Katie Thomas-Canfield

Alumni Update:

Katie is currently the Deputy Country Director at Action Against Hunger where she focuses on program quality, program development, and future-looking strategy. She is based in Erbil, Iraq.

Fellow Bio:

Katie studied International Development with concentrations in Economics and Sub-Saharan African Studies at UC Berkeley. Her passion for international development dates back to high school when she volunteered in Latin America with the immersion and community development program called AMIGOS de las Américas. Since then, she has worked in development through NGOs (Save the Children International, Women’s Microfinance Initiative), government agencies (State Department), multilateral organizations (UN High Commissioner on Refugees), community development programs (Mutual Financing of African Women, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant), academic research (UC Berkeley, Beatrice Bain Women’s Research Group, teaching “Development Theory and Praxis in Haiti”) and the private sector (Crowdsparc). Through these various experiences, Katie has lived and worked across the world including in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Uganda and Cameroon. Most formatively, in Cameroon Katie conducted research exploring the relationship between different microfinance packages and borrowers’ incidences of domestic violence, which became the foundation of her senior honors thesis. Given her passion for fieldwork and research, Katie eventually hopes to pursue a PhD. In the meantime, Katie is looking forward to moving back to Uganda in order to see her friends, work more closely on-the-ground with refugees and learn from professionals in the field.