I am an Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, USA. My research focuses on global advocacy. I serve as the international advisor for Sanejo – a Rwandan NGO working in Ntenyo, Rwanda to promote peace through education.
Sanejo, through the promotion of education, aims to support communities transiting from war to peace or facing abject poverty. To ensure that all children have a happy and safe place to learn, support is extended to local communities to reconstruct and expand schools. Through local and international partnerships connecting donors with grassroots organizations, Sanejo aims to create sustainable relationships that will strengthen fragile post-conflict societies.
My current research focuses on global advocacy on behalf of the displaced; studying how we can better fight for the rights of those who have been forced to flee their homelands due to ethnic and political violence. I began working with Sanejo through one of the students in my research methodology class at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. I was asked me to help the organization build a program evaluation system, which I began last summer in Rwanda, and have since become very involved with the NGO in the areas of strategic planning, fundraising and program evaluation.
