Mara Kardas-Nelson is a freelance journalist focusing on inequality, international development, and the environment. Her award-winning work has been featured in New York Times, The Guardian, Reveal, Insider, NPR, The Nation, and elsewhere. Mara also has a background in global health; her time living and working in different parts of the world informs the stories that she tells, and how she tells them. Her time at Mesa Refuge will be spent writing a book that traces the history of microfinance and the financialization of poverty. It considers the experiences of two groups of Sierra Leonean microfinance borrowers as they navigate small loans.