Through roles with the International Rescue Committee, UNICEF, UNFPA, and Columbia University School of Public Health, Navani spent years building health data systems in conflict and disaster settings. She describes a pattern that kept surfacing across the more than 15 countries she's worked in: The groups facing the steepest health risks were also the ones least visible in the data systems.
She comes from a long line of tea farmers who cultivated the land long before global supply chains and corporate monopolies reshaped the region’s tea industry. Though she didn’t grow up on the farms full time, that history shaped how she understood land and labor.
“The gift of Development Engineering, to me, is learning to think about the technical and the human in the same hand,” commencement speaker Pratiyush Singh told his peers and their guests. “I leave with a way of seeing: one that showed me that who I am and what I want to do are not competing worlds, but the same story.”
Sam Goldman
January 27, 2026
3 mins
Host and Fellow Responsibilities
Host Organizations
Identify staff supervisor to manage I&E Climate Action Fellow
Submit fellowship description and tasks
Engage in the matching process
Mentor and advise students
Communicate with Berkeley program director and give feedback on the program.
Berkeley Program Director
Communicate with host organizations, students, and other university departments to ensure smooth program operations
Student Fellows
Complete application and cohort activities
Communicate with staff and host organizations
Successfully complete assignments from host organization during summer practicum
Summarize and report summer experience activities post-fellowship