Our graduates
The Centre for Development Studies has a developing relationship with national and international NGOs, local development firms and government agencies, as well as university departments and research institutes in New Zealand and overseas.
Our alumni are located in different parts of the world, employed in local, national and international organisations in development and other areas, or in academia.
Do Thi Thanh Huyen
Ms. Do Thi Thanh Huyen from Vietnam graduated from the University of Auckland with a Postgraduate Diploma (Distinction) and a Master of Arts in Development Studies (First Class Honours) after two years of study (February 2006-February 2008).
Her master's research project provides insights into why global incentives in water governance tend to fail in a local context like Vietnam. An ADB-Japan scholar, Ms. Huyen was also an awardee of the Asia:NZ Research Scholarship which funded her field research in Vietnam and presentation at the International Conference on Asian Diaspora in Dunedin, New Zealand in November 2007.
Trained to be a translator cum interpreter at the undergraduate level in Vietnam, Ms. Huyen has gradually emerged as a pro-poor development practitioner. She is currently working for the United Nations Development Programme in Vietnam as Local Policy Support Officer for the Governance Policy Advisors Team. Her continued passions are in studying the juncture between well-defined 'governance' and everyday governance practices and in seeking to narrow down the existing gap between development policy and practice in Vietnam and beyond.
Ms. Huyen highly appreciates the hands-on knowledge and skills acquired from the course of her study in the world-class academic and research environment of The University of Auckland. She also very much enjoys the on-going friendship and support from those whom she met in New Zealand.
Iona Proebst
Iona completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Development Studies in 2008. Iona is currently working in a town called Sangklaburi, on the Thai-Burma as a VSO Research and Advocacy adviser with the Mon Women’s Organisation and the Mon Youth Progressive Organization. Iona’s main role is working in organisational development and capacity building.
Iona is also the executive and founding director of The Branch Foundation (TBF), a registered charitable trust that is based in New Zealand. The Branch Foundation is a fundraising body working for grassroots organisations on the Thai-Burma border.
For more information on the organization and the work Iona is passionately committed to on the Thai-Burma border check out The Branch Foundation Website www.thebranchfoundation.org.
Kasia Mills
Kasia Mills graduated with a BA(Hons) first class honours, and an MA in Development Studies (second class honours) in 2008.
Kasia’s Masters thesis looked into the urbanization of Port Vila, Vanuatu, its expanding urban boundaries and lack of housing policy or urban development planning. She provided photo documentation of the city and compared it to photos I found from the early nineties, and found that nothing had changed despite growing population pressures on the city’s infrastructure. Furthermore, if left unchecked, this urbanization will lead to immense problems for the people in terms of health, safety, education, economic development and the environment to name a few.
Since graduating from the Centre for Development Studies Kasia has worked for the INGO called ‘cbm’, a development organisation focusing on persons with disabilities. After a brief stint working as a consultant at Ascari Partners LTD, a public sector consulting firm based in Auckland, Kasia has gone back to her passion of working with not-for-profit organisations in the area of fundraising and communications.
Kasia had previously also worked the Development and Communications department in New York for an organisation called the Local Initiatives Support Organization (LISC), a non-profit providing financial assistance to community development organizations in low-income neighborhoods around the USA.
Laurence L Delina
Laurence L Delina graduated with an MA in Development Studies (first class honours) in 2009. An Asian Development Bank (ADB)-Government of Japan scholar, Laurence wrote a Dissertation on ADB support to clean energy in South-East Asia.
Right after finishing his studies at the Centre for Development Studies, Laurence attended the Emerging Scholars Workshop in Melbourne, Australia in February 2009 and accepted an internship post at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Kitakyushu, Japan from February to May 2009. While in Japan, Laurence, a civil engineer by profession, looked at how green buildings can be promoted in developing Asia.
After Japan, Laurence accepted a post at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand in June 2009 to consult on a regional project on institutional arrangements for effective energy efficiency implementation in Asia. The project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of energy efficiency policymakers in 23 Asian countries. As a component of the project, a UN publication assessing energy efficiency institutional arrangements in Central, South, and South-East Asia, which Laurence co-authored was released in 2010. Additional details on Laurence's project at the UN can be accessed at eeasia.unescap.org.
Since graduating from the University of Auckland, Laurence has written papers that were accepted at international conferences. He has also published sections in books and articles in internationally peer-reviewed journals. The extensive research training and excellent supervisory support Laurence received from the interdisciplinary graduate programme at the Centre for Development Studies had aptly prepared him the rigours of research. Laurence continues to build his portfolio on climate change, sustainable energy sector development, institutional governance, and international development finance.
We endeavor to keep track of our alumni and encourage you to send information about where your degree in Development Studies took you. Please send your information and photo to the Faculty of Arts’ alumni and friends.
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