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A Conversation with Anisa Khadem Nwachuku, 2011 PhD in Sustainable Development
Anisa Khadem Nwachuku graduated in 2011 with a PhD in Sustainable Development. She was also an NSF-IGERT fellow in International Development and Globalization. After SIPA, Nwachuku is planning to join the Social Sector Office of McKinsey & Company, where she hopes to apply what she has learned by servicing others and contributing to the study of sustainability issues.
Nwachuku holds a BA in International Development Policy from Northwestern University and has conducted policy research for the World Health Organization, Results for Development, UNICEF, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Carter Center, the US State Department, and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University.
Why did you choose the PhD program at SIPA?
I wanted to get a dedicated graduate degree in the field of development. Although development programs have been around in other countries for decades, they are quite new to American academia. Because of this, I needed a program whose curriculum demonstrated rigor and intellectual heft, based at a school with excellent faculty and a stellar reputation. While the PhD in Sustainable Development was an unknown quantity when I started, SIPA certainly was not. This allowed me to study specifically what I was interested in without compromising reputation.
What has been the most enriching part of it?
The diversity of intellectual and experiential backgrounds of my classmates has been the source of my most valuable learning in this program. I have colleagues from all over the world who are dedicated to a wide range of sustainable development challenges. Sharing in their knowledge and understanding directly informs not only how I approach solutions in my own research, but also how I define the problems in the first place.
What do you hope to accomplish in the years to come?
My long-term professional aspiration is to apply what I have learned in service to others and participate in the wider discourse on sustainable development along the way. During the PhD program, I have acquired a deeper understanding of the most pressing sustainable development issues, our accumulated understanding of potential solutions, and an appreciation for the range of expertise we have to integrate in order to ensure our future well-being and prosperity. This has been the ideal preparation to go on to work at McKinsey & Company, ultimately as an affiliate of the Social Sector Office, which I joined in January 2011.
You were instrumental in the launch of SIPA’s Master in Development Practice (MDP). What was that like?
It was inspiring to witness the process of the creation of the MDP. By my second year in the PhD program, a training gap had been identified in the knowledge and skills necessary to groom effective development practitioners. We worked to assemble sufficient evidence of this need, as well as an inventory of existing academic capital and resources that could be brought to bear on addressing it. By the beginning of my fifth year, I was a teaching fellow to the first matriculated MDP class. It was a glowing example of how academia should operate and how an institution can contribute to sustainable development – a societal need had been identified, academic parties recognized their potential to contribute to a solution, and the necessary resources and will were mobilized to realize it.
Alex Burnett, updated June 6, 2011