Gomillion headshot

Leland Fellow

Breanna Gomillion

11th Class, 2021-2023

Breanna Gomillion holds a Master of Public Policy from Michigan State University. Her master’s capstone applied a systems approach to expand and integrate workforce development programs with social service systems to address the variety of causes and consequences of chronic disengagement from school and work like access to safe and stable housing, food and nutrition, and health services. Before attending graduate school, Breanna worked at buildOn, a service-based nonprofit, supporting the Global School Construction Program where she worked in partnership with program staff and local residents in Senegal, Haiti, Guatemala, and Malawi to build schools, enroll out of school children, and educate adult learners. Breanna is passionate about reforming infrastructures and institutions and using public policy as a tool to eliminate systems of structural inequality on a global scale.

Host Organization: InterAction

First Year Placement
Washington, D.C.

Breanna supports InterAction’s food security and climate workstreams. She coordinates InterAction’s Food Security, Nutrition, and Agriculture monthly working group meetings, which seek to support and strengthen U.S. NGOs active in implementing field programs in international agricultural development and global food security. Breanna ensures that InterAction’s food security and climate communities are well informed, develops materials for congressional advocacy and education on Feed the Future programs, and finds opportunities for collective action on food security and climate policies.

Second Year Placement

Breanna’s work on InterAction’s Protection of Civilians team focuses on conflict-induced hunger and how to inform advocacy with UN Member States and the U.S. government through various projects and workstreams. For example, through the Practical Measures Project, Breanna will support consultations in priority countries where conflict-induced hunger is acute to verify the assumptions of the draft practical measures with affected communities. In tandem, Breanna is researching how actions by the U.S. and its security partners harm food security and livelihoods in conflict contexts. This work also connects to a new workstream Breanna helps lead called the “Big Think,” which engages the humanitarian and development NGO community in developing a collective advocacy approach for better USG preparation, prevention, response, and mitigation of cyclical and increasing food security shocks.