Lauren Valdez

Lauren was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Brazil in 2011, where she researched the health conditions in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Her experience in Brazil led her to pursue a dual Masters in City Planning and Public Health from UC Berkeley, where Lauren taught for 3 years on the ethics and methods of international development.

Since then, Lauren has been awarded over $3.5 million in grants, fellowships, or other awards and developed or managed numerous nonprofit programs. Currently Lauren manages a national nonprofit program awarding $20 million in grant funding.

Adriana Valencia

Adriana’s first Fulbright was a Fulbright-IIE to Egypt in 1997-98, where she studied Arabic language and literature. She later had a Fulbright-Hays to Spain, Morocco, and France for her dissertation research. She has a PhD in architecture from UC Berkeley. She also has a Masters from UC Berkeley and a BA from Emory University, both in Near Eastern Studies.

Other fellowships she’s won have been a Jacob K. Javits, Andrew W. Mellon, SSRC IDRF (Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship), and CAORC (Council of American Overseas Research Centers) multi-country research fellowships.

She speaks eight languages (not all of them well), likes bicycle riding, traveling, and especially traveling by bicycle. Whenever the weather’s hot enough, she makes gazpacho.