduated summa cum laude from the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNCG in 2003, with a major in Information Systems & Operations Management, and a minor in Economics.
Shelley Diane Golden
(entered 2008) has spent the last five years as a Lecturer in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In that role, she taught several courses, including the School's residential and online core course in social and behavioral sciences, and an elective focused on the Social Determinants of Health.
Alex Graddy-Reed
(entered 2010) Alex Graddy-Reed grew up in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from Hendrix College in 2009 where she majored in Comparative Public Policy and wrote her thesis on Milan and San Francisco's mental healthcare systems. While in college she was chair of Hendrix's philanthropic organization, which raised money for local charities. Alex is interested in the federal government's regulation of philanthropy and the factors that improve mental healthcare.
Jesse Hinde
(entered 2012) Jesse grew up in Cleveland, OH. He graduated from Wake Forest University in 2007 with a BA in Economics and German, and a Mathematics minor. Since then he has worked at RTI International as a research associate in the Behavioral Health Economics Program.
Carolyn Huang
(entered 2009) is a second generation Taiwanese American from Troy, Michigan. She received a BA in political science from the University of Michigan in 2005 and an MPP from American University in 2009. In 2004, she was part of a field research team that examined cook stove fuel usage and its implications on household health in two low-income communities in Accra, Ghana.
Ludmilla Janda
(entered 2012)Ludmila Janda grew up in Chapel Hill, NC and earned her bachelor’s degree in English Literature, as well as a minor in social and economic justice, at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Evan Johnson
(entered 2011) Evan Johnson holds bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. He also holds an MPA from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kelly Kilburn
(entered 2011) Kelly is from Raleigh, NC. She graduated with her B.A. with Honors in Public Policy and International Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2010. There she researched wrote her Honors Thesis on international humanitarian intervention policy after a summer research fellowship in Kenya. Kelly's research interests include health behaviors and decision-making, obesity prevention, and global health.
Yuna Kim
(entered 2011) Yuna Kim is from Pickering, Ontario, Canada, and received a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management (specialization in Social Policy, minor in Economics) from Carleton University in 2008. After a completing a summer internship in the Office of the Premier of Ontario, she returned to school and received her Masters in Public Administration from Queen’s University in 2009.
Lauren Lanahan
(entered 2009) is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon where she majored in Sociology. For her senior thesis, she examined race relations in the United States through the lens of racial residential distribution. After graduation she taught English in Japan for a year, and then returned to the US to work for the Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation.
Kathleen Lawlor
(entered 2010) Prior to doctoral studies, Kathleen worked for 10 years on international development and forest conservation with a wide range of organizations. She has worked for the Compliance/Advisor Ombudsman of the World Bank Group, investigating project-affected communities’ claims of adverse livelihood impacts and violations of the institution’s social and environmental policy.
Jade V. Marcus Jenkins
(entered 2008) grew up in New York, and received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Florida in Family, Youth and Community Sciences. Her Master's focus was in community development and poverty reduction, and she conducted her thesis research on the motivations for grassroots community action in the context of poverty.
Kristina Patterson
Tina holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia and a M.A. in History from Virginia State University. With guidance from Professor Dirk Philipsen, she merged a wide-eyed, reverent mainstream view of American history (for which she credits her father and “Number One Fan”) with an interest in studying the barriers to the realization of the “American Dream” that exist for many Americans.
Stephanie Potochnick
(entered 2007) Originally from Utah, she graduated magna cum laude from Emory University with a BA in political science in 2002. After college Stephanie entered the Peace Corps serving as a rural public health extension worker in Diez de Agosto, Ecuador. She received an M.A. degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Her M.A. thesis examined how human and school social capital influenced Mexican-American student achievement across the generations. Currently, she is a trainee at the Carolina Population Center where her research focuses on immigration policy and processes related to settlement patterns, the educational system, and health outcomes.
Roderick A. Rose
(entered 2008) is a Research Associate and Methods Consultant in the Jordan Institute for Families, School of Social Work, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an analyst for the Developmental Disabilities Training Institute, the Latino Acculturation project, and Evaluation Director for the CareerStart project. He also serves as a methods consultant to the School of Social Work, on which he provides analytical assistance to faculty and doctoral students and provides technical and methodological consultation for grant and manuscript development.
Stephanie Schmitt
(entered 2005) completed her undergraduate work in International Studies and Political Science and her Master's degree in Public Administration from the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked in the private sector as a management consultant, in state government as a fiscal policy analyst for the North Carolina General Assembly, and is now working in higher education administration. Her research interests are in higher education and in particular, how higher education institutions can function as tools for economic development.
Daniel Smith
(Entered 2011) grew up in Raleigh and graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in Mathematical Decision Sciences. While an undergraduate, he had a paper on entrepreneurship published in the Undergraduate Economic Review. After graduation, he worked as a research assistant for Professor Maryann Feldman, where he helped author a consulting report for the National Science Foundation. He also rewrote his undergraduate honors thesis as an academic journal article and submitted it to the Journal of Science Policy and Governance, where it is currently under review. He is a Royster Fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Heekyu Sohn
(entered 2004) received her MPA in Public Policy from Duke University and her BA and MS in Chemical Technology from Seoul National University. Her main interests lie in economic development and the costs of economic growth on environmental problems. She plans to investigate the relationship that technology, environment, and economic growth play in developing countries, in order to establish a policy to correct a market failure in renewable energy markets.