Carlson Pepper Collaborative is a collaboration between Carlson Consulting and Mollie Pepper Consulting LLC. 

Together, Mallory Carlson and Mollie Pepper, PhD have over 30 years of experience working with vulnerable migrants before, during, and after displacement. Our experience spans UN agencies, humanitarian aid and development organizations, academic institutions, and grassroots activist movements. Our skills sit at the nexus of scholarship, policy, and practice and we offer our clients practical experience combined with academic skills and policy-relevant work.

Mallory Carlson | Policy and Practice Lead

MSc. Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, University of Oxford

Mollie Pepper, PhD | Research Lead 

PhD Sociology, Northeastern University        

MA Law and Diplomacy, Fletcher School, Tufts University

Mallory has led integration and emergency response projects supporting forced migrants on both the local and global level for more than 15 years. Having worked for a civil society organization in the U.S. on labour market integration for resettled refugees, she then joined IOM – UN Migration’s Camp Coordination and Camp Management unit in Geneva, supporting global initiatives and capacity building for humanitarian professionals. In IOM’s Sudan office, she worked closely with various UN agencies, government counterparts, and local and international organizations to manage emergency grant dispersals on behalf of USAID to address cycles of displacement.

Mallory returned to resettlement and integration in IOM’s UK office, where she led capacity building efforts to increase understanding of the backgrounds and experiences of a variety of forced migrant communities arriving in the UK. Working with community and diaspora representatives, she focused on enhancing local understandings of the needs, strengths, and expectations common in specific refugee communities, and how to enhance support services accordingly.

She has been invited to present her work at regional and global forums such as the 2018 Annual Tripartite Consultations and Working Group on Resettlement/Working Group on Integration, and has assisted missions in other countries in Europe and South America in developing their own integration capacity building initiatives.

Over the course of her career, Mallory has developed a number of research pieces, policy inputs, strategies, proposals, and reports. Prior to her time working in forced migration, Mallory worked in China conducting field research on ethnic minorities and development in the rural southwest, and at a corporate law firm. She lives in London, UK.

Geographic experience: China, Sudan, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States

Practice areas: integration, social cohesion, capacity building, forced migration, resettlement, emergency response, community engagement, diaspora engagement, economic development, research and policy development, project development

Languages: English, Mandarin, and basic Arabic

Mollie has led research and evaluation projects in contexts of violent conflict, forced displacement, and gender inequality for more than 15 years. She has managed evaluations, supported grant proposal development and reporting, and offered capacity-building technical support related to research and programme development in addition to conducting extensive independent research and directing research teams. 

She has also worked in development and humanitarian aid with organizations including the International Rescue Committee, the American Refugee Committee, and Pro Mujer. Other experience includes supporting grassroots development and advocacy with Burma Link and the Kachin Women’s Association-Thailand. 

Mollie’s published work has examined women’s activism and participation in peace processes, sexual and gender-based violence, child protection, and the intersections of poverty and negative health and protection outcomes. Her work has been recognized and supported by the United States Institute of Peace, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, the Hong Liu Asian Studies Fund, and Northeastern University. 

She currently serves as an ECOSOC delegate to the United Nations with Sociologists for Women in Society. 

She lives in Washington State, USA.

Geographic experience: Bolivia, Myanmar, Thailand, United States

Practice areas: forced migration, women’s empowerment, protection, peacebuilding, grassroots activism and social movements, protection, economic development, livelihoods, resettlement, research and policy development, and capacity building

Languages: English, Spanish, and basic Burmese