Helina Solomon

Helina Solomon is a program associate for international funds at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP). In this role, she supports international grantmaking and disaster recovery efforts. 

Before joining CDP, Helina worked in the digital marketing industry in New York City, where she managed complex projects, reporting and client communications. Her earlier experience includes working with a local refugee resettlement nonprofit and in state government supporting food and medical assistance programs. 

Helina earned her Master of Science in international development and humanitarian emergencies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she focused on humanitarian response, displacement and approaches to international crisis response. Her dissertation examined localization efforts in Ethiopia’s humanitarian sector. She also served as client lead on a student consultancy with UNICEF East Asia and Pacific, researching inequities in access to digital education in the region. She previously earned her bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University, where she studied world politics, foreign policy and Spanish as a Morill Excellence Scholar. 

Helina has also participated in several U.S. Department of State programs focused on international exchange and language learning. As a Critical Language Scholar, she studied Portuguese in Brazil and later returned as a Fulbright ETA at the Federal University of Sergipe. She also studied in Paris as a recipient of the Gilman International Scholarship. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and Amharic. 

As a first-generation Ethiopian American and the daughter of immigrants, Helina’s connection to philanthropic work is deeply personal. Her areas of interest include decolonization in the foreign aid sector and equitable approaches to disaster recovery. 

Outside of work, Helina enjoys traveling, learning about new cultures and history, reading, journaling, and spending time with family and friends.