The Student Advisory Board (SAB) at the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI hosts Global Ideas, Local Impact every spring. The event includes a Research Slam, where students present their human rights research, and a panel of alumni working in human rights-related fields.
The SAB works to promote human rights debate and dialogue on campus through events that engage and inform the university about human rights both at home and abroad.
Anna Muthalaly
Anna Muthalaly is a writer and activist who was previously a Planned Parenthood South Atlantic Fellow and the President of Duke's Planned Parenthood branch. She is the creator, author, and owner of a contraceptive information and advice website for low-resource women in the South, "An Emergency Birth Control Guide to the Rapidly Crumbling South." She earned her B.A. in Public Policy and Global Health at Duke.
Jesse Huddleston
Jesse Huddleston (he/she/they/we) comes from a family of artists, educators, and public servants, all from North Carolina, where he has lived since 2006. As a Black genderqueer artist and practitioner living in the US South and inspired by our ancestors Pauli Murray and James Baldwin, Jesse continues to develop their humanity and their deep passions for people, equity, and the arts through expansive, creative vocations focused on connecting people and engaging in community. Currently, Jesse works as Senior Program Coordinator of the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership at Duke Community Affairs, as Director of Music Ministry at CityWell United Methodist Church, as Chair of the Pride: Durham, NC Planning Committee at the LGBTQ Center of Durham, and as Board Chair of the Pauli Murray Center for History & Social Justice. They hold a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Duke University as well as a Master's degree in Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Jennifer Nagda
Jennifer Nagda is the Chief Programs Officer for the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. For more than a decade, her work at the Young Center has focused on protecting the rights of immigrant children in government custody—in particular, their right to have their best interests considered in every decision. In 2015, Jennifer was appointed by then-DHS Secretary Johnson to the ICE Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers. From 2012-2015, she staffed the federal Interagency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children, which published its Framework for Considering the Best Interests of Unaccompanied Children in 2016. Jennifer is a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic and previously taught at the University of Chicago Law School. Before joining the Young Center, Jennifer was an attorney at the Midwest Regional Office of MALDEF, where she litigated immigration, education and employment discrimination cases. She clerked for the Honorable James B. Zagel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to law school, Jennifer was the Associate Director of what is now the CityBridge Foundation in Washington DC. Jennifer received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and her undergraduate degree from Duke University.
Michael Vasquez
Michael Vazquez is the Founding Partner of The Maiden Group, a social impact agency & research and consulting firm facilitating partnerships that serve as a vanguard against autocracy and in pursuit of an inclusive democracy. A public theologian and organizing, communications and policy strategist, Michael also currently serves as an Advisor at Public Private Strategies. Michael formerly served as the Religion & Faith Director at the Human Rights Campaign, Senior Communications Strategist at the USAID Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Founder of Brave Commons. With his roots in community organizing, Michael has served across civil society on a diverse policy agenda in pursuit of creating a more just and equitable society. Throughout all his work, Michael has supported secular civil society, faith-based organizations, and political and philanthropic leaders in understanding the growing threat of Christian Nationalism and other autocratic movements both in the U.S. and abroad, and helped craft strategies to combat extremism and defend democracy. d In 2021, Michael was named by the Center for American Progress as a “Faith Leader to Watch". Michael holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Duke University's Divinity School, and his work has appeared in National Catholic Reporter, Georgetown University's Berkley Forum for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and USAToday.
2023 Global Ideas, Local Impact