Elias Allen, Executive Director
Elias was Executive Director of GDL from 2021-2022. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD in philosophy
yashwini sodhani, director of project incubator
Yashwini is a fourth-year Business Economics major and a Statistics minor. As an international student from India, her passion for development stemmed from her experiences working on a Village Development Project in high school. Her internship with Svakarma Finance, an impact-focused NBFC in Mumbai, helped her develop an understanding of microcredit and financial literacy as a vehicle for small business growth and inclusive development, which was also the focus of her project in the 2019 GDL Incubator. Eventually, she aims to develop robust environmental, social, and governance frameworks to be used in conjunction with quantitative risk analytics to coordinate impactful value investing in developing countries.
Grace young, Director of Finance
Grace is a fourth-year International Development Studies major with minors in Statistics, Spanish, and Latin American Studies. She became interested in international development after getting to know a community in the Peruvian Amazon on a high school trip. Her interdisciplinary coursework, experience in the Global Development Lab, and internship with Democracy International have all helped her gain an understanding of what it means to work in development, and the responsibility that comes with it. After graduating, she wants to see more of the world, and pursue a career that integrates her numerical and language skills with her passion for reducing global inequality.
Navya Nagubadi
Navya is a fourth-year International Development Studies major with minors in Gender Studies and Arabic & Islamic Studies. She has always had a passion for social justice, especially in the areas of human rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. She became interested in international development after seeing the mass inequalities in healthcare and education and high mortality rates experienced by mothers and girls in rural India. Through her research and interdisciplinary coursework, internships with NGOs like the The Hope Exchange and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and personal experiences and connections with marginalized communities, she has gained a greater understanding of the intersections of identity, development, and inequity. After graduating, she aspires to attend law school and pursue a career in International Human Rights and Criminal Law.
vIBHA gURUNATHAN, Director of Recruitment and Media Relations
Vibha is a third year Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics major with a minor in Global Health. She is passionate about global health and the intersections of medicine and policy. Outside of GDL, she is heavily involved a radiation oncology research lab. After graduating, she hopes to attend medical school.