Issue 6, May 2009 Comp iled by: Corey Barr (F’09 ) Edited by: Claire Carroll (F’90)

Fletcher Women at the United Nations

Serving Local, National and International Communities : Current Fletcher student Corey Barr (F’09) conducted most of the interviews featured in this sixth issue of the FWN’s newsletter. Corey gained firsthand experience with the power of Fletcher women’s networking, an invaluable asset as she thinks about her own career. Indeed, this issue contains much advice for alumnae interested in joining, or already part of, the UN system. For example, Silke Rusch (F’03) advises those who want to join the UN, “If you don’t immediately get the job you want, try out a smaller, less famous part of the institution, from which you can then move on. Once you are in the system, it’s much easier to find your dream job. Use the Fletcher Women’s Network as well as the broader Fletcher community. These tools can make all the difference, as access to information is one of the keys to success on the global professional market. This is true for any multinational employer and especially for the UN.”

In the articles that follow, we meet alumnae who “always imagined working for the UN,” such as Mari Yamashita (F’90) and Sarah Khan (F’04), as well as others who landed at the UN as their careers progressed. Reiki Niimo (F’82) and several others have spent all or most of their post-Fletcher careers at the UN, often in several different agencies. They speak of the challenges of being a woman and/or raising families while pursuing a UN career, particularly in the field-based agencies (such as UNHCR), but also of the unparalleled opportunities to carry out Fletcher’s mission to serve local, national and international communities in their search to develop relationships of mutual benefit, security and justice. And as UN agencies continue working to achieve better gender balance – particularly in senior positions – these profiles illustrate how Fletcher women have the expertise and experience to lead.

The newsletter is part of a multi-faceted approach to networking. In addition, there is our online community, or NING. As it approaches its first anniversary, we are assessing the NING’s utility in providing FWN members with the opportunity to discover friends and colleagues with similar or complementary interests. If you are not yet in the system, please email Marcia Greenberg (F’91) ([email protected]) to join.

And then there are our in-person gatherings. In a FWN survey conducted in the New England and DC areas two summers ago, respondents indicated interest in network-wide retreats. And thus from March 13-15th we held our first Babinec (a Czech word referring to a “gathering of women”) back at Fletcher. A richly diverse group from New England attended, along with alumnae from California, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Sara Mason Adler (F’97) shares her reflections on the event on page 8.

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 1 June 2009

Profile: Maria Vardis (F’96) “See You in Bosnia…” by Stacy Bernard Davis (F’90)

Maria’s career is an expression of Fletcher’s mission to serve local, national and international communities. Maria has been working on mine action issues since 2005, when she joined the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Most recently, in October 2008, Maria became an Advisor on the United Nations Development Programme’s Mine Action and Small Arms Team.

But Maria’s involvement in things international virtually started at birth. Born to Greek immigrants in Ohio, Maria spoke Greek before she learned English. Her family maintained strong ties to Greece, and after graduating from college in 1991, she followed one of her dreams – to live in Greece. Maria moved to Crete to be an in-house tutor for a college-level study abroad program. She taught Greek language classes and developed curricula for small seminars on the politics of identity.

As Maria puts it, “It was a time of the ‘clash of civilizations’ and rise of ethnic intolerance.” The breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the war in the Balkans were very close. “At that time I struggled to understand why identity and diversity – a source of such strength in my own life – were used to justify war and hatred.” Fletcher’s multidisciplinary approach drew Maria as she tried to make sense of the chaos plaguing southeastern Europe. There, she concentrated in Islamic Cultures and Civilization of Southwest Asia and Conflict Resolution and Mediation. She used the peace negotiations in Bosnia-Herzegovina as her case study. Inspired by Professor Andrew Hess, and intrigued by the examination of the ‘crossroads of civilization’ in his classes, Maria spent the summer after her first year at Fletcher taking an intensive Turkish language class in Istanbul.

By the time Maria finished Fletcher in 1996, she still had not committed to any particular career path. Then, at graduation, one of her classmates who was headed to Bosnia-Herzegovina casually said, “See you in Bosnia.” That comment helped Maria realize that going there “made absolute sense no matter how daunting it seemed.”

By September, Maria was in Bosnia as an election supervisor for the first national elections since the Dayton Accords. In January 1997, she had a full-time assignment as a Democratization Officer with the OSCE. Maria noted, “When I first started working in Bosnia, one of the things that I found most inspiring was working with women’s networks and nascent women’s NGOs.”

Maria spent the next six years in Bosnia with two other international organizations, first working on political negotiations with the Office of the High Representative, the lead civilian implementation agency, and then focusing on police reform and restructuring as part of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2003 she returned to New York to work at UN Headquarters in the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict as a donor liaison officer . Recently married, Maria met her husband at UNMAS. To gether, they are facing the challenges of balancing active

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 2 June 2009

UN Policy Work: The Conceptual vs. the Practical: “Human rights begin in small places, close to home…”

Phyllis Cox interviewed UN veteran Mara Bustelo (F’89) for our previous newsletter on human rights, but we saved coverage of Mara’s work for this issue on the UN because she highlights the thinking behind UN policy and programs – and how it might, in turn, shape the legislation and policy of member states.

At Fletcher, Mara was former Professor Philip Alston’s research assistant. She remembers that Alston told her to forget about a career in human rights because it was largely for lawyers. Having chosen not to follow his advice, she has been with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva since 1998! Mara has held a number of posts, including coordinating gender issues for the Committee on the Rights of the Child, supervising others’ work on economic, social and cultural rights, and handling the Office’s work on private sector business and human rights, environment and human rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. In 2007, she became responsible for supporting Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, including those focused on the rights to education, food, adequate housing, and health, and on toxic wastes, water and sanitation, extreme poverty and the impact of foreign debt on human rights.

Mara is inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “Where do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home,” but yet considered the Universal Declaration of Human Rights her greatest achievement. Mara points out that for rights to have meaning for individuals in their daily lives, concerted citizen action is needed to uphold them close to home. But at the same time, work on the ground relies on the normative value of universally recognized human rights – which then requires patient and gradual work to build political consensus and turn those norms into legally binding rights.

Mara’s pre-Fletcher training in history helps her observe the ebb and flow of attitudes toward human rights, particularly in the tensions between national security and individual human rights, and in Western emphasis on civil and political rights at the expense of economic, cultural, and social rights. These conceptual issues influence the tenor and development of the UN’s “on the ground” programs.

Mehrnaz Mostafavi (F’90) changed her major three times during her undergraduate career at Boston University – from languages to political science to international relations – and then focused at Fletcher on international business management. She worked at Canon for nearly five years, from which she became intrigued by the “Asian Tigers.” This in turn led her to pursue her PhD in international development at the University of Denver. With that interest and further grounding, Mehrnaz became a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme.

Though that consultancy afforded her many benefits comparable to being a staff member, Mehrnaz kept her eye out for permanent positions in the UN system. In 2004, she obtained a position with the Human Security Unit. The Unit’s goal is to promote understanding of the concept of human security, and

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 3 June 2009 particularly to make it operational. A human security framework, she says, should be multi-sectoral, so rather than addressing issues in silos, UN agencies approach human security challenges comprehensively .

UN “Veterans”

Reiko Niimi (F’82) and Mari Yamashita (F’90) have spent their entire post-Fletcher careers with the United Nations. We featured Reiko’s efforts to balance family and professional life, as well as her service as senior recovery advisor for the UN in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, in our December 2007 issue. We are delighted to hear from her again on her “constantly evolving” views as to what it means to be a woman in international civil service. Reiko says that when she started working, “I eagerly looked to my mostly male supervisors for advice. I later learned that this is a typical pattern for women: to look towards men as role models and mentors in their early twenties. By contrast, in our thirties and forties we tend to benefit a lot more from networks of women. And I guess in our fifties, we should be mentoring others. Instead of considering younger women as our competitors, we need to actively nurture the FWN and other such networks. I know that women could be using these to push for further advances in work-life balance and for personal and professional growth.”

Mari had her sights set on working for the UN even before college – and with fluency in English, Japanese, Finnish and German, she was the perfect candidate. She studied law in Japan, and at Fletcher took every course that would help her enter the UN. The day after finishing her thesis, Mari took the competitive exam for UN employment and was subsequently offered a position in the Office for Research and the Collection of Information.

Since then Mari has held various positions in the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs. Because democratic elections were seen in the 1990s as a tool to bring countries out of conflict, peacekeeping operations relied heavily on elections as an exit strategy. In this context, Mari worked in places such as Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique, and South Africa. The Division also handled a multitude of other requests, including technical support that often required work in the field. In 1994, Mari spent six months in Armenia monitoring the post-independence electoral process, and in 1996 she oversaw local election monitoring in Croatia.

After a brief stint in the office of the Secretary General, Mari served for five years as a political officer for southern Africa in the UN’s Africa section. Since 2007, she has been team leader for the South East Asia and Pacific section. She now largely concentrates on Fiji’s transition from military government back to a constitutional democracy, which the UN will soon be mediating. Mari and her team will support the chief mediator throughout this process.

With her husband working and son attending school in Vermont, Mari telecommuted for a number of years. She says that while telecommuting has not affected her career negatively, there have been times when it was problematic and frustrating to be absent. Mari also notes that while she has found the work-life balance more challenging than she expected, all in all, things have worked out very well.

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 4 June 2009 UN Veterans After researching female infanticide in India as an undergraduate, Jill Van den Brule (F’02) attended Fletcher, where she created a self-designed concentration in Humanitarian Policy. She took a mixture of classes taught by Professors Hannum, Johnstone, Uvin, Ignatieff, Marks and some French humanitarians from a semester at Sciences Po. After graduating, she took a consultancy in the Education Sector at UNESCO’s Paris office, where she represented the organization in negotiating the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That was when she produced her first documentary – and also worked with two Fletcher alumnae, Shantha Rau (F’01) and Susan Yoshihara (F’04).

Since then, Jill has been involved in film projects that have focused on the favelas of Brazil, refugee camps in Lebanon, rural villages in Cameroon, and floating villages in Cambodia. Those documentaries highlighted cases of educational exclusion and were featured at the International Conference on Education that brought together over 100 ministers of education and policy-makers. Jill has now visited close to 50 countries, mostly in connection with her work at UNESCO.

While her work has been extremely rewarding, Jill notes that it has come at the price of professional stability due to the vagaries of contract negotiations. Jill recognizes the upside, however: “that you can drive your own career path and carve out an interesting niche. Fletcher teaches you to mold to these realities and prepares you to recycle yourself in the professional world.”

Conflict, Refugees and Development

Unfortunately, conflict within and between nations, and the exodus of civilians is a “growth business.” As a result, many Fletcher alumnae are working to address one or a combination of these forces. While we plan to devote an upcoming newsletter issue to these issues, here are some perspectives from several women working on them through the UN.

Before enrolling at The Fletcher School in 2003, Huria Ogbamichael’s (F’05) work and research focused on international development. Since beginning her undergraduate studies in Germany, she had hoped to work for an international organization.

Once at Fletcher, Huria studied Africa and recognized the dual challenges of fighting poverty and overcoming conflicts. She realized the need to complement international development studies with a better understanding of conflict analysis and resolution and post-conflict peace building. Professor Johnstone’s class on peacekeeping operations, along with Fletcher’s interdisciplinary perspective, was useful preparation for her work in peacekeeping, where civilians, police and military personnel work together to provide an integrated response to crises. Since graduating from Fletcher, Huria has worked for the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). She served for 15 months with the UN Mission in Sudan in Khartoum, and then moved to the Darfur region in November 2006 to work on establishing the joint AU/UN Mission. In July 2008, she

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 5 June 2009 Conflict, Refugees and Development became Associate Coordination Officer with the Peacekeeping Best Practices Section at DPKO headquarters in New York. This shifted her focus from current field operations to policy and developing guidelines for peacekeeping operations.

Huria advises those interested in peacekeeping to give as much attention to planning their personal lives as their professions. While she has found working in peacekeeping exciting, it includes a challenging lifestyle that it is difficult to combine with personal commitments and obligations. If you plan to settle down, she suggests setting time limits on how long you are willing to spend in the field, and then plan to move to a more stable environment.

Since focusing on Security Studies at Fletcher and taking Professor Johnstone’s Seminar on Peace Operations, Silke Rusch (F’03) wanted to join the UN and, ideally, to work in a UN peacekeeping operation. After Fletcher, she started a PhD in Germany on Peace Operations and worked at the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Unit of the UN Mission in Sudan. She found the working environment difficult, including the need for greater understanding of the local culture, and realized that there was much that could be improved.

Around this time, Silke received an offer to work with the UN Office in Geneva on Economic Affairs, moving away from a security focus. Although she had no background in those areas, she recognized the real professional opportunity. Most recently, she has been on a field mission to Kyrgyzstan. But since her return, she has decided to take time off to finish her PhD – and will then return to her job and accept a longer assignment in the field.

A Legal Analyst and Communications Officer with UNDP/Cambodia’s Access to Justice Project, Lise Dahl (F’07) aims to strengthen the informal justice system by using alternative dispute resolution mechanisms on behalf of the most marginalized Cambodians – the poor, women, and indigenous peoples. She notes that recognizing human rights requires political will backed by action. In Cambodia, however, while rhetorical attention is given to the protection and fulfillment of human rights, Lise perceives that real attention is typically diverted to investment and economic growth. Further, Lise is learning what it means to “work with government.” Her experiences have taught her that it is important to see the cultural issues that arise in this work, including cross-cultural misperceptions and misunderstandings that must be addressed in order to maximize effectiveness.

Prior to attending Fletcher, Sarah Khan (F’04) interned with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. She later trained as a junior lawyer at India’s Supreme Court and also worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, advocating for the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in South Asian countries. At Fletcher, she studied human rights and international law with Professors Hannum, Rubin, and Johnstone, among others.

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 6 June 2009 Conflict, Refugees and Development

Sarah took a sabbatical from her studies at Fletcher to work with Mercy Corps in Tajikistan and Oxfam GB in Afghanistan. After graduating in 2004, she spent eight months in Darfur developing a protection program to enable concerned persons to access their basic rights under international law. For the past three years, Sarah has been consulting for UNHCR. She has worked in Zambia with Angolan, Congolese and Rwandan refugees and in Syria with Iraqi refugees. She recently took time off to study French and to work part-time with the Pearson Peacekeeping Center in Canada, and is now waiting for her next UNHCR post. Sarah notes that being a woman has given her access to different groups in her fieldwork, such as having access to both men and women in Afghanistan.

From her experience with UNHCR in Pakistan after her first year at Fletcher, Marie-Noelle Little Boyer (F’00) realized that her main passions lay in working with refugees. The day after graduation from Fletcher, Marie-Noelle left for Thailand as a Junior Program Officer (JPO) to work with Burmese refugees. A year later she was transferred to Sri Lanka where she worked on protection issues, particularly related to internally displaced persons. Near the end of her JPO term, Marie-Noelle realized that her goal was to work for UNHCR. After applying to various posts, she received a position with UNHCR in Kosovo.

During her time in the field, Marie-Noelle accompanied and advised a prominent UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, an experience she found “amazing.” Yet she felt drawn to working more closely with UNHCR’s beneficiaries. She therefore became executive assistant to UNHCR’s inspector general, a position that involved a lot of travel and gave her an inside look into the functioning of the agency. Just recently, UNHCR offered Marie-Noelle a position in the executive office where she will be a senior external relations officer, working again with the same Ambassador.

While Marie-Noelle has trouble imagining her career outside of UNHCR, she reflected on the difficulties of being a working mother in the agency. UNHCR is known for its rotational policy and while family duty stations do exist, the majority of the agency’s positions lie deep in the field where safety and schooling are not available. UNHCR works on the frontlines, and therefore staff members are expected to accept positions in difficult locations, which can require separation from their families. She recognizes that this could force women to make a choice between family and their careers, and thinks this is a big challenge within the UN system. But Marie-Noelle has made it work – her daughter is 15 months old and she is expecting a second child! Congratulations Marie-Noelle!

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 7 June 2009 Babinec: A Gathering of Fletcher Women by Sara Mason Adler (F’97)

Living in the Boston area, I’m fortunate to have several friends from my class at Fletcher who live nearby. We see each other occasionally and form a comforting network of old friends with similar interests and ambitions. I expanded my Fletcher connection exponentially, however, when I attended the first Fletcher Babinec, March 13-15th. Only a few of the faces I saw at the beginning of that weekend were familiar to me. But after a transformational day of informal discussion, sharing, networking, and noshing—I came away inspired and refreshed, knowing that I have a greatly enhanced network of accomplished women to count on for friendship, mentoring, and support.

The Babinec weekend began on Friday night with a potluck dinner, hosted by Ivka Kalus-Bystricky (F’90) at her home in Lexington. The next morning, coffee and conversation began flowing early, followed by a welcome from Babinec organizers Marcia Greenberg (F’91) and Elisabet Rodriguez (F’90). Diana Chigas (F’88), Professor of Practice of Conflict Resolution and just back from Burundi, greeted us on behalf of the Fletcher faculty and led a discussion of women faculty at Fletcher.

By mid-morning, Elisabet had set the stage for small group discussions. In the first round, participants divided into groups to discuss transitions or work/family balance. Each group then met back with the larger group to report their findings. Personal experiences, stories, achievements, setbacks and challenges were shared in an open and supportive environment. We found that even though we all lead lives as unique as our MALD research, we face similar struggles as women, and it is comforting to learn from each other and cathartic to share with others. Later rounds of discussion on Africa and the impact of the current financial crisis on global issues economics were equally meaningful.

Celebrating a successful Babinec conclusion at the Elephant Walk restaurant.

Continued on page 9

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 8 June 2009

Below (l-r): Jennie Riley, Elisabet Rodriguez Dennehy, and Barbara Crane Babinec

In the late afternoon, Barbara Crane (F’71) spoke about the future of global women’s reproductive rights. Crane is Executive Vice- President of IPAS, an international organization that works around the world to increase women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, and to reduce abortion-related deaths and injuries. After putting the current situation into historical context, she asked if we have any visionaries today for women’s rights in this country.

Participants suggested Hillary Rodham Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, but recognized that time and history will tell, as they did for Eleanor Roosevelt.

India was the theme for the evening. After an Indian dinner we watched “Water,” a powerful film that deals with the treatment of widows in India just prior to Gandhi’s influence. The Babinec weekend concluded with a Sunday brunch at Elephant Walk in Cambridge.

I feel proud to count myself among such a distinguished group and fortunate to be a part of such an extensive network of accomplished women. I am grateful to the organizers (in addition to Marcia, Elisabet, Continued on page 10

New Gender and Equality Project at Fletcher by Brian Heilman (F’10)

After receiving widespread support from Fletcher faculty, students and administrators, a group of students dedicated to gender equality hosted a community meeting on the topic. Nearly 50 students attended and engaged in productive conversations about various gender issues at Fletcher. Motivated by this exciting start, we have obtained official club status from the Fletcher student council as the "Gender and Equality Project" under the leadership of Jenny Marron. As an official student organization, we will be able to take part in orientation activities in the fall and recruit incoming students. We aim to hold a second community meeting early in the fall and to organize working groups on four topics to launch our gender analysis of Fletcher: (1) Faculty, Staff and Organization, (2) Gendering of Physical Space, (3) Student Gender Analytical Skills, and (4) Curriculum and Pedagogy. Members of the Gender and Equality project are also currently active in the student-driven effort to revise Tufts University's sexual assault policy. (NOTE: The FWN wishes to be supportive of this initiative. If you are interested, please see the Discussion on our NING.)

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 9 June 2009 Continued from page 9 Babinec

Barbara, and Ivka, Sue Dorfman (F’92), Mariana Stoyancheva (F’05), Lynn Salinger (F’81), Jan Sallinger (F’92), Mieke van der Wansem (F’90) and student supporters Julie Zollmann, Ameesha Chandnani and Jennie Riley) for bringing our Fletcher experience up to date and expanding our alumnae network far beyond the limitations of professional boundaries and class years.

To read more about the Fletcher Women’s Network, its members and activities, and see photos of the Babinec weekend, see our website (and note that this piece was published for the broader Fletcher community at http://fletcher.tufts.edu/news/2009/03/fwn.shtml !) . Local Group Upda tes

FWN-DC

In September, Vanessa Ortiz (GMAP ’07) launched the DC Mentoring program as a way to connect new Fletcher alumnae with more established mentors. If you are interested in mentoring, please contact Vanessa through the NING.

For the third year now, the FWN cooperated with Fletcher’s Office of Career Services to host a brown bag lunch during the Fletcher students’ annual DC career trip in February. Cami Mazard (F’97) organized a panel discussion on issues specific to women students and alumnae. Also in February, Maria Placht (F’08) hosted a potluck dinner in Alexandria, Virginia that was attended by Monica Wisner (F’08), Jindra Cekan (F’90, PhD’94), Katie Johnson (F’89), and Alfreda Brewer (F’79). The potluck featured Afghan and South Asian foods in honor of Meena Keshwar Kamal, a leading women's rights activist from Kabul, born that day in 1956. Kamal founded the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan, and was instrumental in assisting war refugees. She was assassinated in 1987.

On May 2 Ann Imlah Schneider (F’56) hosted brunch on her outdoor deck. The FWN-DC will hold its final event of the year soon, as well as a welcome happy hour for the summer interns in July. Stay tuned for more information.

The FWN-DC “board” includes Wendy Sherwin Swire, Vanessa Ortiz, Cami Mazard, Sarah Prosser, Uzma Burki and Cathy McAuliffe but is looking for some new leaders for the coming year. If you would like to help lead or host an informal networking gathering, please contact any one of them – and post it on the NING!

FWN-New England

Hosting and participating in the March 13-15 th “Babinec” dominated New England’s activities for the first two months of 2009. In addition, four FWN members, having just met at the Babinec the previous weekend, attended a screening of “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” hosted by the University of Massachusetts at Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy program. The documentary is a stirring depiction of the power of collective action by Christian and Muslim women of Liberia, whose civil protest brought elected and rebel leaders to the negotiating table to end decades of violence and upheaval, ushering in the path- breaking election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2005. The event attracted an impressive turnout, stimulated lively discussion, and demonstrated how we can tap into discussions of gender and international affairs throughout the greater Boston area. Continued on page 11

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 10 June 2009

continued from page 10 Local Group Updates

FWN-Bay Area

The Bay Area group kicked off 2009 with an informal potluck brunch hosted by Sara Jablon Moked (F'06). Since then, we have held regular get-togethers, including some volunteer activities (such as the San Francisco homeless count) and other social and networking events. We are planning more for the spring and summer, and welcome both new members and new ideas! To learn more or be added to our Bay Area email list, please contact Sara ( [email protected] ) or Linda ( [email protected] ). Representatives of the Bay Area also are working on a creative idea for the next issue of our newsletter (see call for contributions on page 12).

Did you know that…?

Joyce Aluoch (GMAP’08) was elected this year to serve as a judge of the International Criminal Court. She is the first Kenyan to hold such an office.

Allison Avery Wilbur (F’89), married to Dick Wilbur (F’90), works at the U.S. Mission in Geneva and has three children. Barbara Geary Truan (F’90), married to Fletcher alumnus Philippe Truan (F’89), also has three children, lives in Geneva and works for the Rolex Foundation.

Elizabeth Bennett (F’08) is working toward at PhD at Brown University, focusing on transnational civil society, global social movements and social capital.

Mavis Bauman (F’85) is returning to Rwanda at the end of May to assess the needs of a household of genocide survivors she has “adopted.” Mavis hopes to help the family obtain access to education and income-generating activities. She would love to hear from any FWN members familiar with Rwanda and/or who might be there in May.

Nadine Duplessy Kearns (F’00) has been in DC since graduating from Fletcher. She’s worked with International Business Initiatives and Capital Partners for Education. Currently, she is Director of Community Relations at the Washington Latin School, where she leads student recruitment and works closely with local youth programs.

Karen Henderson (F’81, PhD ’87) is a Senior Level Foreign Policy Advisor in the Office of International Programs at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She says that if Dean Bosworth’s new appointment to work with North Korea re-opens the issue of providing that country with a nuclear power plant, it is likely that her agency will be asked to work with the North Korean regulatory agency.

Betsy Hafner (F’88) joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2005 after practicing international trade law for 10 years. She is currently the Director for Russia and Eurasia, with most of her time spent on Russia. Betsy says her work is challenging, interesting and always changing.

Continued on page 12

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 11 June 2009

Continued from previous page Did you know that…?

The Fletcher student group, Global Women, is the most active student group at Fletcher and has sponsored more than 10 events so far this year. Most recently the group brought scholar and author Cynthia Enloe to campus to discuss the gendered dimensions of the Iraq war, which drew an audience of 70 people! Among its members, Naureen Kabir (F’10) worked at the Council on Foreign Relations and with Eve Ensler before coming to Fletcher. Recently, she has been doing research on policy options for closing Guantanamo Bay prison. Aparna Polavarapu (F’10) was a purple-haired corporate lawyer. After she quit her job, she participated in the Adventurists' Africa Rally, driving from London to Cameroon in a 20 year-old car. At Fletcher, she is focusing on legal development (rule of law) and women's and minority rights. Aparna plans to spend her summer doing field research to evaluate how effectively land reform in Rwanda has addressed women's needs. And our guest editor, Corey Barr (F’09), will likely intern this summer in the Gender, Peace and Security Unit of the UN’s International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

And lastly, we bid farewell to Tamara Golden who is leaving Fletcher to be Career Consultant at UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. She will also maintain her private coaching practice on the side and her glass fusion art and jewelry business, with the goal of growing them over time. Going forward, she can be contacted via [email protected] .

Our Fall Issue While considering the question of how Fletcher women may support one another, members of the Bay Area Chapter came up with the wonderful idea to connect Fletcher alumnae interested in contributing to humanitarian assistance, human rights, environmental and other causes with nonprofit programs directed by other Fletcher alumnae. Not only will this recognize the leadership of Fletcher women in the nonprofit sector, it will direct much needed financial support to programs that may face severe financial challenges resulting from the difficulties in the global economy.

Therefore, for our upcoming September/October newsletter, the Bay Area Chapter is collecting descriptions of non-profit organizations or programs that are run by Fletcher women – along with instructions on how FWN members can support them when making their year-end tax-deductible charitable contributions.

If you direct a non-profit program or agency, we want to hear from you! Program descriptions should be no more than 500 words and submitted by July 15, 2009. Please send them to [email protected] . Eligible organizations should have 501 (c) 3 status or fiscal sponsorship to receive contributions. A Fletcher woman graduate must be a founder or hold a leadership position with the organization. Submissions must include: (1) the name, job title, Fletcher year of graduation, role of the Fletcher woman graduate within the beneficiary program, and the title of the program, (2) the program’s website URL so interested women can learn more, and (3) information on how readers of the newsletter can make a contribution to the program, such as a website where donors can make contributions by credit card or a mailing address where donors can send checks. (If the organization is large with multiple programs, please indicate how contributors can direct their contributions to the Fletcher alumna-related program specifically. Due to space constraints, we may not be able to publish all submissions – but even if we do not have sufficient space to describe all programs or organizations, we will try to list the name, contact information, name of program, and other basic information for all.

Fletcher Women’s Network Newsletter Page 12 June 2009