Development Priorities

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Phone:
202.408.5420

Fax:
202.408.5397

Democracy Fellows Program
Civil Society and Governance Program Team
World Learning International Development Programs
1015 15th Street, NW   Suite 750
Washington, DC    20005 
Contact us by email.

Democracy Fellows Recent Alumni

John Granville (September 25, 1974 – January 1, 2008)
USAID/SFO
Sudan and Nairobi, Kenya
Democracy Fellow 2005-2007
John’s fellowship was focused on community participation in government and NGO capacity building in South Sudan.  Using tools such as community needs assessments and interactive problem solving models, John worked to create collaboration and cooperation between citizens and government.  Most recently he worked to bring radios to the population of South Sudan in order to maximize the impact of USAID’s broadcasting initiatives in the region.

John was a former Peace Corps volunteer and worked in Sudan as a consultant for USAID and GOAL-Ireland.  With GOAL, he designed and implemented an HIV/AIDS Participatory Action Assessment.  He studied as a Fulbright Fellow and received an MA in International Development and Social Change from Clark University in 2003.

John was killed on January 1, 2008 in Khartoum. The development community has lost a shining star with his death.  He will be greatly missed by all whose lives he touched.

Read more about John's radio distribution project.

Laura Burnham Sampath
USAID/EA
Nairobi, Kenya
2006 – 2007 Democracy Fellow
As a democracy fellow with USAID's Regional Conflict Management and Governance office, Laura provided technical assistance in the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of strategies and programs including civil society, media, anti-corruption, and public/private/civil society partnerships. Laura served as the team leader for the cross-border peacebuilding programs in the Horn of Africa and led an assessment and program design of Civil Society and Media in Somalia. Her areas of technical skill and expertise include program and project management; participatory approaches to community development; conflict prevention, mitigation and response; and analytical writing.

Prior to her fellowship, Laura was the Program Manager with The Academy for Peace and Development in Hargeisa, Somaliland; a Fulbright scholar; Peace Corps Volunteer; and a Parks, Wildlife and Environmental Education technical trainer in Morocco. Laura holds an MA in International Development from Clark University in Worcester, MA and a BA from the University of Connecticut. She is fluent in English, Arabic and Berber, proficient in French, and has adequate comprehension of Somali.

Andrew Green
USAID/DCHA/DG
Washington, DC
2006 Democracy Fellow
Andrew contributed to USAID's Strategic Operations Research Agenda (SORA), designing research methods, compiling a 50MB dataset of USAID budget figures, and performing analysis of the impact of USAID's democracy promotion programs. Such tools and activities are essential in the relatively new field of applied democratic development, which melds insights from the academic, policy, and practitioner worlds.  Andrew also stimulated two meetings of international donors and think tanks in order to share experiences and innovations in democracy assistance research.

Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has taught at Georgetown University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Southern California.

Publications and Web site links:

Shanthi Kalathil
USAID/DCHA/DG
Washington, DC
2006 Democracy Fellow
Shanthi served as a Democracy Fellow in the Office of Democracy and Governance at USAID, where she provided expert advice on independent media and civil society and acted as the backstop for China issues. In her capacity as an advisor, she traveled on assessment missions to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Indonesia, East Timor, and Cambodia. Previously, Ms. Kalathil was an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focused on the role of media and communications in authoritarian countries and the emerging national security implications of the information age, with particular respect to China. Her 2003 co-authored book, Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule, examined the political effect of the Internet on eight authoritarian countries, including China and Cuba.

A former Hong Kong-based staff reporter for The Asian Wall Street Journal, Ms. Kalathil covered Hong Kong's transition to Chinese rule, the evolution of Chinese markets, and the 1997 Asian economic crisis. She holds a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and an M.Sc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is fluent in Mandarin.

Angana Shah
USAID/DCHA/DG
Washington, DC
2005 - 2006 Democracy Fellow
Angana served as a liaison between USAID's Rule-of-Law Team and the Administrative Office of the US Courts (AO) in order to help these different arms of the US Government prioritize and harmonize their rule of law programming.

Her work and consultancies with the American Bar Association, Bearing Point, the International Law Institute and DPK Consulting have taken her to Armenia, Mongolia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. She received her JD from the University of Michigan in 1993.

Julie Werbel
USAID/DCHA/DG
Washington, DC
2006 Democracy Fellow
Based in Washington, Julie's fellowship focused on security sector reform, with the goal of making the sector's activities more consistent with democratic norms and sound principles of good governance. She traveled extensively for consultations in Guinea, the West Bank and Gaza Strip and also to Florida to brief US Central Command.

Prior to her fellowship, Julie worked with DFI Government Services as Program Manager for their Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS). She has also served in the State Department mission in Zaire and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chad. She holds an MA in International Security Studies and African Political Development from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Maryanne Yerkes
USAID/DCHA/DG – Civil Society Team
Washington, DC
2006 Democracy Fellow
Maryanne's fellowship aimed to strengthen civil society and advance the effectiveness of civic education programs.Maryanne worked extensively in Eastern Europe before joining the Democracy Fellows program. She paid special attention to peacebuilding and conflict resolution in that region, working and consulting for Oxfam America, United States Institute of Peace and American University's Summer Peacebuilding Institute. She holds an MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University.

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