mrg2232@columbia.edu

Margaret Gelen

Margaret Gelen is an MSW student at the Columbia University School of Social Work pursuing an advanced clinical practice concentration with a focus on international social welfare and services to immigrants and refugees. She completed bachelors degrees in Psychology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. In 2018, Ms. Gelen spent several months working in a refugee camp in southeastern Serbia, facilitating health and educational programs for a population of Afghan, Kurdish, Syrian, and Somali refugees. Following this experience, she chose to pursue a masters degree in social work with an interest in trauma, mental health, and gender-based violence, specifically in relation to refugee populations and humanitarian emergency settings. Ms.Gelen has also worked in the field of international public health in partnership with a locally-run Haitian health and education initiative based in the northern village of Borgne, and has experience working with local mental health services in London, England.