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Conflict analysis and resolution practitioner with over 4 years of experience in NGO work seeks opportunities that focus on food security, community empowerment, environmental, and/or sustainability issues. |
 Contact Clare Koester
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Area of Expertise: |
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Agriculture, Livelihoods, Microfinance, Rural
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Capacity Building, Training, Advocacy
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Environment, Climate, Energy, Water, Sanitation
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Human Rights, Law, Migration, Conflicts, Justice
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Social, Education, Gender, Youth, Child
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Professional Experience: |
Throughout my higher education, my focus in the conflict resolution field revolved around a human rights based approach and development issues. I have a better understanding than most of the intricacies of conflict, as well as the politics of what goes into capacity building and how they are presented to the public. I have designed interventions on environmental issues, and analytically researched international organizations on how to better coordinate data regarding humanitarian aid, further understanding and appreciating the complexity of cultural, structural, and direct violence of underserved populations in various parts of the world.
As an undergraduate, I interned with the Benjamin Franklin Summer Institute of South and Central Asia (BFSI) and worked with high school-aged youth from south and central Asian countries and the United States. The focus of the curriculum was on cultural conflict resolution, and designing local interventions they could implement in their own communities. With seven other counselors and four directors, I supervised and advised over forty young people during their lectures and on their trips to Pennsylvania and New York. My main take-away from that experience was that very different people from very different cultures came together by embracing both their similarities and their differences.
As a graduate student, I worked at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (JCCNV) as a Before And After School Enrichment (BASE) Program staff member, where I practiced my interpersonal skills with children aged four to thirteen. I also have experience working with those who have special needs, such as autism, social anxiety disorders, ADHD, and Asperger’s. I assisted in the execution of various events, including but not limited to numerous “Kids’ Night Out” Saturdays, “Breast Cancer Awareness Day”, and designed a curriculum for when I briefly was employed as the art instructor at the JCCNV’s Summer Camp in 2012.
In my last semester of graduate school, I was the project development assistant intern at Kooperazzjoni Internazzjonali (KOPIN). I not only received extensive field experience regarding issues in development, poverty, and migration, I also co-led presentations in primary, secondary, and post-secondary/tertiary classrooms on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and helped with lectures on sustainable development that KOPIN had hosted with other experts in the field on agricultural, human rights, and climate change issues. I learned what it meant to work with underrepresented and underserved communities, specifically with asylum seekers whose futures seemed uncertain.
Following my academic career, I worked for Washington Youth Garden (WYG) as the Development and Administration Coordinator until my move to Rome, Italy in August 2016. Under the guidance of this forty-five year old program, I was a key asset in grant compiling and editing, programming outreach, event planning, and fundraising.
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Education: |
08.2012 – 08.2014
SCHOOL FOR CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
Master of Science, Conflict Analysis and Resolution
• Emphasis in food security, nutrition, agricultural issues, and sustainable development in the environmental sector.
• Coursework in environmental conflict resolution, reflective practice, somatics, global nutrition, experiential education, climate change and sustainability communication campaigns, proposal writing, and intervention tactics.
• Graduated Cum Laude.
08.2010 – 01.2011
LINNAEUS UNIVERSITY – VÄXJÖ, SWEDEN
Semester abroad, undergraduate Peace and Development Studies III
• Requirement for B.A. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.
• Researched and presented an undergraduate desk study thesis on Pax powers throughout history from the eras of Pax Romana to Pax Americana.
08.2009 – 5.2012
SCHOOL FOR CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
Bachelor of Arts, Conflict Analysis and Resolution; Anthropology minor
• Concentration in International and Community/Organization conflict resolution, with Anthropology minor.
• Integration project on the correlation of food waste, loss, and hunger in the United States.
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Available for: |
- Job opportunities
- Being headhunted – make me an offer
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