Bios: IPJ Staff

Elena McCollim, M.A., is a Program Officer at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego, managing the IPJ Internship Program; the IPJ Speaker Series, Film Series, and Daylight Series; and the Institute’s volunteer program.

Regions and countries of interest: Guatemala, Mexico.

Topics of interest: Foreign Aid/Financing for Development, International Financial Institutions/World Bank/International Monetary Fund, Civil society advocacy to counteract climate change, Millennium Development Goals, Catholic Social Thought.

Prior to her current position, McCollim worked for eight years in Washington, DC with a variety of nongovernmental organizations engaged in policy advocacy on international development issues. She worked most recently as a program manager at InterAction (American Council for Voluntary International Action), a consortium including as member organizations Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Save the Children; the position entailed dialogue and advocacy vis-à-vis the World Bank (and IMF) to make their policies and practices more transparent, participatory, and accountable.  Previously, McCollim was a policy analyst for Bread for the World Institute. During three years she lived in Mexico and traveled throughout Central America, teaching in a study abroad program for U.S. undergraduates through Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. McCollim has an M.A. in International Relations, with concentrations in International Economics and Social Change & Development, cum laude, from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University; and a B.A. in development studies from the University of California, Berkeley. McCollim has experience in facilitation, research, writing, and editing. Born in Mexico, she is bilingual in Spanish and English, and has lived in South America and traveled in southern Africa. Publications authored or co-edited include: “The Changing Politics of Hunger” (Bread for the World Institute, 1998); “A Program to End Hunger” (Bread for the World Institute, 1999); “Bolivia in the Struggle Against Poverty,” (Bread for the World Institute 2000); “What Good Can Debt Relief and PRSP Do? The Case of Zambia,” (Bread for the World Institute 2001); “Seeing Eye to Eye” (InterAction, 2003).

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