The US-UK Fulbright Commission : US Fulbright Awards

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US Scholars 2007/2008

Postgraduates

Melissa Chirico
University of St Andrews – International Security Studies

Melissa graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in May of 2000, receiving a BSFS in Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA). During her junior year, she studied International Relations at the University of Dakar in Dakar, Senegal. Studying abroad in West Africa was a formative experience for Melissa where she learned the value of deliberate efforts to understand people and cultures much different from her own. While at Georgetown, she held multiple leadership roles within her unit of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and upon graduation, she was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy. Melissa quickly earned her Surface Warfare Officer qualification during her first tour onboard the USS WASP. She was awarded multiple Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals throughout her five years of honorable military service in various roles and regions throughout the world. Melissa will be studying for a masters degree in International Security Studies at The University of St. Andrews. In her free time, Melissa enjoys traveling, scuba diving, and exploring Florida's magnificent parks and beaches.

Margaret Jeanette Coombs
LSE – International Relations

Jeanette was born in Birmingham, Alabama and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in government from Georgetown University. After working for two years at a top law firm in Washington, D.C. Jeanette spent several months in Cairo studying Arabic and conducting research on the Muslim Brotherhood. She is currently studying in the London School of Economics/Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) Double Degree Program in International Relations. She recently completed her first masters in International Relations at Sciences-Po. While at Sciences-Po, Jeanette focused on political Islam in the Middle East and Europe. Next year she will complete her second masters at LSE, where she will research and write a dissertation on the Muslim Brotherhood in the United Kingdom. In her spare time, Jeanette enjoys singing, running, travelling, reading, and doing volunteer work.

Joanna Friedman
University of Oxford – English Literature

Joanna graduated with high honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with an A.B. in English and a certificate in Linguistics. In 2006, Joanna was awarded the Beinecke Scholarship, which supports aspiring graduate students in the arts and social sciences. Joanna is also the recipient of a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (administered by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) for students committed to eliminating racial disparities in academia. At Princeton, Joanna was co-winner of the Class of 1870 Prize for the top scholar of English literature in the junior class, and received the A. Scott Berg Prize for the best creative or research proposal in the department. The latter enabled her to conduct research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, where access is normally limited to graduate students or those holding doctorates. During her senior year, Joanna completed a thesis on the treatment of race in Titus Andronicus, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra. More generally, her current focus involves the representation of marginalized groups in Elizabethan theater.

In addition to these literary interests, Joanna worked as a fellow at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Policy Research Institute for the Region at the Woodrow Wilson School. On campus, Joanna served as president of Princeton's debate team and qualified for the National, North American, and World Debate Championships. She was also President of the Senate for the American Whig-Cliosophic society, the oldest student-run political union in the US, and editor for Princeton Progressive Nation. In the fall of 2008, Joanna will begin her Master of Studies at Oxford on a joint Fulbright and Clarendon award. Afterward, she will complete her Ph.D. at Harvard and hopes to become a professor, concentrating primarily in Renaissance drama.

Sarah Griffin
Central School of Speech & Drama – Classical Acting

Sarah is a native of Kentucky and studied at Berea College. There she became a member of the Berea College Theatre Laboratory, where she performed in numerous shows, headed the Props department and was a member of the scenic carpentry crew. While earning her BA in Theatre, she was awarded the Florence Prize for Essays, the Thomas M. and Janet C. Kreider Theatre Award, the Jean Perrin Award and the Emily Ann Smith Scholarship.

Her offstage work has taken her to Colorado, where she interned with the Central City Opera Props Department, and home again. There she worked with the Cabbage Patch Settlement House, LEO Newsweekly, and Paint Lick Elementary, where she taught theatre to fifth graders via the Alpha Psi Omega Theatre Honors society. Most recently she has performed with the Specific Gravity Ensemble, exploring non-traditional spaces and the role of environment in audience perception.

She believes the actor’s greatest work is in helping to give voice to the stories which might otherwise be ignored. Her studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama aim at refining the skills necessary to do such work. She reads voraciously, enjoys stand up comedy and prefers not to speak of herself in the third person.

Matthew King
University of Oxford – Environmental Change & Management

Matt graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Kansas State University with a BA in Political Science and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. One of seven K-State Kassebaum Scholars, Matt was named one of 13 “Outstanding Graduating Seniors” in 2007 by the Dean of Student Life for his numerous on-campus contributions and support for the student body. During his senior year, Matt helped start “K-State Proud,” a capital campaign which raised over $65,000 from students for students with no other forms of financial assistance – the first of its kind in the United States. Further, Matt served three years as Chair of the Student Senate’s Governmental Relations Committee, working with local and state decision-makers to support policies supporting higher education in Kansas. Since his freshman year, Matt has been involved extensively with the Alumni Association, having served on the Board of Directors and as president of Student Alumni Board, where he was named the 2007 Member of the Year. Over the past four years, Matt served as president of the Student Union Corporate Board and as Director of External Relations for the Blue Key Senior Honor Society. He is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi, a recipient of the McElvie Scholarship for Public Service, and two Middle Eastern Studies scholarships from K-State’s Department of Political Science. While at K-State, Matt also helped coordinate focus groups as a part of a national study seeking to determine college student civic engagement.

In addition to academic and community commitments, Matt has held various internships, including with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), Environmental Defense, Environmental Working Group and Tigercomm, a communications consulting firm focusing on environmental and renewable energy issues. He worked throughout the spring 2007 semester for Kansas Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson, and has continued there full-time through the summer. A Udall Scholar, Matt will earn an MSc in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University while studying the effects that soil carbon sequestration in agricultural mediums will have on emissions markets in cap-and-trade systems.

Meghan Merchant
Leeds University – International Communications

Meghan graduated summa cum laude from Baylor University in May 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international studies. She was selected as the journalism department’s outstanding student for 2006-07 and also received outstanding student accolades from the political science department. As an undergraduate, Meghan served as a reporter, staff writer and assistant city editor for her university’s newspaper, The Baylor Lariat. She also worked as co-editor of Baylor’s student magazine, Focus, which won several awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association under her leadership. She has published more than 60 articles, many of which were picked up by news services such as University-wire and the Associated Baptist Press and printed in newspapers, magazines and Web sites across the country. She also has completed various writing and public relations internships with The Baptist Standard, Baylor Media Relations, the Dwyer Group, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and ANS – a division of St. Jude’s Medical, Inc. Besides her involvement in various journalistic endeavors during college, Meghan remained actively involved in her university and community by mentoring fifth-graders at a local elementary school, giving Baylor campus tours to prospective students, serving as the public relations officer for her sorority, and promoting her university’s study abroad programs. Meghan is the second US recipient of the Fulbright Alistair Cooke award.

Pauline Mujawamariya
University of Sussex – Poverty & Development

Pauline graduated Summa Cum Laude with departmental honors from The University of Arizona, where she received a BA in International Studies. Based on her academic excellence, her leadership, her involvement in Tucson Community and her contribution to the University, Pauline was recognized with multiple awards. Those distinctions include the Centennial Achievement Award (bestowed upon one female and one male senior each year) and The Honors College Outstanding Senior Award (given to one graduating senior within the Honors College). Pauline was also named a Pillars of Excellence Scholar (given to 11 graduating Honors seniors). A Phi Theta Kappa member, Pauline was also on the National Dean’s List and repeatedly received The University of Arizona Dean’s honorary mention. On International Women’s Day in 2002 Pauline received an Outstanding Community Service Award from the Tucson community.

Pauline focuses on poverty in Sub-Sahara Africa and wrote an Honors Thesis entitled “Understanding the Feedback Loops and the Interaction Between the Underlying causes of Poverty in Sub-Sahara Africa.” On a professional level, she has worked in multiple capacities for non-governmental organizations both in Africa (East and West Africa) and in the USA, experiences that gave her a broad understanding of cultural diversity. Her interest in international issues, especially poverty, stems from her personal history as well as from those professional experiences. Pauline seeks a career in international development focusing on poverty alleviation in Sub-Sahara Africa. At the Institute for Development Studies she will study Poverty and Development with that same regional specialization. She is confident that Sussex University and the IDS will prepare her to contribute to poverty alleviation efforts in Africa.

Justin Sanders
University College London - Medical Anthropology

Justin Sanders grew up in Park City, Utah and graduated from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania with an honours degree in the History of Art, with a focus on Postmodern Theory and Film. After working on a dude-ranch in Colorado for six months, travelling around the world for 15 months, and working in contemporary art galleries in Park City and in London, he returned to school to study Medicine at the University of Vermont. Along the way, he developed an interest in Palliative Medicine and led a national campaign - PharmFree - to minimize the influence of pharmaceutical company marketing on physician prescribing practices.

Justin will pursue a Masters degree (MSc) in Medical Anthropology at University College London with research focus on cultural barriers to utilization of palliative care services, particularly among South-Asian Muslim communities. In the spare time that he'll enjoy before starting a residency in Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, next year, he will enjoy playing squash, dining out and nurturing passions for cooking, music and contemporary art.

Zachary Stewart
Courtauld Institute – History of Art

Zachary graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a B.Arch in Architecture and Medieval Studies. His fascination with Gothic architecture began when he discovered that contemporary concern for urban sustainability was anticipated by nineteenth-century theorists who believed the solution to the dehumanization of industrialized cities lay in principles derived from medieval architecture. Zachary received the David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services Internship and Traveling Fellowship Award to document a collection of formative twelfth- and thirteenth-century Gothic cathedrals in France, Germany, and Britain. The research he conducted during that time inspired his fifth-year thesis design project for a church and seminary complex in his hometown of Spokane, Washington. In addition to receiving the Noel Blank Design Award for his thesis work, Zachary has also received awards in the Saint Xavier University Library Design Competition and the Santa Fe Design Week Competition along with numerous Special Commendations for Design Work from the School of Architecture. His academic record earned him the AIA/AAF Scholarship for First Degree Candidates from the American Institute of Architects, the Frank Montana Rome Scholarship, and induction into the Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society. Zachary believes the boundless enthusiasm British docents exhibited for their local cathedrals during his visits illustrates that these remarkable buildings not only stand as records of past achievement but also possess the ability to enrich and inspire future architectural creation. He intends to use his own passion for Gothic architecture to contribute to the fields of art history and architectural theory and will be pursuing an MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the Specialist Option, “The Gothic Cathedral.”

Scholars & Fellows

Fulbright Cardiff Fellow
Cletus Cervoni

Cleti is currently an Assistant Professor of Science Education at Salem State College, Salem, Massachusetts. She received both her Ed.D. and C.A.S. from Harvard University. At Salem State, Cleti teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the teacher education program. These include courses on research across the curriculum, instruction and assessment for the secondary school, and science methods. Cleti also coordinates and administers the fast track program in science for students who have been working in industry and want to become classroom teachers. While at Harvard, Cleti received a Gender Studies Scholarship and a Spencer Foundation Advanced Doctoral Student Award. Prior to returning to graduate school, Cleti was the Director of Education for the Massachusetts Audubon Society where she received the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year award. She has received a fellowship from Earthwatch Inc. to conduct field science monitoring of bird life in the Pantanal, Brazil and to interview program volunteers on their ideas about science conservation.

Cleti’s research focuses on the cultural aspects of learning science. In her dissertation research, she found that the boys and the girls were positioned and positioned themselves to “think like scientists” in ways that both challenged and reproduced school-based meanings of science. The girls struggled with their gender-identity with conflicting ideas of what it meant to them to be a scientist and being a female. The ways that the girls could respond in different science contexts and their ways of being feminine in the world were mediated by their cultural images of femininity. The girls therefore had to negotiate both their own individual expectations of femininity as well as other people’s (the classroom teacher, their parents, their peers) expectations in order to develop a coherent gender identity in science. Cleti has developed a methodology of accessing the social worlds of boys and girls combining ethnographic techniques of participant observation and informal interviewing with media and arts-based methods.

A major goal of science education reform both in the United States and in Wales is to have schoolchildren become literate in science and to “think like scientists.” In order to get students (who we know are increasingly more diverse than their teachers), in the U.S. and in Wales to “think like scientists” we need to know much more about what role gender plays in how children think like scientists. At the University of Cardiff in Wales, Cleti will be collaborating with Dr. Gabrielle Ivinson and will be conducting her own study of a primary science classroom. Taking a more rigorous look at children’s own understanding of what science is and how they negotiate their gender identities as part of doing science would also help us get a better grip on expanding the definition of science which some have argued is too narrow.

Fulbright Queen’s University Belfast Fellow
Richard Allen Hays, Jr.

Richard has served as the Director of the Graduate Program of Public Policy at the University of Northern Iowa since 1994 and has been a Professor of Political Science there since 1979. He is the author of two books related to poverty issues: The Federal Government and Urban Housing , with SUNY Press, and Who Speaks for the Poor? with Routledge Press. From 2000 to 2004, he administered a federal Community Outreach Partnership Center grant, in which university expertise was utilized to assist low and moderate income neighborhoods in Waterloo. This grant has recently been renewed. He served as Chair of the Cedar Falls Housing Commission for 20 years, and is currently a member of the Black Hawk Homeless Coordinating Board. He is the recipient of the Ross Nielsen Outstanding Service Award and the Regent’s Award for Faculty Excellence from the University of Northern Iowa.

Fulbright Police Fellow
John Hutchings

John was born and raised in the Los Angeles, California area. He began his 27-year law enforcement career with the City of Orange (Orange, California) in 1980 before moving to Olympia, Washington with his wife and two children in 1985. He has performed several functions throughout his career; patrol, traffic, SWAT Team member, detective and teacher. He taught a semester course at a local high school titled Introduction to Law Enforcement and has been a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) instructor, in the middle schools.

John earned his Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University (Orange, California). He also earned graduate certificates in Organizational Development and Human Resources. John is Adjunct Faculty at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington and teaches various courses in their Criminal Justice Degree Program.

Currently, John is a Patrol Sergeant and coordinator of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for the Olympia Police Department. He sponsors mental health awareness training for police officers in a two county area. John has presented on this topic around Washington State, England and Australia.

John serves on the Thurston County Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) Team. He has conducted several peer support debriefings for first responders having experienced traumatic incidents. John volunteers with Thurston County Youth Services as a Community Accountability Board member working with juvenile offenders in the diversion program.

John has hosted a British Fulbright Scholar from Newcastle and is honored to return to the Northeast of England to conduct his research project. John enjoys music, reading, traveling, fishing, and motorcycling.

Fulbright Distinguished Scholar
Holly Kennedy – Kings College London

Holly received her graduate nursing education from the Medical College of Georgia and her certificate in midwifery from the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing in Hyden, Kentucky. She received her PhD in Nursing from the University of Rhode Island in 1999. Powell Kennedy’s career has spanned primary care, military nursing, education, and research. She was inducted as a fellow in the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 1999 and will be inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2007.

Holly helped establish the graduate program in nurse-midwifery at the University of Rhode Island in 1993. She established a faculty practice at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, RI and received a governor citation for her service in primary care in RI. She is currently an associate professor at the University of California San Francisco where she is the co-director of the nurse-midwifery educational program. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Midwifery & women’s Health and is the Co-Chair of the Research Standing Committee of the International Confederation of Midwives. Holly is best known for her research linking midwifery practice to outcomes and leadership in the profession of midwifery. Her model of midwifery care is used by many educational programs and she is recognized internationally for her support of normal birth. She has recently completed a clinical trial on group prenatal care in the military, funded by the TriService Nursing Research Program. During her tenure as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar she will be conducting research King’s College London, specifically examining midwifery models of care and the support of normal birth with optimal perinatal health outcomes in the UK.

Fulbright Distinguished Scholar
Ruth Malone, RN, PhD, FAAN – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Ruth is Professor of nursing and health policy and Vice Chair, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco. Ruth is internationally known for her archival research on the tobacco industry utilizing internal corporate documents, which focuses broadly on the public relations aspects of public health. She leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers working on projects funded by the National Cancer Institute and the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program. At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, she will be working with colleagues on studies of the tobacco industry’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, analyzing their implications for global public.

Fulbright University of Ulster Fellow
Brent Never

Brent is Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He sees great value in applying insights from international contexts to solving domestic American public policy issues. Brent previously was a post-graduate Fulbright scholar to Benin, in West Africa, where he studied the effects of colonial university educations on the construction of political networks still in use today. By studying the resiliency of coalitions in the African context, Brent has now been able to consider the inability of legislative coalitions in the State of Illinois to pass fundamental political reforms.

As a Fulbright scholar at the University of Ulster, School of Policy Studies, Brent will consider how voluntary-sector organizations have provided necessary social services during the Irish Troubles. By determining what types of organizations provide services in what intensities of public problems, such as conflict, one can then use these insights to understand what types of American organizations become involved in service provision in their own communities. Brent is particularly interested in the dynamics of unemployment service provision in communities facing different intensities of industrial decay.

Fulbright Cardiff Fellow
Thomas Schuttenhelm

Thomas Schuttenhelm’s compositions are cherished by performers for their exquisite craft and richness of style, and equally loved by audiences for their immediately enjoyable richness of melodic and rhythmic expression. In addition to composing for some of America’s top soloists and ensembles, Thomas Schuttenhelm is also an experienced performer and scholar. He received his doctorate in Composition and Guitar Performance from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. His compositions can be heard on numerous recordings, including a multi-volume compilation of his works issued exclusively on iTunes. In addition, his piano music was recently featured on the PBS special “The Great American Piano.” He has performed electric guitar with FIREWORKS and the Wellspring Dance Company, a new music ensemble and a performance art company based in New York; toured with Purple Rock Productions, a diverse theater group, performing on guitar and balalaika; and is a composer/performer member of the Boston Public Works Contemporary Music Series held at Harvard University. He has published numerous articles on the guitar and its history, including a chapter in a two volume edition on Fernando Sor. His book “The Selected Letters of Michael Tippett” (2005) is published by Faber. He is currently working on a book on the creative process of Michael Tippett.

2006/2007 US Scholars

Postgraduates

Jennifer Barnes graduated summa cum laude and with distinction in the major from Yale University with a degree in Cognitive Science, the study of the brain and thought. As an undergraduate, Jennifer studied child and primate cognition. Her research has appeared in academic journals, including "Animal Cognition"
and the "Journal of Comparative Psychology," and has been featured on Animal Planet, ABC's World News Tonight, and in the New York Times. In addition to the research she will be pursuing at Cambridge, Jennifer is a published young adult author. Her first book, Golden, was released by Random House in the summer of 2006, and she has four more titles scheduled for release in the next two years. Jennifer is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was the recipient of the Richard B. Sewall Cup for outstanding scholarly achievement and creative promise. During her Fulbright year, she will be conducting research at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre.

Raymond Choi received a BA in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, where he won multiple on campus honors for excellence in academics, leadership and community service work. He is a member of USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team and is a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. As an undergraduate, Raymond received multiple grants and fellowships to fund his research in Alzheimer’s disease and the mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. In a neurochemistry lab, Ray used organic spectroscopy to elucidate the aggregation mechanism behind amyloid beta peptide. In a neuropathology lab, Ray worked on cell cycle dysregulation and Forkhead transcription factors. Outside of the lab, Raymond is passionate about international health. He performed medical work in Belize during his freshman year and took what he learned to found the Global Medical Initiative, an organization that ships medical supplies to developing countries. His organization has since expanded to raise money for disaster relief and send students to developing countries. In the summer of 2006, he co-wrote a winning $10,000 grant which funded 10 Case Western Reserve students to perform medical work in Guyana. Raymond is also involved in Table Tennis. In his sophomore year, he founded the Case Table Tennis Team and recruited the former Olympic coach of Tajikistan to help develop the young team. The team has since competed in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association tournaments. Raymond will spend his Fulbright year at Oxford University, where he will investigate the possible role of pyridoxine in cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. Upon his return, Raymond will begin his MD studies at Stanford University and follow his interest in academic medicine.

Michelle S. Davis graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and a minor in Near Eastern Studies, specifically Persian literature. She was awarded High Honours in Middle Eastern Studies after completing her senior honours thesis entitled “Reform and Ethnic Minorities: The Case of Iranian Kurds during the ‘New Era’.” Prior to graduation, she joined the Phi Beta Kappa Society. During the course of her studies, she worked as a research and administrative assistant for the Jurisprudence and Social Policy section of the law school. Managing undergraduate research teams and editing the book When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex- and Sex Education- Since the Sixties, she developed a keen interest in the interaction between the discourses of sex and religion within the political frameworks of Western and Middle Eastern states. Michelle pursued this line of academic inquiry in Turkey while studying abroad for a summer in Istanbul. In addition to studying, she held leadership positions in various activist and media organizations, ranging from Take Back the Night to UC Berkeley’s radio station, KALX. Recognized as an emerging leader in the university community, she received the Alumni Leader Scholarship in 2005. In the upcoming year, Michelle will earn an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies under the aegis of the Fulbright Commission. Continuing her interest in the politics of sex and religion, she will research how identification with Islam impacts gendered experiences of sexuality among Persian-speaking communities in London.

Moira Egan earned her BA from Wellesley College cum laude with a double major in history and English. She holds an MA from American University in modern European history and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in modern European history at the City University of New York. Throughout her academic career, Moira has enjoyed studying women's history, and the history of understudied groups, interests she will continue during her Fulbright year of dissertation research on women who worked as nurses during the Crimean War. Moira has enjoyed combining her academic work with teaching both in the CUNY system and at other colleges; with service on university committees and in her communities outside academia as a volunteer for homeless shelters, facilitator of reading groups, member of choirs and with hobbies like knitting, cooking, nature walks and playing the tin whistle. Moira deeply values the cross-cultural awareness she has gained through study abroad, living in diverse neighborhoods, travel, and her conference presentations in the United States and Britain. She looks forward to her Fulbright year and her affiliation with Royal Holloway, University of London, as an opportunity to deepen and enrich the academic, social and cultural aspects of her life.

Odessa Fernandes graduated summa cum laude from Villanova University’s College of Commerce and Finance with a B.S. in Accountancy. She graduated 3rd in her college and 2nd in her major. In addition, she was honored as the 2006 Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Outstanding Accounting Senior. Odessa attended Villanova on a Presidential Scholarship, a highly coveted university distinction and award reserved for a small percentage of each entering class. Passionately interested in accounting and international business, Odessa served as a research assistant to the Accountancy Department Chair, gathering and analyzing information about research and development accounting and innovation metrics. She spent her junior year learning about the Irish and EU economies at the National University of Ireland, Galway on a Connelly-Delouvrier Scholarship. Odessa has completed accounting internships with two international public accounting firms. She was a corporate management intern and tax intern for KPMG LLP and worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s assurance practice. During her sophomore year, Odessa was recognized as a PricewaterhouseCoopers Minority Scholar. During her junior year, she was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma and Beta Alpha Psi, two nationally recognized business honor societies, and Phi Kappa Phi. In addition to these honor societies, Odessa participated in the Accounting Society, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and Villanova’s writing tutor program. Odessa will be spending her Fulbright year at the London School of Economics and Political Science earning her MSc. in Regulation (Finance and Commerce).

Ariana Green graduated magna cum laude with honors from Brown University with an AB in Intellectual History. One of ten graduating seniors to receive the Joslin Award for Campus Leadership, honoring “significant contributions to the quality of student life through leadership and service in the Brown community,” Ariana was a coordinator at the Women’s Center, a writing fellow, an editor at the weekly newspaper, and host of the school’s first feminist talk radio show. Her award-winning thesis examining radio's impact on 1960s black-Jewish relations led to a chapter publication on Jewish radio in the forthcoming book "Jews in American Culture," and her creative writing is to be published in an anthology, "We Got Issues! A Young Woman's Guide to Living a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life." After college, Ariana spent 15 months in San Juan, Puerto Rico, covering politics and culture as the assistant editor of San Juan Magazine and working as a stringer for the New York Times. She won an Overseas Press Club Award (Puerto Rico chapter) for a magazine story on breast cancer. For the New York Times, she reported on the controversy surrounding independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios’ death, among other topics. Her article on Puerto Rico's transportation system appeared on the front page of the New York Times' National section in 2005.

Curious about the behind-the-scenes of TV news, Ariana went on to work for World News Now and the Assignment Desk at ABC Network News in New York City. Her articles have appeared in Popular Science Magazine and the Cambridge Chronicle, and she has interned with Boston’s PBS affiliate (WGBH) and W.H. Freeman & Worth Publishers. Through the Alistair Cooke Fulbright Award, Ariana will pursue an MA in International Journalism at London’s City University, while conducting research on feminist media.

Deipanjan "Deip" Nandi, having graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, with an AB in Biochemical Sciences and a Certificate in Health Policy, is currently studying at the Duke University School of Medicine. He is excited to pursue an MSC in Health, Population & Society at the London School of Economics & Government during his upcoming Fulbright year. Beyond his academic pursuits, Deip has demonstrated a profound desire and strong commitment to serve underprivileged communities. At Duke, he became involved in efforts to combat the resurgence of HIV infection in North Carolina, particularly among 15-24 year olds. He co-founded "Your Shot at the Truth", a multi-media initiative inspired by the international NGO Global Dialogues. This program promotes youth empowerment and utilizing the peer education model, raises awareness about HIV/AIDS among youth in the community and invites these young citizens to develop short films and commercials that will then be used to educate their peers and the greater community. Deip has an extensive list of service efforts, of which he is most proud of his role as a street counselor to homeless youth and as a patient advocate for children with developmental or learning disabilities in Boston. In addition to working locally, Deip is drawn to international health issues. He serves as an editor and graphic designer of Global Pulse, an international health journal produced by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). Equally dear to Deip's heart is his passion for technical theater, having served as technical director, set designer and director for various performances at Duke and Harvard. In his free time, he enjoys modern literature, creative writing and watching any movie with John Cusack in it. Deip hopes that his studies at LSE will further his understanding of root causes of poverty and the role of health policy in combating this societal disease. After LSE, he will complete his medical education at Duke and go on to train as a pediatrician. Ultimately, he hopes to serve as a physician-advocate, with his clinical practice informing his involvement in US and international health policy.

Tessa Oberg graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois at Urbana, where she earned her BA in English and Rhetoric, with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies. At Illinois, Tessa published both critical and creative work, including a paper on the feminist significance of the “chick lit” genre in the Hotel Critical Review, and also won the John L. Rainey and Quinn Awards for short fiction. Additionally, her scholarly work helped her to earn the Carolyn Joyce Pape and Raymond Seng fellowships during her undergraduate career, and since graduating, Tessa has presented this work at international humanities and literary conferences. While Tessa explored women’s issues in her academic work, she also applied her education to life, drawing on her Women’s Studies minor to practice sexual assault prevention activism, teaching anti-rape workshops as an undergraduate, and since graduating, traveling to a neighboring university to help initiate a similar campus program. Tessa will now use her Fulbright to earn her MA in modernist literature, focusing on the work of Virginia Woolf, at the University of Sussex. After her year at Sussex, she will return to the US to earn her Ph.D., funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Ultimately, Tessa will continue to write both critically and creatively, and to teach at the university level.

Nina Peacock received a BA in International Studies and minor in Economics from American University, graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in the School of International Service (SIS). She was recognized for her academic achievement and hard work in various leadership positions with the competitive Charles Van Way Award for the senior who has contributed the most to building community on campus and the SIS Kimberly Miller Award for European Studies.

Alongside her academic studies and campus commitments, Nina worked various internships, including the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Europe Program, European Institute, and US Department of State. These internships fed her passion for international affairs and the European Union (EU). Nina’s internship and academic experiences culminated in her undergraduate thesis, which applied integration theories to the EU’s Regional Development Fund and a potential North American fund and explored how a fund might materialize in North America.

Over the last year, Nina taught English to high school students in an underprivileged region of France on a nationally competitive French government grant, volunteered as an English teacher and researcher for non-profit organizations in Brussels, and interned for the Foreign Agricultural Service at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. With a EU Fulbright, Nina will earn a Master of Science in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics. After her Fulbright year, she intends to work at a think tank before starting a government career in foreign policy. She enjoys rock wall climbing, salsa dancing, and running.

Chandler Drew Robinson graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors from Northwestern University, receiving his BA in Chemistry and Mathematics. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, having been inducted as a junior. As an undergraduate at Northwestern, Chandler spent three years conducting chemistry research aimed at elucidating the structure of a potential anti-cancer drug bound to a copper chaperone. He was able to form a protein crystal of the complex and obtain diffraction resolutions of up to 1.9 Å. For his chemistry research, Chandler received multiple awards, including the American Foundation for Aging Research (AFAR) Doris Krasnow Researching Scholar, Erwin Macey Scholar in the Life Sciences, and the Summerbell Scholarship in Chemistry for excellence in research and academics as a junior. He was President of the Student Advisory Board to the Dean of the College (SAB), established the “Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium” (CAURS) and also a national not-for-profit, tax exempt organization, the “American Undergraduate Research Society” (AURS). Over 12 universities are currently members of the AURS and an equal number of additional universities have committed to join this upcoming year. For more information on the AURS please visit www.aursociety.com. As President of the SAB, Chandler and the Board conducted research on how to improve student immersion experiences at Northwestern, which culminated in the proposal and recent implementation of an undergraduate research office there. His academic awards include being named an Oliver Marcy Scholar, which is presented to the top three juniors in the natural sciences and mathematics, and the Marple-Schweitzer Scholar, which is presented to the top academic and researching student in Chemistry. He also was a teaching assistant for organic chemistry and sang in and was Vice President of the university gospel choir. For his Fulbright year, Chandler will be studying for an MSc in International Health Economics and Health Policy at the London School of Economics and will write his dissertation on a comparison between public and private health care systems.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts was brought up in Houston, Texas and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 2000, completing a joint concentration in African-American Studies and Visual Studies. As an undergraduate she received grants for independent research from the Harvard Minority Mentored Fellowship and the Radcliffe Research Partnership. Since 2001, Sharifa has published widely as a critic and essayist focusing on the culture and politics of the African diaspora. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Times Literary Supplement, The Women's Review of Books, and Transition, where she also serves as a contributing editor. Sharifa's work has been recognized by the Independent Press Association's George Washington Williams Fellowship and a residency fellowship from the Hall Farm Center for Arts & Education. In 2006 she was honored with a residency from the Lannan Foundation and was named a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Award, given to exceptional women writers in the early stages of their careers. Sharifa's first book, a work of literary nonfiction titled Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2008 by Little, Brown & Co. It is the first installment of a trilogy charting the historical, cultural, and spiritual terrain of African-Americans via a personal journey across three utopian spaces: Harlem, Haiti, and the Black Belt of the American south.

During her Fulbright year, Sharifa will pursue an M.Litt in Modern Historiography at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland.

Ryan T. Sakoda graduated with highest distinction from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Economics and a BS in Business Administration. He was inducted into Berkeley’s Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Key chapters and received the Claudius & James White Finance Award from the Haas School of Business. As an undergraduate, he held internships at Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and Goldman Sachs and took on leadership roles in a variety of organizations and projects on campus. During the summer of 2001, Ryan spent six weeks in India where he visited and volunteered in three small, rural villages. This experience encouraged Ryan to pursue a career in public interest and helped solidify his decision to join the United States Peace Corps following his graduation. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, Ryan taught economics at the high school and college levels. He organized and participated in a number of other projects as well, ranging from computer skills workshops to charity softball tournaments. Having been selected to be a member of the Small Projects Assistance committee, he reviewed and funded grant proposals from the community of over 300 volunteers. One of Ryan’s most striking memories in Ukraine was standing among the crowd in Kyiv’s Independence Square during the Orange Revolution.

At the London School of Economics, Ryan will study behavioral and sociological economics and, specifically, their potential applications to the creation of anti-poverty policies. He plans to continue to pursue these topics at Yale Law School after his Fulbright year in London.

Jacob Timothy Sheehan earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics and American Politics as an honor graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. During each year as a cadet, Jacob received the Superintendent’s Award for Excellence (top 5% among cadets in leadership, academics, and physical leadership) and the Distinguished Cadet Award (above 3.67 GPA). He was also awarded the Class of 1930 Award for the cadet with the highest average in Economics courses and the Brigadier General Richard J. Tallman Award for achieving the fourth highest standing in his class. As a cadet, Jacob was a First Sergeant for a company of over 120 cadets. He also was a squad leader for his company Sandhurst team which competed in the international military competition held at West Point and named after the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. In addition, Jacob was the Cadet-in-Charge of Tuesday’s Children, a mentoring organization that partners cadets with children who lost a parent during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Jacob spent a semester on exchange at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While on exchange he participated in the Air Force Free Fall and Glider programs. He received the Top Gun Award as one of 16 cadets at the Academy that earned a 4.0 GPA. In his free time Jacob loves to play with his nephews, fish with his grandfather, and visit his family. He particularly enjoys spending time with his father.

Jacob’s interest in development studies began during his cultural exchange in the Crossroads Africa program. Last summer he traveled to Kakumdo village, Ghana with a team of 7 other volunteers who worked with a small local NGO called the Center for Job Creation and Environmental Protection (CEJOCEP). The projects included digging a 25-foot well, clearing the foundation for a school, making bricks, and processing gari. Throughout the summer he engaged in discussions with Ghanaians about economic problems like unemployment and lack of financial markets. It was this experience that caused Jacob to consider studying microfinance and the expansion of credit to the developing world. During his Fulbright year, Jacob will pursue a Master’s of Science in Development Finance from the University of Manchester. He hopes to use this degree for shaping post-conflict reconstruction policy as an officer in the Army and throughout his career in development work.

Adrienne Tygenh of recently earned a degree in political science with minors in philosophy and peace studies from Loyola Marymount University where she was graduated Summa Cum Laude with awards from the political science department, the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, and the University Honors Program. As an undergraduate, Adrienne was very involved in student life, serving as President of the LMU College Democrats, the Vice President of Social Justice of her service organization, a chairwoman in the Delta Zeta sorority, Opinion editor of the Los Angeles Loyolan, and founder and editor-in-chief of Our Time, a social justice magazine funded by a grant from the Donald A. Strauss Foundation. Adrienne was also a co-director of the University's Alternative Breaks program, which offers service trips during winter, spring, and summer breaks. Through this program, Adrienne spent time working in Guatemala, California's Central Valley, and the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Outside of school, Adrienne has volunteered at the Los Angeles Ministry Project in South Central LA, the Los Angeles Program for Torture Victims, Amnesty International, Midnight Mission, and Reading to Kids. As a Fulbright scholar, Adrienne is looking forward to furthering her understanding of human rights issues by earning a Master's in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen's University Belfast.

Scholars & Fellows

Linda Broadbelt is Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering University at Northwestern University. She received her B.S. in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University and graduated summa cum laude. She completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware where she was a Du Pont Teaching Fellow in Engineering. At Northwestern, she was appointed the Donald and June Brewer Junior Professor from 1994-1996. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of multiscale modeling, complex kinetics modeling, environmental catalysis, novel biochemical pathways, and polymerization/depolymerization kinetics. One main research emphasis is computer generation of complex reaction mechanisms, and application areas include biochemical pathways, silicon nanoparticle production, and tropospheric ozone formation. She is Associate Editor for Energy and Fuels and currently serves as the chair of programming for the Division of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Her honors include a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, appointment to the Defense Science Study Group of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and selection as the Ernest W. Thiele Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame and the Allan P. Colburn Lecturer at the University of Delaware. During her year as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, she will be working at Imperial College with Professor Donna Blackmond and her research group to study asymmetric catalysis using amino acids as organocatalysts. She will be applying computational quantum chemical methods to help unravel mechanisms of asymmetric catalytic reactions that are currently being studied experimentally in Professor Blackmond’s laboratory.

Gregory W. Clark is currently an Associate Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics at Manchester College. He earned both his Ph.D. and his M.S degrees in surface physics from Indiana University, Bloomington. As an undergraduate, he received a B.A. in physics, with minors in French and mathematics, from Indiana University at South Bend (graduating Summa Cum Laude, with honours). He has been teaching at Manchester, a small liberal-arts college in north eastern Indiana, since earning his doctorate and has a strong interest in physics pedagogy research. At Manchester, he teaches a wide range of courses for non-science majors, science majors, and physics majors. His research interests include issues relating to energy technology and resources, as well as the social implications of energy policy; he has recently been developing a course for non-science majors based on these important topics using cooperative learning techniques. Greg’s thesis research focused on surface reconstructions of semiconductors and ultra thin metal film growth on graphite surfaces using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and other surface science techniques. He has served as a Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Glenn Research Centre where he used SPM to study surface modifications of graphite fibres for lithium ion batteries and atomic oxygen erosion of polymers flown in low earth orbit aboard the Space Shuttle.

Greg’s Fulbright research in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University will focus on using novel SPM techniques (e.g., electric force microscopy, EFM, phase measurements) to study electronic properties of conducting polymer molecules in various electronic configurations. One of the goals is to improve the resolution of EFM so as to be able to possibly image individual polymer molecules with the technique (atomic resolution – imaging individual atoms - is routine with some SPM techniques). The project will help to provide valuable information on the fundamental nature of this important class of materials for the nanophysics community and for use in future nanotechnologies. He hopes that the work with the nanophysics group at Cardiff will lead to continued collaboration on nanoscience, involving undergraduate students at Manchester upon his return to the U.S.

Colleen Fatooh began her career 22 years ago as a uniformed and plainclothes officer in the challenging Mission District, experiencing a diverse range of responsibilities from investigations to community policing. She was promoted to inspector and worked in the Child Abuse & Youth Offender Unit. Her departmental role grew when she was promoted to sergeant and given the task of expanding the small School Resource Officer (SRO) program while collaborating with the San Francisco Unified School District. The SRO Program, which was initially limited to part time officers in a few middle schools, has grown to 33 SRO’s in both high and middle schools. As a Lieutenant, Colleen is currently the director of the Youth Services Unit (YSU), which includes the SRO Program, the Wilderness Program, the Police Athletic League Cadet Program and the Graffiti Abatement Program. She earned her Associate Degree in the Administration of Justice from City College of San Francisco and her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco. Colleen is researching how youth serving agencies collaborate with criminal justice agencies in the UK and the effectiveness of this collaboration in reducing the juvenile crime rate. She will affiliate with the London School of Economics and the London Metropolitan Police Department.

Richard H. Fortinsky is Professor of Medicine at the Center on Aging and Department of Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, where he holds the Physicians Health Services Endowed Chair in Geriatrics and Gerontology. He received his doctoral degree in Sociology in 1984 from Brown University, specializing in medical sociology and gerontology. He conducts clinical as well as social and behavioral sciences research with the major goal of improving health status and health care delivery systems for older adults and their families. Presently, his major areas of investigation are: physician and family care for persons with dementia living at home; health-related outcomes and resource use among older adults receiving home health care; evidence-based community interventions to help prevent falls in the older population; and transportation alternatives for older adults who have stopped or curtailed driving. His Fulbright Award will allow him to lecture and conduct research on comparisons between the United States and the United Kingdom in the response of primary care practitioners to persons and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, as well as on the experiences of such patients and families from diverse cultural groups. He will be working on these issues with a multidisciplinary group of colleagues at the Division of Dementia Studies, School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, led by Professor Murna Downs.

Colleen M. Grogan is Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Her areas of research interest include health policy, health politics, and the American welfare state. She has a book forthcoming with Georgetown University Press, with co-author Michael Gusmano, which explores efforts to include representatives of the poor in health policy decisionmaking. Another book in progress examines the political history of indigent medical care in the United States. Other professional appointments include: book review editor for the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law; Academic Chair of the Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy and Co-Chair of the Center for Health and Society at the University of Chicago. She received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Investigator Award in 1997, and she is currently a Fulbright Fellow at Queens University in Belfast, UK. She was Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University from 1994-1999.

Lieutenant Mark G. Stainbrook is a 12-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. He is currently assigned to 77th Street Area. Mark has supervised a major anti-gang task force in South-Central Los Angeles and has served in the elite Special Operations Division, Professional Standards Bureau (PSB).

In his second career, Mark is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve with over twenty years of military service. He is currently assigned as the Officer-in-Charge, Peacetime-Wartime Support Team for 3rd ANGLICO (Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company), stationed in Long Beach, California. Mark has served tours of duty in Thailand, Kosovo, Bolivia and Iraq as a Civil Affairs officer.

Mark’s personal awards include the Navy-Marine Corps Medal for heroism, as well as the Army Commendation Medal and the Navy Achievement Medal. Mark received the Presidential Unit Citation and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal while serving with the 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has over fifty LAPD commendations.

While serving in Iraq in 2003, Mark reconstituted Iraqi police units in Baghdad. His experiences were chronicled in the article “Seven Days in Baghdad” (Police Magazine, December 2003). Mark was extensively interviewed and quoted during Operation Iraqi Freedom by CNN, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, the BBC and the Washington Post.

Mark recently graduated with highest honors from California State University Long Beach with a Masters Degree in Public Policy Administration. His Master’s thesis entitled: Attitudes of American-Muslims towards Law Enforcement: A Comparison of before and after September 11, 2001, was the catalyst for his research for the 2006/2007 Fulbright Police Fellowship. Mark is currently researching the relationship between the West Yorkshire Police Force and the local Muslim communities.

Joseph Thometz is currently Visiting Professor of Social Foundations at New York University where he teaches interdisciplinary courses in ancient and medieval Western philosophy, history and religions as well as Far Eastern Cultures. Joseph has taught religious studies and philosophy at Swarthmore College (PA), San Quentin State Penitentiary (San Quentin, CA) and at the University of San Francisco. Joseph holds degrees in philosophy (BA, University of California, Berkeley; MA, San Francisco Statue University), as well as a doctorate in the Cultural and Historical Study of Religions from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (2002). Trained as a comparativist, Joseph’s interests include the philosophical foundations of Mahayana Buddhism, South and East Asian traditions, Jewish and Christian mystical literature, philosophy of religion and the theory and practice of interreligious dialogue. He will spend his fellowship year researching at Cardiff University, and at the University of Bristol, working with Professors Geoffrey Samuel and Paul Williams. He will be working on topics that draw the Buddhist and Christian traditions into conversation on the dilemma of ineffability and its import for contemporary philosophy of religions.

2005/2006 US Scholars

Postgraduates

Danielle V. Brown received an AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, graduating Summa Cum Laude and with Highest Departmental Honors as the #1 rank in the department. She is also a member of Harvard Phi Beta Kappa and received a Detur Award honoring the top 5% of each freshman class. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Danielle conducted bacterial genetics research aimed at elucidating intracellular signaling networks, although through her course studies her interests expanded more towards human disease research and medicine. She began spending time visiting patients with a pediatric allergist and later joined Project Health's Asthma Swim Program to teach children with asthma about their condition and how to swim. In addition, Danielle competed on the varsity springboard diving team her freshman year, then later gave up diving to devote her athletic energies entirely to competitive ballroom dancing. She danced competitively for four years and served as the team's assistant captain and then team president as well as coach for beginner dancers. Danielle grew up in Colorado and thus also loves to ski, mountain bike, and backpack. In Cambridge, she will be conducting cancer stem cell research working with childhood muscle cancer and breast cancer, and she also hopes to continue her dancing. After her Fulbright year in England, Danielle will pursue MD/PhD studies and follow her interests in a career combining research and medicine.

Lisa A. Hollenbach graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in English and minors in Writing and French. While at Washington University, she published poetry in the university literary magazines Spires and The Eliot Review, and in 2004 received the Norma Lowry Memorial Fund Prize for Poetry. In the summer of 2004, she attended the New York State Writers’ Institute at Skidmore College. Her undergraduate education was partially funded by scholarships from the Scholastic Writing Awards, including a Gold Portfolio Award and the Achievement Prize for Fiction in 2001. Lisa’s literary interests include Irish Studies and modern and contemporary poetry. During her Fulbright year, she will earn her MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University, Belfast where she will work on a manuscript of poetry as part of her master’s thesis. Upon her return to the U.S., she will continue her postgraduate studies in English literature and Irish Studies, and she plans to pursue a career in writing and teaching.

Read some of Lisa's new poetry, inspired by her time in Northern Ireland!
Poem 1: Children's Graveyard, Sligo
Poem 2: Morrigan

Shannon Jefferies graduated summa cum laude from the University of Louisville with a BA in Psychology and a BS in Justice Administration. She received the John C. Klotter award, one of the highest awards in Justice Administration, and graduated as a University Honors Scholar. During the course of her studies, she spent a great deal of time in Washington, D.C. First, she investigated the validity of criminal charges against indigent clients of the Public Defender’s Office. Later, she assisted small businesses in procuring government contracts with the U.S. Department of Labor. In her time as an undergraduate, she has been very dedicated to the University of Louisville. She has held several leadership positions in a variety of campus organizations; her time as Executive Vice President of the Resident Student Association culminated in the organization being named the Best Residence Hall Organization in Kentucky. She has greatly demonstrated her appreciation for the university by managing fundraising efforts through the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. In this capacity, she created and maintained statistical databases monitoring the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. She was also selected to represent the university in Greece, attending commencement for the university’s Athens location and conducting research on American stereotypes of Greek culture. With a grant from her university, Shannon has previously studied abroad in London concerning comparative criminal justice. She will be spending her Fulbright year at the University of Leicester to earn an MSc in Applied Criminology, continuing her earlier interest in comparative studies.

Jonathan W. Jones graduated summa cum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a BA in Political Science and English. Prior to graduation, he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and named a Chancellor’s Scholar, the highest award conferred upon an undergraduate student at the University. During the course of his studies, he participated in the University’s undergraduate research program. His research activities culminated in his senior honours thesis, which assessed trends in human rights violations against the Uighur Muslims of the People’s Republic of China. On campus, he held leadership positions in various activist and political organizations, ranging from Amnesty International to the Nebraska Young Democrats. As a member of Amnesty, he became increasingly aware of the problems confronting Nebraska’s growing immigrant and refugee populations. This concern led to a position at the Nebraska Appleseed Centre for Law where he conducted an extensive statistical survey on the detention of undocumented immigrants and refugees in Nebraska and Iowa. For dedicated commitment to community change, he became a 2004 Harry S. Truman Scholar. This past summer, he worked in the office of US Senator Ben Nelson as part of the 2005 Truman Scholars Summer Institute. He looks forward to his Fulbright year at the University of Manchester where he will earn an MA in Human Rights. Continuing his interest in migration studies, Jonathan will research how gender impacts the experiences of asylum-seeking women in the United Kingdom.

Emery Ku earned a BS in Engineering and concentrations in Music and Asian Studies from Swarthmore College. While at Swarthmore, Emery was most active within the Music and Engineering departments. As a pianist funded the Garrigues Scholarship for exceptional musicians, he engaged himself in a number of chamber and ensemble music groups, performed in a charity concert to benefit victims of the tsunami disaster, directed the music for the college musical in 2004, and gave a senior recital. As a student engineer, Emery was a dynamic member of Swarthmore's IEEE branch, managed a program to mentor younger engineers and promote a sense of departmental community, and was awarded the Albert Vollmecke Engineering Service Award. Beyond coursework, he was a student interviewer for the Swarthmore College Admissions Office and has done acoustical research for Bose Corporation, the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (funded by the National Science Foundation), and Swarthmore College (Howard Hughes Medical Institute). Emery will begin pursuing a MPhil/PhD in Active Vibration Control at the Institute of Sound and Vibration of the University of Southampton during his Fulbright year.

Adam Lester graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Brown University with an AB in Classics and History. His senior honours thesis, which offered a theory for the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls, won the Minnie Helen Hicks Prize and became one of five theses published as books through the university’s annual thesis competition. He spent his spring 2002 semester in Rome at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, where he studied Roman history, classical archaeology, Latin, and Renaissance art history. He worked on post-production for the Academy Award-winning film, The Hours, that summer during an internship with producer Scott Rudin. At Brown, Adam edited the Brown Classical Journal, received an UTRA research grant, and wrote a play performed at the Once Upon a Weekend drama festival. He also assistant taught a business course, competed on the mock trial team, and played various intramural sports. After Brown, Adam spent two years in the Private Equity Division of Lehman Brothers, the global investment bank. He was the senior analyst and a founding member of the Private Funds Investment Group, which now manages over $3 billion. While working in New York, he volunteered with StreetWise Partners and the East Harlem Tutorial Program. Adam is spending his Fulbright year at the University of Cambridge, where he is pursuing an MPhil in Classics.

Architect and Designer John Oduroe is fascinated by the potential of architecture, design, and art to promote social change. After obtaining a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003, John continued to cultivate this interest while working at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, a Pittsburgh research center dedicated to exploring the evolving relationship between art and science. As a Research and Design Associate on the 3 Rivers 2nd Nature project, John incorporated a variety of disciplines to analyze the ecological and social conditions of the Pittsburgh region. His work specifically addressed the connections between the post-industrial transformation of the city and the health of its watershed ecologies.

Concurrently John served as a Core Collaborator and Set/Environmental Designer for Echo:System. This art collaborative creates interactive performance experiences that explore the behavioral characteristics shared by both natural ecosystems and human cultural systems. John’s work with Echo:System has been performed across the US in locations such as Los Angeles and Seattle.

In addition to his research-oriented pursuits, John has experience working in several architecture practices, including Springboard Design, Perkins Eastman Architects in Pittsburgh, and currently Archaeon Architects in Washington, D.C.

John will use his Fulbright grant to attend the University College London. Enrolled in the Department of Geography’s Master of Science in Modernity, Space and Place degree program, he will continue to pursue his interest in merging scientific research methods with art and design practices to encourage public dialogue about the built environment. His work at UCL will primarily focus on minority ethnic groups and their participation in urban re-development processes.

Anne Rosenzweig graduated cum laude from Yale University with distinction in her major, History. Passionately interested in strategic studies and Middle Eastern studies, Anne studied Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi throughout time at Yale, and wrote her senior thesis on Anwar Sadat’s strategic decision making during the ’73 Yom Kippur War.

During the spring of her junior year of college, Anne spent a semester at