BIOS: Advisors

Fr. Jacob - advisor, ground zero point of contact
Jacob is currently in Ethiopia helping displaced Sudanese refugees. Jacob requested his last name be omitted for his personal safety

Jackie Downing – advisor, NGO operations
Jackie is a graduate of Simmons College with a BA in management/marketing. She is a 2008 Leadership and Organizational Change MS candidate at Regis College. Jackie owns and runs Woodsedge Children’s Center of Sudbury MA, a non-profit early education center with more than 100 students. She serves on advisory boards of both The Minuteman School of Applied Arts and Sciences and The Sudbury Early Childhood Advisory Council.

William van der Veen - advisor, promotion
Will graduated from Colby College, where he earned a degree in Government and specialized in international conflict in the Greater Middle East. In 2004 William worked at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, where he worked towards finding equitable solutions to the growing narcotics industry in Afghanistan. He has also written extensively on the roots and operational dynamics of international terrorism in Afghanistan.

Steven Bogden - advisor, geopolitics
Steve graduated from Colby College, where he majored in Government. Upon graduating, Steve joined the United Nations’ operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He currently works for The Reform Institute, based in Washington, DC.

Luke Tarbi - advisor, foreign affairs
Luke graduated from Boston College, where he minored/focused in Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies. At BC, he wrote his thesis on stabilization in the post-independent palestinian state. Luke was president and founder of the BC Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Student Association, a research-oriented group, with whom he conducted research in Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt. Currently, Luke serves as an unrestricted line officer in the US Navy.

Ryan Crotty - advisor, African regional dynamics
Ryan graduated from Colby College, where he double-majored in Government and International Studies and was admitted to the Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society. Ryan wrote his senior thesis on the role of international actors in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars. Ryan is currently preparing to pursue his Ph.D in International Affairs focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.