Japan

Moeko has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned two Master’s degrees in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from Arcadia University in the U.S. and in Development Economics and International Cooperation from University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy. In the summer of 2013, Moeko worked as a UN intern at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). She enhanced the quality of IFAD’s future development projects through assessing the economic and financial analysis of its project design documents. Though this experience, she gained knowledge of some ways of the application of development economics. Her great interest lies in social and economic development including sustainability, inclusive growth, and governance, as well as conflict resolution, having gained substantial theoretical insights in academic trainings. She enjoys Argentine Tango dancing – as it is physically and mentally healthy exercise, and the tango communities elsewhere often reflect the nature of local society in terms of human interaction and values, which enriches her insights on world affairs.

Host Organization: GlobalGiving

Role at Host Organization: Moeko will provide support for their In-the-Field program, which trains travelers to visit GlobalGiving partner organizations, conduct simple evaluations, and lead workshops for new organizations. She will be responsible for providing support while these travelers are in the office and abroad, including: setting up workshop registrations, ensuring quality evaluations are occurring, driving band-end system design to enhance tracking, and analyzing the impact of the ITF program.

Mari has over two years of experience in non-profit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science from Keio University in Tokyo, and a Master’s of Arts in International Trade and Investment Policy concentrating in Development Economics from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Her interest in international development began when she experienced first-hand the financial default in Argentina in 2001. Since then, she became interested in development that really works for poverty alleviation. After starting her graduate studies in 2011, she joined GlobalGiving Foundation as a Project Intern. At GlobalGiving Foundation, she successfully led two fundraising campaigns for 16 partnering organizations working for disaster relief in Japan, raising almost $200,000 from 1200 individual donors. In addition, she served as an In-the-Field representative for GlobalGiving Foundation in China. She travelled throughout the country to conduct site evaluations, provide advice on online fundraising to local partners, and recruit potential partners for GlobalGiving. Mari’s special areas of interests are social entrepreneurship, crowd funding, and economic empowerment.

Host Organization: GlobalGiving

Role at Host Organization: Mari will be working at the intersection of their nonprofit partnership team and business development teams to help nonprofits that are referred by our corporate donors have a better experience on GlobalGiving. Her responsibilities will include managing communications with corporate-referred nonprofits, providing support for corporate-sponsored donation campaigns like Microsoft’s Give for Youth program, and helping nonprofit organizations post projects and write reports.

Kunihiro has two and a half years of experience in the nonprofit sector in the U.S., England, and Japan. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a focus in International Relations from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in the U.S. Kunihiro is serving at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). He provides substantial assistance to NBR’s Political and Security Affairs (PSA), team on the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief project in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, he is helping the Trade, Energy, and Economic Affairs (TEEA) teams with the Energy Security project on Asia’s Uncertain Liquefied Natural Gas Future. Previously, Kunihiro worked for the National Association of Japan-America Societies, U.S.-Japan Council, and International Student Conferences Inc. Kunihiro enjoys focusing on a variety of topics including humanitarian assistance after disasters as well as the future of energy resources and its accessibility to less-developed international communities. He has a strong passion for education and youth leadership programs and hopes one day to organize programs that will help youth contribute to a variety of social issues that exist in today’s world.

Host Organization: National Bureau of Asian Research

Role at Host Organization: As an Atlas Fellow, Kuni is part of the Trade, Economic, and Energy Affairs group and the Political and Security Affairs (PSA) group at NBR. During his fellowship, he will coordinate research, publications, and logistics for a range of programs and projects, including the Pacific Energy Summit, Energy Security Program, and Strategic Asia.