Alumni Directory Display

Fellow Bio:

Ahmed is a chemical engineering major specializing in engineering management and entrepreneurship. An international student from the island nation of Bahrain, Ahmed is fascinated with languages and etymology. His interest in languages extends to Arabic Calligraphy. Ahmed is also a freelance 3D-modeler and an amateur astronomer. Ahmed has interned at banks and oil companies in Bahrain, as well as Princeton research laboratories in the School of Engineering. He is looking forward to spending a year developing 2iE’s carbon assessment strategy in Burkina Faso.

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!

she/her/hers

Razaan, a Sudanese-American born and raise in North Carolina, is a 2023 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received a Bachelor of Science in Economics, a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, and a minor in Arabic Studies. Throughout her academic career, she has been exposed to a variety of interdisciplinary fields and techniques including econometrics, development theory, and health economics. As an undergraduate student, she worked as a teaching assistant for Principles of Macroeconomics and International Politics, as well as a co-author to an academic manuscript on the features and functionality of vaccination apps. Razaan received two university scholarships to study abroad in Meknes, Morocco. During her semester in Morocco, Razaan took courses in Advanced Modern Standard Arabic and the political landscape of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Following her semester abroad, Razaan began an internship at RTI International, a nonprofit research firm with a mission to improve the human condition. Razaan was an intern within RTI’s Center for Applied Economics and Strategy (CAES) and provided research support to a variety of projects for national, international, nonprofit, and federal clients. Following her graduation, Razaan began working as an Economist in RTI’s CAES department, where she was a member of the Innovation Economics and Science Policy team. In this role, she utilized a variety of economic analysis methods to lead and support projects on topics ranging from global health to environmental restoration and preservation. Guided by the power of the people, Razaan aims to center the history and lived experiences of people in her work at the African Leadership Academy and beyond.

Jeph graduated from New York University with a degree in Economics and Business Studies. He is originally from Ghana where he founded Ghana’s first data science talent accelerator, Blossom Academy. The company’s purpose is to provide university graduates with the technical and soft skills needed to launch meaningful careers in Data Science; their most recent selection process attracted over 950 candidates. Prior to founding Blossom Academy, Jeph led the creation of Anansi Global, a nonprofit that produced and sold bracelets that symbolized positive growth. As part of Anansi Global’s mandate, they also designed a mentorship initiative to assist orphans to build critical life skills through entrepreneurship that help them thrive in their respective communities. He has also helped model, scale, and fundraise for Esusu, a rotational savings platform with a mission to build tools that cultivate financially healthy communities, that is now available in the Apple store. Jeph’s work has been recognized by the Clinton Foundation, the New York Stock Exchange, and the African Youth Excellence Awards. He was also recently named a 2018 Future of Ghana 30 under 30 Pioneer. As a Princeton in Africa Fellow at mSurvey in Nairobi, Kenya, Jeph is excited to learn about the role data plays in shaping the growth of businesses serving African markets.

Alumni Update:

In several months Bailey will be moving to Cambodia where she will work as a Nutrition Officer with the World Food Programme. For now, she resides in Washington DC, having just finished a graduate degree in Global Human Development from Georgetown University.

Fellow Bio:

Bailey graduated from American University’s School of International Service in 2016 with a degree in International Studies. She concentrated in International Development and Peace, Global Security, and Conflict Resolution in Africa and earned a minor in Public Health.  While at American University, Bailey served as president of Empower Congo, a student-led organization dedicated to addressing and raising awareness about the conflict in the DR Congo. She held a number of internships during her academic career with organizations ranging from Vital Voices to the Enough Project, the Rockies Venture Club, the Philanthropiece Foundation, and Heshima Kenya. Her passion for development in Africa was strengthened through her experience studying abroad in Nairobi, Kenya. In Kenya, Bailey worked closely with unaccompanied refugee girls through an internship with Heshima Kenya, leading to her senior thesis on UNHCR discourses and programming efforts for unaccompanied refugee children. She also spent a semester in India studying public health spending time in local health facilities. Originally from Colorado, Bailey loves skiing, hiking, biking, and spending time outdoors. She is excited to explore Rwanda, make new friends, learn Kinyarwanda, and gain a deeper understanding of agriculture and malnutrition through her work with GHI.

Alumni Update:

After recently completing his MBA at MIT Sloan, he joined a leadership development program at Mastercard (Corporation) based in New York where he is focusing on developing new financial products for emerging markets.

Fellow Bio:

Mark (Tufts ‘10) graduated with degrees in International Relations and French. While at Tufts he ran the Hip Hop for Social Change Organization, was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, and played trumpet in a band. In the past, he had the chance to work and study in Cape Town, South Africa and Dakar, Senegal. In Zambia he is looking forward to getting to know new people and a new city, and working with the Kucetekela Foundation scholars.

she/her

Senam is a Ghanaian Rwandan American who is passionate about sustainable development. The inextricable link between public health, climate change, and human rights has guided her academic and career pursuits. Senam brings a global perspective shaped by her culture, commitment to social justice, and community leadership. She aims to use data science to advance health equity and sustainable development.

Fellow Bio:

Pinto ’10 is a Sociology major from Princeton, NJ. He also earned an African Studies certificate. At Princeton, he was the house manager of the Princeton Terrace Club, treasurer of the Black Men’s Awareness Group, and an active member at the International Relations Council. While in Tanzania next year, he hopes to learn Swahili, spend some time in the Indian Ocean, and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

she/her/hers

Amma-Sika Adomako is a dedicated young professional committed to advancing organizational development and strengthening the human capital of African organizations. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from American University with a concentration in global agricultural and food systems development. As well as a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and certificate in Economics from Temple University. At Temple University, Amma-Sika received the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to study political science at Sciences Po Lyon. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal from 2019 to 2020 as a Business Advisor offering business training to individuals and organizations within the agriculture industry. Amma-Sika’s transformative time in the Peace Corps allowed her aspirations to become clear. After completing the fellowship, Amma-Sika intends to come back to the Continent to initiate a social agribusiness venture. This enterprise will concentrate on revolutionizing supply value chains for cosmetic products derived from indigenous African produce, employing education, technology, and sustainable practices. Outside of school and work, Amma-Sika enjoys spending quality time with family and friends. She also enjoys the outdoors, food, and films.

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!