HFHI-USAID/BHA Humanitarian Shelter & Settlements fellow Emily Nabong of the HS&S 2023 cohort interviews 2022 cohort fellow Melina Holder.

Emily Nabong, our facilitator, is one of three fellows from our current HS&S 2023 fellowship cohort. Emily is a PhD candidate in the Mobility Dynamics in Climate Change Affected Communities program at the University of Sydney. Her research is focused on modeling how climate change affects decision-making on migration patterns with research specific to Kiribati, which is currently affected by sea-level rise and is one of the first islands that may disappear in the coming years.

Melina Holder, HS&S 2022 cohort fellow, has a master’s degree in development practice from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in city and regional planning and sustainable environments from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Melina’s graduate school research focused on housing, land and property rights in humanitarian assistance. Melina assessed the Venezuelan refugee crisis in Latin America in partnership with the International Organization for Migration, or IOM. She traveled to Peru where many Venezuelans have settled or were in transit to other countries and assessed their tenure security needs and how humanitarian assistance can better respond to them.