Brian Hanson
Director of Programs, Operations, & Research,
Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies
 
Brian Hanson is the Director Programs, Operations, and Research at the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern where he also supports, advises, and supervises the Center for Global Engagement. Hanson, a lecturer in political science, is also the faculty advisor to nine co-curricular student groups focused on world affairs. Hanson is active in international philanthropy: he serves as Director and Vice Chair for programming at the Stanley Foundation; sits on the board of the Chicago Global Donors Network; advises the Holtues Trust; and is director of the TNH Foundation. Hanson also serves as board Chair for GlobeMed, a national organization building a new generation of global health leaders through undergraduate involvement. Previously, Hanson was a foreign policy advisor to US Senator Alan Dixon, a government affairs representative for John Deere & Company, and a research analyst for the US Information Agency. The Hanson family has a friendly, cute dog named Quinn who likes to hang out at the CGE office.

Nicole Patel
Assistant Director,
Center for Global Engagement
nicole-patel@northwestern.edu
847.467.0844
 
Nicole Patel is the Assistant Director of the Center for Global Engagement, where she’s worked since June 2009 . Prior to joining CGE, she spent three years in India where she worked for the UNDP and Government of India on a rural tourism project in Bhuj, Gujarat, and then worked as a Program Officer at the American India Foundation in New Delhi, where she managed Rickshaw Sangh, a microcredit initiative enabling cycle rickshaw pullers to avail asset finance while forging a group identity through collectivization and credit plus programs. Nicole spent a year studying abroad in Chile; conducted field research on participatory development in South Africa; and taught English in Peru. Nicole is a recipient of the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India and sits on that fellowship’s alumni advisory council. She is a junior board member of MarketPlace: Handwork of India, a local fair trade organization. She is also a New Leaders Council Fellow. Nicole graduated from Northwestern where she studied political science and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and holds a certificate in Nonprofit Organizations and Philanthropy from Northwestern. She speaks Gujarati, Hindi, Spanish, and beginner French.

Meghan (Beltmann) Ozaroski
Program Manager
Center for Global Engagement
m-ozaroski@northwestern.edu
847.491.5932
 
Meghan Ozaroski joined as CGE program manager in July 2011, and previously spent three years working at the Buffett Center, where she managed faculty and fellows programming, events, and communications and outreach across the university. Meghan also created and now administers the Northwestern University Global Opportunities (NUGO) website, which maps out all of the global opportunities provided by Northwestern for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. She also founded and chairs AHEAD@NU: the Association for Higher Education Administrators’ Development, a professional development group for employees of the University. Before coming to Northwestern, Meghan worked at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM), coordinating study abroad programs in Tanzania, Botswana, India, Japan, and Chicago. Meghan has a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration and Policy from Northwestern, and as an undergraduate at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she majored in Psychology and Music.

Karina Walker
Program Coordinator
Center for Global Engagement
k-walker@northwestern.edu
847-467-2689
 
Karina Walker joined the CGE team as program coordinator in June 2011. Prior, she worked in scholarship management with Chicago Public Schools, after finishing her yearlong Northwestern Public Interest Program fellowship at Cabrini Connections, a mentoring program for 7th-12th grade students. Karina studied abroad in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2008 and volunteered with an organization teaching performing arts to youth living and working on the streets. A year later, she returned to Cochabamba with a research grant to conduct ethnographic research exploring the dynamic relationships between street youth and their service providers. She helped found an organization called “Kids Books Bolivia” which publishes multilingual children’s books celebrating Bolivian culture and raising awareness about the country’s pressing social issues. Karina graduated from Northwestern University in June 2010 with a bachelor’s in Cultural Anthropology and International Studies with a Latin America concentration.