BGIA Internship and Mentor Profiles

BGIA Alumni Ethan Porter named Assocaite Editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

the campus newspaper and the campus international affairs journal. Fittingly enough, in addition to winning the Bard Political Studies Prize, he was also a two-time winner of the school's Democracy Award. While at BGIA in the Fall of 2005, Ethan interned at Newsweek International and served as the editor of the student journal, BardPolitik .

Mentor Profile: Justin Burke, Eurasianet.org

EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental and social developments in the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus Region, Russia, the Middle East, and southwest Asia. The website utilizes a network of correspondents based both in the West and in these countries in order to present a variety of perspectives on contemporary developments, including coverage of business deals and economic trends. EurasiaNet consolidates news and information from outside sources, including the British Broadcasting System, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty and Interfax, for a daily news digest called Today’s Wires. Every day, reports from these and other news services are posted on its Resource Pages. The web site also offers additional features, including newsmaker interviews and book reviews. EurasiaNet is perhaps the most comprehensive source for news and information about the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia found anywhere on the World Wide Web. EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.

Justin Burke is the managing editor of EurasiaNet. Previously, he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, reporting from Moscow and Bonn. Burke graduated from Boston University in 1986 with a degree in Soviet and Eastern European Studies. He was a visiting scholar at the Davis Center for Russian Research at Harvard University in . He has worked at the Open Society Institute in New York since 1996.

Mentor Profile: Laurie Rich, INFORM, Inc.

INFORM, Inc.’s mission is to solve complex environmental and health problems through independent research aimed at practical solutions. It is an independent research organization that examines the effects of business practices on the environment and on human health. INFORM’s goal is to identify ways of doing business that ensure environmentally sustainable economic growth. Its reports are used by government, industry, and environmental leaders around the world. INFORM’s three research areas are: Sustainable Transportation and Global Warming; Promoting Waste Prevention and Design of Less Wasteful Products; and Toxic Chemicals and Human Health. INFORM tackles the toughest environmental challenges in a serious, objective way. They have earned a reputation for thorough, accurate analysis and clear, solution-oriented reporting. INFORM publishes its research in books, newsletters, articles, and on the Internet. They have published more than 100 reports on how to avoid unsafe uses of toxic chemicals, protect land and water resources, conserve energy, and safeguard public health. INFORM was founded in 1974 by Joanna D. Underwood and two colleagues who shared her overriding concern about a single problem: air pollution.

Laurie Rich is the Director of Corporate Programs at INFORM, Inc. She is an attorney in the State of New York and a highly experienced environmental business, marketing and communications professional with a history of success in bringing about growth and increased marketability for established companies and start-ups. She has over 20 years of experience as an environmental communicator and editor. She spent five years as the Environment Editor of Chemical Week, a magazine covering such topics as environmental laws and regulations, pollution prevention and control trends, and the Bhopal disaster. She spent six years as the Features Editor of Resources Magazine, a monthly environmental science and management journal published by the ERM Group. She took two start-up ventures from birth to successful sale, including an air pollution control technology company serving the natural gas pipeline industry. She has worked as an environmental and strategic business development consultant for a number of Fortune 500 companies. She began her environmental career at the Environment Information Center, Inc. (EIC) as the project director for solid waste, air and water directories.

Mentor Profile: Véronique Graham, International Center for Transitional Justice

Since 2004 the International Center for Tolerance Education (ICTE) has provided support for the promotion of human rights and the unlearning of intolerance around the world. In its facility in DUMBO, Brooklyn, ICTE hosts local and international conferences on human rights, incubates human rights NGOs, and hosts peace educators from the Global South. In three years, ICTE has rapidly established an extensive informal network of human rights education experts around the globe. ICTE also organizes an annual Human Rights Summer Institute, a six-week human rights educational training program for New York City high school students, helping them engage in personal and academic growth through a participatory and multi-disciplinary curriculum including many interactive workshops facilitated by guest activists, artists and educators.

Véronique Graham, a native of France with a Master’s Degree in Tourism and Hotel Management from the University Of Toulouse, manages ICTE. She has a diverse background in travel and meeting planning. She lived six years in New Orleans where she worked at Preservation Hall, touring with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, promoting the Hall for private concerts, assisting the General Manager and coordinating Educational Music programs for young children. She has traveled extensively and fluently speaks English, French and German and knows basic Spanish and Chinese. Her “can do” attitude, work ethic, tenacity and enthusiastic approach ensure that ICTE’s many programs run smoothly. She has been living in the United States for almost 10 years. Her husband Ethan and their one-year-old son Lucien live in Brooklyn. (Veronique and her son Lucien are at the far right in this photograph with ICTE staff.)

Of the BGIA internship opportunity Veronique says: “The internship at ICTE offers real ‘hands on’ experience for a young person. At ICTE you are not considered an intern but a ‘Program Assistant’. You immediately become a part of our small team. The work you do, your attitude and your personality are vital attributes to the general atmosphere at ICTE and the smooth running of the Center.”

Alumni Profile: Sarit Shatken (spring 2004)

While attending BGIA in the spring of 2004, Sarit interned at the Open Society Institute in their International Harm Reduction program. After graduating from Bard with a degree in Human Rights in 2005, Sarit worked in Amsterdam for Women on Waves, helping women attain access to reproductive choice in countries where it is illegal. She went on to work at the International Institute of New Jersey, where she assisted survivors of torture seeking asylum in the United States. Sarit now attends Case Western Reserve University, where she is studying to become a nurse practitioner. She looks forward to working internationally using her new skills to eliminate disparities in healthcare.

Fall 2007 James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series

Mentor Profile: Lynn Neugebauer

Since 1987 the Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project (ILP) has provided low and moderate-income immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and other newcomers to New York City with high quality, low-cost legal assistance. The Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project is part of the larger Safe Horizon organization, whose mission is to provide support, prevent violence, and promote justice for victims of crime and abuse, their families and communities. Each year, the ILP serves over 1,500 people. In the complex world of immigration law practice, the ILP program provides hope to immigrants who are victims of persecution, torture, crime, and domestic abuse.

Lynn Neugebauer is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School. She has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since 1988 when she began practicing immigration law. She is the supervising attorney at Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project in New York City.

From Lynn: “Over the past few years the hard work that the Bard interns have put in here at the ILP have made a great deal of difference for us and our clients. They have helped us process cases faster, service more clients in their immigration needs and assist people who we would not have been able to but for their unique skills.”

Mentor Profile: Abby Goldberg, The Global Justice Center

The Global Justice Center (GJC) equips leaders in emerging democracies with the legal tools to enforce women's rights to equality under the law, and equity in political representation. In so doing, the GJC redefines democracy for the twenty-first century. The Global Justice Center works to target the entrenched political and cultural norms that perpetuate male dominated decision-making and constrain women; use human rights and international law as tools to redistribute power in ways that enable women to take their rightful place in national and transitional justice processes; identify activists, leaders, judges, and policymakers and train them in the affirmative use of women's human rights and international law as tools for forming transitional bodies and governments, and when building new democracies; and transform the operational definition of democracy to one that is truly representative.

Abby Goldberg is a member of the founding team of the Global Justice Center and has been involved in all aspects of its operation since startup. She serves as the Program Coordinator and is in charge of development and communication strategies for the Center. Prior to joining the GJC, Ms. Goldberg organized educational programs and advocacy on U.S. – Latin American policy for various Washington, D.C. organizations, including the Hispanic Council on International Relations, the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, and the Center for International Policy. She also worked in Buenos Aires for the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA). Ms. Goldberg graduated from American University's School of International Service with a B.A. in International Studies, with academic concentrations in Latin America and Foreign Policy. She also studied at the University of Havana, Cuba. A native San Franciscan, Ms. Goldberg currently resides in New York City.

Of hosting BGIA interns, "“Having a BGIA intern with us has been one of the highlights of this academic semester at the Global Justice Center. It is a unique experience to be able to work with interns as closely as we have been able to and it has benefited the GJC program enormously, while offering real substantive work experience to our BGIA student.”

Mentor Profile: Mark Narron, Open Society Institute

The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), $130 million private foundation that is part of the network of charitable foundations created by investor and philanthropist George Soros, seeks to demonstrate that inclusive financial services are powerful tools for job creation and economic revitalization. Established in 1997, it aims to alleviate poverty and community deterioration by investing in select commercial banks, microfinance institutions, cooperative networks and social enterprise projects.

Mark Narron is a Program Officer at the Soros Economic Development Fund. He has performed due diligence and risk analysis in Haiti, South Africa, Panama, Guatemala, Bulgaria and Switzerland. He also designed and manages a matched savings program targeting Roma families in Hungary and Slovakia. Before joining SEDF in 2004, he was a Grants Officer at the Open Society Institute and a Research Associate at the Urban Institute. Mark has a B.A. in English Literature and International Development from McGill University and an M.Sc in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Mentor Profile: Morgan Stoffregen, Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and defending women's reproductive rights worldwide. Founded in 1992 (as the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy), the Center has defined the course of reproductive rights law in the United States with significant victories in courts across the country, including two landmark cases in the U.S. Supreme Court: Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) and Ferguson v. City of Charleston (2001). Using international human rights law to advance the reproductive freedom of women, the Center has strengthened reproductive health laws and policies across the globe by working with more than 100 organizations in 45 nations including countries in Africa, Asia, East Central Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Morgan Stoffregen is a Program Associate in the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Her work has supported diverse advocacy strategies to promote reproductive rights, with an emphasis on publications and other resource materials for advocates. Prior to joining the Center, she worked at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where she served as Managing Editor of Human Rights Dialogue, a publication that presents firsthand accounts of human rights issues as they arise within specific real-life contexts. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Music Theory.

Of BGIA interns, Morgan says, “I have had terrific experiences working with BGIA interns—their work quality tends to be extremely high and they show a lot of dedication and enthusiasm for the Center’s work. They have proven their ability to work independently, a trait that we value highly given the fast-paced nature of our work. We feel fortunate to be a partner of the BGIA program.”

Faculty & Mentor Profile: Julie Becker, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative

TheInternational AIDS Vaccine Initiative’s (IAVI) mission is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. IAVI is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. Founded in 1996, IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conducts policy analyses, and serves as an advocate for the field with offices in Africa, India, and Europe. IAVI supports a comprehensive approach to HIV and AIDS that balances the expansion and strengthening of existing HIV prevention and treatment programs with targeted investments in new AIDS prevention technologies. As the world’s only organization focused solely on the development of an AIDS vaccine, IAVI also works to ensure a future vaccine will be accessible to all who need it.

Since 2003 Julie Becker has been Senior Director of Country and Regional Programs for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. She coordinates IAVI's work on gender, and provides oversight and technical support in vaccine preparedness, including IAVI's efforts to create an enabling environment in the communities surrounding clinical research sites in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. She is currently managing a collaborative effort to translate lessons from the introduction of HPV vaccines to inform future AIDS vaccine introduction in the developing world. Becker has 20 years of experience in HIV/AIDS and reproductive health programs. Between 1998 and 2003, she established EngenderHealth's HIV/AIDS program, focusing on integration of HIV/STI and reproductive health programs, similar to a program she developed from1992-1998 for the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Ms. Becker has dedicated much of her career to programs that address women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and developing innovative models for integration of HIV and reproductive health programs. She has authored many technical publications, made numerous presentations on HIV/AIDS, and has provided training and technical assistance to programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. She has a Master of Science degree in Public Health, Behavioral Sciences from Harvard University, and she received her bachelors degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has served as a mentor to several BGIA interns since the beginning of the program, initially at EngenderHealth and subsequently at IAVI. She co-teaches a course at BGIA on Issues in Global Health with Kate Bourne of the International Women’s Health Coalition.

Mentor Profile: Devin T. Stewart, Global Policy Innovations

Global Policy Innovations (GPI), a program of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, is an online magazine that disseminates in a coordinated fashion promising strategies for sustainable development and a fairer globalization. Rather than generating new research, GPI leverages and catalyzes existing research, connecting it to real-time policy debates. This is done in formats that are accessible to the media, civil society groups, politicians, and other key drivers of public opinion. It is, in essence, a forum for pragmatic alternatives to the current global economic order.


Devin T. Stewart is Director of Global Policy Innovations. He edits Policy Innovations and Carnegie Ethics Online. Previously, he was Assistant Director of Studies and Japan Studies Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He remains affiliated with CSIS as an Adjunct Fellow and advises the Sustainable Profitability Group.

From 2000 to 2003, Devin was a researcher at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry and in 2004 a staff writer for The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo. He also chaired the Korea-Japan Study Group in Tokyo and in Washington. He was a researcher at the Japan External Trade Organization New York and has served on the staffs of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Senator Barbara Mikulski (D, MD).

Devin's articles have appeared in six languages in numerous publications, including The American Interest, SAIS Review, The Asian Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, Japan Inc., the Asahi Shimbun, Prospect Magazine, The Globalist, and The National Interest. He holds a B.A., cum laude, from the University of Delaware and an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., and Bologna, Italy.

From Devin: "The Bard Program on Globalization and International Affairs and the Carnegie Council Global Policy Innovations program are a great match given the shared concern for global social justice. Bard students have made significant contributions to the Carnegie Council GPI program, leveraging the knowledge they have acquired from the BGIA and the experiences they have accumulated from their diverse backgrounds."

BGIA Alum Cara Parks Published in The New Republic

Cara Parks attended BGIA during the fall 2003 semester, and interned at The Coalition for the International Criminal Court. She is currently interning at The New Republic, where she just published a piece entitled "RaúlPolitik."

BGIA has moved!

Internship Spotlight: Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch International Justice Program

The International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch works to promote justice and accountability for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The program monitors the work of the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Sarajevo War Crimes Chamber. It follows developments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and assesses the efforts of national courts, including those in Iraq, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The International Justice Program supports the efforts of national courts to use their country’s universal jurisdiction legislation to try those charged with the most serious crimes under international law.

Richard Dicker has been the director of International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch since its creation in 2001. He is a graduate of New York University Law School and received his LLM from Columbia University. For the past sixteen years, he has worked for Human Rights Watch, first on accountability issues in Southern Africa and arbitrary detention in China, then -- starting in1994-95 -- leading its efforts to bring a case against the government of Iraq before the International Court of Justice for genocide against the Kurds. Since 1995, he has directed Human Rights Watch’s multi-year campaign to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has led advocacy efforts urging the creation of effective domestic accountability mechanisms in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the former Yugoslavia. In 2002-04, he observed segments of the Milosevic trial in The Hague, and in October 2005 he was present in Baghdad for the start of the Dujail trial against Saddam Hussein. Richard Dicker’s views appear frequently in the press on international justice issues and he is an outspoken defender of the ICC in the face of criticism by the current US administration.

Speaker Series Highlights: Caleb Carr on Countering Insurgency in Iraq

On May 10th 2007, The James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series hosted a three person panel discussing the subject of "Unknown Unknowns: Anticipating and Countering Insurgency in Iraq. The panel brought together three individuals with diverse backgrounds on the subject matter: Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist and a visiting Professor of History at Bard College; Nathanial Fick, author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer and former Captain, US Marine Corps; John Lelleberg, who retired in 2006 as Director, Policy & Strategy, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's special operations and counterterrorism bureau.

Mentor Profile: Simar Singh, Watchlist on Children & Armed Conflict

Simar graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum Laude with a degree in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College in May 2006. Her senior research project was on "Weakness in the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration System: Examining the Re-recruitment of Child Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo." She spent her junior year in Montpellier, France studying the political economy of the European Union and gaining proficiency in French. Originally from India, Simar is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict is a global network that strategically collects and disseminates information on violations against children in areas of armed conflict in order to force key decision-makers around the world to create and implement programs and policies that protect children’s rights. Watchlist’s strategy is to forge partnerships between local, national and international non-governmental organizations in order to advocate for an end to violations against children in armed conflicts.

Spring 2008 James Clarke Chace Memorial Speaker Series

Mentor Profile: Ari Alexander

Using photography, it opens up lines of communication between Muslims and Jews by illustrating shared ritual, habits and customs. Children of Abraham provides a virtual laboratory for small numbers of highly talented and motivated students to discover the depths of one another’s religions and to share their findings within their own communities and with other populations around the world. It seeks to restore a more comprehensive relationship between these two ancient peoples and honor their common heritage, reaffirming the essential principles that lie at the heart of their faiths. Ari Alexander is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Children of Abraham. He completed two Master’s degrees in the United Kingdom as a Marshall Scholar: an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from the Queen's University of Belfast, and an M.Phil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford. His research led him to live in Beirut, Damascus and Jerusalem. He has also served as a counselor and facilitator at conflict resolution camps, Seeds of Peace International Camp and Face to Face/Faith to Faith, in addition to working with Jewish teenagers in United Synagogue Youth and at the Lauder Camp in Hungary.

Mentor Profile: Mayada El-Zoghbi, Banyan Global

She is co-author of a manual to help NGOs in war-torn countries transform their operations from subsidized aid programs to sustainable financial intermediaries, developed in partnership with the International Labor Organization and the UN Commission on Human Rights. She developed tools for MFI preparedness and rapid response after the Asian tsunami. She is currently the research director for the USAID Funded AMAP Knowledge Generation project on Microfinance Amid Conflict. Ms. El-Zoghbi has worked in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, and the West Bank/Gaza.

Banyan Global is a development consulting firm founded on the principle that integrating expertise from the development community and private sector will achieve a broad and lasting impact. To this end, Banyan customizes solutions to each client's unique needs and circumstances, applying market-driven business approaches, to the improvement of livelihoods, the building of markets, and the promotion of efficient resource allocation in developing and transitional economies. Banyan is comprised of professionals from microfinance, banking, Wall Street, the commercial health sector, and public health. Headquartered in New York City, Banyan Global maintains staff in the Washington, D.C. area and around the world. Banyan Global is a women-owned small business.

Mentor Profile: Nevin Brown, International Partnership for Service Learning

The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership (IPSL), founded in 1982, is a not-for-profit educational organization incorporated in New York State serving students, colleges, universities, service agencies and related organizations around the world by fostering programs that link volunteer service to the community with academic study. The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership believes that the joining of study and service is a powerful means of learning, addresses human needs that would otherwise remain unmet, promotes intercultural and international literacy, advances the personal growth of students as members of the community, gives expression to the obligation of public and community service by educated people, and sets academic institutions in right relationship to the larger society.

Nevin C. Brown is President of The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership. He received his M.A. in American History from the University of Virginia and B.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
His previous positions include Program Analyst Officer, District of Columbia Public Schools; Principal Partner, The Education Trust and the American Association for Higher Education; Assistant Director for Urban Affairs, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. He is currently a trustee of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion; formerly a member of board of directors of the Urban Affairs Association and the National History Education Network. He also serves on several non-profit organization boards in New York City, including the Tiffany Consort, as well as a member of the Vestry at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church. In 2001, he received the Urban Hero Award by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

On his experience with BGIA interns, Nevin says, “My colleagues Barbara Wanasek, Maureen Brady, Romelle Horton and I have thoroughly enjoyed mentoring BGIA interns during the past three years. I think we can say with confidence that the interns have been outstanding, and we are particularly happy that several have kept in touch with us after their semester in our office. I think we have provided opportunities for interesting and mind-expanding work; and the quality of work has been quite extraordinary in return.”