Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Lambert Ngenzi is an environmental and water resources professional dedicated to advancing sustainable development across Africa. A Princeton in Africa alumnus and Duke University graduate with a Master of Environmental Management, Lambert has worked with organizations including USAID, the Duke Energy Access Project, and the National Geographic Society. His experience spans water management, energy access, and biodiversity conservation across Africa and the Middle East. Lambert is committed to promoting innovative, community-driven solutions that strengthen environmental resilience and improve livelihoods throughout the continent.

Fellow Bio:

Ngenzi Lambert graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Environmental Science with a focus in water resource management and a minor in Geographic Information System. He wants to use his research experience and his knowledge about the African continent to help local communities in Africa conserve and manage water resources. Lambert moved from Republic of Congo to Kent, Washington with his family as a refugee from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He has been conducting his undergraduate research with Dr. Alex Fremier looking at how land use patterns in Ghana and Burkina Faso affect sediment accumulation by using remote sensing programs. Lambert was a McNair scholar and a Doris Duke Conservation program fellow. These programs have helped prepare Lambert to pursue his passion. He has been able to present his research at over 20 different conferences. Lambert’s presentation was recognized as an outstanding research presentation. In addition, Lambert won the President Award and was nominated as an outstanding senior of his department. His accomplishment has awarded numerous scholarships and paid summer internships around the nation. In his free time, Lambert enjoys playing soccer and the outdoors with friends.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Dana began a Master’s of Education program in Education, Culture and Society at The University of Pennsylvania. She also works part-time at West Philadelphia High School as a college counselor. She will complete her master’s this summer and relocate to begin a PhD at The University of Michigan in Educational Studies with a focus on Foundations of Education and Policy. She plans to study how African-American secondary students conceptualize and contest dynamics of race and class in school reform. One distant day, she hopes to make this work comparative with the South African context. All of this is undoubtedly inspired by her time at Equal Education!

Fellow Bio:

Dana is originally from Allen, Texas. At Northwestern, she majored in African American Studies with a minor in Anthropology.  While an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Ghana where she conducted independent research on notions of diaspora among Ghanaian repatriates. Since graduation, Dana has worked at Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men in Chicago, IL as an Urban Prep Fellow where she served as a teacher and student advocate. She has also worked with the South Side Health and Vitality Studies at The University of Chicago as a Research Coordinator where she supported healthy living and community development projects. While living in Cape Town, Dana is excited to start learning  Xhosa and to frequent live music spots.

Alumni Update:

Kevin is currently a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategist with Justice Informed where his work focuses on providing strategic guidance and consulting services to organizations looking to operationalize DEI outside of publishing commitments and statements. Kevin currently resides in Chicago where has lived since the end of his fellowship in June 2017.

Fellow Bio:

Hailing from a small suburb outside of Dayton, OH, Kevin graduated from Northwestern University where he majored in Philosophy and Economics, with a minor in Legal Studies. While at Northwestern, he spent his time helping organize and run Northwestern’s Global Engagement Summit. This summit brings together student delegates from all across the world who have social change projects. Their time together allows them to workshop their projects and to work with CEOs and mentors from non-profits and social enterprises and reconnect with their passion for social change. In addition to his work with social change projects, Kevin visits Burundi often, visiting his family and gaining a greater appreciation for his cultural roots. Last summer, Kevin, motivated by his experiences in Burundi, was able to attend a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees conference centered on international refugee aid. He took the recommendations and observations from international NGOs back with him to campus and worked closely with Northwestern’s Center for Forced Migration Studies to develop new programs to assess refugee stability in the greater Chicagoland area. While having never officially taught before, Kevin is incredibly humbled and excited to spend his next year in Botswana at Maru-a-Pula as a history teacher.

Emily, born and raised in Houston, TX, graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Neuroscience. While at Wellesley, Emily completed a multi-year internship at the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital where she conducted clinical research examining neurocognitive recovery following sustained cannabis abstinence in adolescents and young adults. In her spare time, she mentored students from a Boston housing project through the Mission Hill After School Program, and also participated in multiple global health projects in rural Nicaragua. After finishing school, Emily wanted to experience working in the nonprofit sector and moved to Honolulu to serve as an Americorps VISTA at Hawaii Children’s Action Network. In this role, she designed and oversaw a community outreach program to engage stakeholders, community partners, and donors, and also launched and coordinated a volunteer program. Emily is passionate about creating sustainable solutions to support and empower vulnerable populations. She believes in the power of robust research and preventive strategies to improve health outcomes in under-resourced global regions. For fun, Emily enjoys hiking, surfing, and climbing with friends. She is excited to serve and learn in her post as a Research Fellow with the UNC Malawi Surgical Initiative.

Brian Njoroge graduated from Duke University with a double major in Public Policy and International Comparative Studies and a certificate in Markets and Management. At Duke, Brian was involved with the African Conversations Club where he continuously worked with various departments to promote African scholarship on campus. Additionally, he coordinated fundraising for the school newspaper and sat on the Duke Students Alumni Board. During his junior year, Brian was involved in designing a state-wide computer science curriculum for middle school students in North Carolina. He spent his final year as part of an international workshop exploring care economies in the Global South to develop a universal care index. Previously, he has worked with Equity Bank in Kenya, and with Social Entrepreneur Corp in Guatemala consulting for local non-profits. Brian has also volunteered at a community-based micro-finance in Kampala and designed an agricultural project that was implemented in Central Uganda. In his spare time, he enjoys taking photos and running on trails. His interest in serving the marginalized communities through policy and critical development continues to shape what he does, and he is looking forward to working with Kupona Foundation in the coming year.

Fellow Bio:

Krista Nottage ‘07 is an anthropology major from Nassau, Bahamas. During her PiAF fellowship year, Krista will serve as an intern with BroadReach Health Care, a health management and advisory group in Cape Town, South Africa. Krista studied in England before coming to Princeton and is excited to begin the next leg of her journey in Africa. During her time in Princeton, Krista served as a resident community advisor in Butler College for two years and as a board member on the undergraduate student government projects board. She also danced with the Black Arts Company for four years. Krista hopes to pursue a career in medicine, and her current health care interests lie with the intersections of culture and science in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Krista has never been to Southern Africa and looks forward to beginning what she hopes will be a lasting relationship with Africa this year.

Ciara graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She heralds from South Africa. Her upbringing sparked an aptitude towards service, starting with an all-embracing portfolio of volunteer work in schools and hospitals within disadvantaged communities. Studying abroad has brought her important opportunities to learn at the cutting edge of research science. Recently, she performed extensive fieldwork in Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique, encompassing a continental-scale study on plant and animal species interactions. This project extended both her abilities to handle challenges as well as an undying respect and desire for field research. She also passionately cares about the environment, especially as it pertains to sustainability and continuously seeks out programs, worldwide, that look to achieve a positive impact in that field. Ciara’s time at Princeton has not only been about academic learning. Her inclusion in the rowing team has taught her how to push beyond her perceived limits, to continue on ignoring pain and exhaustion. The camaraderie of being part of the crew has forever molded Ciara’s loyalty and commitment to the team. Even with a naturally shy demeanor, Ciara has willingly taken on the task of telephone calling to raise funds from undergraduates, alumni, and parents in support of Princeton’s AG Campaign and now has taken on the role of co-chairing her own class’ AG Campaign. Ciara is, and always will be, a Princeton tiger. She is looking forward to exploring Kenya and pursuing her passions for service and research during her fellowship with Mpala Research Center. 

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Saleef is a graduate of the United States International University Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a focus on Broadcast Journalism. He has worked as a copywriter and production assistant at Radio Africa Group. In this multifaceted role, he has crafted persuasive and captivating content used in on-air advertisements, mentions, promotions, and social media campaigns, catering to diverse national audiences in Kenya. Simultaneously, he has played a pivotal role in nurturing and launching podcasts in the space while enhancing the overall quality of on-air content as a voice artist. Saleef has also served as a radio show host and news reporter at USIU Radio. A post he held for two years where he was actively involved in planning and executing social media communication campaigns for professionals across entertainment, financial, technological and educational sectors.He is a dedicated volunteer at the Promise Giving Organization – a local children’s home in his home area. He is also the founder of the Sisi Wanaume podcast which provides a valuable resource for teenagers and young men to openly discuss topics that are often marginalized by society. Through this platform, he aims to break down barriers and encourage candid conversations on issues pertinent to this demographic. His long-term goal is to leverage the power of communication to influence policies related to the development of youth communities in Kenya. After the Princeton in Africa program, he hopes to obtain his master’s in development communications. He enjoys singing, playing the guitar, swimming and watching quality TV shows and films.

Originally from Accra, Ghana, Vanessa grew up in Romeoville, Illinois, a town next to the city of Joliet, Illinois. A Shakespeare fanatic, she heartbreakingly had to leave Romeoville to attend the University of Minnesota, where she graduated in 2016 with degrees in Journalism and History. Vanessa has written for The Minnesota Daily, Minnesota Public Radio, and The Reporters Inc., a nonprofit journalistic house. Vanessa is interested in all aspects of journalism, including philanthrojournalism and global communications. A longtime history buff, she served as the diversity outreach intern and a National History Day mentor for the Minnesota Historical Society. Vanessa was involved in various campus organizations, but counts her time as a 2014 Orientation Leader as her favorite. Vanessa believes in getting a well-rounded experience in academics and work, which led to her interning for Congressman Keith Ellison and working as an ESL classroom assistant for adult refugees. Due to her internships at organizations that work to strengthen communities in Minnesota and throughout the world, she was named a Kevin Mossier Award Scholar. Vanessa is a soccer fanatic and spent the summer of 2015 in Berlin researching German soccer history. This resulted in a 60 page research paper on the formation of German national identity through World Cups. Vanessa is beyond excited to come to the rainbow nation and work with the future leaders at the African Leadership Academy – and possibly beat some students in soccer. She is especially excited to learn from the students at ALA and explore Johannesburg!

Akinyi Ochieng is a strategist and advisor to mission-driven organizations. She identifies, incubates, and scales innovations that advance a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world. Akinyi currently leads strategic planning and operations at the Autodesk Foundation, which invests in nonprofits and startups helping to de-risk innovation and leverage design and engineering solutions to address pressing social and environmental challenges.

Prior to Autodesk, Akinyi served as Director & Vice President at APCO, where she advised leading corporations, foundations, and nonprofits on their social impact initiatives. She partnered with innovators and changemakers to design and scale programs that support economic mobility and inclusive innovation throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She began her career in the financial services industry, developing economic mobility campaigns and programs at Nova Credit and WorldRemit.

Akinyi holds deep expertise in economic development and food security in Africa, with a successful track record of mobilizing multi-million-dollar public-private partnerships to accelerate sustainable business practices in the region. Her insights on business, culture, and politics in Africa have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, BBC, African Business Magazine, and the World Economic Forum. She serves as Board Chair of SOS Sahel USA (Africa’s oldest food security nonprofit), a Trustee of Operation Fistula, and a Board Member of Princeton in Africa. She previously served as co-president of the inaugural Princeton in Africa Alumni Board and was a Fellow at Global Shea Alliance in Accra, Ghana during her time as a Princeton in Africa Fellow.

Akinyi holds an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and a BA (with distinction) in Political Science and African Studies from Yale University. She has also completed certificates in strategic philanthropy and social impact from the University of Cambridge’s Judge School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy. She has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People of African Descent under 40.