Hello GC community!

My name is Emily Falk and I am extremely excited to be joining the GC team as the New York Program Associate.

Although I was born in Bangor, Maine, I spent a large portion of my childhood and teenage years in Uganda, Kenya, and Eritrea. More recently, I have spent the past year in New York City, working at an immigration law firm in Manhattan. Prior to New York, I was in Massachusetts at Harvard University, where I studied Sociology and Government, while focusing on the levels of civic engagement in migrant communities and the impact of education on immigrant political integration. I also spent extensive time outside of the classroom gaining first-hand experience directing and working in community mentoring and education programs.

My interest in civic engagement dates back to my time spent in Eritrea where I witnessed a growing number of obstacles to civic and political participation for Eritrean citizens and saw a shift away from a democratic and representative government. This sparked a more general interest in how barriers to civic participation can be removed, and I was able to further explore this topic in an academic setting at Harvard as well as professionally through my work at the U.S. Department of State, an education nonprofit in the Dominican Republic, and in my most recent position at a law firm. My academic and professional experiences have all strengthened my commitment to the principles of civic engagement, participatory democracy, and my strong belief in the power of education and youth empowerment.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with GC’s program in New York and I am looking forward to playing a role in equipping students with the critical knowledge and skills necessary to become informed and engaged citizens.