mentors 2023 group 2

Sara Terry

Sara Terry is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work in recent years has focused on class and economic equity. She is a Guggenheim Fellow in Photography, a member of VII Photo and a Sundance Documentary Fellow. Her most feature-length documentary, A Decent Home, explored the wealth gap through the landscape of mobile home parks and aired on PBS in March 2023.  Terry began her career as a print reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, where she also helped start the Monitor's public radio show. She moved from there into freelance magazine writing, with her work appearing in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Boston Globe Magazine and other publications. She was also a frequent guest host for the national public radio, To the Point. She picked up a still camera in the late 1990s at a time when she lost her faith in words and never looked back.

Her early photography work, covering post-conflict Bosnia (“Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace”) led her to create The Aftermath Project, a grant-making photography non-profit based on the idea that “War is only half the story.” The Aftermath Project has been giving grants to photographers working in post-conflict settings around the world since 2007. She led three Aftermath photography workshops for students from the Institute for Global Leadership in Uganda, India,  Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and Houston, Texas.
One of her most recent ongoing projects is 1in6by2030. 

Jonathan Wolff

Jonathan Wolff is a doctoral candidate at Boston College and is the Clinical Research Coordinator for the Ressler Lab and the Dissociative Disorders and Trauma Research Program. He has conducted research on subtypes of PTSD and dissociative disorders, policies and practices of domestic violence shelters, and sexual trauma experiences among racial-minority men. He has worked in community mental health, psychiatric inpatient, and college counseling settings primarily with individuals that have suffered violence. His research aims to center peoples’ voices and experiences, reduce stigma, and improve care. Prior to his clinical research roles, he worked as a Mental Health Specialist (counselor) on the inpatient Dissociative Disorders and Trauma Unit at McLean Hospital where he maintains a per-diem position. The clinical research studies he works on examine the phenomenology, neurobiology, physiology, and genetics of individuals with histories of trauma. Jonathan received his B.S. in Clinical Psychology from Tufts University.

I had the privilege of having Jonathan as a member of the Institute. One of the most thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive and modest students I have had in decades, he worked with Convisero mentor Justine Hardy in her Healing Kashmir program in Srinagar. He was a Synaptic Scholar in 2014 who presented on “Bits: the Statue of Liberty and the Statue of Responsibility."

Christina Goldbaum

A veteran international correspondent, Christina is currently in Jerusalem with the New York Times Bureau covering the West Bank.

From the New York Times announcement of her assuming their Afghanistan/Pakistan bureau chief. position:

“During her first stint in Afghanistan as a new international correspondent for The Times, Christina Goldbaum was in Kabul the day it fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Ever since, she has written some of the most riveting portraits of the historic changes in Afghanistan, and in neighboring Pakistan. Now, we are excited to announce that she will officially take the title of the challenging role she has filled so well over the past year, as

She has ridden along with smugglers, embedded with rebels, traveled with migrants fleeing Afghanistan, trekked into coal mines, traveled to the frequently shelled borderlands with Pakistan and written a rich, firsthand account of the profound changes in the former government “green zone” in Kabul. Over the fall, she wrote unforgettable dispatches from Qatar during the World Cup. In Pakistan, she authoritatively covered that country’s political crisis and wrote wrenching accounts of life from the hardest-hit flood zones there last year, including the evocative piece about how villages had turned into islands overnight, and how families were haunted by the task of trying to bury their dead after cemeteries had flooded.

In addition to her own top-notch correspondent work, she has been a rock-solid advocate for the safety and well-being both of our former Afghan employees and their families through their relocation to the United States, and for our new journalists in Afghanistan who are working under difficult circumstances.

Christina, who grew up in Bethesda, Md., will also lead The Times’s efforts to open a new bureau in Islamabad, Pakistan, in the coming months.

Before joining The Times on the Metro desk in 2018, Christina reported from sub-Saharan Africa for four years as a freelance correspondent. She also lived in Mogadishu, Somalia, for over a year and received the Livingston Award for International Reporting, the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Frontline Club’s Print Journalism Award for her investigative series that found evidence that a U.S. military operation had resulted in the deaths of Somali civilians.

Her interest in that region dates from her first trip to East Africa as a 17-year-old, moving her to start studying Swahili as an undergraduate at Tufts. She returned several times during her college years and moved there to start work as a freelance correspondent right after graduating.

I had the pleasure of benefitting from Christina’s intelligence and insights as my superb student at the Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and Entrepreneurial Leadership studies at Tufts. She worked in East Africa and Latin America on various development and human rights-focused projects ranging from holistic education programs in Tanzania to the protection of indigenous populations' rights in Bolivia. She has served as the co-director of BUILD, the IGL’s student-led, collaborative rural development organization working with resettled combatants in Guatemala and with a community in Tamil, Nadu India, and was my Undergraduate Coordinator for the Empower Program for Social Entrepreneurship in 2012-13. She also conducted research internationally on public health programs in Rwanda and local perspectives on US military involvement in Uganda and was a member of the EPIIC Colloquium on Conflict in the 21st Century. Her interests include social entrepreneurship, non-fiction story-telling, and the intersection of entrepreneurial and political culture. A quintessential Synaptic Scholar, we had the privilege to fund the to explore the unusual and difficult compelling global issues she chose. She was passionate about her work, and always dignified and sensitive in her pursuits. It came as little surprise to me that she pursued journalism, She was a stellar member of the Institute’s Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice (2010-2018) which I created with VII’s Gary Knight to provide students the skills to explain the world around them to the people around them. The program taught students to shape global issues into multimedia stories that are narrative and compelling.

Already as an undergraduate, her demeanor was always professional and dignified her

She is a picture here awarding one of the Institute’s Dr. Jean Mayer Awards to Mary Kawar.

Michael Poulshock

Michael Poulshock is a consultant and lawyer specializing in computational modeling. He was previously a fellow at Stanford CodeX Center for Legal Informatics, an adjunct professor at Drexel Law School, and a human rights lawyer. He also directed humanitarian operations for the American Friends Service Committee in postwar Kosovo. Michael lives in Philadelphia, PA with his wife and children.

Michael’s publications include “An Abstract Model of Historical Processes” from the Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution, “National Power as Network Flow” from Cornell University’s journal Arxiv, and the book Power Structures in International Politics .


Jehane Sedky

Jehane Sedky is a seasoned senior executive and chief of staff known for providing strategic guidance and support to prominent leaders such as former US President Bill Clinton, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and the late Harvard University Professor Dr. Paul Farmer. Her expertise spans a wide spectrum of responsibilities, including strategic program development, implementation, fundraising, media, and communications. Renowned for exceptional project and people management skills, Ms. Sedky excels in unifying teams toward common goals. Notably, she served as President Clinton’s senior advisor and head of office during his tenure as UN Special Envoy for Haiti and, earlier, as his spokesperson and speechwriter for his role as the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. Furthermore, in her capacity as a senior advisor to Dr. Paul Farmer, Ms. Sedky played a pivotal role in steering the strategic direction and executing his vision for both his UN office and the subsequent establishment of the think tank he founded, the Science of Implementation Initiative.

Prior to her work with President Clinton and Dr. Paul Farmer, Ms. Sedky served as senior strategic advisor to UN Assistant Secretary-General for Conflict Prevention and Recovery. In this chief of staff role, Ms. Sedky was instrumental in shaping the strategic direction of a 200-person global operation, managing communications, fundraising efforts, delicate staff relationships, and overall program strategy.

Renowned for her team-building skills, Ms. Sedky has effectively led senior management teams, navigated crises calmly, and fostered an environment focused on achieving strategic goals. Her extensive experience in cultivating and managing partnerships across diverse institutions and continents underscores her proficiency in establishing impactful global networks.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Sedky served a stint at CNN International and later led the UNICEF Global Media Relations team responsible for spearheading the organization’s messaging and crisis management across 150 country offices. Ms. Sedky has authored a book on children and armed conflict and a chapter in Paul Farmer’s book Haiti After the Earthquake. In addition, the cutting-edge research she led at the United Nations and later at the Science of Implementation Initiative has been cited in Paul Farmer’s books and various articles.

Ms. Sedky speaks four languages and is the proud mother of three. In her free time, she leads a youth group that supports the homeless in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Yoni Tsapira

I am a rising senior at Brookline High School. I am on the rowing team, where I am the captain of the varsity crew team and a three-year varsity athlete. I am also the vice president and co-founder of the economics club at Brookline High School. 

My interest in international relations led me to take the Global Leadership class offered at Brookline High School, ultimately leading me to Sherman, where he was a speaker. Since my father is Israeli, my interest in international relations originated from the Israel-Palistinian conflict. In addition, this aligns with my interest in languages, as I am fluent in Hebrew and proficient in Chinese. I feel that international relations and political science relate to everything and everyone and are very interdisciplinary. They affect both peoples day to day lives and the way the world works. Not enough is known about other countries here in America, which is very near-sighted. I also enjoy traveling; I have gone to Israel several times and previously volunteered in Costa Rica over the summer, and I plan on going to many more. 

I look forward to learning more about the Trebuchet and am eager to contribute in any way that I can.

Maria Udalova

I’ve had a diverse upbringing across Cyprus, London, Miami and Orlando, facilitated by my parent’s love for new adventures and change in environment. My parents also instilled in me a passion for the arts and humanities from an early age, taking my brother and I to museums, theatres, exhibitions, and historic sites around the world - a passion that’s still prevalent in my everyday life.  

I’m a rising junior at Brookline High School and at BHS, I’m part of the Mock Trial, Model UN, and Speech and Debate clubs. I’ve found that they’re incredible platforms through which I can engage in exciting discourse, challenge and improve my argumentative skills, and meet many wonderful people. 

Additionally, I participate in my school’s Climate and Food Justice club through which I write for the Greenzine, a forum for news, opinion and creative expression about climate change, outdoor education and the environment. Engaging in this club and contributing to the zine this year has ignited my growing interest for international environmental policy, a field I am enthusiastic about pursuing in the future.

Outside of school I play rugby, work as an artist in a pottery studio, and volunteer at the Brookline food pantry. When I have a few hours to spare, I love to bury my nose in a book, start a new art project or hang out with my friends. 

I met Sherman when he came to my Global Leadership class at school as a guest speaker, after which I sought him out in hopes of working for him over the summer and beyond. I found him to be captivating and delightful to be around, and I can’t wait to see what working on the Trebuchet with them will bring me.

Denise Drower Swidey

Denise Drower Swidey is a television producer, food stylist, cooking instructor and food writer. She earned a James Beard nomination for her latest project, “The Food Flirts with the Brass Sisters,” which airs on PBS in primetime. Denise received an Emmy nomination as culinary producer of PBS's Simply Ming, and worked on the show for a dozen years. She has served as culinary producer for other TV projects, including PBS's Project Smoke with Steven Raichlen, and A Moveable Feast with America’s Favorite Chefs. Denise received her B.A. from Tufts University (majoring in International Relations and Spanish) and an A.O.S. from the Culinary Institute of America. At Tufts, she somehow missed out on the EPIIC experience, but made up for it by working at the ExCollege, and thus with Sherman the year after she graduated.

Denise got her start in TV food styling working for various Food Network shows. She is a contributing writer for The Boston Globe's food pages and travel section and has served as an on-air chef, industry consultant, and a recipe-tester for The New York Times Magazine and other publications. She and her husband have three daughters (who now wish they’d taken her up on her offer of cooking lessons). She is currently teaching a popular course on food media at Tufts University.