Executive Team

Maria Ivanova
Director
Maria Ivanova is an international relations and environmental policy scholar specializing in governance and sustainability.

Melissa Goodall
Advisor
Melissa Goodall is External Advisor for Strategic Planning to the Global Environmental Governance Project.

Alexander Gritsinin
Advisor
Alexander Gritsinin serves as Management and Governance Advisor to the Global Environmental Governance Project.

Niko Urho
Senior Research Fellow
Niko specializes in global environmental and sustainability governance, in particular, sound management of chemicals and waste, and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Nico has vast global environmental policy-making experience while he worked in the Ministry of the Environment of Finland.

Stacy Vandeveer
Senior Research Fellow
Stacy is the Graduate Program Director for the Global Governance and Human Security PhD program at McCormack Graduate School's Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at UMass Boston.
Beth Kaplin
Senior Research Fellow
Beth Kaplin is a Professor at University of Rwanda & Director of the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity & Natural Resource Management, a research institute contributing science to policy in support of sustainable development in Rwanda and the region. She is also a Research Professor in School for the Environment at UMass Boston. An ecologist by training, she is interested in applications of biodiversity data for early detection of environmental change.

Pia Kohler
Senior Research Fellow
Pia Kohler is an interdisciplinary social scientist who has conducted research on global environmental politics, chemicals governance, plastics, and science-policy interfaces. Her book Science Advice and Global Environmental Governance (Anthem Press) examines expert committees established to provide advice on science to multilateral environmental agreements.
Chandu Krishnan
Senior Research Fellow
Chandu Krishnan’s major interests are in the fields of anti-corruption, governance and sustainable development. As a Democracy Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, he researched issues related to corruption, inequality and democracy. He served in intergovernmental Commonwealth Secretariat, London and was a Director of the UK Crown Agents Foundation Council.

Sarah Lawan
Senior Research Fellow
Sarah Lawan is the Regional Co-operation Advisor, Networks, Partnerships and Gender Division, OECD Development Centre. Lawan is an experienced development practitioner with focus on African sustainable development, including strengthening the African voice during the intergovernmental SDGs negotiations at the UN.

Adugna Lemi
Senior Research Fellow
Adugna Lemi is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Economics, College of Liberal Arts at UMass Boston. Professor Lemi’s research interests have focused on economic development in Africa, capital flow and its determinants in developing countries, multinational corporations and their role in developing countries, as well as on issues of poverty, trade, and income diversification in Ethiopia.

Yongjin Li
Senior Research Fellow
Yongjin Li is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Center for Population and Sustainable Development Studies at
Lanzhou University, China. His research interests include environmental development, rural poverty and development, and policy analysis and impact evaluation based on household survey data, statistical and econometric analysis.
Nada Ali
Senior Research Fellow
Nada Mustafa Ali is a scholar, practitioner and an activist whose scholarship spans the fields of comparative politics, women's, gender, and feminist studies, development studies, and African and Middle Eastern studies including work as a researcher and consultant to a number of international and grassroots organizations and UN agencies.
Kamal Bawa
Senior Research Fellow
Kamal Bawa is Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Founder-President of the Bangalore-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) that has been ranked as #18 globally and #2 in Asia among the world’s environment think tanks.
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Harris Gleckman
Senior Research Fellow
A sociologist by training, Harris Gleckman’s professional experience crosses the disciplines of international policy, economics, trade, environment, and global governance. Professor Gleckman works with the Center to create an easy introduction to WEF's key governance proposals and to encourage healthy debate.
Research Associates
Kuntala Bandyopadhyay
Kuntala Bandyopadhyay is a PhD student in the Global Governance and Human Security PhD program. She has work experience on climate and energy governance, decarbonization and financing of sustainable infrastructure. Kuntala is very enthusiastic about the international politics of adaptation finance and wish to explore the issue in her doctoral research.

Michael
Cole
Michael Cole is a PhD student in the Global Governance and Human Security program at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies and a National Science Foundation (NSF) fellow focused on questions of social justice, community resilience, and climate change in coastal communities. He also is co-founder of OT consultancy.

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Natalia Escobar-Pemberthy
Natalia is currently Assistant Professor of International Relations and Global Governance in the Department of International Business at Universidad EAFIT. She is an alum of the PhD Candidate in Global Governance and Human Security at UMass Boston. My research focuses on the role of global environmental conventions in protecting the environment and the implementation of environmental and sustainable development goals..
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Candace Famiglietti
Candace Famiglietti is a PhD candidate in the Global Governance and Human Security Program at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies and NSF IGERT Coasts and Communities Fellow. Her dissertation research focuses on global environmental governance regarding biodiversity conservation.
Research Interns


Eike Schmedt
Eike Schmedt is currently a PhD student in the Global Governance and Human Security program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His dissertation research focuses on the comparative assessment of World Heritage Sites and the significance of governance structures to ensure their adequate protection for future generations.

Judit
Senarriaga
Judit Senarriaga is a Ph.D student in the Global Governance and Human Security PhD program at UMass Boston. She has worked as a Parliamentary Advisor for the Parliament of Catalonia and the Spanish Congress and Senate. Her research interests include subnational climate change governance, decision-making process and comparative public policy.

Rebecca Yemo
Rebecca is earning her PhD in Global Governance and Human Security at the University of Massachusetts Boston, McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. Her primary research interests include human rights compliance mechanisms and human security in Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Master of International Studies(MIS) from North Carolina State University and obtained a BA in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of Ghana. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked with Africa Digital Rights’ Hub as the Project Development and Implementation Manager.
Lorelei Goodall
Lorelei Goodall is currently enrolled at Wilbur Cross High School and the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut. She is passionate about climate action, the protection of animals, and social equity. She intends to major in biological sciences in college.