Meklit Abebe is an undergraduate student and researcher pursuing her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies, with a minor in Religious Studies at Pomona College.

She works on topics at the intersection of geopolitics and natural resources. Her scholarly interests center on water rights, land sovereignty, and transboundary environmental policy in the regional Middle East.

Recently, she was a contributing scholar among doctoral students and multimodal media practitioners to populate the Aqueous Earth Catalog with new data at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC). Her geospatial mapper, Water in Egypt, projects primary water supply channels and their broader relation to the political nature of nationalization projects. Prior to this, Meklit conducted independent research at the Library of Congress in the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) as a Kluge Center Research Intern. Her work has been featured at four national and international research conferences.

Aside from her scholarly pursuits, Meklit is an avid volunteer. She supported individuals experiencing homelessness in Boston (through Back on My Feet), and has dedicated the past two years to tutoring ESL to newly-arrived refugee youth at the International Rescue Committee. She is a finalist for the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service and a recipient of the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship in Morocco.

In 2025, Meklit delivered a keynote panel at the 11th International Youth Conference, reaching 400,000+ delegates across 171+ countries. She later partnered with IOY to develop programming for UNGA 80 in New York. Meklit founded Diplomatic Dispatch, a global quarterly newsletter reaching a multi-continental readership for Diplomats Without Borders. Previously, she published articles as a staff columnist for the Northeastern University Political Review (NUPR) and as a contributing writer for the UN Foundation’s Shot at Life advocacy campaign.

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