Recent Jobs and Activities
Risa Luther ’16 (Portland, OR) was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2020 for her PhD dissertation proposal at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, after starting there in 2018. Risa’s proposal aims to model macroscopic wear patterns in primate teeth to better understand the function and phylogenetic signals in fossil specimens, hoping her methods will prove innovative and potentially transformative for the field of paleoanthropology. She is the second Macalester Anthropology graduate at UMN studying Biological Anthropology to receive an NSF Fellowship, indicating that our students have the all-around skillset to make them competitive in this marketplace. Risa has worked for AmeriCorps with College Possible Minnesota, and she helped found Like a Girl, a nonprofit to support the diverse community of girls and women who play soccer, working with girls who aren’t being seen by the mainstream soccer “pay-to-play” system, largely immigrant, refugee, and low-income girls who love to play and can. (4/2020)
Lucia Alexandrin ’17 (Gorham, ME) has been accepted to the accelerated nursing program at the University of Southern Maine. Previous accomplishments include winning the Mikiso Hane prize for best undergraduate paper awarded by the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs for her senior capstone paper, “Self, Soul Loss and Motorbikes in Modern Bali.” She also won the 2017 Macalester Anthropology Jack Weatherford prize for best capstone. She spent 2017/2019 serving as an AmeriCorps member in Sitka, Alaska with Youth Advocates of Sitka, where she volunteered at a residential group home that provides behavioral health services to youth from around the state of Alaska, and she helped run the Sitka International Hostel. (04/2020)
Aberdeen McEvers ’19 (Houston, MN) won first place in Student Achievement Awards offered by the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology for her senior capstone paper, “Building Our Shelter with the Master’s Tools: The Good Mother Model at a Homeless Shelter for Women-Led Families.” The award includes a cash prize of $500. Her capstone was also awarded 2nd place for the Peter K. New Award for the Society for Applied Anthropology, which came with a $1500 cash prize. Her research involved extensive interviews with shelter staff, drawing on the skills acquired in the Ethnographic Interviewing course, She analyzed how a homeless shelter for women-led families conceptualizes what it means to be a “good mother” and the resident-centered approach that ignores the larger sociopolitical causes of homelessness. At graduation, Abby won the Spradley award for excellence in research and writing. After graduation, she took a gap year, working with sexually trafficked youth and is now pursuing her master’s degree at University of Denver in social work to be better equipped to address the issues she critiqued in her capstone. (4/2020)
Landy Kus ’12 (Antananarivo, Madagascar) After graduation, Landy took 3 years off before attending graduate school. During that time she was an au-pair in Paris, completed an internship at a government health clinic in Madagascar, and was an AmeriCorps Community HealthCore Volunteer at a Boston Children’s Hospital health center. She then received her Master in Public Health from Emory University in 2017; focusing on global health, maternal and child health, and sexual and reproductive health. After graduate school she was an International Development Fellow with Catholic Relief Services in Conakry, Guinea, and later a program manager for a project focused on health systems strengthening. She now currently works for Humanity and Inclusion in Madagascar managing a project on sexual and reproductive health. (2/20)
Dubie Toa-Kwapong ‘16 (Flekke i Sunnfjord, Norway) received the Nancy “Penny” Schwartz Undergraduate Essay Award from the Association of Africanist Anthropology and honourable mention for the Association for Feminist Anthropology’s Sylvia Forman Prize for chapters from her honours thesis, “Taking It Back To The Motherland: The Untold Tales of Accra’s Returnees” in 2016. After Macalester, she worked at the Minnesota Historical Society and the Walker Art Center. In 2016, she began to write a column for Norwegian publication, Framtida, covering US politics and popular culture. She returned to Norway in 2017, where she worked at the Nobel Peace Center, first as an administrative assistant, and then as a curatorial associate for the 2018 Peace Prize exhibition on Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad. While in Norway, she worked with two fellow Macalester grads to publish a children’s book, This Land Is … Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. “I am incredibly grateful for the methodological, critical thinking, and relational skills I gained as a Macalester Anthropology student. They have guided me through varied professional experiences and continue to do so in graduate school.” (11/2019)
Omar Leal ’15 (San Jose, CA) 8 years ago, he moved to Minnesota from California to begin at Macalester College. At that moment, he didn’t know that he would end up spending the next 8 years of his life growing personally and professionally. He is very grateful for the relationships that he fostered in this time and what he was able to accomplish. So thank you to all the people who made this a wonderful journey. He left MN as a first-generation college graduate now with a bachelor’s degree, a Master’s in Public Policy from UMN, and a wealth of experience. He is now headed back to the Bay Area to continue to grow through the Coro Northern California Fellowship. (11/2019)
Rebecca Erdman ’14 (Whittemore, IA) She works at Washburn Center for Children in Minneapolis as the administrative support for the Intensive In-Home Program. “Anthropology at Mac helped me develop a wide lens and invaluable critical thinking skills that I use every day in my work!” (10/2019)
Sarah Koehler ’13 (Fort Collins, CO) currently works as a Data Scientist at Scribd in San Francisco. After graduating from Mac, she spent a year on a Fulbright research grant studying dance in Sri Lanka, then earned her Master’s in Statistics at Colorado State University. There, she wrote and published a statistical software package for epidemiologists and spent her free time working with abortion patients at Planned Parenthood. She spent a year teaching high school math before going into industry. Her anthropology education has opened the door to a wide variety of opportunities and has shaped the way she thinks and interacts in every role. (10/2019)
Katie Trostel ’09 She received her PhD in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2017. She is an assistant professor and department chair of English at Ursuline College outside of Cleveland, Ohio. “I couldn’t have done any of this without the unwavering support of Olga Gonzalez!” (10/2019)
Rachel Swanson ’15 After attending University of Washington to receive her Masters in Teaching, she is now a Kindergarten teacher at Highland Park Elementary School. One of the most important parts of her job is ensuring that families are deeply integrated into the classroom and their children’s educations. She is grateful for her Macalester Anthropology degree and strives to create Kindergarten global citizens in her teaching practice. (10/2019)
Rachel Ladd ’17 is an Advantage Services Coordinator for CommonBond Communities at their affordable living community in Edina. She helps low-income residents maintain stability and independence in their housing by helping them apply for school, training, jobs, financial benefits, and other resources. She also puts on community engagement events and runs an afterschool K-12 youth program. “I know communities that work together have the power to change the world for the better.” Rachel loves learning from the Somali community and the residents she works with. “Anthropology helps me listen to people’s stories. I believe everyone — even the most rebellious teenager — has something important to share.” (10/2019)
Tyler Martinson ’12 (Northfield, MN) After graduating from Macalester, he completed a Fulbright researching trans-Saharan migrants’ understanding of the risk of HIV/AIDS infection, needs for services, and barriers impeding access to preventative testing and treatment services. He then completed the Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Certificate Program at Hunter College while working at the Special Treatment and Research (STAR) Health Center, a specialized HIV treatment and research center at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He is now studying medicine as an MD/MPH candidate and Primary Care Scholar at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Studying Anthropology, and particularly Critical Medical Anthropology, has allowed me to blend critical theory and ethnographic approaches in the consideration of the political economy of health, and the effect of social inequality on peoples’ health, as I pursue a career in providing medical care for the underserved. “(10/2019)
Liz Scholz ’10 (Atlanta, GA) After working for eight years in various market research and corporate consumer insights roles, she decided to attend Emory’s Goizueta School of Business to pursue my MBA. She is considering a shift to brand management or marketing consulting. When she graduated from Macalester she intended on getting her PhD in Anthropology but after her first job, where she began to see the application of anthropology in corporate settings to help make better/new products and services, she knew she had found a new path. She immersed herself in different consumer micro-cultures to understand how businesses could support them. She maintains this lens in graduate school as she augments her liberal arts-grounded skills with business fundamentals. (10/2019)
Bryce Slinger ’10 (Raleigh, NC) Currently he serves as a career civil servant in the Federal government as the Deputy Director of Strategy for the Military Health System at the U.S. Department of Defense. The Military Health System is a global network of 653 healthcare facilities supported by a robust health benefit called TRICARE delivering health services to 9.5 million people. He is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland where he studies the intersectionality between health, national security, and democracy. After Macalester, he joined the Peace Corps in Uganda (2010-2012), received a Master’s in Public Health at Tulane University (2013-2014), and completed the U.S. Presidential Management Fellowship (2014-2016) at the U.S. Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services. (10/2019)
Shasta Webb ’13 (Santa Cruz, CA) After graduating from Macalester in 2013, she took a couple of years off of research to work in a bike shop, travel, and explore field work and graduate school options. In January 2015 she began a Master’s program at University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Amanda Melin. Her Master’s work focused on wild white-face capuchin responses to reproductive stages, with a focus on behavioural changes. She graduated from her MA program in 2017, after which she immediately began a PhD in the same lab group. Her PhD research, funded by a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, focuses on how wild primates respond to natural changes in their environment. “The writing skills I gained as an anthropology major at Macalester directly contribute to my research and funding successes thus far. I also routinely draw on past experiences as Dr. Scott Legge’s trainee: his continued high expectations of and commitment to his students as well as his unyielding encouragement regarding pursuit of careers in science endowed me (and others!) with the confidence to continue research beyond an undergraduate degree.” (10/2019)
Gabrielle Morgenstern ’16 (Newton, MA) Is currently working as a Medical Case Manager in the Positive Care Clinic at Hennepin County Medical Center, assisting HIV positive adults in accessing social services. “I use anthropology concepts every day in my job! It’s essential to understanding the people I work with. I especially use concepts from my medical anthropology classes.” (10/2019)
Rachel Higgs ’13 (Minneapolis, MN) Completed an MBA with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration in 2017 at the Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Since graduation, she has been working in the medical device industry. Currently, she is the Senior Manager of Sales Operations for RespirTech, A Philips Company, focusing on pulmonary medical devices. (10/2019)
Di Cui ’17 (Beijing, China) works as the Program Coordinator at Citizens Committee for New York City, where she supports grassroots community groups to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. After Macalester, she moved to New York City to further her interest in historic preservation, urban planning and community development at Pratt Institute. Her thesis research examines how community-based organizations use their arts and cultural programming to identify and celebrate community assets and build local capacity. She also premiered her first documentary “Song of Ourselves: Cultural Activism in Whitman’s New York” at the 2019 International Whitman Week. “While I continue my story-telling endeavors through art, writing and professional work, I always appreciate the empathy and ethnographic methods that anthropology has exposed me to.” (10/2019)
Jonathan Rogers ’06 is the Senior Policy Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure in Washington, D.C. In this role, Jonathan develops policy recommendations and formulates strategies to achieve agency outcomes, specializing in safe, sustainable and equitable multi-modal mobility, and green, reliable and affordable energy. Jonathan has served in the Government of the District of Columbia since 2012 including policy positions at the District Department of Transportation, the transition office of Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, and the budget office of Mayor Vincent Gray. Jonathan was the District’s first project manager for Mayor Bowser’s Vision Zero initiative for transportation safety. Jonathan is a Certified Public Manger, a lean six-sigma green-belt, a former Capital City Fellow and an AmeriCorps alumnus. Prior to his work in District Government, Jonathan was an associate at the National League of Cities and earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the George Washington University. (10/2019)
Jonathan Rogers ’06 (Standish, ME) Jonathan M. Rogers is the Senior Policy Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure in Washington, D.C. In this role, Jonathan develops policy recommendations and formulates strategies to achieve agency outcomes, specializing in safe, sustainable and equitable multi-modal mobility, and green, reliable and affordable energy. Jonathan has served in the Government of the District of Columbia since 2012 including policy positions at the District Department of Transportation, the transition office of Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, and the budget office of Mayor Vincent Gray. Jonathan was the District’s first project manager for Mayor Bowser’s Vision Zero initiative for transportation safety. Jonathan is a Certified Public Manager, a lean six-sigma green-belt, a former Capital City Fellow and an AmeriCorps alumnus. Prior to his work in District Government, Jonathan was an associate at the National League of Cities and earned his Master of Public Policy degree from the George Washington University. (10/2019)
Andrea Grimaldi ’16 (Villa Mercedes, Argentina) Activity after graduating from Mac, including internships, jobs, education, career path, and other news: After graduation, she worked for a year at Centro Tyrone Guzman on improving health outcomes for women and elders in the Latinx community in Minneapolis. After that, she returned to Buenos Aires, where she worked for two years at the Instituto de Vivienda on a relocation and informal settlement improvement program for families affected by the pollution of the Riachuelo river basin. She also did activist work around education and women’s health in a community organization in the villa 31, another one of Buenos Aires informal settlements. She currently lives in Boston, where she has just begun a two-year master degree at MIT studying City Planning. “Much of my current work is about community development and how to change power structures to benefit those who have historically been oppressed. My anthropology degree at Macalester helped be me critical about my own position in the world and taught me how to co-create knowledge that will empower communities to organize and advocate for themselves.” (10/2019)
Sophie Keane ’16 (Columbia, MD) is currently a Masters candidate in Social Policy at Sciences Po (Institute d’Etudes Politiques) in Paris. In addition to studies, she does a “projet collectif” with some fellow students; they’re working with an NGO to coordinate an intensive language springboard program for people with refugee status at Sciences Po. She previously worked as an Americorps member at the International Institute of MN in St. Paul and as a teaching assistant with the TAPIF program in Chelles, France. Sophie said, “The anthropology department shaped how I approach work, school & life – I’m forever grateful for the theoretical grounding and the critical thinking skills Mac professors developed in us.” (10/2019)
Rachel Rostad ’15 (Sartell, MN) just started a master’s degree in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in the fall of 2019. Since graduating in 2015, she has done a handful of things including: lived and worked aboard an educational schooner on the Long Island Sound, taught English in Korea on a Fulbright ETA grant, worked at a number of restaurants, and interned at UNHCR. “The training I got in anthropology has equipped me to come into each new environment I live and work in with an open mind. It also gave me the skills to adapt quickly to different work and living cultures, because I know what questions to ask when I’m confronted with the discomfort of the unknown. In other words, studying anthro has given me a higher degree of confidence when I step outside of my comfort zone.” (10/2019)
Jessica Vaughan ‘12 (Madison, WI) received her DNP in Nurse-Midwifery from the University Of Minnesota School of Nursing in May 2018. She currently works for a Federally Qualified Health Center in Rockford, Illinois, where she provides full scope healthcare to women in their reproductive years, including “catching babies” at a local hospital. Previously, she received her Bachelors of Science in Nursing at Johns Hopkins University shortly after graduating from Macalester. While pursuing her bachelors degree, she worked closely with the Birth Companions Program at the school of nursing, which expands access to doulas, or labor companions, to women in need across the city of Baltimore. Her doctoral project focused on creating a doula program at the University of Minnesota, which is a highly sought-after class in the undergraduate program today. Her main areas of interest are providing continuous labor support in order to decrease medical interventions during labor, including cesarean birth. (10/2019)
Kevin Boueri ’12 (Boston, MA & Beruit) He took a year to work while he filled out grad applications. Now he’s in the 7th year of his sociocultural anthropology PhD at Boston University and expects to graduate next fall. As he finishes his PhD he is independently working on a sensory ethnographic film about the Lebanon Mountain Trail – the fieldsite of dissertation – along with fellow Macalester grad Lewis Wilcox ‘12. “As a Lebanese-American, I’ve lived my life between two or more places and ways of being and seeing the world. My time in the Mac anthropology department gave me the tools to better understand myself. At the practical level, Mac coursework prepared me for grad school seminars – a transition others struggled with – and undertaking my own ethnographic research.” (10/2019)
Emily Murphy ’13 (Minneapolis, MN) Completed a Master of Public Health with an emphasis on Community Health Promotion at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health in 2017. She is currently a Permanent Supportive Housing Case Manager at Our Saviour’s Housing where she works with adults who have experienced long-term homelessness. Her anthropology degree from Macalester motivates her to maintain a person-centered approach to her work. (10/2019)
Sierra R. Sater ’18 (Oconomowoc, WI) After graduation from Mac, she worked as an ESL teacher at the Islamic Education College in Amman Jordan for the 2018-2019 school year. She spent Summer 2019 as a chemist intern for a floor coating company near my hometown. Now she is in the first semester of her MS Forensic Anthropology program at Boston University School of Medicine. She is currently formulating and planning her thesis research looking at avian scavenging on the Massachusetts coast and inland suburban forest. She has a conditional offer for the 2020 FBI Honors Internship this coming summer (pending security clearance). If she gains the security clearance, she will be working in the Trace Evidence Unit of the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, VA for 10 weeks. She is planning on working after receiving her Masters for a few years before going to complete a PhD. “My Anthro studies helped me successfully relocate to a different country without the help of an established teaching program, and helped me discover my interests in skeletal biology and forensics. My summer research with Dr. Scott Legge in particular solidified my decision to pursue forensic anthropology. The multiple academic conferences I was able to attend thanks to Mac travel awards also helped me improve my ability to present research (and myself) which helped me achieve acceptance to the FBI Honors Internship Program.” (10/2019)
Claire Mercer ’16 (Chicago, IL) Activity after graduating from Mac, including internships, jobs, education, career path, and other news: currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago “Anthropology has given me a unique lens with which to view the human experience. I know that this perspective will be valuable when I begin practicing as an occupational therapist.” (10/2019)
Myhana Kerr ‘ 2018 (Minneapolis, MN) Activity after graduating from Mac, including internships, jobs, education, career path, and other news: after graduating— She took a month off for some R&R before starting with Optum in June. She has currently been in her role as a Business Analyst/Consultant with Optum for about 1.5 years now. “Most of my anthro experience came into play as I learned how to navigate the corporate space. Overall, I’d say the most helpful aspect thus far has been my ability to interact with people and learn more about them using the skills I developed from Ethnographic Interviewing. It’s been a comfortable skill set for me to lean on as I network with other professionals.” (10/2019)
Katherine Ehrenreich ’14 (Deerfield, IL) received her MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in September 2017. She currently works for Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California, San Francisco as a Project Manager for a variety of studies aiming to expand abortion access in the United States. Previously, she worked for Population Services International on a family planning and safe abortion program in Laos, and was an intern for the WHO’s Maternal and Child Health Unit. Her research interests include the social determinants of reproductive health outcomes and barriers to abortion access. (8/2018)
Anna Hardin ’12 completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, and is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia studying growth and development of the human skull. “Majoring in anthropology at Macalester prepared me well for all of the reading and writing of graduate school, and it gave me a broad enough background to communicate with my peers and with faculty across the subfields.” She published an article with Professor Scott Legge in International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 34, No.5, “Geographic Variation in Nonmetric Dental Traits of the Deciduous Molars of Pan and Gorilla.” (8/2018)
Zoe Wilkinson Saldaña ’11 (Cambridge, MA) received a Master of Science in Information (MSI) degree from the University of Michigan specializing in information analysis and retrieval. She currently works as the Social Science and Geospatial Data Librarian at Cornell University, where she works on the Research & Learning Team to support students in developing critical data literacies in GIS, city and regional planning, and the social sciences broadly. (5/2018)
Rachel Rostad ‘15 (Sartell, MN) is starting a Master’s in Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School in Fall 2019. Previously she interned at UNHCR (The United Nations Refugee Agency) in Canberra, Australia, after completing a Fulbright to South Korea from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board as an English teaching assistant and cultural ambassador. (4/2019)
Cecilia Mayer ’16 (Seattle, WA) is working on a concussion study with Child Health, Behavior & Development Department at Seattle Children’s Hospital, WA. Previously, she was living in the Indonesian jungle with orangutans in Kalimantan, Indonesia (commonly known as Borneo) at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Site with other researchers. (4/2018)
Katherine Meier ’16 (Madison, CT) is working with museum collections at Yale. Previously, she spent 2016-17 in Indonesia working at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Site. (4/2018)
Taylor Helfand ’13 (Portland, OR) obtained her BSN and works as a registered nurse at Cascadia Behavioral Health Care. There, she works primarily with people who have schizophrenia and other severe and persistent mental illnesses. Taylor is also in the process of training to be a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Studying anthropology at Macalester helped Taylor to foster her innate curiosity in people, society, and the dynamics therein. (2/2018)
Laura Holt ’13 (St. Paul, MN) is working as a Project Assistant at the Minnesota Historical Society, and as a Field Archaeologist at TetraTech. “My anthropology major from Macalester has helped prepare me for every subsequent step in my career. For my current lab work at the History Center and field work at Tetra Tech, I draw heavily on experiences from the Cultural Resource Management (CRM) class with Professor Legge and Dr. Fleming from the Science Museum of Minnesota.” Previously, she was a research/teaching assistant for the Department of Anthropology at Minnesota State University Mankato, a museum guide at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and an Archaeological Technician for Macalester College, 106 Group Inc., and Two Pines Resource Group LLC. Her passions include archaic/early woodland archaeology, creative writing, museum education, collections management, first aid and emergency response, and dogs! (2/2018)
Sonja Meintsma ’13 (Minnetonka, MN) is pursuing her Masters in Public Affairs at University of Indiana–Bloomington in the School for Environmental and Public Affairs. She is also working as an EDF Climate Corps Fellow with the College of Menominee Nation, tasked with delivering a plan for carbon sequestration on campus and selling carbon credits on the global market, and other energy efficiency projects to achieve climate neutrality. She returned in 2017 from the Peace Corps in Zambia doing agricultural and forestry extension work in the Eastern Province. “I can’t say how much I appreciated all the knowledge and skills I learned from Macalester and the Anthro dept in preparing me and guiding me throughout my service.” (8/2018)
Beth Moretzsky ’13 (Randolph, NJ) completed her MA in Anthropology, Medical Concentration in May 2017 at George Washington U. “I am currently working as a Health Care Analyst at the National Committee for Quality Assurance in Washington, DC. Formerly she worked doing qualitative research, STEM, and nutrition policy research at a public policy firm and grant writing and development at a cancer support nonprofit, both in Washington, D.C. (1/2018)
Alexandra Harley ’15 (Philadelphia, PA) is a revenue officer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Annapolis, MD. She majored in Anthropology and Latin American Studies with a minor in Hispanic Studies. “My academic, professional, and personal interests include Immigration Law, Immigration Policy, Foreign Policy, Educational Access, and Refugee Services in the United States and around the world.” She studied away in Cusco and Lima, Peru, researching the invisibility of Afro-Peruvians within the Contemporary Peruvian society, as well as rural migrant experiences surrounding cultural viability in an urban setting. After Mac, she worked for AmeriCorp as a Tech-Connected College Coach, where her duties included full-time continuous outreach to over 140 low-income and at-risk college students to provide resources during their college experience and transition. (12/2017)
Ellie Rae Craig ’10 (Indianapolis, IN) is the Associate Director of Compliance and Technology at KIPP Indy Public Schools, a nonprofit network of college-preparatory, public charter schools educating students in elementary and middle school for success in college and life. After double majoring in Anthropology and International Studies with concentrations in African Studies and Human Rights and Humanitarianism, she received her MPA at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs where she was a member of the nonprofit Service Corps and later, a SPEA VISTA Fellow at The Mind Trust, which offers unique opportunities for social innovators to reshape education in Indianapolis. Before joining KIPP Indy, she worked as an analyst with Bellwether Education Partners in Washington, DC. (12/2017)
Collin Calvert, MPH, ’13 is an epidemiology PhD student, research assistant, and teaching assistant at U of MN School of Public Health. He was awarded The Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA) national Undergraduate Paper Award for his senior capstone paper, entitled “Apartheid Lives On: Policing Migrants in South Africa.” SUNTA is a sub-section of the American Anthropological Association. Collin first worked on an ethnographic study of policing in the Twin Cities for his Ethnographic Interviewing course and subsequently expanded his topic to conduct original research while studying away in Durban, South Africa. (12/2017)
Miriam Magaña López ’14 (Sonoma, CA) is a Master of Public Health (MPH) candidate focused in Health and Social Behavior at University of California, Berkeley. She majored in Anthropology with a Community/Global Health concentration and is an experienced researcher, program coordinator and evaluator with a demonstrated history of working in the public health industry, skilled in quantitative and qualitative methods and advanced use of Nvivo and STATA. (12/2017)
Lauren Martinez ’12 (Redmond, WA) completed a double major in Anthropology and Economics, and is now pursuing a career working with consumer companies. She gained experience as an Analyst at Analysis Group for two years, then as an Associate Manager of Dotcom Strategic Projects at Sephora for two years. She is now completing her MBA at Stanford and spent the summer as a Merchandising Intern at Dia & Co. in New York. “My training in anthropology, especially my ethnographic interviewing class, helps me connect with people all across the business and understand their perspectives.” (10/2017)
Sophie Keane ’16 (Columbia, MD) is a translation and marketing intern at TransLex (Europe). (12/2017)
Maggie Magee ’12 (Acton, MA) is currently working as a patient advocate and administrator at Whole Woman’s Health, which is an abortion and family planning clinic in Minneapolis. “I work with a group of phenomenal people, and we provide patients with compassionate abortion care in an environment that is free from stigma.” (10/2017)
Emily Lawson ’15 (Alexandria, IN) is a Wraparound Facilitator at Aspire Indiana, Inc. Previously, she received a Humanity in Action Fellowship to work in The Netherlands. (10/2017)
Leigh Bercaw ’12 (Berthoud, CO), spent a year in Tanzania as an English teacher, then in the US worked 3 years on organic farms, and is now a small farm owner/operator at Blue Fingers Farm, Oldtown, ID. “I’m interested in building connections to local food producers and consumers in the Idaho Panhandle. Through restaurant orders, farm stands, and farmer’s markets, I introduce fresh food lovers to fresh food growers, and facilitate conversations on how to make local food more financially and geographically accessible for isolated communities.” (10/2017)
Allan Martínez ’14 is a Human Centered Design Researcher & Strategist for Bridge International Academies, which runs schools in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia and India where it serves over 100,000 pupils, bringing top-quality, life-changing education to people without access to it. “My role on the interdisciplinary Customer Insights and Strategy team is to engage with clients to understand business problems, design research projects, and coordinate research teams to collect qualitative data through ethnographic methods. We get at the core problem and turn the data into interventions to improve outcomes. Anthropology is at the core of this work, from the way we connect with people to the way we design and carry out research, to the human-centered mindset we keep when designing and implementing interventions. I’m so deeply thankful to Mac Anthropology professors who encouraged me to pursue the major and set me on the right track for opportunities like this one.” (10/2017)
Kate Rhodes ’17 is full time in the development department of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “I am the Planned Giving Assistant and my efforts will be focused on doing data work for monthly health education events. I am excited to be in New York and to be working at such an interesting organization!” (10/2017)
Sara Saltman ’15 (Honolulu, HA) received the 2015 Nancy “Penny” Schwartz Undergraduate Essay Award from the Association of Africanist Anthropology (AfAA) for her honors thesis, “The Grass that Grows on Top of Bodies: Women, Marriage and the Construction of Collective Narratives in Rural Rwanda.” (more) She is teaching at New Pisgah Daycare in Auburn Gresham in Chicago and completed a Master’s in Education in 2017. (10/2017)
Julia Gartzke ’13, worked as AmeriCorps Promise Fellow, Check & Connect @ Lucy Laney, Minneapolis, MN. (2/2015)
Sophie Navarro ’16 (San Francisco, CA) is pursuing a graduate degree in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.
Angela Butel ’13 (Minneapolis, MN) After working in the Twin Cities for several years after graduation, Angela moved to New York City to pursue a Master’s degree in Public and Urban Policy at The New School. While there, she contributed to research on public schools, the city budget, and the child welfare system for the Center for New York City Affairs, did an internship with the office of New York City’s Chief Technology Officer, and helped the student employee union successfully bargain for its first-ever contract. Since graduating from that program in May 2019, Angela has moved to Portland, OR to complete a fellowship with the Portland City Budget Office. She continues to find that all those hours spent conducting interviews for her Macalester Anthro degree help her feel comfortable quickly developing rapport with new people and looking at the world from their point of view, which is useful in any workplace setting!
Anissa Abdel-Jelil ’15 (Mauritanian-American) is at Harvard Divinity School pursuing a Masters of Divinity. After graduating from Macalester, she moved to the East Bay, on a fellowship, to study Spirituality and Social Change at the Pacific School of Religion. She then went on to work as the Communications and Outreach Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative in North America, a global grassroots interfaith network, where she amplified the work of grassroots peacebuilders addressing the fear and hate-based rhetoric and violence present within their communities. (March 2017).
Mikaela H Rogozen-Soltar ’03 (Bainbridge Island, Washington) has an exciting new book published, Spain Unmoored: Migration, Conversion, and the Politics of Islam. Since Mac, Mikaela attended U Michigan, held post docs at Emory and Yale, and now is an assistant professor in Anthropology at U Nevada-Reno. She also had an article featured in the Conformity and Conflict book, edited by Professor Dianna Shandy with Dave McCurdy. (2/2017)
Carolyn Filardo ’16 (Woburn, MA) After graduating Macalester, she attended MGH Institute of Health Professions and received a bachelor’s in nursing. She is now living in Denver, Colorado and working as a nurse. She floats between the various units of the hospital spending time on medical, psychiatric, and hospice units. (10/19)
Sasha Lansky ’14 (Amherst, MA) is the Senior Associate in Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, which works to ensure accountability for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Sasha is also a shop steward for the Communication Workers of America Local 1180 union where she fights for workers’ rights in the nonprofit sector. Sasha received Honorable Mention for the 2014 Nancy “Penny” Schwartz Undergraduate Essay Award from the Association of Africanist Anthropology (AfAA) for her honors paper, “My Brother Before Me: The Role and Experience of Local Humanitarian Aid Workers In Eastern Cameroon.” (1/2017)
Chelsea Hansen ’13 (Vashon, WA) is working as a museum curator in Washington, D.C. for the National Law Enforcement Museum, which will officially open in 2018. “I am very excited about it, because the staff at the museum are very conscious about interpreting the history of law enforcement in the united states in open and honest ways… and are actively trying to build relationships and foster conversations between police and the public. Thank you [to Prof. Gonzalez] for encouraging me to pursue my passion for museums and history.” Chelsea received her Masters in Public History at American University in Washington, DC, and also interned for the National Museum of American History conducting research and producing content for the new exhibit called The Value of Money, developed a public program for NMAH’s exhibit called “How Do You Fix a Broken Heart?,” and interned at Tudor Place in Georgetown developing a historic tour focused on the early Republic period of Georgetown. (12/2016)
Allison Stewart ’11 (Greenwich, CT) recently completed her MA in Food Systems from NYU, and is now working at a venture capital firm investing in food tech startups. (12/2016)
Joey Dobsen ’11 is working as a housing attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid in Minneapolis. (12/2016)
Jonathan Goh (’15) is a junior researcher at Fusion Hill, a marketing agency in the Twin Cities. (12/2016)
Antara Nader (’15) is working in Saint Paul, MN as an Advocacy Intern at JustLeadershipUSA, an organization dedicated to reducing the US correctional population. (12/2016)
Madeline Graham (’10) is currently pursuing a degree in Nonprofit Organization Management, focusing on web design. Previously, she was a communications coordinator at EMERGE, a community development organization in Minneapolis, MN. (12/2016)
Kwame Gayle ’11 (Jamaica) received the 2016 Educational Equity Scholarship from American University, Washington, D.C., to pursue a graduate degree in the School of Education. His trajectory after Mac positioned him to receive this scholarship, which requires strong academic achievement and a record of community service. After graduating from Mac with an anthropology major, a concentration in African studies, and a minor in American Studies, he taught English in Japan, then became a Princeton in Africa Fellow and taught history and geography in Botswana, after which he returned to Jamaica and taught English as a second language (ESL) to Venezuelan engineers. (12/2016)
Sophie Macks ’16 (San Francisco, CA) is on a year-long fellowship doing AVODAH’s Jewish Service Corps in Chicago, IL. (5/2016)
Lucky Homesombath ’10 (Victoria, MN) received her Masters in Science with an emphasis in Community Health at Mankato State University, MN, this past may and plans on continuing her passion for healthcare and moving toward her career goal of coordinating healthcare programs.
Zoe Tomasello ’13 is a professional development assistant at Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles, CA.
Danielle Klein-Kanter ’14 (Mercer Island, WA) is a social media and brand specialist at Vynna. See what she is working on here. Danielle has also had experience working as a conservation intern at Alice Bear Conservation of Works of Art on Paper in Seattle, WA, and as a market research intern with Ipsos of North America.
Rachel Mueller ’13 (Glenwood Springs, CO) Rachel is a documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist focusing on the intersections of religion, criminal justice, and sexuality. Immediately after graduating from Mac, she interned at Smithsonian Folkways Records as a Media Associate in Washington, D.C. and then worked as the Program Manager and Managing Editor for the immigrant storytelling nonprofit, Green Card Voices. She is currently pursing her Masters in Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley as a Swahili Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow. “I use Anthropology every day! Understanding that every person approaches her/his life from a place of logic has deepened and complicated every story I do. Mac’s Anthro. department generously stoked my curiosity and I am so grateful!”
Kathryn Howell ’14 works for the Institute of Medicine as a Senior Program Assistant for the Forum on Drug Development, Washington, DC.
Kate Adelsheim ’14 (Albuquerque, NM) has won the 2014 Mikiso Hane Prize for the Best undergraduate paper for her essay, “Sterilization in Urban India: Navigating Systemic Influences on Family Decision-Making in Indian Families.” The prize is awarded by the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. (12/2014)
Gina Megson ’14 (Happy Valley, OR) is pursuing a Masters of Public Health in Health Services at the University of Washington in Seattle starting fall 2016. (9/2016)
Sarah Rasmussen ’14 (Wayzata, MN) is a research assistant at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Previously, she received a Fulbright research grant to work in Kathmandu and in rural far-western Nepal with female community health volunteers, looking at how they are able to create alliances among practitioners of diverse health systems, out of Bayalpata hospital, which is a health facility operated by Possible. Her project was an expansion of her honors thesis. (12/2016)
Jessica Smith Rolston ’02 published her book, Mining Coal and Undermining Gender: Rhythms of Work and Family in the American West. (3/2014)
Wren Brennan ’13 (San Francisco, CA) was awarded a Fulbright teaching assistantship to Brazil and now works as a copywriter for Amplifier Strategies. (12/2016)
Dominika Seblova ’11 is a social epidemiologist currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University (New York, USA). She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) after completing an interdisciplinary Masters of Science at the Centre for Health Equity Studies (Stockholm, Sweden). Currently, she researches processes leading to health inequalities among the aging population, with special focus on determinants of cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Her career path incorporates her major in Anthropology through focus on researching racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities.
MaryBeth Grewe, MPH, ’10 is a Senior Research Assistant at the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases/Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Molly Brown ’10 just completed a year as an Emergency Room Scribe and has entered the Nurse Practitioner Program at Simmon’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Boston, MA.
Sally Dijkerman ’10 is pursuing a master’s in public health at Emory University’s Global Health program.
Madeline Graham ’10 is a communications coordinator at EMERGE in the Twin Cities, MN.
Sarah Van Etten ’10 is a returned Peace Corps volunteer (Kazakhstan) and co-founding teacher for ESL Department at KAPPA International High School, Bronx, NY, supporting student language and literacy development.
Maggie Yates ’10 is a senior investigator at the MacArthur Justice Center in New Orleans.
Mara Forster-Smith ’09 is attending McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Katharine Wood ’09 is Project Associate with TNS Custom North America, a large market research company.
Rachael Harlos ’06 will be entering the MD program at the Medical School for International Health, Ben Gurion University, Israel, in the fall.
Heather Buessler ’03 is traveling around the world as a Bonderman Fellow.