Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Elly is currently working for Mercy Corps as part of USAID’s Implementer-led Design, Evidence, Analysis and Learning (IDEAL) consortium as their Food Security Technical Officer. She is based in Washington, DC.

Fellow Bio:

Elly (Iowa State ‘08) graduated with a double major in Public Service and Administration in Agriculture and International Agriculture. A native of Sheffield, Iowa, Elly previously worked for the World Food Programme in Ghana as a 2010-2011 Princeton in Africa Fellow.  After such a positive experience the first time around, she was thrilled to receive the opportunity to do it all over again!  Prior to her year in Ghana, Elly worked for the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and a small NGO in Liberia.  While she loved her time in Ghana, Elly is looking forward to experiencing a new culture, eating lots of Ethiopian food, learning a new side of WFP’s work (in Ghana she worked as a Programme Officer, in Ethiopia she will work in Public Information), and, of course, drinking lots and lots of Ethiopian coffee.

As an educator at heart, Veda has spent a decade in several roles with the African Leadership (AL) Group, first as an Entrepreneurial Leadership Faculty at the African Leadership Academy before later serving as the Founding Dean of the African Leadership University (ALU), Rwanda for 2 years. Veda is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of ALC & ALU, overseeing operations across both the Mauritius and Rwanda campuses while steering the institution’s new 5-year strategy to become a ‘distributed university’ across the world. He has helped develop the leadership model of central to the mandate of the AL Group- to develop 3 million African Leaders by 2035. During a sabbatical that he took in 2019, Veda co-founded NiaDelta, a Leadership and Education consulting firm that advises corporate C-suites as well as education leaders.

Originally from Wayzata, Minnesota, Johnna is a graduate of UW-Madison where she majored in Economics and Political Science. During her time at Madison, she held leadership positions with Madison’s chapter of Amnesty International and interned with several organizations, including the United Nations Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Additionally, she completed several service-learning projects working with vulnerable populations in Philadelphia, Nicaragua and Cambodia. Her junior year, she studied Swahili and development in Zanzibar, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya as a Boren Scholar. While in Kenya, she also had the opportunity to intern with Ruben Microfinance in the Mukuru slum and research challenges women entrepreneurs face within the community. Next year, Johnna is excited to explore more of East Africa, improve her French, and learn about community-led development initiatives through her work with Spark.

Staci graduated with an Honors B.S. degree in Bioengineering from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. After helping set up and run a temporary medical clinic in Ghana, Staci volunteered in Cape Town, South Africa with One Heart Source, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering children through education. She returned to work with the non-profit for two consecutive years to co-manage and innovate programs. During the summer of 2015, Staci led the health volunteer program and built community partnerships for 2016 expansion. As a student in the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Penn State, she integrated her public health interests with the launch of technology-based social enterprises. She conducted a study in Kenya to evaluate handgrip strength as a diabetes-risk screening tool, resulting in a Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology publication. In addition, Staci co-developed a business model to expand an affordable greenhouse venture to Mozambique and contributed to a published manuscript investigating the integration of entrepreneurial and vocational training. Staci conducted further research in Zambia to identify healthcare pathways and evaluate mobile health projects’ potential to reduce gaps in care. Staci looks forward to a challenging, transformative year with Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya!

Alumni Update:

After 7 years of working for social enterprises across Africa, Chris has recently launched his own business, CoffeeChat, based in Mauritius. This online platform connects professionals, entrepreneurs and enterprises with coaches, experts and speakers from across Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Chris is an economics major from Baltimore, MD. At Occidental College, he managed a student-run coffee shop and served as the vice president of a six-figure student investment fund. During his summers, he travelled to Ghana to explore the complexity and potential of development. In 2010, this was through a Davis Project for Peace grant and then in 2011, he conducted field research into the impact of microfinance on traditional chieftaincy. As a Fellow with Olam in Gabon next year, Chris looks forward to learning how large corporations can pursue a social mission in Africa – and picking up French along the way!

Trina Swanson, from Iowa, studied Medical Anthropology at Princeton University, and earned certificates in African Studies and Global Health. She also studied Kiswahili, and spent two summers in Tanzania, continuing her Kiswahili studies and interning at a health center. These summers, she also volunteered as an English teacher at a local market, and then at a shelter for homeless girls and their children. Her senior thesis was an ethnography of maternal healthcare for Tanzanian girls and women under age 21. She conducted interviews with health care providers, young mothers, and their families, traveling throughout Arusha and the surrounding villages and holding many adorable infants. Trina spent a prior summer interning in development at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. During her third year of university, she helped PiAf out on the backend as an intern, so she is excited to now be a fellow herself. On campus, she was also involved in Matriculate, a college access non-profit, and she rode weekly overnight shifts with Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad as a licensed EMT. Since leaving Princeton, Trina has been volunteering at her local district health center on the Covid-19 response and doing research for the JUST data lab at Princeton to build a “Pandemic Portal” on the intersection of race and COVID-19. Trina has a passion for social justice, and hopes to attend medical school and devote her career to global health. She also loves to play violin, watch musicals, and make homemade hot fudge.

Rachel, a native of Seattle, graduated from American University with a major in Public Health.  Prior to AU, she was a fellow with Global Citizen Year, where she spent seven months in Ecuador living and working in an indigenous community. As a research assistant her sophomore year, she examined the efficacy of culturally relevant programming among migrant populations in D.C., specifically focusing on recruitment of participants and organizing group meetings in Spanish. Back in Seattle for the summer,  she worked for AmeriCorps as the Outreach Coordinator for SNAP benefits for Pike Place Market Foundation. The following fall semester she spent studying health systems in Nairobi, Kenya while interning at the Center for Rights and Education Awareness, an organization that provides legal services for survivors of gender based violence. Returning to D.C. to finish her junior year she was the Development Intern for the Nothing But Nets campaign at the United Nations Foundations. While at UNF she worked on prospecting corporate and individual donor pipelines, as well as created strategic plans for congressional districts based off of qualitative research. She is excited to be moving back to Nairobi, for her fellowship year with the International Rescue Committee.

Paley, a native of Maine, graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Human Development and International Relations. At Connecticut College, she was a scholar of the Honors Program in Community Action and Public Policy. Throughout her college career she volunteered in local schools creating curriculum around youth development and leadership. Paley was an intern at International Planned Parenthood, where she worked on the Direct Marketing team writing reports for donors about the organizations women’s reproductive rights programs in indigenous communities in Latin America. She was also an intern at Human Rights Watch, where she helped coordinate their annual dinners in 24 countries. After graduation, Paley worked at Oxfam America, an international organization fighting to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social justice. While at Oxfam, in addition to her job in fundraising, she was the Gender Advisor for her team, where she worked with staff to implement gender goals and ultimately contributed to the creation of a gender strategic plan for the next four years. Prior to the fellowship year, Paley had never been to Africa. She is excited about exploring Dar es Salaam next year and learning Swahili. She is grateful for the opportunity to pursue her passion of international development in the public health sector during her fellowship at CCBRT. 

Alumni Update:

Last year Lauren started a job as a Grants Coordinator for Elevate, a grant writing and non-profit strategy firm in Washington DC. She is excited to continue to use the experience she gained working with Integrate Health to make her an effective member of her team!

Fellow Bio:

Lauren graduated from George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs with a BA in International Affairs, concentrating in Global Public Health and International Development and used her French to spend a semester at Sciences Po in Paris. Since her freshman year, she has worked for the Grassroot Project, a non-profit that trains student- athletes to teach middle school students sexual education, specifically addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC. She is a founding member of No Lost Generation, a student initiative partnered with the State Department aimed at providing quality education for refugee youth. She has interned in the West Africa office of Human Rights Watch, focusing on media monitoring for Senegal and Gambia. She spent 6 months as an intern in the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Affairs at Peace Corps supporting the Acting Director. Lauren utilized a summer interning with WomanCare Global, where she worked on a USAID project to support the introduction of new woman-initiated technologies to meet the reproductive health needs of women and girls. She also interned for Athletes for Hope where she connected Olympic and professional athletes to charitable organizations, including Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Active Schools initiative. As a member of the D1 Cross Country/Track team at GW, Lauren was selected by coaches for the Athletic Leadership Academy and was nominated for an Excellence in Student Life Award for contributing to a culture of philanthropy and voluntarism on campus. She is looking forward to continuing her commitment to public health at Integrate Health as their Capacity Building Fellow in Kara, Togo!