Tra Tran is the Program Director of the Human Rights Center. She manages two vertically integrated research programs, the Kenan Refugee Project (KRP) and the Last Girl Project (LGP). KRP examines the contemporary dynamics of displacement, working with refugee and asylum seeking communities globally. LGP focuses on examining the drivers of domestic minor sex trafficking, working to understanding this problem to inform policies on all levels of governance.
Tra started working with the Kenan Institute for Ethics as an undergraduate, traveling to Jordan collecting life stories with refugees through the Duke Immerse program in 2014. After graduating Duke with a double major in psychology and cultural anthropology, she worked as a research associate for KRP and completed a master’s of science at DGHI before returning to the Kenan Institute as the Program Director of the Human Rights Center. She’s interested in the intersections of trauma, child development, resilience, governance, and resilience on all levels of life, from the individual to the multi-lateral.