Daniel Ledin

Daniel Ledin is an international development practitioner and aspiring public service leader. He recently served as a functional coordinator at the Department of State, via Akima, where he advised on the planning and coordination of U.S. economic and security assistance funds.

Before joining the Department, Daniel was a program associate at USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, via Zemitek LLC. In this role, Daniel managed a portfolio of humanitarian assistance grants and awards in East Africa.

Daniel’s career began at the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), where he advanced U.S. public diplomacy efforts through the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Daniel’s background in global education, disaster response, and policy analysis informs his strong interest in local partnerships, programmatic oversight, and data-driven decision-making.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Daniel holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Summer internship

This summer, I completed my internship with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at its country office in Botswana. As a project and partnerships intern, I sought to create new opportunities for collaboration and funding to expand IOM’s programmatic reach.

I supported the team by liaising with government ministries and multilateral stakeholders, drafting donor reports and project proposals, and representing IOM at high-level conferences and events. Additionally, I designed and implemented a rapid needs assessment with 40 national and local authorities across North-West District, generating findings to inform IOM training design and prioritized intervention areas related to climate mobility. 

This experience instilled in me a deeper appreciation of the opportunities and challenges that come with working for the UN/implementing organizations. I was pleased to apply skills learned in the classroom at Georgetown to make meaningful contributions and connections in a new development context.