Luke Juran received his B.A. in Social Science Secondary Education with additional minors in Economics, Geography, and History from the University of Northern Iowa.  Luke completed his student teaching requirements in Rome, Italy and then went on to teach for two and a half years at the American International School of Jeddah, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Luke’s M.A. from the University of Iowa focused on critically analyzing the impacts of microfinance on health, agriculture, and women’s empowerment in Tamil Nadu, India. Luke has received much support for his M.A. research, including funding from the Stanley Foundation and Fulbright-Hays.

Luke is currently a Ph.D. student in Geography at the University of Iowa focusing on Natural Disaster Response in South Asia and in Tamil Nadu specifically. Luke is interested in how politics, policies, local economies, and socio-cultural variables and contexts affect natural disaster response and are effected by the natural disaster itself. For this research Luke has received funding from Rotary International and the Crossing Borders program as a Crossing Borders Fellow.

CARTHA provided a travel stipend to Luke as a Student Intern in 2006. This, along with moral encouragement from CARTHA founder Usha Balakrishnan, (in part) enabled Luke to be awarded the 2008-2009 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, which will help him conduct a portion of his Ph.D. research in Tamil Nadu. Luke has undertaken several speaking engagements at Iowa Rotary Clubs, Rotary Clubs abroad, and at various academic and civic engagements in the USA and internationally.

Luke enjoys volunteering, traveling, learning foreign languages, and studying global and social issues.