Stokes headshot

Leland Fellow

Harley Stokes

8th Class, 2015-2017

Policy Placement: Catholic Relief Services; Baltimore, MD

As Food Security Policy Analyst at CRS headquarters, Harley worked with the Agriculture and Livelihoods team on policy issues related to nutrition, agriculture and climate change. This has taken her from USDA demonstration plots in Maryland to Nairobi to support the CRS sponsored Integrated Nutrition Conference. Other responsibilities included writing policy one-pagers used for advocacy on Capitol Hill, researching nutrition linkages to climate change and to conflict as it relates to development programming; and facilitating participation in high level events/fora on climate change.

Field Placement: Catholic Relief Services; Baucau, Timor-Leste

With Catholic Relief Services Timor-Leste, Harley served as the Nutrition Team Lead and MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning) Support Officer for a nutrition and agriculture project targeting children under two and pregnant and lactating women to prevent malnutrition. For the nutrition component of the project, Harley worked on adapting Care Group lessons for essential nutrition and hygiene actions, reviewing national nutrition guidelines and training national staff to write lessons and conduct trainings of partner organizations in turn. MEAL responsibilities included partner capacity building, online database management, updating data collection tools and providing monitoring and evaluation training for staff and partners. Harley was also the point person for project accountability ensuring that there are mechanisms in place for community feedback.

Education and Experience:

Harley specializes in Global Health Nutrition and Food Security. She received her MA in International Affairs and MPH in Global Health from The George Washington University. Harley has worked with USAID/Food for Peace and Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition on the Food Aid Quality Review researching uses of Title II data by different stakeholders. As a Global Health fellow in Cambodia, she worked with World Vision and the World Health Organization to pilot participation in the Global Database on the Implementation of Nutrition Actions (GINA). Most recently, Harley worked at International Medical Corps on projects to establish Care Groups in emergency settings and on a Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) database. Her interest in early childhood stunting also led to research and data analysis on the determinants of stunting in Cambodian children under two. Harley will work with the CRS team in Timor-Leste on issues of child stunting and malnutrition.