Contexts of work
United States
Kenya
Myanmar
Mozambique
India
United Kingdom
Guatemala
Micki Semler
I strongly believe that all of us have a responsibility, particularly those with privileged access to financial and educational resources, to play a part in making the world a more equitable place. Systemic unequal distributions of power and influence mean that our roles in this change will take different forms, but I firmly believe that each person is accountable, and therefore powerful, in their own way – and it is this idea of power that most motivates me.
Originally from the US, Micki has lived and worked in New York City, Nairobi, and, currently in London, UK. She is a qualitative researcher whose work focuses mainly on analysing individual and collective community experiences and translating these experiences into learnings that inform contextually-relevant concepts for change. She enjoys being a part of the messy process where research-informed insights support collaborative problem-solving, specifically when it comes to complex barriers to access in low-resource settings. For this reason, she is most motivated when working with people from various professional disciplines.
Her most recent work includes being a part of a mixed-methods research team uncovering the social and environmental factors that influence maternal and child healthcare decision-making among families in both Kenya and India.
Her professional background is in clinical social work with youth and families, specifically those who have been impacted by the intersecting consequences of poverty, social marginalisation and the United States’ criminal justice system. The experiences that she has had (working directly with families in their homes and community spaces) have strengthened her ability to understand personal experiences and interpersonal dynamics, and how they are situated in the larger ecosystems that surround us. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Social Work.
She joined Sonder for the chance to learn from people who prioritise the same value of equitability, specifically when it comes to how people should work together and what type of work we should be engaging in.
