Andrea Koris grew up in northern Massachusetts and The Hague, Netherlands. She came back to the United States for college and pursued a degree in comparative religion and peace and conflict studies at College of the Holy Cross. While in college, Andrea spent a year abroad in Lima, Peru as well as some time in El Salvador, studying the effects of political violence and racial exclusion on women’s health in post-conflict societies. After graduating, she served as an asylum intake officer for Central American refugee children, and a monitoring and evaluation specialist for women’s empowerment and sexual violence prevention programs in the Middle East. In 2014, Andrea was inspired to train as a birth doula due to her work in gender justice women’s health and psychosocial programming. She has been working with refugee, immigrant, teenage, low-income and gender non-conforming mothers ever since. Prior to joining GHC, Andrea lived in Washington DC and was working in program development for a national refugee resettlement organization. She loves to rock climb, hike and scuba dive whenever possible. She is an avid yogi and poet and lover of all things nature.