Mahlet Yifru
E-mail: MY2280@columbia.edu
Phone: 212-342-5215

Mahlet Yifru joined the Program on Forced Migration and Health in August 2008 as the Program Officer for Development and is now Senior Program Officer responsible for the overall management and development of the program. She has previously worked in the Research and Evaluation Unit at the Wallace Foundation. She has also coordinated outreach to speakers of French for Action Without Borders, and served in various other positions in nonprofit and for-profit organizations (including the United Nations and Citibank). She holds a Master of Public Administration in Nonprofit Management and Policy from New York University, where she worked as a strategic planning consultant for the Third Millennium Foundation.

Sara Lizzo
E-mail: sel2139@columbia.edu
Phone: 212-304-5158

Sara Lizzo is the Grants Coordinator for the Program on Forced Migration and Health. She is responsible for managing budgets, reporting to donors and working with faculty to secure new funding opportunities. Prior to joining Columbia's medical campus, Sara worked for three years as the Academic Coordinator for the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology on Columbia's Morningside campus. While at Morningside, she completed a year-long research project on adolescent boy’s health in the Caribbean, the recommendations of which were implemented by the United Nations. Sara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Sacred Heart University and is currently a part-time student at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. 

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Robin Mangini
E-mail: RFM2117@columbia.edu

Robin Mangini coordinates the Academic Program for the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, advising Forced Migration and Health track students on degree requirements, and assisting them in planning course selections.  She serves as the liaison among students, faculty and other MSPH Offices, including Student Affairs, Career Services, and Financial Aid. After earning her BA from Sonoma State University in Gender Studies, she worked for two years in sexual and reproductive health clinics in California as a health educator and clinic triage coordinator. From there, she attended the Mailman School of Public Health and received her MPH from the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health in Sexuality and Health, focusing her studies on comprehensive sex education for adolescents. She has been working in the department since January 2011.

Alina Potts
E-mail: AP2707@columbia.edu

Alina Potts is Senior Staff Associate, working for Professor Les Roberts on the Macro-Monitoring of Grave Violations against Children in Armed Conflict, a joint project between Columbia University, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She previously managed a gender-based violence program in Darfur, Sudan, for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and co-managed an IRC program for Liberian refugees in Oakland, California. Alina has also worked with various human rights and development organizations, including UNFPA-Niger, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. She holds an MPH from Columbia University, and a BA in Anthropology and International Development from Boston University.  Her work interests include gender-based violence programming, accountability in the humanitarian field, the intersection between environmental pressures and complex emergencies, and the responsible use of local resources.