Ashley Emery is a second-year MPA-PNP student at NYU Wagner, focusing on public policy and advocacy. She is currently the Senior Policy and Advocacy Fellow at Jewish Women International, where she focuses on reproductive freedom and contraceptive equity policy. She has cultivated her expertise in reproductive health, rights, and justice advocacy and electoral politics through work at the New York State Democratic Party, Vote Run Lead, the International Women’s Health Coalition, and NARAL Pro-Choice America. She holds a BA in International Studies and Spanish from Johns Hopkins University.

Rhea Almeida is second-year MPA international student at NYU Wagner hailing from Mumbai, India. In the past, she has worked in the fields of policy, advocacy, and development for a women’s working rights group in India. Prior to that, she worked as a TV news journalist in New Delhi. Her areas of interest include workers’ rights, gender equality, grassroot level advocacy and coronavirus response policy. In addition to being contributing editor for The Wagner Review, she serves as senator for the Wagner Student Association, and events chair for the Wagner Policy Alliance. She is also the co-founder of the ‘What’s up with Coronavirus Policy’ discussion group.

Luisa Portugal is a second-year MPA student at NYU Wagner specializing in International Development Management & Policy. She earned an LLM in Constitutional Law and Theory in Brazil. Her main topics of interest are international development, climate change and the coronavirus crisis. Luisa will serve as Co-Chair of Events for the Alliance for Climate Change and Environment (ACE) in the upcoming year. She is also the co-founder of the ‘What’s up with Coronavirus Policy’ discussion group.

If you’d like to take part in meaningful policy discussions with us, click here to submit your ideas!