Aurora Stroem Ruud B.S., is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Human Rights at Columbia University, with an expected graduation in January 2025. At Columbia, she is focusing her research on border fortification, refugeehood, and climate displacement, with a particular focus on European Union migration policy and Fortress Europe.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Relations and Diplomacy from Mercy College, where she graduated summa cum laude. 

During her time at Mercy College, Aurora acted as both a delegate and the leader of Mercy’s Model United Nations (MUN) Team, earning her several awards. Through this, she learned to write policy reports, develop policy through the international system, leadership, collaboration, and public speaking. This experience included international travel to collaborate with delegates from all over the world to develop policies and promote human rights and peace. She acted as the chair of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) at the National Model United Nations in 2023 and the Security Council at a conference for children in Turkey in 2024, leading the committee through three days of deliberation and resolution development. As a Research Assistant at Mercy College, she has been involved in critical research on predictive AI technologies and their implications for global governance, and she has contributed to the development of policy reports at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research on policy considerations for predictive technologies and conflict prevention. Through this work, she has conducted interviews with professionals in the field of human rights and artificial intelligence, as well as gained valuable experience in writing and editing.

Her academic and professional journey reflects a deep commitment to human rights, climate change, and policy development. Organizing a debate on Climate change in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Oslo in 2018, she showed early initiative to act on issues of climate change and justice. She has continued to take initiative, working as a volunteer Intern in Medellin, Colombia, at the non-profit organization Fundación A-Kasa. During her time there, she worked to develop and implement human rights projects supporting vulnerable populations through developing community projects and writing and submitting grants to international organizations to secure funding. These projects aimed at providing support for at-risk communities and underscored her commitment to human rights and sustainable development. In 2024, she was invited to speak at Cosmos Solution’s Reflection and Innovation Day as a specialist speaker on the topic of the Energy Transition and Human Rights. 

She is fluent in Norwegian and English, and in an effort to broaden her capacity to work in human rights on the international level, she is studying Spanish at an intermediate level. Her scholastic and professional career so far has demonstrated a keen interest in the intersection of human rights, policy, and climate change, making her a valuable voice in global discussions on human rights, international relations, and policy development.