Our Team

Executive Director

Jodi joined the organization in 2016 following nearly two decades in international community development work, with a focus on human rights and social justice. She previously worked as a director of communications for an international network of local community organizations, as a community organizer for a theatre redevelopment project, and also spent several years working at a large foundation in Jerusalem, among other roles. Hailing from Canada, Jodi has a degree in Human Biology, with a focus on health in the global south, from Stanford University. She has visited some 20 countries, both through her work and general interest in cultural immersion and exchange.

Program Manager

Emma joined Global Ties Kalamazoo in June after serving as project coordinator on a university program designed to help people learn how to respectfully and productively communicate across political and social divides. She is a two time graduate of Western Michigan University and has conducted research on self-determination of states, immigration and citizenship policies and the impacts of decolonization, as well as global bilingualism and Spanish and Latin American literature. She is passionate about voter education, immigrant rights and language accessibility among other things, and finds ways to engage with the community around these topics whenever possible.

Social Media and Storytelling Specialist

Beth is an award-winning poet, non-fiction writer, and journalist who first came to Kalamazoo in 1992 to study journalism at WMU and remained thereafter working as a community journalist at the Kalamazoo Gazette and other local and regional publications. A lifelong volunteer, Beth co-founded Midland High School’s first chapter of Amnesty International and has continued to aggressively pursue human rights causes throughout her life. Beth volunteered as marketing consultant for Feed the Fight Kalamazoo, a 100 percent volunteer-run community effort that raised over $100,000 and provided more than 10,000 meals from local restaurants for frontline workers from 2020-21 (Global Ties Kalamazoo served as fiduciary sponsor for this project). Exploring both her backyard and the world and nurturing inclusivity and community mean everything to Beth.

CSP Fellow - Practicum Alumna

As a team lead for partnerships, communications and grants management in SportCares, the philanthropic arm of national statutory board Sport Singapore, Miruna Ranjan has almost 10 years of experience using sport as a force for social good by working with vulnerable communities through innovative sport for community development programs. Miruna is a 2021 Community Solutions Programme (CSP) fellow, an international learning exchange and leadership programme funded by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by IREX. As a CSP fellow in the peace and conflict resolution thematic area, Miruna aims to advocate for diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility for a more peaceful and equitable world.

For her practicum component of CSP, Miruna joined Global Ties Kalamazoo to connect and learn tools and strategies to strengthen her community development work. Miruna continues to collaborate with Global Ties Kalamazoo in building our ‘Community of Practice: Connecting Youth Development Advocates Across the Globe’ project with Singapore.