Samara Joy Nielsen  is in her third and final year at Duke Divinity School in the Masters of Divinity program. She continues to work closely with Willona Akingbade on the Partners in Health and Wholeness Program, which she started this summer.  In addition, Samara is also working with Chris Liu-Beers on immigration advocacy work as well as helping with the Council’s worship aids.  Last school year, she served as an intern at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church.  While there, she started a prison ministry to the Youth Development Center in Siler City. Summer of 2008, she worked with Disciple Bible Outreach Ministries in prison ministry.  Prior to Divinity School, Samara worked as a nutritional epidemiologist at RTI International, a contract research organization in the Research Triangle Park.  Samara moved to North Carolina in 2001 to attend UNC Chapel Hill for graduate school.  She grew up in the Northeast and has spent a significant amount of time both in New York and Massachusetts.  Samara has worked for school systems in Osceola County, Orlando, Florida, as well as Alamance County in North Carolina.  She has a heart for prison ministry and is still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up.