Alumni Directory Display

Hannah graduated from the University of Michigan in 2014 with a degree in Global Health & Environment and Afro-American & African studies. After a trip to Ghana sparked her interest in Africa, Hannah solidified this passion by studying abroad in South Africa and leading support groups for HIV-affected teens. Throughout college, Hannah taught an innovative HIV prevention module to high-risk populations and did outreach and testing with Michigan’s leading AIDS service organizations. She also facilitated student sexual health forums, interned as a Spanish translator for undocumented persons with UMichigan’s Law School, facilitated prevention programming for elementary school girls at a women’s shelter in Michigan’s largest Latino neighborhood, and worked in arts-based activism. After graduation, Hannah worked at the American Red Cross in Detroit in International Services where she advocated on behalf of Iraqi and Syrian refugees and reconnected families separated by disaster and conflict. Hannah currently works in Detroit as a Health Education Coordinator for an HIV agency facilitating psychosocial support groups for recently diagnosed and formerly incarcerated individuals living with HIV. She enjoys spending her evenings working with at-risk teenage girls in a live-in scholarship program, and is excited to advocate similarly for teens and families at BIPAI Swaziland.

Lydia, a Public Health major from Skidmore College, is an enthusiastic and passionate young lady motivated by her need to serve. She has experience in project development and implementation through her Davis Project for Peace. With $10,000, she was able to develop and implement workshop sessions aimed at expecting parents and provided them with baby items for completion of sessions. Each session discussed topics from antenatal care, birth preparedness, and birth plans. Her independent undergraduate research sought to examine the factors that determine women’s choices during childbirth. She also has academic research experience conducted in multiple countries. During those times, she mostly explored healthcare and how one’s community and culture affects access, quality and cost. This developed her qualitative research skills with minimal resources. Lydia has also been able to develop and strengthen her monitoring and evaluation of projects skill via her work with various local NGOs.  She will be spending her year of the fellowship in Liberia working for Last Mile Health.

Dara Bernstein is a young professional with experience in international development program monitoring and evaluation. She is passionate about connecting innovative solutions to poverty at the household level with macroeconomic growth strategies. Since graduating from Brown University in 2018 with a degree in Economics and French Studies, Dara has worked as a program associate in the international division of Mathematica, a policy research institute. In this role, she contributes to research in an array of fields, including energy, financial services, secondary education, and workforce development, primarily in West Africa and Morocco. She sees promise in initiatives aimed at improving the skills and capacity of women and youth in developing communities, such as micro-lending to women, strengthening family planning systems, and improving education and workforce development programs. Dara is continually refining her quantitative and qualitative research skills, which are complemented by her proficiency in French and Stata programming. She also has extensive experience in project management and budgeting for large-scale international projects funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Gates Foundation. Dara is looking forward to her role as a Junior Consultant/MEAL Fellow with the West African Rice Company (WARC) team in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Weiwei graduated from Stanford University with a major in Economics and minor in East Asian Studies. Weiwei has professional experience on three continents. She spent two summers working in China, where she supported organizations ranging from an internationally renowned art gallery to a global supply chain management company. She also interned for a mobile payments startup in Ghana through Stanford SEED, an initiative by the Stanford Graduate School of Business that aims to combat poverty through innovation and entrepreneurship. Prior to Princeton in Africa, Weiwei spent two years in management consulting at ZS Associates in San Francisco, where she advised healthcare clients on sales and marketing strategy.

Nasya Blackwell is a cum laude graduate of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Spanish. She served as a Gilman scholar in Costa Rica, completed an exchange program in South Korea, and studied abroad at the University of Ghana. After graduation, Nasya worked in the U.S. House of Representatives as a full-time staffer and at Emerging Public Leaders in Accra, Ghana, as North Carolina A&T’s first Princeton in Africa Fellow. After her PiAf fellowship, Nasya moved to Taiwan to complete a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant, where she taught English to elementary school students and started learning Mandarin Chinese. 

Nasya attends Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations as a Charles B. Rangel and Public Service fellow. In graduate school, she is exploring gender policy and intercultural communications with a regional focus in Africa and Asia. After graduating, Nasya plans to join the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer promoting cross-cultural connection, strengthening the possibility of making the world we live in a more understanding, empathetic, and equitable place, where the voices of marginalized communities are heard and respected on the global stage. 

Originally from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, Hannah graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in International and Global Studies and minor in Global Health. While at Middlebury, Hannah served in board positions with clubs like GlobeMed and danced with Midd Masti, a South Asian dance group. Throughout her academic career, Hannah held internships at Gardens for Health International, Global Brigades in Ghana, and the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador; she also spent a wonderfully warm winter term teaching English in Costa Rica. Hannah assisted in a long-term research project with a Middlebury professor and spent one summer in Amhara, Ethiopia collecting field-notes on the Women’s Development Army, a government program seeking to empower women and improve health outcomes from a grass-roots level. Her passions for health equity and access were strengthened during her junior year abroad in Argentina and Tanzania. While in Buenos Aires, she interned at a maternal hospital and conducted independent research on comparative health policy. In Tanzania, Hannah studied political ecology, Kiswahili, and spent a month living and studying with a Maasai healer. Hannah is excited to relocate to Gaborone, Botswana to join the Young 1ove team, learn Setswana, and finally escape harsh winters of Vermont.

Catherine Blizzard was born and raised in Dallas and graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in international and global studies, german concentration, with coursework focusing on global health and refugee studies. A dynamic writer and effective communicator, she endeavors to help bolster the success and funding of global health and development organizations by telling their stories. Professionally, Catherine has worked with nonprofits, foundations and small healthcare startups. During college, she gained marketing and fundraising experience with Communities Foundation of Texas and spent a year living and working in Germany where she interned with the House of Democracy and Human Rights in Berlin. Since graduating she has explored the public health startup sector and spent her summer after graduation conducting qualitative research and conducting a needs-based assessment for Health Together. Currently, Catherine is the Business Development Consultant at Empathetics, Inc. and works directly with client outreach and development. Following a global health experience in the Volta region of Ghana, Catherine developed an interest in reproductive health education and access in the region. A US colleague and she have partnered with a Ghanaian friend and colleague to create ENE Empower, a nonprofit that promotes the development of women leaders by increasing their access to education, furnishing menstrual products, and reducing the violence and stigma around female reproductive health. She is very excited to join the Princeton in Africa community and to develop her fundraising and grant writing skillset with the Mt. Elgon Ecosystem Trust in Kitale, Kenya.

The formation of Maame’s concentration, “Sankofa: (Re) Defining the Indigenous Modern City”, is owed to the inspiration her birth city, Accra, provided during her formative years. While at New York University, Maame secured several research grants to conduct two research projects: one on youth employability in Ghana and the other on civic participation in environmental conservation efforts in Nairobi and Dakar. With the findings from her first research project on youth employability, Maame developed a robust curriculum for a Youth Fellowship Program at the UNFPA in Accra, aimed at mentoring national service personnel and equipping them with employable skills such as team building, research, and creative thinking. The Fellowship Program has since been implemented and will be a part of the UNFPA Accra agenda permanently. Maame is currently working toward launching an Africa-based tourism platform, Ibhazi, which is aimed at promoting intra-continental travel and creating conversations surrounding cultural sustainability on the continent. As a Princeton in Africa Fellow at Yalelo in Lusaka, Zambia, Maame is excited to explore the aquaculture industry on the continent and to live on the side of Africa.

Ben Boston is driven to develop innovative governance solutions for sub-Saharan Africa. Ben is a native of Connecticut and a recent graduate of Stanford University, where he majored in political science and minored in history. His undergraduate studies focused on politics, governance, and conflict in post-colonial Africa. As a senior, he completed an honors thesis in international security studies, entitled America in East Africa: Security Partnerships, Aid Dependence and Diplomatic Leverage, through Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation under the advising of Professor Jeremy Weinstein. He has worked on US policy towards and communication on Africa while interning in the State Department with the Office of East African Affairs and the Press and Public Diplomacy office at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and with USAID at the U.S. Mission to the African Union. He also has experience working in American domestic politics, organizing for Elizaebeth Warren in Iowa in 2020 and for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire in 2016. At Stanford, he organized weekly breakfast donations for a local homeless shelter and served as the Captain, President, and Financial Officer for the Men’s Lacrosse team.

Gwladys Boukpessi is a passionate young professional originally from Togo, West Africa. Growing up, her mother was a caseworker in the New York City area for African refugees seeking asylum. Witnessing their struggles for a better life made Gwladys want to dedicate her life to improving conditions for people around the world. In 2019, Gwladys graduated from Lehigh University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering with a minor in sustainable development. While at Lehigh, Gwladys was awarded the Dale S. Strohl ’58 Undergraduate Summer Research Grant to study sustainable waste management solutions in Ghana. Her undergraduate career also included research in Kenya on their clean water crisis and interning in Nepal with a local NGO to help improve local waste management. After graduating, Gwladys worked as an Environmental Engineer for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection where she helped to develop and implement air pollution control programs and regulations to improve air quality for NJ residents. In addition, Gwladys also served as an intern and Youth Ambassador for African Hope Committee, an NGO that empowers African immigrants in New York City through health education programs, immigration services, and social service support. Driven by her love for Africa and international development, Gwladys is honored to join the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT as a Research Fellow.