Alumni Directory Display

Rachel is from Monterey, California. She received her degree in Development from the University of California, Berkeley in just three years while performing as a ballet dancer in San Francisco. Rachel joins PiAf from the World Bank where she worked to increase organizational learning and monitor a portfolio of subsidy projects promoting access to basic infrastructure and social services. Previously, as an intern with Women Thrive Worldwide, she supported a variety of efforts to influence the post-2015 development goals and translated into French a paper on Equitable Learning for All, which was shared with the UN High Level Panel. Through 2012, Rachel worked at the European Centre for Mineral Water Research in Naples, Italy, assisting in planning and implementing water extraction projects for Coca Cola, and facilitating stakeholder cooperation in the resource permitting process. While living in Italy over a period of two years, Rachel taught legal and business English in the Italian Ministry for Communications. Rachel has also worked as a volunteer translator for Plan International UK and UNESCO. This year with CHAI in Pretoria, Rachel is eager to pick up on South African street style, travel as much as she can within the region, and grow her understanding of policy making for development.

Cynthia graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Political Science and French. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and immigrated to the United States at the age of seven. She was raised in Bradenton, Florida. During her undergraduate career, she worked for numerous international non-profit organizations. As the Assistant Executive Director of Rural Empowerment Development Innovations (REDI), she assisted in organizing workshops and forums to help Kenyan female business owners improve their business methods. She also interned for the Development Outlook Consultancy (DOC), where she researched devolution in Kenya as well as education policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, she served as the Vice-President of Love, Period Inc, which provides girls in Kampala, Uganda with sanitary products so they can attend school. Cynthia then worked as a full-time intern at the Florida House of Representatives, where she analyzed various education policy bills. Her passion for education and research inspired her to start Boulevard to Victory Inc, which is a non-profit organization geared towards empowering high school seniors by providing them with scholarships for college. Upon graduation, Cynthia received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Taiwan for a year. She is fluent in French and Haitian Creole and can speak Swahili and Mandarin. Cynthia is interested in the intersection of education and poverty. She hopes to increase her knowledge of international development, while enhancing her leadership and language skills.

Dhruvi is a graduate of NYU Abu Dhabi, where she studied Civil Engineering with a concentration in Urbanization and developed an interest to work at the intersection of policy and sustainable development. Her field experience working in Dharavi, Mumbai with local potters on mitigating air-pollution through the design of a retrofitted chimney highlighted the importance of developing cost-beneficial and need-based solutions at a local level. She has formed a strong understanding of global efforts geared towards environmental conservation through conducting research with NYU Langone and Yale University on mapping waste disposal pathways across the United States, with a specific focus on New York. Her senior capstone project highlights the rising need to better manage global waste, working to design an effective and sustainable system applying waste-to-energy technologies in Abu Dhabi. She is interested in transportation networks and spent last summer working at the New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Here, she worked on a wide range of projects from advancing congestion pricing to building out proposals for MTA’s organizational reform. By combining her experience with community-led initiatives to city-level projects, she is determined to build a career at the intersection of sustainable development, infrastructure, technology, and the environment. As an Indian-Kenyan, born and raised in Nairobi she is looking forward to developing her monitoring and evaluation skills in the context of her home country Kenya.

Born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Amy graduated from New York University with a degree in Global Public Health and Anthropology. Amy grew up frequently moving between the two countries and attending numerous public and private schools. Experiencing a clash of cultures and different education systems, Amy became interested in the intersection of culture, education, and health. During her time in New York, she interned at HealthRight International, a global health and human rights NGO, where she took part in developing a ‘Reproductive Health and Human Rights’ online course. She also volunteered to teach teenagers to make healthy choices in public high schools in low-income communities. She studied abroad in Ghana and wrote a case study report about Ghana’s mental health system during her internship at KEBA Africa, highlighting the impact of policy and culture on health and education of abandoned children living in Accra Psychiatric Hospital. She also volunteered at a community-based organization where she developed and implemented a reproductive and sexual health curriculum at schools in urban slum areas. She hopes to continue serving underserved and marginalized populations, and one day see Africa lead the highest standard of healthcare and education.

Fellow Bio:

Christina ’10 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While at Princeton, she was an RCA for Butler College, an Eco-Rep, a volunteer GMT with the Turn W Squad, and earned a certificate in Neuroscience. During her free time, she enjoys jamming to music in her jammies and playing the tabla in drum circle. Through Princeton, Christina worked at the Krokobite Community Clinic in Ghana, volunteered at Madre Teresa Orphanage and CAASALT in Salvador, Brazil, and studied abroad in Beijing, China. While in Lesotho next year she can’t wait to fall in love with new foods, music, and maybe picking up a bit of the local language.

Katerina recently graduated from Tufts University with a degree in International Security. As an undergraduate, Katerina worked as a writing tutor, was a member of Tufts Mock Trial and acted as a Green Dot ambassador to improve campus culture around sexual misconduct. She has explored her interest in law, international affairs and intersecting health or environmental issues through work experience at a food-tech start-up, an INGO and the State Department. Through these internships and academic experiences, Katerina has conducted regional conflict analyses, explored the role and limits of nongovernmental peacebuilding and used GIS to explore conflict trends over time. She hopes to attend law school and pursue domestic and international peacebuilding and negotiations. She is excited to complement her academic experiences with practical training at the International Rescue Committee in Nairobi and challenge her current understanding of development and aid work.

she/her/hers

Zoe Kaldor graduated from the University of Denver in 2020 with a bachelor’s in strategic communication and international studies. She was later accepted into the University of Denver, Josef Korbel School of International Studies’ dual-degree program where she received her master’s in international development with a certificate in global environmental change and adaptation. While pursuing her graduate degree, Zoe interned with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s Office of Public Affairs. Her responsibilities included drafting social media and blog posts, assisting podcast development, and formatting report summaries. After graduating, she began working for Abt Associates as the communications specialist for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative VectorLink Project. In this role, Zoe wrote success stories, organized webinars for malaria stakeholders, produced short videos, and maintained the project’s website. She is looking forward to communicating about Mpala Research Centre’s work this coming year as a Princeton in Africa fellow.

Urvi, a native of Delhi, India, graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Environmental Studies & Film. Her choice of major as well as other endeavors are motivated by her desire to make positive contextual change. While at Skidmore, Urvi followed her passion for conservation as a North Woods steward and an environmental educator at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park. She used Media as a medium to communicate the importance of these natural ecosystems. In doing so, Urvi discovered her interest in the intersection of storytelling, and conservation. She pursued this new-found passion in Tanzania during her semester abroad, where she better understood the linkages between her theoretical/field experiences and the working world. After her semester abroad, Urvi decided to dive deep into the interconnections between the Sustainable Development Goals. This took her to Washington DC where she interned with the Grameen Foundation, UNICEF, and the Vicente Ferrer Foundation over the summer working on marketing, communication, and grant writing. Preparing for life after college, Urvi will be spending her summer interning at the Rainforest Alliance and Vicente Ferrer foundation before setting off to Kenya. She is excited to apply her skills to creating impactful and effective stories for the BOMA Project in Nanyuki, Kenya.

Alumni Update:

Since her fellowship, Ritu has gotten a Master’s Degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, worked in India on a medical device startup, and worked as a scientist at Roche developing new medical diagnostics. She currently works at Stanford University, managing global projects for a medical technology entrepreneurship program. Ritu works with student teams who are developing new medical technology products appropriate for use in the Global South (think low-cost jaundice diagnostic or limb prosthetic). She also conducts and publishes research on medical technology innovation for emerging markets in Asia and Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Ritu Kamal ‘07 is an electrical engineering major from India with a minor in neuroscience and bioengineering. Ritu will be working with the mothers2mothers program in Cape Town, South Africa. At Princeton, she has been involved in the international center and the religious life council, in addition to spending lots of time in her stem cell lab. She is also very interested in reading and writing philosophy, and in traveling to crazy places. She’s hoping to learn about public health in Africa next year, and to have a fantastic time.