2020 Cohort
The United Nations Association-Chicago and the U.S. Department of State have formed the U.S. Embassy Professional Fellowship Program that provides an opportunity for UNA members to learn first-hand about the formulation and implementation of foreign policy and key mission strategic goals that diplomatic missions carry out to advance U.S. interests abroad.
OVERVIEW
The U.S. Embassy Professional Fellowship Program engages participants through a structured curriculum and to expose fellows to diplomacy through monthly digital engagements with U.S. diplomats at a U.S. Embassy abroad. The State Department representatives participating in the program will be able to share perspective on strategic goals they carry out on behalf of the U.S. Government. We are happy to confirm that we will be partnering with the U.S. Mission in Nairobi, Kenya for the 2020 Program!
Fellows will get the opportunity to stay connected to foreign policy and learn about bilateral and multilateral foreign policy priorities. Through these monthly exchanges, Fellows will get a first-hand glimpse into the inner workings of an Embassy or Consulate, learn about the inter-agency process, conflict negotiation, and get unique perspective into the art of diplomacy.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are exploring alternative arrangements future fellowships. Please check back in the fall for updates!
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are exploring alternative arrangements future fellowships. Please check back in the fall for updates!
Aaron Masliansky
Real Estate Consultant, Community Storyteller, Dream Town Realty and Inside the Skev
Aaron Masliansky is actively engaged within his local and global community as a Realtor, and community storyteller through his podcast, “Inside the Skev.” Aaron provides his real estate clients with comprehensive insight of the real estate industry and assists in the purchase and sale of properties within the Chicagoland area. Through his podcast, Aaron interviews local Skokie and Evanston business and government leaders about their stories with many episodes having a global focus. Deeply passionate about world issues, Aaron is a Young Ambassador with The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a member of the Global Real Estate Council with the Chicago Association of Realtors.
Outside of his work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.
Ana Karen Flores
paralegal working with the Asylum and SIJS team at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, IL.
Ana Karen graduated from Illinois College in 2015 with a bachelors in International Studies and Spanish. She later graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a masters in Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies certificate. During graduate school, she studied abroad at the University for Peace in Costa Rica for a semester. Ana Karen has researched several areas from Women in Political Office to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She has worked in Higher Education as a service and leadership coordinator, which included leading a group of students to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Prior to working at NIJC, Ana Karen was a Shelter and Legal Advocate at Apna Ghar, a domestic violence organization
Brad Gadomski
Vice President & Financial Consultant for Charles Schwab & Co, based in the Chicago - Michigan Avenue office.
In his role, he provides wealth management solutions to investors through the facilitation of customized portfolio management, executive compensation plans, asset protection planning, personal trust services, and managed banking solutions. Brad holds a BA in business from Colorado State University, where he also earned an International Business certificate. Brad is also an active member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Young Professional Network.
Clara Li
Sr. Business Analyst at Bluewolf, an IBM Company
Currently, she is transitioning to specialize in the Public Markets practice, which focuses on state and local government clients. Outside of configuring Salesforce platforms, she is continuing to explore her passion for social justice and policy. She recently completed the Obama Foundation’s Community Leadership Corps program, where alongside other Chicago young people, she learned about the power of community organizing and worked with her cohort members to develop a project around demystifying human trafficking in the west and south sides of Chicago.
With the Engage-an-Embassy program she hopes to develop new relationships with her cohort and gain insights into the realities of implementing U.S. foreign policy abroad. She is excited to focus on gender equality as her global goal, specifically in terms of how women empowerment is interconnected with efforts to tackle climate change.
Clay Zou
Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company where he advises large corporations and private equity funds on their most pressing strategic questions
Clay recently wrapped up an externship with Via, a shared mobility provider that builds innovative on-demand transit solutions. Passionate about public-private partnership opportunities in transportation and infrastructure, Clay will be researching unique opportunities for Kenya to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, as part of the Engage-an-Embassy Fellowship. Outside of work, Clay is interested in food, basketball, classical music, and airplanes!
Eleanor Nelson
Program coordinator at buildOn, where she works at a school on the south side of Chicago creating leadership and service learning opportunities for students
Eleanor Nelson received her B.A. from DePaul University with a major in Arabic Studies and a minor in ESL and Studio Art. After college, she served as an education Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica. Here in addition to her post in a local primary school, she also managed a community wide environmental education campaign with partnering community stake holders that recycled +250,000 plastic bottles, organized a swim lesson program, and was the art director of a girls nonprofit. Once back stateside, she was a member of the 2019 Obama Foundation Community Leadership Corps.
Felicia Hazzard
Creating and testing products for her company the House of Empressoria LLC and spending time with family.
While working in corporate, Felicia got to explore and research different countries and cultures. This interest sparked a desire to join organizations that focused on international relations. These organizations included the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Sister Cities International.
Felicia was given the opportunity from the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders to become a Reader for pre-selected applicants into the program. She continues to devote her time to the International University of Grand-Bassam Foundation (IUGB) in Atlanta/Cote d'Ivoire to make sure young men and women get a chance at obtaining a scholarship.
Jasemen hatcher
Director of Housing Counseling and Education
Jasemen Hatcher has been preparing for her career in social justice since she was a kid. She worked with low-income families through multiple community agencies that focused on education and housing.
She primarily provides one-on-one counseling and also runs workshops on a variety of topics including rental education for victims of domestic violence as well as teens. “Housing instability affects our children. Bringing this information to them is imperative,” she said.
She brought her expertise to Open Communities in early 2018 and is determined to help clients improve their lives. “The issues that my clients face keep me up at night. I’m always focused on ways to assist people to change the narrative, to challenge racism, and to come up with equitable solutions,” she explained.
Joy Elizabeth
Business Analyst Consultant at ThoughtWorks
Joy’s current roles with the United Nations are: Engage-an-Embassy Fellow with United Nations Association of Chicago, United Nations Association Emerging Leaders Fellow, Research Analyst for the InterGen Model UN, and United Nations Association of Chicago Advocacy Team Member. She is a Board Member of the Elevate UChicago student group at the University of Chicago and her most treasured role in life is the role of mother to her two sons.
Joy became a member of the UNAC in December of 2018 because her son wanted to get involved. She immediately got involved with the Advocacy Committee by meeting with Chicago government officials to encourage the adoption of the CEDAW Initiative. (T he Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)
One of Joy’s career goals is to improve healthcare through the use of technology. In her role at ThoughtWorks , she is able to accomplish this through consulting with healthcare businesses for technology advancement. She sees a bright future for healthcare, and is excited to be part of the changes that technology continues to bring for generations to come.
Karrie Miner
Assistant Director of Major Gifts at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a global affairs non-profit organization dedicated to informing and engaging the public on pressing issues in our world
Prior to joining the Council, she worked for two immigrant serving non-profit organizations in Chicago - Upwardly Global and Educational Perspectives. In her free time, Karrie is the co-director of the Chicago chapter of Changemaker Chats, a non-profit that brings female speakers to speak in an off-the-record style to an audience of women, is on the advisory committee of the professional development group Ignite Connected, which is a community of mindful and compassionate leaders from all sectors, is in the Management Fellows program of the Development Leadership Consortium and is a part-time bookseller at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. She received her BA from the George Washington University in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies.
Kranti Rumalla
Kranti Rumalla, born in Minnesota and raised in Florida, has always had an interest in improving peoples' lives. As a young adult, he held positions such as HOSA - Future Health Professionals Regional Leader and National Honors Society President, focusing on outreach, advocacy, and service. After graduating from high school as Valedictorian, he gained acceptance into Northwestern's 7 year BA/MD Honors Program in Medical Education. In his first year, Kranti is research team member with the Mary Ann & J.Milburn Smith Child Health Research, Outreach, and Advocacy Center, a Peer Health Educator in Chicago Public Schools, UNICEF Northwestern member, and Dean's list recipient.
Extracurricularly, Kranti has played baseball and soccer for a collective twelve years and is also a Certified Personal Trainer. In his free time, Kranti enjoys weight training, reading graphic novels, listening to political podcasts, participating in Bollywood fusion dance teams, and playing pick up soccer games. He looks forward to forming connections and gaining global experience with the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi by way of collaborative research on SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being and many more.
Marley Leitner
Strategic Planning, Project Management Professional, World Resources Institute
Marley is the Global Planning and Performance Associate at the World Resources Institute, an international environmental NGO focused on the intersection of sustainability and economic development. She is a strategic planning and project management professional with a background in capacity development, process excellence, and monitoring, evaluation, & learning (MEL) in the social and private sectors. Her concentrations are climate action and social equity. She is also a board member of A Child for All, a non-profit aimed at providing resources to vulnerable children in Bamako, Mali. She has a Master’s degree in international development from American University's School of International Service and a Bachelor’s from Indiana University's Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. In her free time she likes to play volleyball, travel, and explore Chicago.
Meg Harris
Co-founder of the international feminist social platform Power of World Women, one of the lead organizers for the Chicago chapter of the National Period Rally, social media director of the feminist zine They Call Us, and an Engage An Embassy Fellow.
Harris specializes in international political research, as she recently completed a time with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Her research focused on events in Syria and the progression of gender equality worldwide. Harris got involved with the National Period Movement in 2018 and managed multiple period drives within Chicago, until being approached to help organize the Chicago branch of the national rally on National Period Day in October of 2019. Her engagement with Power of World Women and They Call Us focus on using social media, creative works, and international collaboration as tools to further SDG 5. As an Engage An Embassy Fellow, Harris will spend the next six months researching economic development in Kenya, especially regarding US-Kenya relations. Her next year will be focused on pursuing full time employment, while continuing the projects she is passionate about: international relations and feminism.
Melissa Bogle
DNP, APRN, is a nurse practitioner and faculty member at the graduate school of nursing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Melissa has 10 years of experience in senior leadership, management, and educational roles with a fortune 500 national pharmacy chain. She recently completed her first year of legal studies at Saint Louis University and spent the summer of 2019 in Spain / England studying European Human Rights and experiencing an international legal summit at Oxford University. She enjoys traveling abroad and has always had a heart for serving those less fortunate in third world nations in particular. In 2004, she spent a few weeks in Nairobi Kenya and the surrounding rural areas providing medical care in the Kinyago-Dandora slums as well as to the Maasai tribes. Her passion for these communities has continued ever since and she is very excited to use this fellowship experience to return to a focus on this population. In her spare time, she enjoys caring for her 4 children and volunteering at Casa De Salud in St. Louis, Mo – a clinic for immigrant and low-income individuals.
Melissa Nadeau
Senior Youth Programs Specialist, Lions Clubs International
A bright, thoughtful, determined individual with a heart of service. she supports a membership base of 130,000 young people in 150 countries. She is the president of the Chicago Windy City Lions Club, leading monthly service projects with organizations from around Chicago. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago in Public Policy and is originally from Louisville, Kentucky. She takes pride in her southern roots and Asian heritage, which allows her to see different perspectives and find creative solutions to polarizing issues.
Michelle Redondo
Current 1L at DePaul University College of Law with an interest in pursuing International Law and Human Rights. After attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and receiving a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and two minors in English and Spanish, I had the opportunity to work as a legal assistant and to volunteer abroad for 6 weeks working as an English Teacher just outside Lima, Peru in a rural and low socioeconomic town. This first-hand experience to developmental and infrastructure issues and how these issues can directly affect the community, from its ability to grow to its negative impact on education, give rise to my interest in my UN Sustainable Developmental Goal: Clean Water and Sanitation. In my free time, you can find me in my kitchen baking (usually pies) or at a yoga studio with friends after class.
Navya Pyati
Strategic Consultant in a Commercial Real Estate Firm since 2017
Navya has been involved in high-profile projects in relation to the Healthcare industry, as well as taking part in Workplace Strategy and Portfolio Optimization. Navya has substantial experience in collecting and analysing data from various industrial portfolios, databases such as CoStar, utilization studies, surveys, interviews, and focus groups. She also has advanced skills in Alteryx, GIS, and Tableau.
Navya was then able to present and publish her studies on the spatial analysis of Chicago parks at the 11th Space Syntax Symposium in Portugal. Her primary interests for a few years has been on the focus on environmental data and diplomacy, in the pursuit for a more sustainable future.
Sahiba Borisuth
Community Affairs Specialist for Lyft
Sahiba Borisuth graduated from The University of Chicago with a bachelors in Public Policy and Human Rights. Prior to attending college, she spent a year interning with UNAIDS to launch a leadership training program for key affected youth in the Asia-Pacific region. This motivated her to join the UNICEF USA team and advocate for the wellbeing of all children. Most recently, she translated her global experience to enforce transportation equity in Chicago as a Community Affairs Specialist for Lyft. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling to see her family in Bangkok or exploring Chicago.
Nicolette Listenbee
Aspiring graduate student interested in International Public Service
Specifically, she would like to focus her studies on sustainable development and global humanitarian affairs. From a young age, she has been inspired to support initiatives that strengthen and transform underserved communities, leading to over ten years of public service involvement. Her undergraduate degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics has allowed her to think critically about current foreign policy debates surrounding socioeconomic disparities. She also has had a growing interest in addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues related to food security and access to healthcare. Nicolette hopes that her participation in the Engage-an-Embassy Fellowship will help provide her with some of the skills and expertise needed to manage, lead and evaluate international projects and organizations as well as provide her with her first international diplomacy experience.