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2007-2008 Fellow Bios

Cecilia Boyd (Chicago Federation of Labor Workers Assistance Committee): Cecilia was born in Chicago and raised there by her Mexican-American/Filipina mother and African-American father. This diverse background has given her a deep interest in multiculturalism and exploring her cultures. During her time at Northwestern, Cecilia studied Social Policy with an emphasis on African-American and Latino experiences and communities. In addition, she played active roles in numerous cultural organizations on campus including Alianza, Clave, and Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Inc (the 1 st Latina sorority in the nation). Cecilia currently serves as a Research/Writing Fellow for the Chicago Federation of Labor Workers Assistance Committee, a non-profit organization endorsed by the CFL to enhance the employment skills of Chicago area workers. During her fellow year, Cecilia will analyze data, write grant proposals, develop the agency's publications and conduct program evaluations. Cecilia will also work with DePaul Professor Christing Tardy to develop an ESL program for non-English speaking job seekers. Cecilia is ecstatic about her NUPIP placement and hopes to continue to work in the labor movement with the ambition of one day becoming a Chicago alderwoman who stands in solidarity with workers.

Daniel Clark (Lawndale Christian Health Center): Daniel Clark graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in Social Policy. Originally majoring in Biomedical Engineering, he switched majors upon deciding to be pre-med. He will spend the upcoming year at Lawndale Christian Health Center, an organization on the west side of Chicago that provides holistic health care without regard for a patient's ability to pay. He will split time between administrative and clinical duties. As an operations analyst, he will run clinical quality and provider evaluation reports, assist in evaluating and improving clinical efficiency, and help in the transition to Electronic Medical Records. As a medical assistant, he will take patients' vital signs and perform basic laboratory services. Dan expresses great excitement for LCHC's philosophy of care and is especially enthusiastic about the idea of staff relocating to the community to increase cultural awareness and bring valuable resources to the neighborhood. Consequently, he will be living just a few blocks from the clinic in this low-income community. He hopes to matriculate into medical school in the fall of 2008.

Adele El-Khouri (The Community Builders):

adele.elkhouri@gmail.com

Adele graduated from Northwestern in 2007 with a degree in History and French. Growing up, she spent summers living with her family in San Salvador and volunteering at a parochial school, where she first saw the wide-reaching effects of urban poverty. During college, she spent a summer researching Gautreaux II, a Chicago housing relocation program, at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research, and learned about the complexities of Chicago’s urban geography. She then studied history and political science at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris for two quarters, and upon returning decided to concentrate on urban history. Following an independent research project conducted during the summer of 2006, she co-taught a seminar and organized a trip on public and affordable housing in the urban U.S. through the Alternative Student Breaks program and also wrote a senior thesis in history titled “Who Makes the Neighborhood?: Race, Class, and Redevelopment in 1970s Chicago,” which explored the making of the city in the understudied post-urban renewal period through case studies of two Chicago neighborhoods. This year Adele is doing housing development with The Community Builders, a national, not-for-profit developer and manager of affordable housing. She is working on both mixed-income development and housing preservation projects in Chicago and East Chicago, Indiana.

Joe Giambrone (Chicago Public Schools, Office of New Schools):

joe.giambrone.nu@gmail.com

Joe will work with the External Relations and School Support team at the Office of New Schools. The Office of New Schools is a part of Chicago Public Schools' Renaissance 2010, an initiative to open 100 new schools by 2010. He will work to build the relationships between Schools opened by the Office of New Schools and their respective elected officials. The aim is to create a stronger awareness of the program with hopes of receiving more support from Springfield. In addition, Joe will also work with school support to ensure all the needs of the schools are met as they work to provide high quality education to the under served children of Chicago. Prior to the Office of New Schools, Joe studied Economics and Spanish at Northwestern University. During his four years at Northwestern Joe spent a majority of his time in leadership roles at the Sheil Catholic Center and volunteering at a local elder care community.

Becca Hartman (Interfaith Youth Corp):

becca@ifyc.org

Becca Hartman is thrilled to have an opportunity to integrate her passion for religions and social justice in her work with the Interfaith Youth Core. Becca studied Philosophy and Religious Studies at NU and wrote her senior honors thesis on the ways that recent conversations and actions concerning same-sex orientation within American Baptist Churches USA has and will shift the structure of the denomination. Becca grew up in Green Bay, WI and studied abroad in Durban, South Africa (Reconciliation and Development), and London, England (Philosophy). She loves to travel and learn about other cultures, to write, listen to music and dance, and to hear a good story. Becca plans to continue to work in the interfaith field and is considering Law and/or Divinity School.

Courtney O'Brien (Protestants for the Common Good): Courtney O'Brien is a recent graduate from SESP with a B.S. in Social Policy and a minor in Religion. Originally from the great state of Wisconsin - the Milwaukee area - she just recently moved into the Chicago Bucktown neighborhood. Courtney's PIP fellowships is with Protestants for the Common Good where she works as the Congregational Outreach Coordinator. PCG is a non-profit organization that brings a progressive Protestant voice to public life by providing educational and advocacy opportunities to people of faith on issues of public policy. Courtney is responsible for maintaining, renewing, and cultivating relationships with chicago area churches and creating a Protestant Women's Advocacy Network. Courtney hopes to continue her work with PCG even after her PIP fellowship ends. Outside of work she is actively involved in Young Life and plays ultimate frisbee just about anytime she can.

Caitlin Overland (City of Waukegan):

caitlin.overland@gmail.com

Caitlin graduated in 2007 with a degree in Social Policy and a minor concentration in Environmental Policy & Culture. During her college years, she was heavily involved in the Northwestern University Marching Band and is proud to bleed purple and white as a NUMBAlum. Her academic focus has involved the intersection of American Indian and Environmental issues, which she hopes to pursue as a law student next year. She was fortunate to be able to spend time this past summer volunteering for the White Earth Land Recovery Project on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. As a PIP fellow, she will be assisting the director of the City of Waukegan-Lakefront and Downtown Redevelopment Office. She is excited to assist in an open space implementation program as well as several other redevelopment projects.

Lauren Parnell (Interfaith Youth Corp): Lauren Parnell graduated with a BS in Social Policy, a history minor, and a certificate in Service Learning. Lauren is spending the next year at the Interfaith Youth Core as a Leadership Associate, working to support college leaders who are involved in interfaith and social justice work. During her time at Northwestern, Lauren chaired the Northwestern Community Development Corps for two years, helped found the International Youth Volunteerism Summit (now the Global Engagement Summit), and co-founded and coordinated the NU Public Interest Program. She has done volunteer work in Guatemala and spent a summer in East Africa learning about fair trade. During that trip, she collected interviews for her senior honors thesis on the impact of fair trade on Ugandan craft producers. Lauren is especially interested in international community development issues and is excited to explore how these issues relate to interfaith social justice work during her year with NUPIP.

Megan Sieberg (North Lawndale Community News):Megan Sieberg graduated from Northwestern University in June of 2007. She has a Major in Communication Studies and a Minor in Global Health. During her four years at Northwestern, Megan participated in varsity athletics as a member of the field hockey team. In her last quarter she spent three months in South Africa studying public health with a special emphasis on HIV/AIDS. Megan is currently the Communications Manager at the North Lawndale Community News. Some of her responsibilities include: writing/reporting, editing and corresponding with free-lance writers in the Chicago-land area. Megan hopes to continue her work in the public interest field well into the future.

Courtney Spalding-Meyer (Philanthropy Awareness Initiative): Courtney Spalding-Mayer is delighted to work as project manager for the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative, a project that works to develop and share effective ways for foundation leaders to communicate the unique value and work of philanthropy with decision makers in government, business, and the news media. Prior to her fellowship, Courtney attended Northwestern University and received a bachelor's degree in social policy. A proponent of service learning, Courtney has coupled her academic pursuits with internships in the nonprofit sector at the National Immigrant Justice Center and Teach for America in Chicago. She has also worked on a neighborhood planning project with the City of Evanston and facilitated the youth program at a local Latino community center. At Northwestern, Courtney was proud to chair a backcountry camping and orientation trip for incoming students, and she plans to explore many more trails across the U.S. and abroad in the future.

Nicole White (Cabrini Tutor Mentor Connection):

nicolewhite.cabrini@gmail.com

Nicole graduated with a B.A. in French and International Studies in June of 2007. A native of Eugene, OR, Nicole studied for an entire year at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, France. Nicole is thrilled to be contributing something to her own community in Chicago by being the Assistant Program Coordinator at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. Already into her second week of work, Nicole has updated the database of the hundreds of tutoring and mentoring programs in the Chicagoland area that her organization maintains, contacted those same tutoring and mentoring programs as part of her program's summer volunteer recruitment campaign, supervised middle and high school students at the summer tech and film clubs and was in charge of hosting the visiting graduate students from Edgewood College in Madison, WI and took them and 15 students around Chicago. Nicole is also proud to announce her blog: http://nicolecabrini.blogspot.com/, which details her adventures thus far at Cabrini Connections and which she hopes everyone will read. In her rare free time, Nicole is a volunteer French interpreter at the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivor's of Torture.

Mona Yeh (Free Spirit Media, North Lawndale College Prep): Hailing from South Bend, IN, Mona Yeh graduated from Northwestern University in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Radio/Television/Film. This year she is working with Free Spirit Media, a non-profit in Chicago, to teach video production classes at North Lawndale College Prep High School. For the past two summers, Mona has worked with the Civic Education Project doing the Civic Leadership Institute, a program, a program based out of Northwestern's Center for Talent Development. This program is dedicated to promoting civic education, social issue awareness, and a sense of agency in high school students. In college, Mona was site coordinator for Alternative Student Breaks, and in addition, led three trips herself. She also was very active in film and concert production groups on campus. For the future, Mona hopes to eventually work for a documentary production company, and do plenty of traveling, as one of her lifelong goals is to visit each of the seven continents at least once. In the meantime, Mona enjoys doing small-scale traveling by exploring the many diverse neighborhoods and communities Chicago has to offer.

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