Administration and Staff

Barbara Miller, Director, Global Gender Program
Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs
Director, Culture in Global Affairs research and policy program. As of July 2012, Barbara also directs the Elliott School's Institute for Global and International Studies, which houses both the GGP and CIGA.

As a professor of cultural anthropology and international affairs at the George Washington University, Professor Barbara Miller has done most of her research on gender and health issues in India. She has also studied rural development in Bangladesh, low-income household budgeting in Jamaica and Hindu adolescents in Pittsburgh.

Professor Miller received B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from Syracuse University. She joined the Elliott School of International Affairs in 1993 as a specialist in the anthropology of international development. Before that, she taught at the University of Rochester, SUNY Cortland, Ithaca College, Cornell University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Her current research takes three directions: child survival and gender inequality in India, health and illness patterns cross-culturally as affected by rapid development and population movements, and the role of culture in international policy and programs.

Professor Miller served as the associate dean of the Elliott School from July 1999 to August 2002 and is currently serving a three-year term as associate dean for faculty affairs in the school, starting July 2009.

Ariana Rabindranath, Associate Director, Global Gender Program and Research Instructor

Ariana Rabindranath has over 15 years of global experience in research, strategic engagement, and project management on social development issues including gender inequality, sustainable development, and culture, with a focus on Asia. At the Global Gender Program she serves as Co-Investigator of the project “Women and Water in South and Central Asia: Building International Social Capital for Sustainable Peace and Development,” funded by the US State Department. She completed an impact evaluation of a psycho-social program for Burmese migrant women workers in Thailand and is currently conducting research on preventing violence against women and girls though engaging men and boys.

As a consultant for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2011-2012, Ariana wrote and presented a report on pathways to women's political participation in Asia.

From 2000-2011, Ariana worked at Asia Society as Associate Director and Head of Women's Initiatives in Washington, DC, where she designed, implemented, moderated and raised funds for symposia on women's empowerment and human rights. She conducted research on violence against women in Asia and developed an extensive database of stakeholders working to empower women.

Ariana earned an MA in International Affairs with a focus on Women in Development and Southeast Asia and a BA in International Studies, both from Ohio University. She is Vice President and co-Founder of The Bindi Project, an NGO with a mission to reduce violence and discrimination against girls and women in India by working with boys and men. She is a founding member of Friends of Prajwala USA, a chapter supporting the Indian anti-trafficking organization Prajwala. She served on the Board of the Malaysia-America Society from 2004-2012. Ariana has lived, worked and traveled throughout Asia and parts of Europe.

Milad Pournik, Research Associate, Global Gender Program

Milad Pournik is currently focusing his research on the Women in Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the Global Gender Program.

He has an MA in Economics and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews as well as an MA in Global Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. His previous experiences include internships with the Women's National Committee of Yemen, the International Policy Center on Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) in Brazil, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in Iran.

Prior to joining the Global Gender Program, Milad was a graduate research assistant with the Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) project working on a weighting scheme for an innovative climate aid coding methodology. He also carried out field research in Zimbabwe as part of a policy research team studying the capacity of African countries to prepare for, and respond to, climate change related natural disasters.

Cait O'Donnell, Program Coordinator, Global Gender Program

Cait has been working for the Global Gender Program since her return from northeastern Ukraine, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2009-2011. While in Ukraine, she focused on civic and HIV/AIDS education.

While serving in the Peace Corps, she was elected as Chairperson for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Committee. In this position, Cait led grant-writing seminars and directed a grant review team which evaluated proposals and approved funding for HIV/AIDS-related projects across Ukraine.

Cait received a BA in English and Global Poverty and Practices from the University of California, Berkeley. Through a fellowship from the Blum Center of Developing Economies, she researched and conducted fieldwork on women's participatory community development in the Eastern Caribbean. She was a housing assistant and member of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, which provides low-cost housing and local, organic food to Bay Area students.

Lindsay Kallman, Communications Coordinator, Global Gender Program

Lindsay Kallman joined the Global Gender Program as the Communications Coordinator in August of 2012. She has a BA in Religion from Davidson College where she focused on Medical Humanities. During her time as an undergraduate she did independent field research examining ethics in development primarily in the role of foreigners in Tanzania and Senegal.

Prior to joining the Global Gender Program, Lindsay worked at the University of Florida where she was a Program Assistant for the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes, a research group working to find a cure for type 1 diabetes. In between employment Lindsay spent 10 months traveling across Europe and Asia overland.

In addition to her work at the Global Gender Program, Lindsay is currently pursuing a Masters in Global Health at GW.

Practitioner-in-Residence

Aruna Rao, Practitioner-in-Residence, Global Gender Program

Dr. Rao is an international expert on gender equality, development and human rights. She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Gender at Work, an international collaborative that strengthens organizations to build cultures of equality and social justice, with a particular focus on gender equality. She has over 30 years of experience in pioneering new approaches to gender and organizational change in NGOs and development agencies. She has consulted widely with UN organizations, academic institutions, governments, and international and national development NGOs on gender equality, international development, and human rights. She has worked at multiple levels - from global level advocacy initiatives including on UN reform and gender and democratic governance and global evaluations of gender mainstreaming, to institutional change efforts in national and international development organizations, to research on human rights and institutional change, public sector reform and on implementing gender equality policies and practices in private sector companies, to grassroots engagements with rural poor women.

Dr. Rao has overseen the growth and development of key international human rights and civil society networks - she has chaired the Boards of Association of Women's Rights in Development, CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation. She forged alliances between civil society organizations and national and multilateral development institutions to further gender and development goals, and developed and led learning and knowledge networks linking development practitioners in South-South knowledge exchanges. In her work particularly in South Asia and Southern Africa, Dr. Rao has combined advocacy and research on gender equality and development, especially on institutional change, with leadership and management to forge better development results for women and men.

Post-Doctoral Fellows and Visiting Scholars

None during 2012-2013.

Pre-Doctoral Fellows

Kerry Crawford, Pre-doctoral Fellow, Global Gender Program

Kerry Crawford is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science and a pre-doctoral fellow with the Global Gender Program. Kerry is writing a dissertation entitled "Punctuated Silence: Variation in the International Response to Wartime Sexual Violence". The study examines the development of a political and legal prohibition of wartime sexual violence beginning in the mid-1990s. Her broader research interests include gender dynamics in war, human security, women in peacekeeping, women in the military, and the formation of human rights norms. Kerry was awarded a 2012 Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies to support her research.

Click here for Kerry's LinkedIn page

Pierre Pratley, Pre-doctoral Fellow, Global Gender Program

Pierre Pratley is a DrPH candidate in Global Health at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services and a visiting Fulbright Student to the United States. He joined the Elliot School's Global Gender Program as a Graduate Research Assistant in September 2012 where he works under Prof. Barbara Miller and is writing his dissertation that explores issues around measuring the effects of female empowerment on development and health outcomes. His research focuses specifically on Sub-Saharan Africa and research interests broadly focus around measurement of complex social constructs in the developing world.

Click here for Pierre's LinkedIn page

Interns

Katy Stewart, Student Intern, Global Gender Program

Katy is a BA candidate at the Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University. Her concentration is Global Public Health, with a minor in Public Health.

As the current campaign co-coordinator and previous GROW internship coordinator for the student-led, nonprofit group GlobeMed at GW, Katy has gained experience planning events, writing grants, and working in diverse groups.

In the summer of 2011, Katy led a group of four other GW students to Butare, Rwanda. They worked along side a Rwandan group of medical students to develop and strengthen the Huye Health Clinic Maternal Health Education Program (MHEP) and Income Generation project. The team interviewed mothers enrolled in the program, created long-term project evaluations, and helped teach 7 of the 10 MHEP education sessions.

Asthaa Chaturvedi, Student Intern, Global Gender Program

Asthaa is a third-year student concentrating International Development and a member of the University Honors Program. She joined the IGIS-GGP team this January and is enjoying blogging for Global Gender Current and Anthropology Works. She hopes to pursue journalism after graduating. She has interned for New York Public Radio, CNBC, and Nightly Business Report. Her reserach interests include women's community engagement, education, and media. Asthaa is a member of the International Affairs Society and volunteers to organize the high school Model UN conference run on campus. When she's not working or studying, you might find her in the dance studio on campus or listening to public radio.

Lena Krikorian, Student Intern, Global Gender Program

Lena is a recent graduate of Rye High School where she actively participated in Student Council and Free the Girls, a non-profit organization dedicated towards raising funds for young women in Africa rescued from sex trafficking. She was the president of her local chapter of Armenian Christian Youth Organization of America for two years. Her leadership in this non-profit organization included fundraising for children in impoverished neighborhoods in Armenia through toy drives, bake sales, and car washes. She is currently a BA candidate at the Elliott School of International Affairs. She hopes to double major in Economics and Anthropology with a minor in Gender Studies. She is also an active member of the International Affairs Society and George Washington Democrats. At GGP, she helps to assemble and organize a comprehensive online bibliography on UN resolution 1325 which is now available on our website.

Emily Isaac, Student Intern, Global Gender Program

Emily is a first year BA student at the George Washington University majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in International Development. Emily is the main author of the Global Gender Current's Org Spotlight and Global Gender News features. Emily is also a campus ambassador for the Half the Sky movement at GWU. She recently graduated from Calabasas High School where she founded a chapter of New Global Citizens, an organization that educates and empowers youth to sustainably address the world's most pressing issues. In 2011, she earned her Girl Scout Gold Award by teaching workshops about global issues and the importance of women's empowerment to a group of girls at her local Boys & Girls Club.

Past Staff

Erica Buckingham, MA, International Development Studies, GW [September 2010 - July 2012]

Past Research Assistants

Matt LeDuc, MA in Anthropology and International Development, GW [June 2011 - Sept 2012]

Caitlin Cumming, BA in International Affairs, GW [Sept 2010 - Aug 2012]

Nadia Connelly, MA, Anthropology and International Development, GW and MPhil, Medical Anthropology, Oxford University [Aug 2011 - May 2012]

Joanna Brucker, EdM in International Educational Policy, Harvard Graduate School of Education and BA in International Affairs and Anthropology, GW [Nov 2011 - May 2012]

Katie Appel, MA, International Development Studies, GW [Jan - April 2011]

Casey McHugh, MA, Anthropology/International Development, GW [May - June 2011]

Past Student Interns

Delaney Allan, BA in candidate in International Affairs and Economics, GW, expected 2014 [February 2011 - December 2012]

Mackenzie Becker, BA candidate in Anthropology, GW, expected 2014 [May 2012 - December 2012]

Ashley Dennee, BA in International Affairs, GW, 2012 [September 2011 - August 2012]

Caroline Spangler, BA candidate in Anthropology, NYU, expected 2013 [May - August 2011]