July 2020 FWN Newsletter

July 2020  Dear Fletcher Women, A warm welcome to our worldwide community in a time of great challenge. Like many of you in your personal and professional lives, we as your network leaders take the privilege of our Fletcher degree as a responsibility to do our best to address the challenges within our scope. As stated in the letter to our membership on June 8, 2020, we, the FWN leadership, pledge to develop a FWN diversity and inclusion plan. At our recent meeting, the FWN Executive Committee adopted the following goal as part of our strategic plan:  “FWN shall develop a diversity and inclusion plan that seeks to make sure that all female-identifying students and alumnae feel they all belong in our community and have multiple opportunities to be supported by and participate in FWN initiatives and activities. Furthermore, our plan shall articulate ways that FWN has “a seat at the table” in assuring that The Fletcher School is diverse and inclusive.” FWN Vice President of Operations Cacilda Teixeira (F15) will head the FWN Ad Hoc Committee tasked with developing our plan. By her own admission as a student of color, she felt that Fletcher did not listen to the concerns of its students of color. She remains invested in Fletcher and sees the opportunity for our action and voice to contribute to positive change within Fletcher and throughout our worldwide community. We look forward to sharing both the plan and its implementation with you. In return we hope that you will take the time to share your input.  Please also consider giving us your time. As an all volunteer staff, we have more projects in the pipeline and ideas for the future than women to carry them out. Reach out to me if you are interested in learning more about how you can help. Enjoy the newsletter! In partnership and respect,Kari Sides Suva (F11)FWN President

Graduation: Celebrating Fletcher Women, Class of 2020!

The Fletcher School held its first-ever virtual commencement ceremony for the class of 2020 on May 15 amidst the COVID pandemic. The crisis shaped both the physically-distanced video format and the valedictory messages: Fletcher Dean Rachel Kyte (F02) led off the ceremony with a call to students to “raise yourselves from sofas, dining room chairs, mats, beach towels, barstools and beanbags, and hug, text, wave to those who have supported you.” But optimism prevailed: Fletcher Board of Advisors chair Lisbeth J. Tarlow (F84, F97) reminded new graduates that “in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” In her keynote address, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Amina J. Mohammed shared words of encouragement from Nelson Mandela: “it always seems impossible, until it’s done”. Elected student speakers Nicholas Cicchinelli and Olivia Puaipu Maigret reminded graduates that “all of you are going to have a hand in shaping the future… The future is in part dependent on your ability to be creative, to go beyond what you personally think, to listen to new voices, to shake up paradigms and challenge the order of things.” (Listen to their speeches here). Or in the words of Carla Martinez, “Rest assured that Fletcher’s Class of 2020 will be the ones who weren’t dissuaded by the threat of distance and uncertainty. We’ll be the ones who because of the shock of sudden goodbyes will have space in our time for the good memories and amazing friendships.” Ella Duncan, Raymond Marolt, Carla Martinez, and Manaved Nambiar brought levity and a personal touch to their roles as student toastmasters (their speeches here).

At graduation, the Robert B. Stewart Prize for Outstanding First-Year Student went to Sabrina Andrews and Abigail Kukura. The recipients of the Edmund A. Gullion Prize for Outstanding Second-Year Student were Melanie Barlow and Aesclinn Donohue. Roxani Krystalli and Sarah Detzner both received the Peter Ackerman Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation. Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Policy Josephine Wolff received the James L. Paddock Teaching Award. Watch the full commencement ceremony here. 

Class of 2020 close up:  We had an opportunity to speak to two new graduates with inspiring stories to share.  Sara Miller, F20 MALD Sara was sad not to be at Fletcher with everyone during graduation. But she believes the Fletcher community doesn’t really go away. The graduation vibe was positive, and everyone texted as they graduated to stay connected. For Sara, she felt she was virtually walking to receive her graduation honors on stage before the eyes of her fellow classmates. Some of them had taken pictures with gowns and hoods while observing social distancing before shelter in place orders kicked in. More importantly, Sara is decidedly resolute to pursue her dreams after hiring freezes and travel restrictions end. While at Fletcher, Sara spent one summer in Jordan to remotely help coordinate humanitarian programs in Syria. She wrote her thesis at Fletcher on humanitarian notification systems for civil-military coordination, and wants to work with an international organization on Syria.            Sara Miller, F20 MALD, in her master’s cap and gown, and celebrating with roommates and classmates Rebecca Stein and Lalitha Adury Maisa Ferreira, F20 MALDMaisa, who came to Fletcher from Brazil, is passionate about immigration issues. Being in love with Boston, she plans to stay there, and work for a local non-profit organization she recently joined to assist the Latino immigrant community in the United States. She worked hard to get to Fletcher, putting herself through college courses in Brazil at night, and working during the day. She was a bit jealous of students who could afford to study during the day, and was surprised when she was able to join the school’s amazing student body, and academic community. At Fletcher, she focused on learning about negotiations and conflict resolution, and human security, because she was eager to leave behind a previous career in the private sector to help communities in need after Fletcher. At Fletcher, she loved attending the gender conference, running into diplomats, authors and many other accomplished professionals.  We wish Sara, Maisa, and all their fellow graduates the best of luck! Fletcher women in the COVID crisis response Based in Boston, Ronit Prawer (F19) directs the UK government’s Science and Innovation network for the Eastern US – or as she put it, “I lead a rockstar group of science diplomats who are the best team ever.” Since the COVID crisis began, they have been guiding the UK and US science responses, bringing together US and UK experts and government agents to share best practice and refine science policy on both sides. The group joined the US and the UK in the High Performance Computing Consortium, which is helping researchers harness the power of big data to tackle the pandemic. And at the moment, they are working on serology policy and on using US data to help inform the UK response. Roni would love to engage with anyone who wants to hear more – get in touch! Stephanie Flamenbaum (F14) and Mackenzie Muirhead (F19) work for USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia and their day jobs normally don’t involve health crisis response or aid to high-income countries like Italy. That’s why the request for volunteers to support USAID’s COVID response in Italy “felt like a turning point,” they write in an email. They rose to the challenge, and with colleagues are now working to get US assistance to civil society groups in northern Italy, coordinating with a wide range of partners across the US government and Italian faith-based and civil society organizations. “We are proud to be part of a response team that is saving lives across the globe and assisting those who have been affected by this terrible virus.”  Gypsy Guillen Kaiser (F14) of UN Women worked with UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) colleagues to produce a video – in all UN languages – in support of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ call for a global ceasefire in the times of COVID-19 with women’s participation. Jennifer Buntman Indig (F08) published an op-ed in the New York Daily News drawing lessons for contact tracing from her past work in counterterrorism for the NYPD. And Audrey Selian (F02, F05)  is part of a group working on a COVID-focused version of their impact finance/due diligence fintech platform. Fletcher women running for office Fletcher women shook up New York’s primary season with the candidacies of Evelyn Farkas (F95, F99) for Congress and Katie Walsh (F14) for State Assembly. Neither one made it this time, but we know we haven’t heard the last from them. Watch this space for their next moves. FWN Mentoring Program FWN’s Mentoring Program started in March 2020 with an inaugural class of 102 alumnae from 22 countries matched as mentors and mentees. Iliriana Kacaniku (F04) and Claudia Cunha (F85) designed the program based on mentoring needs and mentoring skills identified in a survey they conducted in 2019.  The survey revealed that as we progress with our careers we come to moments when we need to leverage each other’s experience and expertise to develop our careers, grow on a personal level, develop job search strategies, and advance our skills in workplace management and leadership. Based on the survey, the program matched alumnae in mentoring pairs, many of whom have committed to 12 hours of mentoring support for up to a year. In addition, they’re working to build the community with events and workshops. Career transition webinar workshops Fletcher women: Has early satisfaction faded after years of a successful career? Has the COVID-19 pandemic left you seeking security and a clearer career pathway in another sector or industry? Have you decided to come back to the labor market after having dedicated years to building the future workforce — that is, looking after your child/ren?  Whatever the motivation for pursuit of a new career, the FWN Mentoring Program tries to help alumnae answer some of their first questions of the journey. In collaboration with the Fletcher School’s Office of Career Services and Library Services, the program recently hosted 118 alumnae from around the globe for a two-part webinar workshop on successfully navigating career transitions. On June 24, they welcomed Melissa Palmer, the Associate Director of Career Services at the Fletcher School, who coaches students and alumni on career development and manages the Professional Development Program.  In her 90-minute session, titled Where Do I Want to Go?, Melissa introduced alumnae to a series of steps to identify their calling, develop a value proposition, and identify a target market and industry.  On July 8, Iliriana and Claudia hosted Ann Cullen, Fletcher’s International Business Librarian, for part two, titled How Can I Get There? Ann drew on her 20+ years of experience as a librarian, researcher and educator to walk the alumnae through the many resources and tools available for Fletcher and Tufts alumnae including the Fletcher Alumni Resource Guide,  Tufts Alumni Online Community Databases Page, conferences, advanced Google Search skills, and Fletcher CORE.  Both webinars were held at noon and 10PM ET to enable alumnae from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Jordan, France, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand to participate. Truly international Fletcher spirit! Lakshmi Karan: “Heading into a Fletcher world” FWN’s mentoring program recently kicked off a series of “Fireside Chat” conversations with prominent alumnae. Lakshmi Karan (F00, F07), is co-founder and CEO of the Future Frontiers Institute, focused on responsible, sustainable and ethical development of space technologies and solutions. Karan has made a career out of being an outlier – and she says, other Fletcher women, particularly new grads looking for a job, can too. That’s because our outlier Fletcher education, she says, is unlike any other, and that education uniquely equips us for an increasingly volatile and complex world – a “Fletcher world.” The world is heading into a Fletcher world. So I tell the class of 2020, it’s your world now. You understand the importance of intersectionality like no other education. You understand systems thinking. It’s a natural way when you’re doing trade and human rights and law… You’ve learned that from your classmates. You’re ready for chaos because you’ve learned through chaos. Who is struggling now are the MBAs or the standard degree people, because they are ladder people. The world now is a circus. So the trapeze is the person who is going to ride this through. And so I would encourage [the class of 2020] to lean into that, and [tell prospective employers]: “I understand the importance of intersectionality. I understand how different systems need to work, public-private partnerships, the role of government, the role of civil society, because I was exposed to those things. And I have the knowledge to lead.”

COVID-era FWN meet-ups 

The global community of Fletcher Women’s Network has kept on keeping on, getting together online despite constraints on meeting in person. Early on in the US lockdown, FWN President Kari Sides Suva hosted an informal Zoom meetup – back when many of us were just figuring Zoom out! FWN’s Geneva group followed suit with a webinar on COVID and international Geneva, while FWN Brussels got together online for drinks and consolation. Angeli Gianchandani (F14) organized a webinar with Human Rights Watch’s Minky Worden on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender and human rights. For advance notice of events and spontaneous happy hours to come, join us on Facebook and LinkedIn, and make sure to get in touch with your local FWN group – or start your own.

Check out the FWN strategic plan now posted on the website Every two years, FWN’s leadership develops a new strategic plan to guide our work. The Executive Committee first adopts a set of goals. The next step is for the committees and liaison groups to develop their own set of objectives based on the goals. Once the objectives are adopted, the committees and liaison groups develop action plans which become their work plans for the two-year period. We welcome our members to look at our current plan here and offer any input. Like any plan, it is not set in stone and is adapted as needs and conditions change. Not receiving the newsletter or our FWN emails? We want to keep in touch! Our email list managed by the Fletcher Alumni Office is intended to reach every female-identifying alum. If you are on the alumni roll — you’ll be added several months after graduation — you should be on it, unless you have intentionally opted out of our communications. Before concluding that you are not on it, please check  your spam folder. To keep your contact information updated, please visit the Fletcher Online Community found on the landing page for Fletcher Alumni. Updated information such as where you live allows us to send you local FWN information. If you have any problems or want to be manually added to a list, please contact Anita Nham in the Alumni Office. Contact us! fletcheralumnae@gmail.com  Join the conversation on Facebook and Linkedin