Uma Mengale

Though born near Princeton, Uma considers herself a Virginian after her family moved there when she was 13. After graduating from UVA, where she wrote her fourth year capstone on post-conflict justice mechanisms, Uma moved to Washington, D.C., to explore a potential career in the legal field by working as a paralegal for an international trade-focused practice. Having realized that her passions lay elsewhere, Uma joined Accenture Federal Services, working as a contractor for the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to analyze and reform U.S. policies in order to accelerate refugee application processing timelines. She then continued her career as a federal contractor with Deloitte, working on projects for the U.S. Army. This past summer, Uma worked as a Peace, Governance, and GESI Intern at Mercy Corps in Washington. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, making lists (and crossing things off), Wikipedia deep-dives, good and bad TV, and rock climbing. She is a native Marathi speaker and conversationally fluent in Italian.