STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: SHEILA LALWANI

Sheila Lalwani, HKS Master in Public Policy (MPP) 2009 candidate, began her career as a reporter of social justice. She worked as a journalist with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where she wrote about religion, international affairs and gender.  As a member of the Harvard Kennedy School student body, Sheila has dedicated her time to strengthening her gender advocacy work and building on her journalism background.

Currently, Sheila is a member of the Women and Public Policy Program’s From Harvard Square to the Oval Office (Oval Office) program, where she is learning about the electoral process and building skills to assist her in running for political office.  In an article for Harvard Kennedy School’s newspaper, The Citizen, which discussed the impact of the Oval Office Program, Sheila asserts “The program has given me a tool set for finding my own voice – a prerequisite to good politics and effective decision-making.”

In addition to her training with the Oval Office program, WAPPP awarded Sheila a Cultural Bridge Fellowship to intern in India with the U.S. State Department and the Human Rights Network during the summer of 2008. Her internship provided a unique opportunity to affect policy related to women. During her time at the U.S. State Department and the Human Rights Network, Sheila primarily focused on marriage rights, human trafficking and girls’ education.  Sheila shared the following,

“The Cultural Bridge Fellowship has been life-changing and has set my career in gender-related work. Through the fellowship, I was able to gain a better understanding of the issues that women around the world face. Truly, I cannot imagine my Kennedy School years without that summer.” 

Resulting from her summer internship, Sheila published an article "Cycle of Slavery," with Combat Law, a human rights and law bi-monthly journal to highlight the various effects of human trafficking on children.

Sheila’s summer experience was indeed life changing for her, and in 2009, she decided to build upon the work she accomplished as a Cultural Bridge Fellow. For her MPP master’s thesis, Sheila is developing a guide for the United Nations on how to better address gender-based sexual crimes during times of war. Specifically, she is examining means by which the international community can prevent mass wartime rapes, using Bosnia as the prism for those lessons learned.  Sheila conducted various interviews with the executive director of the Center for Torture Victims in Bosnia and several other women-led NGOs that reached out to female victims of war.

Harvard Square to the Oval Office is made possible through the generous support of the Barbara Lee Women and U.S. Politics Training Program and Lecture Series Fund, Joanne Egerman, and the Beatrice Koretsky Bleicher Memorial Endowment Fund.

The Cultural Bridge Fellowship is made possible through the continued commitment of Nancy Germeshausen Klavans and Sonnie Dockser to enriching the educational experience of Harvard graduate students, both inside and out of the classroom.

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