Jennifer Romba
UNESCO Fellow to Bangkok, Thailand
Jennifer is a Master’s candidate in International Education with a concentration in monitoring and evaluation studies and will complete her degree with this fellowship program. She came to GW after serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda, where she was able to work on community-led development projects as well as gender-driven life skills development camps for boys and girls. Following her service in Rwanda, Jennifer worked with a community-based nonprofit organization in Washington DC where she directed an education program for adults living with serious mental illnesses. During her time at GW she has been able to work closely with faculty and staff on developing and refining an educational resource rooted in Malala Yousafzai’s memoir “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban”. While in Bangkok, Jennifer will be working with UNESCO’s Inclusive Quality Education (IQE) unit to finalize and facilitate an e-learning course about gender equality in education and will be working to facilitate activities with the UN’s Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI).
You can find Jennifer on twitter (@Jennifer_Romba).
Elena Saavedra
UNESCO Fellow to Havana, Cuba
Elena is a Master’s candidate in International Education with a concentration in education for development. She currently works at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington DC as a Research Associate in their Professional Services Division. At AIR Elena assists with product development and website content management for two national technical assistance centers, one under the U.S. Department of Education and one under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Both centers provide support to state and local recipients of federal grants that promote the improvement of mental health services of children and youth in schools and communities. While in Havana, Elena will be tasked with developing, organizing, and managing the content on the UNESCO Havana education portion of the website. Additionally, Elena will be working with one of UNESCO’s partners, La Universidad de Ciencias Pedagógicas Enrique José Varona (UCPEJV), to design and conduct a research study investigating digital uses among Cuban university students in the context of gender violence.
Nora Tomlinson Weintraub
Fellow to UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
Nora Tomlinson Weintraub is a Master’s candidate at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she is concentrating in Global Gender Policy and Development Studies. Prior to starting her Master’s, the San Francisco native worked in Silicon Valley doing marketing for small start-ups.
During her fellowship, she will be working on UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme, focusing on gender equality and women’s rights. Nora is an avid athlete, traveler and French-speaker, and is excited to spend the summer at UNESCO headquarters in Paris!
Marie Louise Balo Lou
UNESCO Fellow to Dakar, Senegal
Marie Louise Balo Lou is a first year Master’s student in the International Education Program (IEP) at the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Development. As a person with two different cultural backgrounds, she has always been fascinated by cross-cultural dialogues, understanding and exchanges. She graduated from Bard college, NY, with Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology then worked at an after-school STEM program in South Bronx, designed to empower secondary school students from low-income and minority backgrounds in order to spur an interest in pursuing higher education. She also worked as a program associate intern in the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) at World Learning. Those professional experiences forged her current interest in youth educational development programming. At the UNESCO office in Dakar, Marie will be working on policy, planning and programming of educational development strategies as well as on coordination between local partners and government agencies. Her area of specific interest is youth alternative education and development.
Katherine Tek
UNESCO Fellow to Dakar, Senegal
This summer, Katherine is finishing her Master’s degree in International Education with a certificate in Incorporating International Perspectives in Curriculum. She earned an MA in French language and literature from the University of Maryland in 2010. She has been teaching French and the humanities for nearly ten years, with the past four years as a French teacher at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. Her work at Sidwell Friends School also includes doing short-term study abroad programs, such as previously leading travel programs to France and Haiti. During her time at GW under the International Education program, she has gained more and more interest and passion for education endeavors in developing countries, such as girls’ education, teacher training, and curriculum reform. While at UNESCO in Dakar, Katherine will work on projects that focus on developing monitoring and evaluation for gender equality in education in the West and Central African region.
2016 GW UNESCO Fellows 