4th Class, 2007-2009
Field Placement: Mercy Corps, Ulaambaatar, Mongolia
Meaghan Murphy spent her field year with Mercy Corps Mongolia (MCM), which supports rural communities in mobilizing resources to meet their economic and social needs. MCM’s emphasis is on supporting the creation of income generation and value added opportunities for the rural herder, non-herder, and urban populations through integrated local economic development. Meaghan developed a case study of the Gobi Initiative, a ten year economic development initiative and coordinated an assessment of the Seabuckthorn berries’ value chain to identify production and market potential to inform initial pilot activities as well as future phases of a project in the western region of Mongolia.
Policy Placement: Mercy Corps, Washington, DC
In her policy placement, Meaghan worked within the Food Security Technical unit, providing technical support to various Mercy Corps programs that address issues of food access, availability and utilization. Meaghan assisted Mercy Corps in developing strategic hunger policy positions for the agency as the organization responded to growing programming demands. She was also involved in the roll out of Mercy Corps’ Action Center to End World Hunger in New York City.
Pre-Fellowship Education/Experience:
Meaghan completed her Master’s degree at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. While at Tufts, she concentrated on international food policy and further developed skills in applied research, program monitoring and evaluation, and supply chain analysis. She also collaborated on a midterm evaluation of John Snow, Inc.’s child survival program in Ethiopia and co-authored a case study for the World Bank that explored multi-sectoral nutrition planning in Malawi. Prior to her graduate studies, Meaghan was involved in community and agricultural development at the Center for Rural Studies in Vermont as a farmers’ market manager and research assistant in a multi-year farmers’ market technical assistance project. During the same period, she also worked through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program of Partners of the Americas, helping organize a direct sales coffee project between Honduras and Vermont. Meaghan grew up in Brunswick, Maine.