Claire Bolton

Claire provides overall leadership on both academic and administrative aspects of the MDP program. Her role includes developing and sustaining strategic partnerships and representing the program in a broad range of settings within and beyond Emory. Claire comes to the MDP program with more than a decade of experience leading global and community development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and in the United States. Prior to the MDP program, she served as associate director at the Center on Human Trafficking Research & Outreach (CenHTRO) at the University of Georgia, where she oversaw a portfolio of anti-trafficking programs and managed multi-country partnerships with government ministries, grassroots community groups, NGOs, and academic institutions. Her work at CenHTRO focused on sustainable capacity-building of organizations, program management and design, monitoring and evaluation, and equitable community engagement. She worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Organization for Migration, Catholic Relief Services, Population Council, the Afrobarometer research network, and many others. 

A scholar and practitioner, Bolton holds a doctorate in geography and has taught courses in human geography and community development. She is delighted to have worked with many accomplished graduate students, most recently as a field instructor for the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia. Her doctoral research was funded by an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant and focused on equitable community development and the nonprofit sector in the US context. Her work has been published in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, Children and Youth Service Review, Urban Geography, Political Geography, and others. In addition, she previously worked on a UGA grants team that secured over $40 million from NSF, NIH, USDA, and other funders.

Claire is personally committed to issues of justice and equity. Alongside a group of community leaders, faculty, and students, she co-founded Freedom University, an initiative supporting undocumented youth in accessing higher education and leadership development. She has also participated in advocacy related to housing and homelessness, and serves on the board of the Athens Homeless Coalition. In her free time, she enjoys nature and spending time with family, friends, and pets.