Alumni Directory Display

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Meredith graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Political Economy with a Certificate in International Business Diplomacy. While at Georgetown, Meredith interned for the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Parvati Swayamrojgar microfinance in India, the Independent newsmagazine in Uganda, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US-India Business Council within the US Chamber of Commerce, and the international brokerage firm Auerbach Grayson & Co. She has studied abroad in Durban, South Africa and Pune, India. While in Uganda this year, Meredith looks forward to returning to her favorite Kampala restaurants, traveling in East Africa, and learning about infrastructure development in frontier markets through her work with eleQtra.

Alumni Update:

In July 2019, Sophia started medical school at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Fellow Bio:

Sophia majored in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. After graduating, Sophia worked as the Lead Mechanical Engineer at Uncharted Play, a social enterprise startup dedicated to addressing development issues with innovative and empowering play products. She helped design, develop, and manufacture a line of energy-generating products including their flagship soccer ball, SOCCKET, a jump rope called Pulse, and a variety of lamps. As a student, Sophia traveled with Penn Engineers Without Borders to Mbengwi, Cameroon and Pajomel, Guatemala, worked in a Bioengineering lab, and apprenticed at a vintage motorcycle shop in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philly. While in Nairobi, Sophia is excited to contribute to the sanitation field, explore East Africa, and find a soccer team.

Max is currently based in Seattle, Washington working for Hazen and Sawyer as a Senior GIS Analyst specializing in Asset Management for Water and Wastewater Utilities. He has also worked as a high school biology teacher and mapping analyst in the self-driving car industry. He serves on the board of Tusubira, a small locally-driven education non-profit based in Kamuli, Uganda. He loves to play tennis, be outdoors, and happy to connect with any alumni or fellows in the Pacific Northwest!

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.