The Fourth Freedom Forum awarded the inaugural Howard S. Brembeck Fellowship to Anna Romandash from Ukraine, a member of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs’ Master of Global Affairs (MGA) program’s Class of 2022.

Anna Romandash is a multi-award-winning journalist and researcher from Ukraine. She has extensive experience working across Eastern Europe and Central Asia where she researched democratization processes, freedom movements, and human rights violations. Romandash has written substantially on Belarus and Russia’s dictatorships and on Ukraine’s relations with the EU and the U.S. Her areas of interest include international security, sanctions, and transitional justice. Romandash is a professional advisor at United Europe where she writes on Europe’s defense and response to human rights violations and crises.

As the Brembeck Fellow, Romandash worked directly with Professor David Cortright at the University of Notre Dame to promote the work of the New Paradigm Project, which took the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War to consider more humane and effective approaches to security and development, and to advance a new paradigm for a more peaceful and inclusive U.S. foreign policy. To this end, Romandash provided research support for the writing and dissemination of publications, as well as program support to organize public events on issues related to the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War and the potential for a redesigned approach to U.S. foreign policy.

The Fourth Freedom Forum awarded the 2024 Howard S. Brembeck Fellowship to Amina Ahmed from Afghanistan, a graduate of Smith College with a double major in Government and Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies.

Ahmed’s fellowship took place with the Charity & Security Network, a partner organization of the Fourth Freedom Forum that works to promote and protect the ability of nonprofits to carry out effective programs that support peace and human rights, aid civilians in areas of disaster and armed conflict, and build democratic governance.

Ahmed’s upbringing in war-torn Afghanistan and her background as an Afghan refugee as well as her experience working as a U.S. State Department Fellow in the United States and Central Asia, and providing volunteer interpretation services with Catholic Charities for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Afghan refugee camps, affords her a firsthand perspective on the delicate balance between counterterrorism measures and the imperative for peace and humanitarian development. Fluent in six languages including Pashto, Persian-Dari, Russian, English, Hindi, and Urdu, Ahmed’s journey reflects a commitment to bridging cultural gaps and advocating for marginalized communities.

As the Brembeck Fellow, Ahmed worked at the Charity & Security Network to support its work in cooperation with a range of external partner organizations, universities, and coalitions.