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Dear EPDers,
Happy Summer! And HAPPY PRIDE! Hope everyone is doing well! In this bi-weekly newsletter, we aimed to continue to engage and nurture our community especially with continuing and incoming students with events, updates, and more!
This week's newsletter includes:
- Research Manager / Senior Research Manager role at IPSOS
- Summer course, B Session: Writing About Global Science for the International Media
- Next EPD Job Search Strategy Discussion 6/17 with two speakers
- Faculty Spotlight
- Student Summer Story
- Book & Film/TV Recs
- Summer Office Hour - ask your PA anything!
Research Manager / Senior Research Manager at IPSOS
 Research Manager / Senior Research Manager needed to run ongoing monitoring and evaluation contract for USAID-funded public health-focused program. This position would be the main client point of contact for the portfolio of work that includes several knowledge transfer programs across sub-Saharan Africa that are focused on improving health outcomes. Requires experience with the development and implementation of complex monitoring and evaluation systems, both in terms of measuring impact and conducting ongoing monitoring work, and reporting out to donors. The client is still developing their ideal approach to M&E so proactive, innovative, and forward-thinking approaches are necessary – the program joins the public and private sector and so the M&E approach must be designed to meet the needs of both.
This work sits within Ipsos’ Sustainable Development Research Team and would also work on cross-cutting health and M&E-related projects and initiatives across the business. In addition to this project, key clients for this team include the World Bank, UN Women, UNICEF, and the social impact arms of several Fortune 500 companies. The team is rapidly growing so this position offers great opportunities!
We are looking for an innovative thinker, international project manager, and strategic advisor with at least three years experience in public health and/or monitoring and evaluation. Ideally with the candidate also has experience working with USAID and other large donors, as well as in international and developing country contexts. Position will require international travel up to 25% of the time, as well as requiring some early morning/late night coordination calls with stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa. Candidates must be based near an Ipsos office in the US, though remote work is possible for the right candidate. Salary to commensurate with experience. Must have authorization to work in the US (US citizen or green card holder).
If you are interested, please reach out directly to Kaitlin.Love@Ipsos.com with your CV and a writing sample of no more than five pages by June 11, 2021 with the subject line – Public Health RM/SRM Role.
Summer course, B Session: Writing About Global Science for the International Media
 Prof. Claudia Dreifus, who teaches in TMAC, is giving a six week version of her science journalism course this summer. It's a part of the Masters in Sustainability Management program at SPS and awards three full graduate credits in six weeks. The course dates are 6/29-8/5. Attached is a tentative syllabus. Click HERE for the tentative syllabus.
EPD Job Search Strategy Discussion Groups
EPD has partnered with the Office of Career Services on the EPD Job Search Strategy Discussion Groups, a series of four meetings for recent graduates and continuing students who are currently actively engaged in a job or internship search. These sessions are held every other Thursday at 11am. The next session will be on Thursday, June 17th at 11am (EST) and will feature two speakers: Bianca Reyes, HR and Recruiting Manager for Dalberg Americas; and Ananya Singh (MPA 2020), Associate at 60 Decibels. Please note this session will be extended by 15 min and will end at 12:15pm (instead of noon).
To receive the Zoom details, please register using this link:
https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcodOGtrD4pGd2tbMiYpmOW6U4WRBOqY6OI
Faculty Spotlight
 Jeff Ashe teaches INAF U8350 Finance for the World Poorest in the Fall semester. "Over the years that I have taught “Finance for the World’s Poorest” at SIPA I have been impressed by the commitment and creativity of the SIPA students. I structure the class so that it leverages their experiences. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador we brought the indigenous leaders of villages of serfs who worked the land for generations under the domination of the landlords. Over two weeks as we asked questions they developed and then implemented their plans to secure their rightful claim to the land. Their ideas, not ours prevailed. Leaving Ecuador and completing graduate school, I was one of the pioneers of micro credit in the early 1980s. After studying ways to assist microbusinesses in fourteen countries, we found that the best way to guarantee a loan was for a group of peers to guarantee repayment. What we learned in El Salvador spread over the world. As in Ecuador we designed an intervention around social capital and local knowledge. By 2000, after promoting microfinance in some 35 countries, it became clear that loans were not reaching the poorest and when they did loans too often left the borrowers in unsustainable debt. Discouraged, I was about to leave the field, but I learned about a new approach and carried out research in Nepal, India and Zimbabwe to understand it. By bypassing the financial institutions and instead training groups of about 20 village women to save and lend to each other they created their own financial institutions where the profits from lending returned to them. Over the past few years my students and I have carried out research to learn about the importance of informal saving and lending groups in immigrant communities as well as the role of remittances in assisting millions of villages across the developing world. We are developing initiatives that support the leaders of these informal groups as they share their insights as they receive “community genius” awards to support their work. This way we can share local wisdom and problem solving capacity. Check out Jeff's work at https://www.grassrootsfinanceaction.org/
Student Summer Story
 Kelsey Ray is a first-year MIA student with an EPD concentration and Management specialization. She grew up in Houston, TX and received her Bachelors in Economics from Texas A&M University. After graduating, she lived and worked in Switzerland, Rwanda, and Belgium before landing back state-side in Boston. For the last four years, Kelsey has been working with Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) on a nation-wide small business education program in the US, designed to help entrepreneurs grow and create economic opportunity in their local communities. Kelsey is spending this summer continuing her work with ICIC, and economic development firm in Boston, on a part time basis. She will also be interning at the JP Morgan Chase Global Philanthropy, where she will be assisting with the regulatory work and grant payments teams.
Book & Film/TV Recs
 A Woman Is No Man - Etaf Rum
The New York Times bestseller and Read with Jenna TODAY SHOW Book Club pick telling the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community.
 In The Heights
The most anticipated movie event of the year, In the Heights is based on the stage musical of the same name by Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Set in New York City neighbourhood of Washington Heights, the film tells the story of a New York City bodega owner who saves his money in hopes of a better life.
What's Happening in New York City!?
 It's PRIDE MONTH! What's NOT happening in NYC! This year’s NYC Pride celebration promises to be a mix of both in-person and virtual events. After the rally and the street festival Pride Fest, the Pride March will take place on Sunday, 6/27 with rainbow-clad activists and allies taking to the streets in support of global LGBTQ rights. Here's your guide to one of the most epic things to do in the summer in NYC. (Source: TimeOut NY)
Summer Office Hours
Have any questions? Our Program Assistant, Saiful Salihudin MIA'21 holds office hour every Friday 9AM-10AM EST. Email him at sas2409@columbia.edu to make an appointment!
Best Regards,
EPD Team.
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