Ariel Travis

Office: TNH 3.119H

Ariel Travis served as Assistant Director of the Rapoport Center from 2018-2020. She joined the Center from UT Austin’s International Office, where she held roles in program design, grant writing and risk management. Before returning to Austin, Ariel spent five years in Turkey, where she represented LGBTI asylum-seekers during UNHCR Refugee Status Determination proceedings with a CSO in Istanbul; served as resident director of a State Department-sponsored language program in Ankara; helped a global humanitarian organization design programs for refugee youth in Gaziantep; and studied human rights at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. In addition to representing clients, Ariel conducted research and wrote about protection issues facing asylees fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.  While in the States, Ariel received accreditation from DHS and advised clients on behalf of an immigration rights NGO in Washington, D.C. Ariel holds a Master’s in Global Affairs from Yale University, where she served as a Teaching Fellow and received a Kirby Simon Summer Human Rights Fellowship. She graduated magna cum laude from Rice University with a B.A. in Anthropology.