WAPPP Fellows 2009-2010

Kathleen Coyne-McCoy
WAPPP Fellow
Kathleen Coyne-McCoy is the Regional Director for EMILY’s List, an organization dedicated to electing pro-choice, Democratic women to federal, state and local office. She has designed and implemented training programs for women candidates seeking political office and has helped elect over 100 women to state and local office. During her fellowship at WAPPP, Coyne-McCoy will develop a training manual designed for the members of the From Harvard Square to the Oval Office program. Her training will focus on topics such as strategic steps in making the decision to run, getting ready to run, building a campaign plan, creating campaign message, working with the media, and fundraising. Coyne-McCoy holds a M.S.W. from Rhode Island College and a B.A. in Social Work from Providence College.

Anna Dreber
WAPPP Fellow
Anna Dreber is a Researcher at SIFR, the Institute for Financial Research, in Stockholm. During her fellowship at WAPPP, Anna will work on two projects that combine biological and cultural perspectives on human behavior. The first focuses on genes, hormones and behavior; Anna plans to examine how the birth control pill affects decision making in areas related to altruism, fairness, risk, time, trust, and mate choice. The second focuses on competitiveness and culture; in this project, Anna will carry out an international field experiment comparing the gender competitiveness gap in a wide range of countries, such as Colombia, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US. She holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and was previously a Visiting Scholarat the Santa Fe Institute and the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard.

Julian Jamison
WAPPP Fellow
Julian Jamison is a Senior Economist with the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. During his fellowship at WAPPP, Julian will work on three experimental gender and development projects in Uganda and Tanzania. Two of the projects are focused on reproductive health and the third centers on a business skills training program for women who have been affected by the civil war or HIV. Previously, Julian taught at Harvard Kennedy School, the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a M.A. and B.A. in Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology.

Megan MacKenzie
WAPPP Associate
Megan MacKenzie is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. During the 2008-09 academic year, Megan was a joint fellow of the Belfer Center’s International Security Program and the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. As a WAPPP Associate, Megan will continue to work on a variety of gender-focused security projects, including the multiple challenges facing women in post-conflict Sierra Leone. In addition to lecturing at the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Megan has also served as a Visiting Professor at Chungnam National University, Daejon in South Korea. Megan maintains research partnerships with several actors in Sierra Leone, including Fatima, a new University in Sierra Leone. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Farzad Saidi
WAPPP Fellow
Farzad is a doctoral candidate in Economics at New York University. During his fellowship at WAPPP, Farzad will research what drives the gender pay gap at higher levels of employment. Fazad has held research positions at the University of Chicago, the Center for Economic Performance in London, and the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. In addition to his academic work, Farzad also has experience in the private sector with Booz Allen Hamilton in Germany and J.P. Morgan in the United Kingdom. Farzad holds a MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a degree in Business Administration from the Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany.

Laura Sjoberg
WAPPP Associate
Laura Sjoberg is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. Her research interests are in the area of gender-based and feminist approaches to the study of international relations generally, and international security specifically. Her research has addressed gender and just war theory, women’s violence in global politics, and feminist interpretations of the theory and practice of security policy. As a WAPPP Associate, Laura has been working on a special, gender-focused edition of the journal Security Studies. Previously, Laura has taught at Brandeis University, Merrimack College, Duke University, and Virginia Tech. In the 2005-06 academic year, she was a joint fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program and the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Laura holds a Ph.D. from the University of California School of International Relations, a J.D. from Boston College Law School, and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Martina Viarengo
WAPPP Associate
Martina Viarengo, an Italian citizen, is a Research Economist with the Education and Skills Program of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. For the past several years, Martina has been examining education policy and labor market outcomes in the OECD countries. Specifically, she has devoted her academic research to understand how to improve access to quality education to reduce poverty and inequality. As a WAPPP Associate, Martina is working on several projects: an examination of policy interventions and the gender education gap in Latin America, institutional changes and investment in education in Latin America, as well as a comparative analysis of school choice. In 2008 Martina was named Newton International Fellow by the British Academy, Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2006 she was Rotary Scholar in Germany. In addition to her Ph.D. received from the London School of Economics, Martina holds a Master’s from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Turin.

Alexandra van Geen
WAPPP Fellow
Alexandra van Geen is a doctoral candidate in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. During her fellowship at WAPPP, Alexandra’s research will focus on gender differences in individual judgment and decision making, experimental economics, and diversity and productivity. Prior to beginning her program at Harvard Kennedy School, Alexandra was a political assistant to members of parliament in the Netherlands, where she was responsible for parliamentarians’ speeches on economic and financial matters and on gender equality. She holds a Master of Philosophy in Economics from Tilburg University, the Netherlands, and a B.A. in Social Science from Utrecht University, the Netherlands.