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Leanne Baumung

Leanne Baumung graduated from SIS in 2012. During the last year of her MAIS, Leanne worked in a co-op position that was later extended into ongoing employment as a Gender Equality Policy Analyst with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA, now Global Affairs Canada) in Ottawa. In 2013, she went on to work for the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia as a Gender Advisor and later as an independent consultant with the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Ethiopia. Leanne has also worked on issues of women’s political and economic empowerment in Burma (Myanmar) with non-governmental organizations such as Educational Initiatives, Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR) and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). She was lead researcher on a report entitled “Violence Against Women Prevention and Response Services and Access in Myanmar”, which has been published in both English and Burmese.

“I am grateful for the knowledge and skills base I developed as a student in the SIS program,” says Leanne. “In particular, my courses in Political Economy and my Independent Studies in Gender helped to shape my career path, giving me the critical perspective required to analyze persistent inequalities and injustices in development practice and to devise strategies to address them. Above all, the best part about my time in SIS was the bonds I formed with my brilliant and diverse classmates, many of whom remain close friends.”

Leanne currently lives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she works as a Gender Equality Advisor for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and has adopted two adorable Haitian street dogs.