‘I WANT TO STOP BIG PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN’
When Aubrey Menard ’08 arrived at Smith, she knew only that she wanted to change the world. Guidance from professors—along with some exceptional opportunities—helped her see how she could do just that. Today, as a consultant in Washington, D.C., for Deloitte, she focuses on governance issues in countries whose economies are driven primarily by extractive industries, such as oil, gas and mining.
‘LET PRISONERS VOTE’
On New York Public Radio’s Peabody Award-winning Brian Lehrer Show, Aubrey Menard, international elections observer, discusses her New York Times op-ed comparing the United States to other countries regarding voting rights for people in prisons.
‘YOUNG MONGOLS IS A PROFOUNDLY HOPEFUL BOOK.’
Aubrey Menard’s debut book, Young Mongols: Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East is a masterful introduction to modern Mongolia-- one the world desperately needs. An accessible primer that contextualizes modern Mongolia in the country and region’s rich history, it introduces the reader to many of Mongolia’s most influential changemakers of the 21st century.
This book comes at a time when democracy around the world is in peril. Menard writes about Mongolian activists in a way that inspires and compels, but as a social scientist, she is able to contextualize Mongolia’s struggle through history and geography. The Asian Review of Books has called Young Mongols “a profoundly hopeful book” and it has been heralded as “inspiring,” “powerful,” and “invaluable” by readers from Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, to New York Times bestselling author Jack Weatherford, to prominent Mongolian elected leaders.