Kayla Kawalec
MPS Class of 2027, Global Development
- Pronouns: She/her
- Grand challenge: Working alongside community members to identify environmental threats and design sustainable and holistic mitigation and adaptation practices for greater climate resilience.
- Connect: LinkedIn
- Email: kmk349 [at] cornell.edu
Kayla Kawalec is a programming and logistics specialist with over 10 years of experience in project management – from large-scale corporate events to community-based development work. Most recently, Kayla served as a youth development specialist and Volunteer Leader for Peace Corps Thailand working for the Department of Local Administration under the Ministry of Interior in Bangkok. During her three years in Thailand, Kayla created bilingual educational resources on the topics of Air Pollution, Disaster Risk Management, and Emergency Drills. She co-facilitated training workshops for Thai government officials, youth service providers, and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers on the topics of AI for Education, Anti-Corruption, English & Life Skills, Monitoring & Evaluation, Working with Thai Local Government Agencies, and Participatory Analysis for Community Action tools. She also revived and served as the Editor-in-chief of the volunteer-led publication, Sticky Rice.
As a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) student in Global Development and Coverdell Fellow at Cornell, Kayla plans to expand her experiential skill set in community-led project design and management with a focus on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and project sustainability through the integration of youth leaders and environmental policy. At the heart of her grand challenge is to empower youth and seek equitable inclusion across community demographics throughout the project design. As a Paul D. Coverdell Fellow, Kayla will continue to carry out the mission of the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship through community-based development in Ithaca.