Fellowship from Eleanor Crook Foundation supports summer internships in the developing world.
When he founded his namesake public affairs school, President Lyndon B. Johnson emphasized its mission to be a place to train thinkers and doers — people who would not only learn the fundamentals of public service in the classroom, but would also take their academic knowledge out into the world and create change. For more than a decade, Eleanor Crook has championed the LBJ School and generously supported students' work in the field, giving them the opportunity to gain experience that helps to pave their path in public service.
The Eleanor Crook Foundation offers grants to students working summer internships for nonprofit, nongovernmental or governmental organizations that conduct development projects in the developing world. The foundation supports the William H. Crook Program in International Affairs, which began in 2011, and the Eleanor Crook DC Fellowship, which was created in 2017. Through these programs, the student recipients — Crook Fellows — have learned how to lead across the world, from Texas and Washington, DC, to Nigeria and Nicaragua, to Cairo and the West Bank.
Below we take a look at where a few of the Crook Fellows started during their time at LBJ, and where they are today.
Ala Ahmad (MGPS '12)
Focus on global governance and international law
Crook Fellowship: Palestinian Hydrology Group
Now: General Manager, GrubMarket, Inc.; General Manager, Jana Food Services, Inc.
Ala Ahmad spent her Crook Fellowship in the West Bank interning with the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), an independent organization with development projects in small villages and Bedouin communities whose aim is to protect water and environmental resources. At PHG she evaluated the effectiveness of foreign aid on the water sector in the West Bank and helped with field visits. After graduating from LBJ, she delved into research and management at the UT Law Human Rights Clinic, then did research on climate change and African political stability at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. In recent years she has moved to work in supply chain logistics and procurement, working as the general manager for both Jana Food Services, Inc. and Grubmarket, a food technology company with a mission to digitally transform the American food supply chain industry. @ala_ahmad
Michael Deegan (MGPS / Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies '18)
Crook Fellowship: Office of the Coordinator of Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, U.S. State Department
Now: Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting
During his Crook Fellowship, Michael Deegan helped steward ongoing development projects in Eastern and Central Europe and Eurasia as an intern at the U.S. State Department — and his Crook blog post offers some fantastic guidance to other students going through (or hoping to go through) the security clearance process. The job was a natural extension of and a new perspective on his previous experiences in Bulgaria, first as a former Fulbright Bulgaria English Teaching Assistant (ETA), and then as an English teacher at the American College of Sofia. After graduation, Deegan built further on his Europe and Eurasia expertise, co-founding the BEST Foundation, which promotes English language education, civic engagement, and creative expression in Bulgaria through speech and debate tournaments. In 2018, he brought his policy experience to Deloitte Consulting's Government & Public Services practice, where he currently works as a senior consultant. @michaeljdeegan
Melanie Levine (MPAff-DC '18)
Crook Fellowship: World Cocoa Foundation (WCF)
Now: Manager, Food & Agriculture, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Melanie Levine spent her Policy Apprenticeship at the World Cocoa Foundation, where she managed development of the inaugural Cocoa Sector Data Challenge, coordinating internal and external international stakeholders such as Gates Foundation, CGIAR, and WCF members. She also worked with WCF member companies including Hershey, Cargill, Olam, and Nestlé in supporting a Gates Foundation-funded Cocoa Livelihoods Program Steering Committee Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. "Ensuring that policy is reflective of the needs of society and the environment must be an aligned effort across not only origin country governments, but also the private companies and other stakeholders that interact with the food system as a whole," she wrote in her blog post. Levine went on to work as a consultant with the World Food Programme and a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University before landing at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a CEO-led community of over 200 of the world's leading sustainable businesses working toward creating a sustainable world.
Becca Moore (MGPS '12), with a focus on international development
Crook Fellowship: People Helping People Global
Now: Industrial Wastewater Permit Coordinator, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Becca Moore spent her Crook Fellowship working for People Helping People Global (PHPG), a microlending organization in Granada, Nicaragua. PHPG offers microloans to individuals in Nicaragua who earn less than $2 a day, enabling disadvantaged entrepreneurs to start or expand a business. For nearly nine years, she has coordinated both municipal and industrial permits for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's environmental agency, whose purpose is to protect public health and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development.
Lauren Oertel (MPAff '12)
Crook Fellowship: Rainforest Partnership, Peru
Now: Senior Regional Organizer, Indivisible Project
Lauren Oertel (MGPS '12) completed a Master of Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School, where she focused on sustainable development in Latin America. She worked on water quality improvement projects across the state for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for six years. She then found her calling with criminal justice advocacy and policy work. She supports and collaborates with various justice and anti-racism organizations across Texas and continues these efforts (along with federal-level policy and electoral work) through her current role as senior regional organizer for Texas and New Mexico with the national organization Indivisible Project. Oertel is president of the LBJ School Alumni Board. @lauren_oertel
Laura Robinson (MGPS-DC '18)
Crook Fellowship: Artists for Soup
Now: Director of Development & Operations, Multicultural Refugee Coalition
Laura Robinson interned with Artists for Soup during her Crook Fellowship, but circumstances on the ground in Nicaragua dramatically changed her experience. Political protests and violence in response to social security changes by the Ortega administration forced her to work remotely in Austin, helping to ensure that programs could continue while keeping staff members in Nicaragua safe, and pivoting to keep it going in the midst of new political constraints. "I've spent the past eight years working with a diverse array of nonprofits, both international and domestic, but I had never experienced working with an organization during a political crisis," she wrote in her blog post. "So while I completed typical tasks such as grant writing and preparing for fundraising campaigns, I also learned how a nonprofit operates when it has programs in an area experiencing conflict." Currently, Robinson raises funds and runs operations for the Multicultural Refugee Coalition, an Austin nonprofit creating livelihood opportunities for refugees through a unique blending of skills-based education and social entrepreneurship including a sewing social enterprise, community gardens, a commercial farm, job training and community support. @travelingahimsa
Jessi Stafford (MGPS '18)
Crook Fellowship: Artists for Soup
Now: Research Associate, Texas Appleseed
Jessi Stafford interned with Artists for Soup, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty through empowering women and secondary school students. She worked in La Paz Centro, Nicaragua to develop organic gardens to supplement diets and provide food security to families. "Development is a process," she wrote in her Crook blog post. "Implementing real change takes time. I’m learning to be patient in all things and learning the best way to help is to support organizations working with the community." After LBJ she worked as a research analyst studying and analyzing policy related to marginalized groups, and has served immigrants, migrants, and refugees in various capacities across Central America, Mexico and Texas. Currently a research associate at Texas Appleseed, Stafford provides support to all projects through research methodology development, data gathering and cleaning, and data analysis.
Kelly Steffen (MGPS / MBA '15)
Concentration in global supply chain and international development
Crook Fellowship: USAID Economic Growth Team, Ethiopia
Now: Director, Supply Circularity, PVH Corp.
Kelly Steffen (now Gupta) worked as an intern during her Crook Fellowship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as a part of USAID Ethiopia's Economic Growth Team. There she worked with a USAID contractor on building capacity for agriculture and food security projects. After graduating she moved to Microsoft, where she created and advanced Microsoft's Responsible Sourcing of Raw Material (RSRM) Program, and led the development of on-the-ground global partnerships in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to address child labor in mining and in Peru to address responsible gold mining. Today she is the director of supply circularity for PVH, one of the world's largest and most admired fashion companies.
Amara Uyanna (MGPS '18)
Crook Fellowship: Sustainability International
Now: Head of Operations, Rise
Amara Uyanna interned with Sustainability International in Nigeria, where she helped coordinate bioremediation efforts in the Niger Delta region. "For the restoration of the region to be successful, accountability must be non-negotiable — it will demand that we make our obligations to our fellow men central to our actions," she wrote in one of her Crook Fellow blog posts. Upon graduating, she headed for Doha, Qatar to work as a program manager with Al Jazeera — a job she credits her Crook Fellowship with helping her land. After Al Jazeera, she worked in assets planning and business compliance at QatarEnergy, and this year she started her current job at Rise, a digital dollar asset manager giving Nigerians with access to foreign investments through fixed income, real estate in the U.S. and U.S. stocks.
Samer Yousif (MGPS-DC '18)
Crook Fellowship: Ashoka
Now: Chief Program Officer, BLCK VC
Samer Yousif spent his Crook Fellowship at Ashoka, an international citizen-sector organization of social entrepreneurs whose mission is to mobilize a global community to build an "everyone a changemaker world." He began there as an impact evaluator and continued his policy apprenticeship as a North America network manager. "As an Impact Evaluation Apprentice at Ashoka, I've been astounded by the scope, energy, collaboration and innovation of social entrepreneurs across the world," he wrote in his Crook blog post. From there he moved to VentureWell, where he helped to implement projects for the U.S. Department of State GIST Investors Training Program and the U.S.-Egypt Science and Technology (S&T) Joint Fund Innovate Egypt Program before moving to the Angel Capital Association and the Global Shapers Community. Yousif went on to co-found the Investors of Color Network, focused on building an ecosystem of Black, Latinx, and Asian accredited investors to close the racial funding gap in startup capital. He now oversees strategy and program execution for BLCK VC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on engaging, empowering and advancing Black venture investors. @samerthenubian
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