Alumni Directory Display

Heran Abiy is an Ethiopian/Kenyan young passionate professional driven by her curiosity in decolonizing development, community planning, and storytelling for meaningful change. In 2021, Heran graduated from Clark University with a B.A. in Sociology, Global Environmental Studies, & Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. She also holds an M.A. in Community Development and Planning in Education Development + Forced Migration. Her academic interests intersect at socio-cultural anthropology, community organizing, education, and public affairs. She seeks to understand how communications can leverage indigenous funds of knowledge and recenter peoples’ stories to bolster the success of nonprofits. She is particularly interested in community organizing in the context of Africa and the African Diaspora. Heran’s passion for storytelling has been embodied in her work with the United Nations Foundation as a Communications Intern. At Abt Associates Heran works as a Global Equity Intern. She has collaborated with Yale University, as a Young African Schools Mentor, providing academic guidance to African scholars. Heran’s work includes serving as a Legal Intern at the U.S. Department of Justice supporting assistant attorneys with legislative research. Recently, she has served as a Communications Manager for Inclusive America and Mansa Colabs where she developed communications plans and wrote articles. Furthermore, at the African Community Education Center Heran wrote a grant to Address & Destigmatize Mental Health of African Refugee Youth in Worcester, Massachusetts. Heran hopes to pursue a career in leveraging African narratives and decolonizing development in the non-profit sector on issues pertaining to youth and forced migrant rights by applying her knowledge of communications and placed-based community organizing in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is thrilled to be joining Kucetekela Foundation (KF) as a PiAf Fellow for this upcoming year!

Ayesha graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Economics and Mathematics. She grew up in Singapore, where she was exposed to all kinds of development work from a young age. Her active involvement in NGO work cultivated an interest in economic development, which she pursued in her formal studies of economics and math. She spent a semester abroad at CIDE in Mexico City, where she studied healthcare and broader development economics. She has maintained internships throughout her time in college, working in a variety of market-oriented capacities. As part of her internship at the Smithsonian Institution’s endowment, she routinely performed quantitative and qualities analyses to assess the relative success and risk of the organization’s portfolio. Her internship at KKR continued that exposure to market analysis, allowing her to analyze and explore the different strategies of the hedge funds that her team was invested in. She later worked at the investment bank Lazard Frères & Co., a global advisory firm that focuses on mergers and acquisitions. Her time at Lazard was similarly rooted in financial and industry analysis. She is excited to apply the lessons she has learned through her academic studies and professional experiences to the Lwala community!

Neena graduated in May 2017 from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Global Health.  She spent a semester in Ghana conducting research for her thesis on risk factors for youth suicidal behaviors.  She has additional research experience working with a Georgetown team to conduct a systematic review of the health of transwomen sex workers in the United States.  Neena has interned at the World Bank, where she wrote blog posts discussing health issues in Africa, as well as USAID’s Evidence to Action Project, where she conducted literature reviews on youth mental health and male engagement in gender equity.  Her other internship experiences include educating patients about nutrition at a federally qualified health center and supporting participants of a domestic violence shelter.  At Georgetown, Neena was involved in GU Medical Brigades, a group that assists doctors to provide medical services to a rural community in Honduras, as well as GIVES, an organization that implements random acts of kindness.  As outreach director for both organizations, she coordinated over fifty community service events for members.  She is looking forward to exploring Kenya and pursuing her passions for service and international development during her fellowship with the BOMA Project.  

Maria was born and raised in Mexico City where she attended a French Lycée. She recently graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi with a major in Economics and a minor in Business. As an undergraduate, Maria was deeply interested in social entrepreneurship. She participated in Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s Bootcamp where she created her own startup with a social focus. She also worked at Endeavor Mexico where she studied the challenges and opportunities of Tech companies in developing countries. In parallel, Maria participated in numerous research projects in development economics. From analyzing the gender profit gap in North Africa with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to conducting research on the global trends of education, and leading her own research project on the female labor participation in North Africa, she developed strong quantitative and qualitative research skills. Maria hopes to combine a passion for social entrepreneurship with her research skills to empower women. As a PiAf Fellow, she is extremely excited and humbled to direct said interest toward the Togolese health sector, and work on issues such as infant mortality and women’s death from preventable causes. Maria speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and enjoys long runs, cooking, and playing the piano.

Born in Washington DC to Nigerian and Cameroonian parents, Loriade has lived and/or worked in twelve countries on three continents, loves traveling, and speaks French fluently. At Wellesley College, she was a Davis United World College Scholar and Albright Fellow who shadowed physicians at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana and joined the inaugural cohort of the CDC Undergraduate Public Health Scholar Program. She graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and French Cultural Studies then enrolled in the Health Systems program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health. After contributing to the final evaluation of the AIM-Health program in Tanzania for her mandatory practicum in early 2016, Loriade interviewed government officials and development partners for health in Kenya and Liberia for the WHO’s review of the Harmonization for Health in Africa initiative last summer. She is currently working for the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa as a Temporary Advisor. Ecstatic about this opportunity to gain more experience in Africa, Loriade looks forward to developing her technical and leadership skills as a member of PSI’s West and Central Africa team, discovering Senegal and learning Wollof during her PiAf fellowship.

Folakemi was born and raised in Nigeria. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2019 with degrees in international affairs and French, subsequently working with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Washington D.C. As the program assistant on NDI’s Cote d’Ivoire programs, she supported the development and in-country implementation of democratic governance and social cohesion programs. Before her time at NDI, she monitored the implementation of the cluster munition treaty as an intern with the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch; conducted research on food security policy in the Sahel as a Carl Vinson Institute Undergraduate Fellow; and studied abroad at Sciences Po, Paris. Building upon her academic and professional experiences, she hopes to further her understanding of the scope and challenges of sustainable humanitarian and development programs during her fellowship with IRC Somalia. In her free time, Folakemi enjoys experimental cooking and exploring new literary works.

Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia to Nigerian parents, Temi developed a unique insight on the transnational incidents that affect the African continent. As such, she devoted her personal and academic career toward addressing these circumstances especially as they relate to education and post-conflict reform. She sees the implementation of effective educational policy as the backbone for ensuring peace amongst Africa’s next generation. Temi holds a B.A. in global security and justice as well as French from the University of Virginia. While at UVa, Temi galvanized support for advocacy campaigns centered on girls’ education in Sub-Saharan Africa by working as Vice President of the University’s ONE campaign where she encouraged students to write petitions in support of international initiatives to local senators. During university, Temi worked with adult language learners as an ESL tutor through the International Rescue Committee. As a part of her studies, she conducted qualitative research on the relationship between international bodies like the ICC and their effect on human rights abuses on the continent. For her capstone thesis, she compiled data from over 100 different African news sources to assess the public response to international criminal intervention. Temi completed an internship in the U.S State Department’s Bureau of Human Rights, Labor, and Democracy where she conducted legal analysis on International Human Rights cases within several African nations. Temi is a 2020-2021 recipient of a Fulbright Grant to Côte d’Ivoire where she teaches English at an all-girls high school and conducts peer-tutoring programs for prospective university students. She looks forward to gaining a more holistic view on the educational needs within the region while supporting the mission of The African School of Economics.

Esther Alaran is a first-generation Nigerian American born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Esther graduated from St. John’s University, Peter J. Tobin College of Business, with a degree in marketing and a double minor in finance and international studies. During her time at St. John’s University, she studied abroad in Italy, Spain, and France. In France, she took a “poverty and economic inequalities” course that educated her about the complexity of the global poverty issue which ignited a spark and desire for international development. Inspired by her experience abroad, she participated in St. John’s GLOBE program, a student-led global microfinance loan program, aimed to eliminate property one borrower at a time. She worked on the finance team where her team analyzed the borrower’s needs, ability to repay, and advocated for the approval of the loans. In 2019, she was selected as a GLOBE Fellow where she traveled to Guatemala with three other scholars to learn from local NGOs, volunteer, and meet potential borrowers. Upon graduation, she began her career working in the financial industry working with PNC Financial Bank in the Asset Management Developmental Program, a three year rotational program providing exposure to credit and cash management, estate planning and investments. During her last year of the program she worked in the PNC Private Bank COO office where she learned more about the strategies and initiatives driving the success of the business. Esther plans on utilizing her love of business and finance to work with African leaders to develop innovative solutions to transform the continent and its future leaders. 

he/him/his

Muhannad is a Consultant at Dalberg Advisors with documented knowledge and experience in strategy and program development and organizational reform. At Dalberg, he deploys his analytical skills and organizational acumen to solve complex problems and his communication abilities to create convincing storylines accordingly. Muhannad was engaged in multiple Dalberg projects that tackle development challenges, including improving the UN Mine Action Service’s delivery model, designing a $30M global initiative to empower people with disabilities, and conceiving and executing two events on advancing clean energy in Small Island Developing States and closing the digital divide. He also plays the role of Ombudsperson in the Abu Dhabi office, which entails running pulse surveys, facilitating conversations on well-being, and offering an anonymous channel for team members to flag concerns to leadership. Prior to Dalberg, Muhannad pursued several research opportunities in the field of international development, specifically related to governance, economic development, and sustainability. For example, he worked for one year with Professor Robert Kubinec on studying private sector corruption in developing countries in the Middle East and he completed a sustainability research internship with The UAE Dolphin Project, a non-profit conservation initiative. As part of his studies at New York University Abu Dhabi, and driven by his deep interest in the humanitarian-development nexus, Muhannad published a research paper on the effects of recent refugee influxes on regional economic, social, and labor market indicators in Germany. Hailing from Jordan, Muhannad holds a B.A. degree in Economics and is a native Arabic speaker.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Alexandra has stayed on with her fellowship organization, eleQtra, as a financial associate and now splits her time between New York City and Kampala. She is currently working on developing and investing in a number of power projects in Uganda and Rwanda, including gas, solar, and hydro.

Fellow Bio:

Alie is from Tucson, AZ, and is a 2011 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Alie majored in Finance and minored in Mathematics, Economics, and French. While at Penn, Alie lived abroad twice in Compiègne and Paris, France, studying at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. Since graduation, Alie has worked in the Public Sector and Infrastructure Investment Banking group at Goldman Sachs in New York City. In her free time, Alie enjoys dance, yoga, cooking, traveling, and running half marathons. While in Uganda next year, Alie looks forward to exploring East Africa, learning a new language, and influencing international infrastructure development through her work with EleQtra.