Astier M. Almedom, Director
Astier Almedom is an applied anthropologist who started out with a Bachelor's degree (1986) in Human Sciences, followed by a doctorate in Biological Anthropology (1991), both of which she received from Oxford University, Wadham College. Beyond Oxford, Dr. Almedom's academic and applied research background has included six years of research and teaching at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she lectured in medical anthropology, advised graduate and professional candidates in the Master of Public Health in Developing Countries (PHDC) and doctoral programs. Her interests in environmental health, and maternal morale in settings of often protracted "complex emergency" led her to spend more time in capacity building initiatives through continual on-site training of non-academic public health and community development field-level practitioners in eastern Africa, and parts of south-west Asia. Dr. Almedom's field research teams were routinely subjected to on-the-job fieldwork training which she designed and implemented. Many of them ended up succeeding in becoming co-authors of her peer-reviewed academic and practitioner/policy-oriented journal publications. Dr. Almedom also run various invited training workshops and seminars in Universities across the UK throughout the 1990's. Dr. Almedom joined the British government National Health Service (NHS) in 1999 as the Research and Evaluation Manager of the Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham (LSL) Health Action Zone (HAZ) where she chaired the multi-agency Evaluation and Learning Workstream, commissioned the HAZ evaluation and co-authored the HAZEL (Health Action Zone Evaluation and Learning) Manual with Leroy White, Yvonne Field, Julia Mason, and Abigail Bennett (2000). Living and working in South London brought home to Dr. Almedom the resilience as well as profound vulnerabilities of asylum seekers and refugee children and young people in the UK. She began to understand the role of multi-agency partnerships in driving change and transformation of health and social systems in deprived inner-city neighborhoods where the HAZ, Children First, sought to build community social capital and tackle health inequalities focusing on children and young people in the context of their social, emotional, and spatial ecosystems.
Since joining Tufts University, Dr. Almedom has served as the Henry R. Luce Professor in Science and Humanitarianism, developing new interdisciplinary courses and contributing to existing courses in different schools including Arts & Sciences (Biology department), Nutrition, and Public Health. Dr. Almedom's main current research area is on human and institutional resilience with respect to international humanitarian policy and public health responses to disasters. Dr. Almedom was appointed Professor of Practice in Humanitarian Policy and Global Public Health at The Fletcher School in 2007 and inaugural Fellow of the IGL where she initiated this program under the auspices of the Provost's Office, Interdisciplinary Studies. Dr. Almedom is committed to combining her research and curricular activities to engage both graduate and undergraduate students in interdisciplinary thinking and experiential learning on and off-campus through projects that fit individual interests and backgrounds, while also contributing to the overall research and publication goals of the International Resilience Program. Recent years have seen Dr. Almedom take resilience seminars and workshops to high level science and social policy venues internationally, most notably the Eurpean Forum Alpbach, reaching international students beyond her Tufts home both at Fletcher and the IGL where students and faculty are open to alternative points of view and engage positively in promoting imaginative and critical thought across disciplines.
Ayron M. Strauch, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology
Ayron is conducting an interdisciplinary study looking at the links between social and ecological systems in sub-Saharan Africa. He is primarily interested in understanding how natural resource management strategies impact water resources, the variability of water resource quality, the impact of water quality on arid ecosystems and the health of water-stressed communities. Ayron uses both conventional ecological tools as well as interdisciplinary and participatory research methods to better understand complex social-ecological systems. With a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Anthropology, Ayron first became interested in conservation-related issues in sub-Saharan Africa after living in Kenya in 2002. Having earned the cross-school graduate Water: Systems, Science, and Society Certificate, and his Master’s degree in Biology at Tufts University, Ayron embarked on his doctoral research focusing on aquatic ecosystems and land management in Zimbabwe in 2005. He then moved his study site to Tanzania where he completed multi-year fieldwork in the Serengeti National Park and adjacent village of Samunge. Throughout his time at Tufts, Ayron chose to continue with Dr. Almedom's research group and pursue his interdisciplinary work under the guidance of a cross-school Ph.D. advisory committee chaired by Astier Almedom.
John Parker, Research Associate
John is a first year MALD candidate at The Fletcher School; and also enrolled in Tufts University’s interdisciplinary cross-school Water: Systems, Science and Society Program. John has previously managed and implemented USAID-funded watershed management programs in Guatemala; and served as a natural resources extensionist Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin region. John received his first degree in Latin American Studies and Anthropology from Middlebury College. His general research interests focus on the intersection of water, food, and livelihood resilience. John is currently building the electronic International Resilience Forum, linked it to the new Resilience Journal the content of which he prepared for print.
Laura Kuhl, Research Associate
Laura Kuhl is a first year MALD candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she is concentrating in International Environment and Resource Policy, Development Economics and Human Security. She is also part of the interdisciplinary certificate program: Water: Systems, Science and Society. Her research addresses sea level rise, coastal flooding and climate change adaptation. She is interested in the institutional frameworks, planning processes, and community resilience for climate change adaptation. Her thesis will compare the planning process in developed and developing country contexts through fieldwork in both Boston and Honduras. Her work draws on the adaptive management and resilience literature to analyze adaptation options for vulnerable coastal communities. Prior to coming to Fletcher, Laura worked as a research assistant at the Center for Outcomes Research at Maine Medical Center and as a marine naturalist for the Marine Environmental Resource Institute. She received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies-Conservation Biology and Anthropology from Middlebury College. Her undergraduate thesis research, which examined stigma, property rights, and community dynamics in a coastal community in Ecuador was recently published in Ecological Anthropology.
Charlotte Bourdillon, Directed Study, 2010 Candidate
Charlotte is a senior at Tufts double majoring in Community Health and International Relations whose academics have emphasized an anthropological perspective through the Nationalism, Culture, and Identity concentration. Her interests lie at the intersection of health, policy, marginalized populations and global thinking. With Professor Almedom’s guidance, she is pursuing a directed research project on the impact of social networks and political affiliations of IDPs. Having studied in Nepal in 2008, this summer she will return to Nepal to conduct fieldwork as an IGL-Macaya Fellow. Charlotte is passionate about focusing on community strengths to achieve sustainable development driven by community engagement. This has also led to her involvement in the Haitian development initiative RESPE: Ayiti. With RESPE, she is currently working with the team to create a participatory monitoring and evaluation plan for a maternal health clinic in the rural northern Haitian town of Balan.
Chloé Rousseau, Research Intern
Chloé Rousseau was born in Paris, moved to the United States at age six, and now lives in North Carolina. She is fluent in French and Spanish. At Tufts, Chloé is majoring in Community Health and Spanish, and she plays violin with the Tufts chamber orchestra. Chloé has been very involved with the student-led BUILD Guatemala program since her freshman year. Chloé first fell in love with Guatemala at the age of 15 when she took part in a Spanish language immersion program in the city of Quetzaltenango, and she returned to the country in her Senior year of high school to work in rural communities teaching English, helping construct environmentally-friendly stoves, and fundraise for local NGOs. Chloé participated in the inaugural BUILD Guatemala trip and researched perceptions of US foreign policy among rural populations, and has returned to Guatemala twice more as one of the leaders of the 2009 BUILD team. Chloé is interested in global health and policy, including studying practical solutions to health problems in the developing world, and is considering a possible career in law and health policy. This Spring Chloé is studying the works of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) and Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) as part of her research internship with the International Resilience Program under Professor Almedom's guidance, while studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. In her spare time, Chloé enjoys spending time with her friends and fellow BUILD program members, playing violin, creative writing and reading.
Recent graduates
Evelyn A. Brensinger, MALD.
Rebecca Perlmutter, MALD.
Jocelyn G. Müller, Ph.D.
Catlin McShane, MALD, Marketing & Engagement Manager, Opportunity Fund.
Jessica L. Anderson, BA, Co-founder/Director, Collaborative Transitions Africa.
Matthew S. Benson, BA
Amanda Fencl, BA, Staff Scientist, SEI-US.
Shanti Sattler, BA, ICFC Fellow.