Jessica Cook
IDSC/B.A. '00 / CDP/M.A. '02

1. Please describe your present professional position? Please include the URL of your organization.

I am a Senior Manager with Aid to Artisans, responsible for program development and implementation in SubSaharan Africa. While I am currently working remotely from home, and linking with ATA's office in Hartford, CT, I gained field experience as a Country Director for two years in Macedonia, and home office experience as a Project Officer right after graduating from Clark.

2. What do you find satisfying about your position?

I have been able to play a range of roles within the institution, each of which informs the next. My field experience has proven invaluable, and continues to be a source of inspiration, as I return to a program management position based in the States and try to bring a realistic approach to planning and project activities.

3. How did the CDP program at Clark University help to prepare you?

By providing interested mentors with real experience and commitment to their community-based work, and providing a unique and varied perspective on "Development" overall.

4. Why should prospective students enroll in the CDP program at Clark University?

The size of the program, while larger now than during my enrollment, allows for direct and personal interaction with professors and their field work.

5. Did you have an internship as part of your Clark education? If so, how did it help to connect you to your current career?

I interned with Senator Patrick Leahy's office in Montpelier, VT, the Pematang Pasir coastal resource management USAID-funded project in Indonesia, Aid to Artisans' baseline study of craft groups in Zimbabwe, and a Fulbright Fellowship in Madagascar. These experiences allowed me to become familiar with the players in international development, and question and consider a range of approaches. They also allowed me real experiences upon which to base my thesis work.

6. What was the topic of your research while at Clark University?

The role of crafts in community and economic development, and the politics of women in the silk-weaving value chain in Madagascar.