Biography
Shakinar Mutulili is a senior at Pomona College pursuing a BA in Public Policy Analysis. She currently serves as the Senior Class President, overseeing a $30,000 budget and leading numerous subcommittees to create experiences that improve student life and foster community on campus. She also sits on the student senate and is a voting member on various committees of the College Board of Trustees. Her interest in politics and policy led her to intern with the Montana Democratic Party during the 2024 election cycle, supporting grassroots organising efforts with the aim of increasing civic engagement in rural regions.
Her interest in leadership and policy has led her to cities such as Brussels, Rome, and Paris, where she has studied the European Union's policy frameworks and governance structures with think tanks, EU policy advisers, and officials. These interests also led her to Alaska as part of the Smithsonian Leadership for Change program, where she worked together with the Anchorage Museum to support local refugee communities and document the stories of immigrants in the community in order to create more diverse and inclusive archival resources.
Shakinar's commitment to social justice is interconnected with her academic interests in policy. This led her to target issues such as the care of expectant mothers and children in Kenyan prison, as well as her current senior thesis, which centres on comprehensive sex education to prevent gender-based violence against adolescent girls and women in Kenya.
At Oxford, she hopes to pursue a Masters in Public Policy.