Working for national and international policy changes

Katherine “Kate” Edelen ’06 has been working with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) since October 2013, first as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow, working on foreign and domestic policy in the areas of climate resilience and adaptation with a focus on water and food security.

Beginning in July 2014, Kate became a legislative associate on climate and conflict with FCNL. She works to integrate issues of climate-affected resources and related conflicts into U.S. foreign policy. Her work is at the interface of natural resource governance, economic development, and environmental diplomacy and peacebuilding.

In March 2014, Kate and FCNL colleages Kate Gould and Maiya Zwerling lobbied Senator Tammy Baldwin on Iran diplomacy and water security. Then, in July 2014, Kate co-authored a commentary with Michael Shank, PhD, for U.S. New and World Report entitled “Cleaning Up Big Oil in Nigeria” that appeared on the World Report blog site. She has also published letters to the editor in The New York Times in August and October.

Prior to FCNL, Kate was a Fulbright research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at Oxford University, where she earned her master’s degree. Her undergraduate degrees were in biology (BSc), chemistry (BA), and environmental studies (BA) from Augsburg College.

Congratulations to Kate as she continues to work for sharing truth, advocating justice, demonstrating compassion, building partnership, and increasing a sense of world community!