SustainUS is pleased to announce our delegation for next month's 47th Commission for Social Development. To meet our delegates click the link below. Also, keep checking our SustainUS Blog and Twitter feeds to see what the delegation is up to!

Chloe Ciccariello: Chloe grew up in Concord, MA and is currently a senior at Columbia University.  Majoring in Biology and Human Rights, she is plans to attend medical school and work in the public health sector.  Throughout her time in college she has been particularly interested in health and social justice.  She volunteers weekly as a health teacher in NYC public schools, is an active member of Columbia's Amnesty International Chapter and also the Columbia University Partnership for a Responsible Endowment.  In addition, she spent a summer working at a non-profit in Hong Kong and also has interned at Witness, a Brooklyn-based human rights organization.  She looks forward to being a part of the SustainUS delegate at the 47th CSocD. 

Cora Lewicki: Cora Rose Lewicki is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Along with Spanish and French, she has focused her academic work on international policy, macroeconomics, and an exploration of the ideas of development and the role of government. During her second year she was given the opportunity to develop a relationship with the people and politics of Yucatan, where she conducted ethnographic research on the political structure of a rural community as well as the political and social influences inherent in the difficulties of an agricultural development project.  She has plans to study in Accra, Ghana for a portion her senior year where she will focus on trade policy and development in West Africa.  She was born and raised in rural Wisconsin, and has also been writing, recording, and performing music since 2000.

James (Zhenyu) Liao: James is an undergraduate student at University of Virginia, where he studies Electrical Engineering and Economics. He was born in China and came to the States at age 13. As a student, he is concentrated on issues involved with sustainable development especially on education, rural development, and the environment. He believes education is the key to practically solving social challenges, especially the education of children. For the past three years, he has been working with an NGO, Dream Corps, to organize international volunteers' work on library projects in rural and urban China. The organization's mission is to promote education equity in underprivileged communities. James has also been involved with student activism in green campaigns such as Power Vote and is part of organizing large youth summits such as Power Shift 2009. Lastly, he is also a geek who loves tech gadgets and obsessed with websites and videos. He is hoping to use his passion for technology to support social development. Currently he is pursuing a career in consulting or full-time grassroots organizing. James is currently the webmaster for SustainUS.

Jinny Jeong: Jinny traveled to India for three months in the fall of 2008 to volunteer with a microfinance nonprofit organization, where she helped offer financial services to tribal villages and women. Currently, she is taking time off from a full-time job to pursue personal hobbies and interests, such as volunteering with SustainUS and participating in CSocD47 and PowerShift, seeking fellowship opportunities for the following year, and experiencing the arts through live performances and museums. Jinny is from the rare and dying breed of New Yorkers who were born, raised, and still living in NYC. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Communication from Villanova University in 2006. Prior to her microfinance experience in India, she was a member of the Development department at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Bob Ma: Bob, originally from Calgary, Canada, is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in business and minoring in philosophy. He is passionate about social justice issues and politics. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief of The Soapbox Sociopolitical Magazine at Penn, and Coordinator of the Solacetics Social Justice Network, which has been recognized by the Governor General of Canada for work in promoting multiculturalism. He is ecstatic to be with the Agents of Change program for the third straight year! Bob enjoys philosophical discussions and meeting people :)

Flora Mendoza: Flora Elena Mendoza graduated from Yale University in 2008, where she received a degree in Latin American Studies and the Humanities. She was born in Manhattan to immigrant parents and raised in rural Pennsylvania. In college, she studied and interned abroad for NGOs in Argentina, Brazil, India, and the Dominican Republic. Interested in issues of diversity and education, she specialized in minority recruitment as a student officer at Yale's Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Upon graduation, she was selected to be a Humanity in Action fellow, through which she studied human rights in Denmark. In addition to her work in the non-for-profit sector and volunteering for the Brazilian health care interest group, Mundo Real, she is currently pursuing a music career in New York City.

Nicole Novak: Nicole is a 2008 graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN,where she majored in environmental studies, Spanish, and Hispanic studies.  Her interests center around the intersection between poverty and environmental health in Latin America, and she hopes to pursue a career in epidemiology.  She spent a semester studying sustainable development and living with families in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.  She also worked for two summers at clinics for migrantfarm workers near her hometown of Iowa City, IA.  A Rhodes Scholar, Nicole is currently reading for a master's degree in Medical Anthropology at Oxford University.  She's looking forward to joining this year's CSocD delegation, which will be her first experience with SustainUS.

Emily Gayong Setton: Emily is a graduate of Columbia University, where she studied Political Science, with concentrations in Human Rights and International Relations. In her academic work, she has focused on human rights issues in Asia, studying East Asian and North Korean politics at Yonsei University in Seoul, and as a Mellon Mays Fellow, conducting fieldwork on the Bhopal justice movement in India. As a Humanity in Action Fellow, Emily conducted research on Iraqi asylum seekers in Denmark. Previously, Emily has worked with the Center for the Study of Human Rights, WITNESS, Amnesty International's Business & Human Rights Program, the African American Policy Forum, and Committed Communities Development Trust in India, as well as serving as a member of the national advisory board for Students for Bhopal. Most recently, Emily has been doing capacity-building work with youth activists in Thailand, teaching strategic nonviolent conflict, conflict resolution, and human rights advocacy skills.

Ashleigh Zimmerman: Ashleigh has been working with NGO's in the field of Peace and Conflict Resolution for over four years. Ashleigh has traveled and conducted research extensively in the Middle East and Arab World, including research at the University of Tehran, Iran and the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. She currently works as a Program Coordinator for the Conflict Resolution organization Seeds of Peace. In this role, Ashleigh helps young professionals and students, who previously attended to the Seeds of Peace International Camp, form joint ventures and projects to support mutual development and peacebuilding across areas of conflict.