Marina Yakhnis

Age: 25

Home Town: Odessa, Ukraine

Education: Drake University, BA International Relations, Minor: Biology

Specific Field Interests: Monitoring and Evaluation, Minority/Indigenous Rights, Gender and Development

Placement: AIF Digital Equalizer Program

Area of Focus: Education

Highlights: As an undergraduate, Marina conducted fieldwork in Ukraine on Roma health and later wrote an Honors Thesis on the basis of that material. Her interest in public health and minority issues led her to intern with the US Department of Health and Human Services and several human rights groups. After completing a year of AmeriCorps service in the research and evaluation department of an NGO that helps incarcerated individuals, Marina traveled to Ukraine on a 10-month Fulbright research grant. During her time in Ukraine, she researched an indigenous group known as the Crimean Tatars and became active in youth group that promotes ethnic tolerance in Crimea. Marina speaks Russian and Turkish and is a strong proponent of the use of evaluation in international development programs.