Fiona Cooper, MDP ‘20

Fiona works as a Programme and Insight Coordinator for Sported. Sported is a UK-wide charity that supports community sport clubs and youth groups across the country that deliver Sport for Development. She is currently working on a disability inclusion project in Scotland and supporting the U.K. insights team in developing new research on the impact of grass-roots sports in local communities. Fiona also consults internationally for sports for development organisations, and she coaches the University of St Andrews women’s rugby team. Her consultancy positions currently include work with ChildFund International developing a global women’s sports for development leadership forum in South East Asia and expanding monitoring and evaluation processes for Atlanta Youth Rugby.

“The MDP course taught me the importance of delivering international development programmes that support people without perpetuating neo-colonial systems. It challenged my assumptions that international development organisations only serve the interests of communities they work within and heightened my critical thinking of the development sector as a whole. Most importantly, MDP provided me with unique practical experiences which cemented my passion for sports for development and laid the foundations for how I approach my work.”

Ian Hamilton, MDP ‘20

As the Advancement Associate for Public-Private Partnerships, Ian manages the federal subaward portfolio at the CDC Foundation in order to unleash the power of collaboration between CDC and philanthropies, private entities and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is an independent nonprofit and the sole entity created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s critical health protection work. Additionally, Ian contributes to multi-sector fundraising efforts for infectious, non-infectious diseases and global health projects.

"The MDP program strengthened my critical lens to better elucidate the realities of what is happening at each development scale, how they impact another and implement solutions utilizing a human-centered design. During the program's two years, I honed my philanthropic skills at graduate assistantships with Emory College's Advancement and Alumni Association as well as The Carter Center's Office of Estate & Gift Planning. These experiences cemented my passion for driving public health work through strategic organization and management tools."

Marinangeles Gutiérrez Rivera, MDP ‘19

Marinangeles is a digital nomad, working within the Disaster Management division of the global consulting firm ICF International. As a Specialist, she works to help state and local governments navigate the federal funding landscape to get the relief they need throughout the disaster lifecycle. Currently, she focuses on disaster mitigation, working hand-in-hand with state and local governments to provide forward-thinking risk-mitigation services that produce solutions that analyze, reduce, and insure against risk. She develops state and local action plans, outlines impacts to critical services, coordinates community participation, and assists in grant administration through the development of policies and procedures for several programs. These have included green infrastructure, voluntary buyouts and acquisitions, resilience planning, and strengthening critical services.

“As I entered Emory, I was fresh on my way to transitioning out from advertising. The MDP Program shaped my historical understanding of the various theories and approaches applied by the development sector - which I carry with me everyday professionally and personally. Perhaps, more importantly, it reinforced my learnings by providing me invaluable, active practice with a variety of organizations and projects. These experiences ultimately helped me narrow my future in disaster recovery and mitigation, with the hope of responding to and reducing global displacement.”

Katie Pons, MDP ‘19

Katie is based in Washington, D.C., and works as a Program Associate for Knowledge Management and Technology at Women's Learning Partnership (WLP). WLP is a partnership of autonomous feminist organizations located throughout the Global South that promote women's leadership, civic engagement, and human rights. Katie liaises with partner organizations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan to assist with the coordination of WLP programs. She manages WLP's archives to help preserve feminist history and supports information gathering and knowledge-sharing across the organization.

"The MDP program helped me gain both technical skills and a better theoretical understanding of the development sector. In addition to the hard skills gained around M&E, qualitative data analysis, and statistics, I was also taught to critically examine and challenge traditional development paradigms. The practice-oriented approach of the program offered me invaluable experiences through summer field practicums, an Atlanta-based internship, and special projects to apply what I was learning to real-world settings."

Sidra Khalid, MDP ‘18

Sidra is working in Islamabad, Pakistan as a Research Manager with Research and Development Solutions (RADS), a research organization that works on improving public health through research and Monitoring and Evaluation. She is managing two projects related to economic empowerment with RADS’ implementing partner, Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center. Sidra is working on research related to women’s economic empowerment, studying how providing women with income-generation opportunities affects health outcomes, women’s autonomy and decision-making, and gender relations within the household. She works directly within the community while also supporting the organization in grant writing and setting up effective Monitoring and Evaluation systems.

“MDP prepared me to handle all the uncertainties that come with working in the field at the grassroots level. I’ve experienced firsthand how there can be a disconnect between what a project’s objectives are and what a community’s needs actually are – and my role is to help bridge this gap. I have been able to apply my critical thinking skills to tackle issues that arise in the field and improve our Monitoring and Evaluation systems so that we are actually tracking the right things and learning and improving from our findings.”

Bethany Sikes, MDP ‘18

Bethany works as a Senior Research at Jigsaw Consult, a British social enterprise working in the international development and humanitarian sectors. In this role Bethany engages in research, evaluation and strategy projects focused on four main areas: education and learning, refugees and forced migration, faith and religion, and digital technologies. Bethany is engaged in a number of projects, both as a project manager and researcher. Her role includes designing methodological approaches and data collection tools, conducting and supervising data collection, training enumerators, data cleaning and analysis and presentation of research findings.

“The MDP course equipped me well for this role by giving me theoretical and practical experience with a wide range of research methods and approaches to analysis. In only my second week at Jigsaw I was on a research trip in Nigeria conducting key informant interviews and focus groups, and I felt  well prepared from my hands-on research experience in practicums and research projects during MDP to rise to the challenge!"

Timothy Rupnarain, MDP ‘18

Tim works with the International Republican Institute to promote democracy, rights, and governance. In particular, he has been focused on supporting coalition building of civil society organizations, engaging marginalized communities including ethnic and sexual minorities, expanding cultural activism through the arts, and increasing youth political participation in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Tim currently leads IRI's Bangladesh portfolio and Asia regional polling project, which uses predictive analytics to investigate youth attitudes towards political participation and the underlying factors that contribute to lack of youth engagement. In addition,Tim represents the Asia Division in liaising with IRI's Center for Global Impact, an in-house hub of technical resources and research specialists, to provide input on youth programming across the organization. 

 "MDP equipped me with the ability to work with different kinds of people, from government officials and politicians to community members, and with the appreciation that it takes time and effort to develop rapport with marginalized communities and build coalitions across diverse constituencies."  

Samantha Friedlander, MDP ‘18

Senior Policy Associate to the Executive Director,
Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT

Tyrell Kahan, MDP ‘16

Tyrell serves as a Livestock Research Advisor within the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security at USAID. As the lead US government agency for the Feed the Future Initiative, USAID works with ten other governmental agencies to end hunger, poverty, and malnutrition globally. Tyrell manages multiple livestock research partnerships with universities and international agricultural research organizations that work to develop and scale evidence-based solutions to agricultural and food security challenges. He also provides technical assistance on food security programming and strategy development related to livestock production, the consumption of animal source foods, and accelerating the impacts of agricultural research.