What do International Affairs alumni do with their degrees following their graduation from Lewis & Clark? The biographies below give a few examples of the many and varied careers that our graduates go on to pursue.

Ahmad Mohibbi- After graduating from Lewis & Clark, Ahmad worked for the U.S. Congress to conduct research and analyze U.S. foreign policy issues related to Middle Eastern regions.  He then worked at a Washington, D.C. think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he conducted extensive research on U.S. foreign policy issues. Recently, Ahmad returned from Afghanistan where he worked for the U.S. Department of Defense for a year. Ahmad resigned from his position in 2013 with a Rotary Foundation Peace Fellowship that enabled him to pursue graduate studies.  He currently is getting his Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. Ahmad has been accepted for a highly competitive internship position at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Kallie Kurtz is the Teen Services Coordinator for the City of Portland. She previously was the After-School Program Coordinator with Hacienda Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit based in Portland that works with at-risk low-income African and Hispanic refugee and immigrant youth in NE Portland. Following graduation Kallie continued interning with the Mercy Corps youth development team and developed their Digital Games for Change program. She was offered the position of Si Se Puede Youth Program coordinator with Multnomah County and started working on youth development with diverse at-risk youth populations in Portland. This eventually led her to become a facilitator for the Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE), Center for Disease Control program that piloted in Portland.

Jade Marsha Lansing- After leaving LC, Jade joined the grad program in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Cairo, where she wrote her thesis on socializations of citizenship in the Lebanese education system. She graduated in June and is now working as a research consultant at the UN headquarters in Beirut.

Rye Druzin- Since Rye graduated in May 2013, he has worked for a weekly newspaper in Palo Alto, an international wire news service in Jerusalem, Israel, and a tech startup in Silicon Valley. He currently works as the business reporter for the Midland Reporter-Telegram in West Texas covering new businesses, the interaction of government with business, and the growing community. 

Tawab Malekzad graduated in May 2013 with a BA in International Affairs. Since then he has been working as a freelance journalist in Washington, DC and as a consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Recently, Malekzad visited his home country of Afghanistan where he conducted interviews with Afghans. He is currently in the process of making a series of short documentaries.

Elizabeth Songivlay- Days after graduation, Elizabeth began working as a Staff Assistant in Senator Daniel Akaka’s Washington, D.C. office, where she had interned the previous summer.  She continued on to work for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a new independent, federal agency created by the Dodd-Frank Act.  Since the CFPB opened its doors three years ago, it has been fulfilling its mandate to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for all consumers. She served as Congressional Liaison in the Office of Legislative Affairs where she collaborates with both House and Senate officials.

Margaret Williams- Margaret currently works as a Legislative Aide for Senator Angus S. King, Jr. of Maine covering Defense and Foreign Policy. Her primary responsibilities are tracking legislation, meeting with industry stakeholders and keeping up with constituent correspondence. Prior to joining the defense team, she served as the Deputy Press Secretary where she was responsible for overseeing the office’s digital media operations. Margaret is also a former J. William Fulbright fellow. After graduating from Lewis & Clark College, she spent a year living in Khabarovsk, Russia where she taught English and researched the use of digital technologies in higher education.