Alumni Directory Display

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 philanthropic adviser and nonprofit board director who identifies, incubates, and scales innovations that advance a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient world. She 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 the world’s most 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. Her clients included global brands such as Visa, BlackRock, Meta, IKEA, Expedia, and Chelsea FC, as well as leading nonprofits and foundations such as Schmidt Futures and Pivotal Ventures. She began her career in the financial services industry, developing economic mobility campaigns and programs at innovative companies including 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 continues her commitment to sustaining and developing the African continent by serving as Board Chair of SOS Sahel USA and as a Trustee of Operation Fistula, organizations dedicated to food security and maternal health in Africa. She previously served as co-president of the inaugural PiAf 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. She has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People of African Descent under 40.

Tim Offei-Addo, a Ghanaian-American raised in the Boston area, graduated from Amherst College with a degree in Environmental Studies. At Amherst Tim served as the Co-President of Remnant, the Black Christian fellowship, where he focused on creating a space where students could grapple with issues at the intersection of faith and race. He also served as Co-President of the Kidney Disease Screening and Prevention Club and organized free kidney screenings for underserved populations in the Amherst Area. These experiences helped significantly during his internship with the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). While shadowing government officials Tim noticed the important role community organizations played in MOFA and NGO partnerships. He returned to Ghana to conduct research for his undergraduate thesis, analyzing the cultural competency of Ghana’s National Climate Smart Agriculture Action Plan. Upon its completion he presented his thesis at the Harvard Club to the Amherst College Trustees and distinguished guests. Since graduating Tim has pursued his passions as a Policy Analyst for Climate Scorecard: a non-profit initiative that seeks to strengthen emission reduction pledges to the Paris Agreement and an Apprentice Gleaner at Boston Area Gleaners an organization that harvest surplus farm crops and donates them to Food Banks. Tim enjoys farming, cooking, watching soccer and listening to music in his free time.

Alumni Update:

In April 2014, Agatha returned from the PiAf retreat in Uganda and site visits in East and West Africa. She really enjoyed spending quality time with PiAf’s Fellows and partners! Unfortunately, her days as the Program Manager with PiAf ended in June 2014, as she began medical school in the summer of 2014. Although Agatha was sad to leave, she is looking forward to being an active PiAf alum!

Fellow Bio:

Agatha is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from San Jose, CA. At Princeton, she was the captain of the track and field team, a Butler RCA, and a sexual health advisor. Agatha looks forward to an amazing year in Botswana!

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Malaika Ogukwe, a Nigerian-American raised in the suburbs of Boston, MA, graduated from Pomona College, earning her bachelor’s degree in economics. She spent a semester in Copenhagen, Denmark, studying Globalization and European Economies at DIS. Malaika has always been passionate about youth & community work, and while at Pomona, she led multiple high school mentorship programs and served as a Jumpstart Team Leader in local preschool classrooms. Malaika spent her early career at a management consulting firm, a VC-backed beauty startup, and in tech. Her dedication to youth capacity building was reignited when she returned to Jumpstart, where she served as Site Manager at the Claremont Colleges site and managed the operations and partner relationships of the program. Malaika is grateful for the opportunity to support Emerging Leaders Foundation’s goal to empower the next generation of young leaders. After the Princeton in Africa Fellowship, Malaika plans to pursue a Master’s of Education. Malaika leads mindfulness & wellness workshops and in her free time enjoys creative expression, using ceramics, dance, yoga and photography as her mediums.

Coryna Ogunseitan graduated from Yale in 2017 with a BA in Literature. She speaks Spanish and French and is most interested in literature of the black diaspora written in these languages. Her junior fall, she spent a semester abroad in Santiago, Chile, becoming fluent in Spanish and studying modern Ibero-American literature. The fact that many of these texts were not available in English led her to develop an interest in literary translation. She was an intern at Glossolalia, PEN America’s new translation journal, where she worked primarily on the issue “Women Writing Brazil,” a compilation of writing by all female Brazilian authors. She is passionate about making marginalized narratives, like those presented in Glossolalia, exposed to global audiences, and in keeping with this goal also worked to facilitate interviews with formerly incarcerated people for StoryCorps through the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project. With this organization, she also tutored inmates in the New Haven Jail for the GED. She is also involved in the writing community at Yale, and has served as Artistic Director of TEETH Slam Poets and an editor of Weekend, the arts and culture section of the Yale Daily News.

Vivian is half Namibian and half Nigerian and has lived in both places for most of her life. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she focused on natural resource management and international development in Africa and Latin America. Although she has spent most of her life in Africa, she has had the opportunity to work and study in various other areas of the world, including the United Kingdom, Ecuador and Brazil. Throughout her travels, studies, and work experiences she has gained great quantitative skills especially as it relates to data analysis and statistics as well as developed her organizational skills and multilingual communication. She is proficient in both Portuguese and Spanish and also speaks some French and Afrikaans. Vivian hopes to pursue a career in development especially as it relates to natural resources. Most recently Vivian has worked at the BRICS policy centre in Rio and at ONE campaign, an advocacy organization, founded by Bono, focused on tackling extreme poverty. Vivian is also passionate about the intersection between development, education and the arts and is the co-founder of the Georgetown Circle of Women (a girls’ education nonprofit), a published poet and a dancer. Vivian is excited to head back to the African continent where she is eager to be a part of harnessing young African leadership in the hope of transforming the continent for the better.