2016-2017 Luce Scholar

Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation



For her Luce Scholar year in Thailand, Isa Ball will support the Rights for All project of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation, a grassroots NGO that seeks to empower migrant communities from Myanmar living and working in Thailand. MAP works towards a vision of the future where people from Myanmar have the right to stay securely within their home country as well as the right to migrate safely and where human rights and freedoms of all migrants are fully respected and observed. MAP works to formulate and implement human rights-centered policies on migrant workers; to enable local migrant worker communities to collectively improve their conditions; and to promote awareness in the host country and reduce discrimination.

Isabel graduated from Lewis and Clark College in 2015 with a major in Psychology and minors in Ethnic and Latin American Studies. A dual Mexican and US citizen raised in the Arizona borderlands, Isabel is dedicated to working with immigrant and migrant communities and plans to pursue a career in clinical social work, supporting the reintegration of deported migrant children and families. Since graduation, she has done extensive research on migration trends and policies, border enforcement, and networks of migrant support in North and Central America, at the Migration Policy Institute and as a research assistant to investigative journalist and writer Todd Miller, author of Border Patrol Nation. As an undergraduate, she carried out independent field research on child-rearing practices among an indigenous Maya community in Guatemala and co-led an alternative spring break collaborating with local youth in rural El Salvador. Recognizing the importance of providing culturally relevant support, she has cultivated her ability to work across cultures at Arizona’s Child Protective Services as an assistant case worker and at the Immigrant Women’s Support Services of Australia. In her free time, Isabel loves to dance, bake, hike and take road trips.