Alumni Directory Display

Sarah Mathys is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she majored in Anthropology and minored in Government and African Studies. Sarah has worked and studied across East Africa, and is interested in the intersections of spirituality, healing systems, and development work. She spent the spring of 2018 conducting independent qualitative research on the influence of religion on family planning decisions in eastern Uganda, and collected data which informed her honors thesis on the engagement between American FBOs and Ugandan communities. She has honed her project management and monitoring and evaluation skills through internships with The Carter Center, The Baker Trust for Transformational Learning, and now, a Monitoring & Evaluation fellowship with the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project. In her spare time, she enjoys live music, contemporary art, and trying out new recipes.

Mackenzie, (Tulane ’18) graduated from Tulane University with a double major in Sociology and International Development and a minor in Spanish. She grew up in Los Angeles, CA. Although she loves New Orleans and Louisiana, her passion for travel and global development started at a young age with visits to her grandparents and family in the Philippines. She studied abroad in Argentina, where she backpacked around the country and lived with a host family. While there, she worked at a nonprofit where she tutored teens and completed research on teen pregnancy prevention. In addition, Mackenzie interned with the United Nations’ World Food Programme in Yangon, Myanmar, where she was responsible for communications, reporting, and liaising with donors for Maternal Child Nutrition initiatives. On Tulane’s campus, she has been a part of Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education. She worked on a hotline for survivors, creating programming for students and advocating for cultural and legislative change around sexual violence. Mackenzie also served as a Public Health intern for the New Orleans Children’s Hospital, collaborating with the government on initiatives to combat infant mortality. She aims to work in the international development and global public health field, reducing disparities in maternal-child health and preventing sexual violence.  

Beverley was a Political Science and French double-major at Wellesley College and is originally from Lagos, Nigeria (by way of London, England). While an undergraduate she interned in Cape Town, South Africa for an NGO promoting discussions around democracy, and also interned at the Research Center of the National Parliament of East Timor. After graduation she went to law school, spending the next three years at George Washington University studying international law and participating in the law school’s international human rights clinic. She loves languages, travel, and food, and can’t wait to learn Amharic, travel throughout Ethiopia and eat lots of injera!

Born in Austin, TX, Dylan graduated from Trinity University in 2019 with a degree in Anthropology with a French minor.  After graduating in 2019, Dylan worked as the Security Unit Intern at the NGO CARE in Atlanta, helping write analytical reports and travel advisories for the Sahel and Gulf of Guinea regions of Africa.  Since January 2020, Dylan has worked at Casa Marianella, a shelter for recently arrived asylum seekers, as a French-speaking case manager as well as the donations/operations coordinator. Through this dynamic role, he is responsible for assisting residents to find work, navigating the healthcare system, and locating stable housing.  As a French-speaking case manager, Dylan has worked with clients from primarily West and Central Africa. Currently, Dylan is also working on a documentary film highlighting the daily life of Casa Marianella residents. After completing the Princeton in Africa fellowship, Dylan strives to help build solidarity between the United States and Africa through promoting African history.

Flannery is from Baltimore, MD and received a degree sociology and anthropology from Carleton College. At Carleton, she played ultimate Frisbee, co-founded the Carleton chapter of FACE AIDS, and served as a respondent to the HOPE Center crisis line for people who have experienced sexual or domestic violence. Interested in and passionate about human rights and global health, Flannery studied in Durban, South Africa for a semester, worked with Catholic Relief Services on the Haiti earthquake relief team, volunteered with Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore and biked across the country to raise funds for and awareness of FACE AIDS. While in Uganda next year, Flannery looks forward to finding the Kampala Frisbee team, exploring a new region of the African continent, and having countless new adventures with new friends.

Tyler majored in International Relations and History at Claremont McKenna College. Tyler studied abroad in Marseille, France and Fez, Morocco, where he studied French and North African culture and history. Throughout his time at CMC, Tyler worked at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights, where he wrote a paper on the 2011 Somali famine for the International Network of Genocide Scholars. He set off for northern Tanzania in the summer after his sophomore year, where he interviewed teachers and students about a new public debate program for the Asante Africa Foundation. In his junior year, Tyler wrote a research paper for the CIA’s Historical Collections Division on the role of intelligence in the 1973 Arab-Israeli Conflict, which was presented at a symposium at the Nixon Presidential Library. In the following summer, he interned at the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations. Before his PiAf fellowship, Tyler worked at the Education Advisory Board, where he conducted research on higher education. Tyler is a lover of all things outdoors and cannot wait to enjoy all of the natural beauty South Africa has to offer, and hopefully pick up some isiXhosa along the way.

Megan has a lifelong passion for wildlife conservation and community service, stemming from her childhood which took her across eight states as well as Italy and Korea. Driven to find collaborative and innovative solutions to biodiversity and development challenges, she links science and advocacy to meaningful action. A graduate of the University of Virginia studying Environmental Science, Conservation Biology, and Global Sustainable Development, Megan has worked with the World Wildlife Fund and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, supporting both terrestrial and marine programs. In collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society, she has helped develop the Marine Ecological Research and Monitoring Aid (“MERMAID”) app to accelerate coral reef data collection and analysis and has led workshops in Tanzania and Fiji to train local scientists to use the tool. She is also a certified Virginia Master Naturalist and is active in citizen science projects, community education, and leading volunteers in environmental projects and advocacy. Megan visited Kenya for the first time in 2017 and she is grateful to return to the country to work for Mpala Research Centre in the beautiful Laikipia County!

Alumni Update:

Claire recently received her master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship to work with USAID in the Africa Bureau, Office of Sustainable Development beginning in September 2019.

Fellow Bio:

Prior to Princeton in Africa, Claire worked at the Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, she conducted research to analyze country ownership principles in U.S. foreign aid agencies, which included field research in Liberia, El Salvador, and Kosovo. Before joining CGD, Claire interned for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she researched transnational militancy in the Sahel and Middle East. Previously, Claire interned with Tomorrow’s Youth Organization in Nablus, Palestine and the Center for Victims of Torture, contributing psychosocial support to refugee populations through direct service work and organizational capacity building, respectively. Originally from the Chicago area, Claire graduated from Carleton College in 2013 with a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations and a concentration in French and Francophone Studies. While at Carleton, Claire studied in France and then in Rwanda, where she conducted research to identify sources of social exclusion for ex-combatants in the process of repatriation and reintegration. Claire is excited to return to West Africa and, as an avid soccer player, looks forward to making her way onto the local football scene while working for the IRC in Sierra Leone.

Alumni Update:

Allyse is a civil rights attorney in San Francisco. She represents people who have been subjected to atrocious acts including sexual assault, disability discrimination, and whistleblower retaliation (to name a few examples). She works hard to help her clients not just survive a difficult period, but also learn to appreciate their own strength as they navigate a system that all-too-often feels stacked against them. PiAf taught Allyse to face the unknown and the uncomfortable head on, and to keep an open mind. She exercises those muscles everyday.

Fellow Bio:

Allyse is originally from Chicago and recently graduated from the Ford School of Public Policy with a focus on International Development Policy. During her time as a Wolverine, she built solar lights with Sa Nima Collaborative, studied Swahili, and sang in a co-ed a cappella group on campus. Last summer, she worked as the economic development and entrepreneurship intern at Vital Voices Global Partnership in Washington, D.C.  She is “nuts” about her placement with the African Cashew Alliance. While not at work in Ghana, she hopes to learn some new dance moves and finally fulfill her dream of joining a band.

Maya is a ‘22 Princeton graduate, studying Civil and Environmental Engineering with a certificate in Latin American Studies. Maya loves learning about other people and places. She was involved with the Princeton Chapter of Engineers Without Borders Kenya team, working with communities in the Kuria West region to implement water projects. Her time in Kuria West inspired her to take an African linguistics course, and she wrote her final paper on mother tongue language education policy in Kenya. Maya conducted an independent research project in 2019, interviewing residents from the Corozal District of Belize about their experiences with changes in their environment. Witnessing the pivotal role mangrove played in coastal communities led Maya to study wave attenuation from mangroves at the Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center and inspired the topic of her senior thesis on mangrove restoration, using the case study of Corozal. Originally from Minnesota, Maya likes to spend her free time hiking and talking with friends.