Alumni Directory Display

Naomi grew up on Long Island, NY and graduated from Williams College, where she studied Economics and Public Health. She wrote her undergraduate honors thesis on the effects of cash transfer and empowerment programs on maternal and child well-being in Uganda, for which she was awarded Highest Honors and received the Jack Larned 1942 International Management Prize for a student paper of superior quality dealing with developmental enterprises. She also received the Van Duyne Prize in Economics to support her thesis work throughout her senior year. She spent eight weeks as an intern at IPA in Malawi, where she experienced the difficulties that arise when working in a developing country while also assisting with a project that focused on improving the incomes of small-holder farmers. She spent her junior fall in South Africa studying community health and social policy. After Williams, Naomi interned at HealthRight International, exploring how an international health organization manages both grant opportunities and projects in-country. Prior to her fellowship with Princeton in Africa at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Naomi was a Research Associate at the Schroeder Center for Health Policy, based at William & Mary, where much of her work focused on domestic healthcare policy.

Samantha Mendoza graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas with a degree in English Writing & Rhetoric and minors in English Literature and Global Studies. She mentored students through leadership development programs and writing courses, and as student Body President, she co-founded a program that raised awareness about college sexual assault. She spent a summer studying Peace and Conflict in Uganda and Rwanda, and another summer leading a group of students to volunteer at the an orphanage for HIV-positive youth in Capetown, South Africa. Samantha then earned a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to teach middle-school English in South India. She spent her weekends mentoring high school students through the college application process and taking a 6-hour train to volunteer at a non-profit in Bangalore. Samantha has just completed a Master’s program in Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to pursue her goal of becoming an international journalist. She currently reports on community issues in Syracuse, New York, and writes about women’s rights, feminism, and politics for a national audience. She will spend the summer interning at NBC Studios before moving to Monduli, Tanzania for a one-year role as the Scholarship and Communications Coordinator at the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania.

Alumni Update:

Since his fellowship year, Brent has relocated to Honolulu and is now a Certified Eye Bank Technician. He serves as Director of Operations at the Lions Eye Bank of Hawai’i, an eye tissue recovery and distribution nonprofit dedicated to meeting the transplantation needs of the Hawaiian Islands. His organization works to keep sight-saving eye tissue accessible to the communities that donate it, and he is proud to honor the wishes of eye donors and their families while strengthening the independent medical infrastructure of the Islands.

Fellow Bio:

While pursuing a double major at the intersection of Biomedical Engineering and African Studies at Yale, one of the things Brent enjoyed most was working with his campus chapter of Engineers Without Borders to design and implement infrastructural innovations that reduced water poverty in rural communities in Cameroon and Tanzania. Brent feels lucky to have seen up close the powerful effects that a community-level, locally directed development plan can have on improving health outcomes on the African continent, and so he is grateful for the chance to continue enabling that kind of work with Princeton in Africa, as a Sustainability Fellow at Nyumbani Village in Kenya. In the future, he hopes to use his skills as an engineer, combined with the firsthand knowledge of real-world needs and challenges gained during his fellowship year, to develop more affordable biotechnologies that can help to close resource and personnel gaps in medically underserved parts of the world.

Galeela Michael graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a degree in Global Studies. As an undergraduate, Galeela worked as both a Campaign Lead at the Multicultural Center and as a Student Outreach Coordinator at the Office of Development, where she raised thousands of dollars for student initiatives. She was the President of UC Santa Barbara’s Pan-African Student Union, which served to amplify the voice of African students on campus. Galeela also spent a summer in Washington D.C., where she interned at The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and conducted a research study analyzing the success of the Millennium Development Goals in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. After graduating, Galeela returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she served as Programs & Operations Manager at a non-profit called /dev/color, which strives to maximize the impact of Black software engineers. Galeela was the third full-time hire at /dev/color, and made substantial contributions to the organization’s foundation, leading efforts to expand /dev/color to four cities nationally. Her experience at /dev/color jumpstarted her career at the intersection between tech and social impact, and today Galeela is most passionate about leveraging technology to improve peoples lives.

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Alexandra (Alex) Middleberg graduated from Kenyon College in 2018 with a B.A. in International Studies. She also holds an M.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University’s (GWU) Elliott School of International Affairs, where she focused her studies on transnational security, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding in the Middle East and Africa. For her capstone project, Alex designed an agricultural development program that aimed to facilitate the sustainable and peaceful return of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons in Afghanistan through the expansion of agriculture technical and vocational education and training programs and the country’s agricultural sector. Following her studies, Alex worked on the Central and West Africa team at the National Democratic Institute supporting governance and democracy programs in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. In her free time, Alex loves to travel, cook, spend time with friends and family, and jam to her favorite songs.

Victoria Monge graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in health policy and management from the Gillings School of Global Public Health, as well as a degree in global studies. She also holds a certificate in international politics from Sciences Po Grenoble in Grenoble, France. At UNC Chapel Hill, Victoria worked at the local Refugee Support Center, where she served as a French translator and collaborated with various governmental agencies to meet the needs of the Center’s clients. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa as well as the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and has also worked in several different research labs throughout college. Victoria recently completed her senior honors thesis on the intergenerational effects of witnessing intimate partner violence on a cohort of young children in South Africa. During a previous corporate strategy internship with the insurance company Humana, Victoria created a business case for investment in the social determinants of health by healthcare payers. More recently, she interned with the Shot@Life team of the United Nations Foundation, where she advocated for increased access to vaccinations for children around the world. Following the Princeton in Africa fellowship, Victoria plans to attend law school and pursue a career in global health law. Originally from Michigan, she enjoys reading, swimming, and learning languages. She is looking forward to working with American Leprosy Missions this coming year.

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 MaCie’ is a subject matter expert in sustainability, process improvement, and engagement of vulnerable communities. MaCie’ has a Master of Public Affairs from the number one MPA program in the country, with certifications in Lean and Green Belt Six Sigma. MaCie’ has worked for the City of Indianapolis’ Office of Sustainability, handling the city’s environmental, sustainability, and resilience work. She assisted with the public engagement, creation, and implementation of the City of Indianapolis’ first Sustainability and Resilience Action Plan and aided in the city being awarded a 2.5-million-dollar climate grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. In addition, MaCie’ has assisted with monumental change-making and engagement throughout the city of Indianapolis. She has assisted the Indianapolis Urban League and The African American Coalition in their African American Quality of Life Initiative to disperse a $100,000,000 grant awarded by the Lilly Endowment to better the quality of life of the African American Community. She additionally served as project lead for the Your Voice 2022 engagement campaign to garnish public input on the future City-County Council districts, the first engagement forum hosted on redistricting in the city’s history. Through all of this MaCie’ still finds time for her community as she is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated and the Links, Incorporated, of which she serves as the International Trends and Services facet chair in this position MaCie’ created the program Black Women in Crisis focusing on Maternal Mortality of Black Women domestically and abroad. MaCie’ additionally serves on the board of her neighborhood association.

Alumni Update:

Abby is continuing her work in College Access as a Partnership Coordinator with CollegeSpring. Her work focuses on ensuring the successful implementation of their program in underserved schools across New York City.

Fellow Bio:

Abby graduated from Franklin and Marshall College, a Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a joint major in Government and Psychology and a minor in Africana Studies. Born and raised in Nigeria, she migrated to the U.S in 2007. Prior to undergrad, her experiences as an immigrant led her to become interested in issues regarding education, human rights, immigration, and refugee policies. During her time at F&M, she volunteered with the ESL classes held for middle school refugee students. She continued her work with this population in Lancaster through an internship at the Refugee Center near F&M. In her role she helped plan and recruit refugee students for the English summer immersion program. She also helped with planning and facilitating workshops for refugee parents. In her senior year of college she conducted research on the human rights conditions in Mali and Guatemala. Her research allowed her to put together an evidentiary packet and legal brief on behalf of an asylum seeker from Guatemala. Morufat is excited to continue to learn more about the field of education, immigration, and refugee policy making during her time in Uganda as a Princeton in Africa Fellow.

Andrew graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Mathematics and Economics, minoring in Computer Science and Financial Economics. At Vanderbilt, Andrew was involved in the school’s business fraternity (Alpha Kappa Psi), serving as a mentor to the new members, and The Afterschool Program, tutoring low-income students. He has significant exposure to finance through internships across varying sectors. Andrew has worked in mezzanine lending (high-risk debt), private equity investing, and impact investing (using investments to help the environment and society). During these internships, he learned various financial modeling tools and gained a strong understanding of the ways companies grow. In addition, he spent a summer working for a healthcare startup, looking to change the way the American Healthcare system works. Through his academic and professional experiences, Andrew is very well prepared to make an impact on his organization through quantitative and qualitative work. 

Emily is a recent college graduate interested in human rights and social justice. She previously worked with the Central and West Africa program at the National Democratic Institute, supporting portfolios in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and with the Humanitarian Agenda program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She also completed an internship with Innovations for Poverty Action in Tanzania and a fellowship with the Open Impact Institute in Uganda. She is excited to learn more about Sierra Leone and migration justice through her fellowship with IRC. Outside of work, Emily volunteers with RAINN to support survivors of sexual violence. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2019 with a degree in International Relations.