I am committed to using my research to support policymakers, NGOs and activists working to prevent and mitigate the human costs of war. I am collaborating with Research 4 Impact, an organization that facilitates exchange between researchers and practitioners, to share my research findings. My hope is to use my research to help organizations improve their communication strategies, and thereby mobilize the public behind lasting peace and human dignity. These efforts build on my previous experiences of promoting peace, such as contributing to citizen-led lobbying efforts to promote peace and human rights that targeted political representatives of Maryland, writing op-eds on the humanitarian and political crisis in Somalia, and providing videography support to the 2013 Historians Against the War National Conference in Baltimore.

In addition to my policy engagement on matters of war and peace, I have been involved with U.S. public health, international development, social justice and environmental issues through my previous work and volunteer experiences.

For four years, I worked at the Baltimore County Department of Health in Maryland. As the management analyst for the Office of Public Health and Emergency Preparedness (2010-2012), I was the lead fiscal manager for the office, which had an annual budget of over $600,000. I was also involved in planning and responding to public emergencies. For example, I was the Lead Logistical Chief for the Baltimore County’s emergency shelter during Hurricane Irene in the summer of 2011 and the Logistics Chief during mass vaccination and other points-of-dispensing operations. Prior to these roles, I served as a public relations officer for the department during the H1N1 flu pandemic (2009-2010), in which I liaised with members of the local government, media, and public by preparing press releases, report and presentations.

I have served as a research consultant with Partners for Development and Global Integrity in Washington D.C (2008 and 2009). At Partners for Development, I was involved with program monitoring and evaluation and identifying funding opportunities. At Global Integrity, I researched governance issues and recruited country field experts, including journalists, researchers, and academics, to contribute to the Global Integrity Report. I also have developed and help implement an HIV/AIDS youth awareness program with Women’s Health and Action Research Center in Benin City, Nigeria (2007). The program involved speaking with students in local public schools about the definition, transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and establishing in-school HIV/AIDS awareness clubs.

Finally, I have contributed to social justice causes in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. For example, I was a managing editor for Indypendent Reader (2011 to 2013), a multi-media project that provided a platform for local people most affected by social injustices and activists working to overcome them. I also contributed to Word on the Street, a newspaper managed by people who have experienced homelessness. I helped establish and lead a writing workshop to improve the writing and composition skills of the paper’s largely homeless and formerly homeless contributors.