Alumni Directory Display

Elena is an Eritrean American and a graduate of Occidental College in Kinesiology & Public Health. She is passionate about fostering sustainable public health development, dedicating herself to both service and research. At Occidental, her primary research endeavor was a longitudinal study examining the impact of schoolyard greening renovations on physical activity and social behaviors among schoolchildren in Los Angeles. Using SPSS & ArcGIS, she organized and analyzed large-scale data sets to provide quantifiable evidence supporting environmental equity. Elena’s efforts made her the first Kinesiology student to receive Occidental’s Science Scholar Fellowship grant to develop and implement several innovative research protocols for the study. Additionally, she helped conduct research studies examining the accessibility of oral health coverage through Medicaid and the potential health burden of consumer products targeted towards women of color. Elena also served as a Community Health Worker for Every Woman Counts, which provides free mammograms and pap tests to uninsured and undocumented individuals across LA County. Upon graduation, she worked as a COVID-19 Case Investigator & Contact Tracer for the LA Department of Public Health. She most recently served as a Clinical Research Coordinator for a study addressing post-traumatic stress symptoms among assault-injured youth at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Elena’s experiences have nurtured her lifelong commitment to community-driven development and evidence-based health intervention, which she is eager to continue exploring with BIPAI Eswatini!

Alumni Update:

Beverly is currently freelancing with lifestyle magazines, where her most recent assignment focuses on the arts in West Africa. She’s based on the East Coast.

Fellow Bio:

Beverly Danquah graduated from St. John’s University where she studied communications with a concentration in journalism and a triple minor in business, legal studies and international studies. At St. John’s, Beverly made the Dean’s List every year and was the student commencement speaker. Born and raised in the Bronx, Beverly’s interest in journalism and travel began when she studied abroad in Italy, Ireland and France on the U.S. Dept. of State Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship, where she studied international relations with a focus in migration. While abroad, Beverly visited a total of 14 countries.

Beverly has had internships with: Moda Operandi as a fashion copywriter, the New York City Council’s Press Office, CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter in production, ABC News’s Nightline in production, MSNBC as a digital editor, Saturday Night Live as a writer’s researcher and MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show in production. While at MSNBC, Beverly curated MSNBC’s daytime and primetime programming through social posts and was on the frontlines of producing compelling videos to show audiences what the journey was like for immigrants after they crossed the southern U.S. border.

She is an alumna of the New York Times Student Journalism Institute and served as peer mentor of about 12 students in undergrad. Beverly’s talk show at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network received a Public Media Award for Most Educational Youth Talk Show. She is a freelance event producer at the Apollo Theater, more recently assisting with production on the Apollo’s AFRICA NOW Jesus & Jollof Live Event.

Sanjeev graduated from Duke University with a degree in Political Science. His time at Duke was defined by his work in the field of forced migration and human rights. He conducted field research with Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan, led a youth mentoring program for resettled refugees in Durham, North Carolina, and led a project to create an online platform to share data and analysis on global migration. His senior thesis focused on the origins of the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar. Sanjeev has a diverse array of experiences working internationally. He conducted research into war crime trials for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Serbia, studied the impacts of drought on marginalized populations in rural India for UNDP, and provided legal support to the Statelessness Section at UNHCR headquarters. After graduation, Sanjeev was selected as a Hart Leadership Fellow by Duke and was placed at the Issara Institute in Bangkok, Thailand, where he provided support to a number of research projects focused on eliminating human trafficking and forced labour among migrant workers in global supply chains. He is an avid reader, a complete history nerd, a huge soccer fan and a photography enthusiast. He is looking forward to learning more about working with displaced populations through his time at IRC Tanzania.

Liviya graduated with honors from George Washington University in May 2017 with a degree in international affairs, concentrating on Africa and global public health. Her time volunteering in Ghana and Morocco and studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa motivated and cemented her passion for African affairs. Currently, she is a project assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center in Washington, DC where she has written case studies for a report on the state of primary education in Africa and researched Africa-Israel engagement and food insecurity in Nigeria. She also manages the Africa Center’s campaign and contacts database, tracks media metrics, and creates monthly newsletters that overview that Center’s events, publications, and media presence. Previously, she was an intern at the Jerusalem African Community Center, an NGO focused on integrating African refugees and asylum seekers in Jerusalem. While working there, she developed their English marketing materials, wrote grant materials and streamlined the application process, created blog pieces, and updated their website to better communicate their work. Liviya is a foodie at heart and is so excited to make her new home in Nairobi, learn some Swahili, and explore the city’s food scene.

Mary Davis grew up in rural Pennsylvania with her family and an assortment of pets. She is a recent graduate of Princeton University and is driven to improve healthcare access in rural settings, both domestically and internationally. She majored in Molecular Biology, with minors in Global Health and Health Policy as well as Applications of Computing. Her skillset centers around her technological proficiency, experience in scientific research, and work in youth leadership. She has interned at Levolosi Health Center in Arusha, Tanzania, fundraising to purchase a fetal heart monitor and other clinical supplies. Mary also worked as a data science intern on the political campaign of epidemiologist Natalia Linos, managing data describing eligible district voters, directing social media data collection, and leading phone canvassing. For her senior thesis at Princeton, she conducted research in the Donia and Wingreen molecular biology labs at Princeton, employing computer science tools to quantify bacteria’s antiviral defense mechanisms. Following Princeton in Africa, Mary plans to attend Sidney Kimmel Medical School to pursue her medical degree. She enjoys singing, exploring nature with her dogs, and hosting board game nights.

Avdeep Dhillon graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Political Economy and a concentration in Economic Development. In her last semester, she worked for Kiva as an Impact Investing Intern in their Direct to Social Enterprise portfolio to help social enterprises around the world access capital to grow their businesses. In her time at Berkeley, Avdeep founded Development Solutions Organization at Berkeley, through which, she helped Basic Needs, an International mental health NGO,  improve their impact measurement and evaluation. Avdeep also founded a course on Networking at the School of Information of Berkeley, started to give first generation college students the resources to build their own professional networks. Born and raised in Punjab, India, she has lived, worked and studied in Panama, Dominican Republic, Washington D.C., San Francisco and London. She is really excited to add Nairobi to the list through PiAf, where she will be working with Population Services International to develop a PSI Social Enterprise in East Africa.

Alumni Update:

Stephanie is continuing to work at Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) as a Program Manager for the Pediatric HIV and Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission team. Her work focuses on working in close collaboration and partnership with ministries of health to accelerate HIV treatment and care scale up for pediatrics and adolescents in Africa. She splits her time between Boston and East and Southern Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Stephanie graduated from Yale University in 2016 with a degree in global affairs, concentrating in international development and global health. She graduated from the Yale School of Public Health in 2017 with a Master of Public Health degree in health policy and global health as part of Yale’s five-year BA/MPH joint degree program. Stephanie’s academic studies have focused primarily on health systems strengthening and access to medicines in both the US and global contexts. She worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative during her senior year of college to advise health workforce management and capacity building in Liberia. Stephanie conducted health policy work for Iona Senior Services, a long-term care nonprofit, and Atlas Research, a federal healthcare-consulting firm, in Washington, D.C. During the summer of 2016, Stephanie interned with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Geneva, Switzerland to help evaluate Gavi’s tailored approach to providing vaccines and health systems strengthening support in unstable or challenging environments. Stephanie enjoys running, cooking, and singing a cappella. She will be working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Mbabane and is excited to learn first-hand about health financing in Swaziland, learn about a new culture, and explore the beautiful landscapes.

Sarah graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in international affairs and french and a minor in global development. Sarah is passionate about community-driven change through equitable access to education and resources, particularly for women and youth. While at Georgia Tech, Sarah taught multilevel ESL and job skills classes for newly arrived refugees at the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta. She also served as a Literacy Coordinator in South Africa where she created and implemented an ESL program for local students. In addition, Sarah conducted research on terrorist groups in the MENA region with Georgia Tech and developed a local advocacy strategy as Congressional Action Leader for UNICEF Atlanta. After interning at The Carter Center during her final year, she was hired to continue in the Rule of Law Program as a Program Assistant, where she spent three years working on projects to advance government accountability/transparency and increase women’s access to information across a range of countries. Sarah is thankful for the opportunity to be a Princeton in Africa Fellow and looks forward to learning more about grassroots-level development with FCDE.

Leah graduated from Northwestern University in June 2019 with a double major in Journalism and International Studies. In the spring of 2019, Leah was a reporter for Pacific Standard, a California-¬based news organization that focuses on social and environmental justice issues. Previously, Leah completed a journalism project about environmental justice issues in Panama. During the summer of 2018, Leah interned in La Pista, Guatemala, consulting for a community organization on environmental challenges in La Pista. At the end of the internship, Leah and her teammates created a trash collection program in collaboration with the local government to reduce the burning, burying, and littering of inorganic trash. Leah and a teammate returned to La Pista in December with a research grant to conduct independent research on the impact and sustainability of the trash management program. For fun, Leah served as the co-director of the radio station’s media team at Northwestern, which involved photographing, interviewing, and writing about underrepresented music. Leah ultimately hopes to pursue a career in environmental law and policy with an emphasis on human rights.

Yara El-Khatib is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she studied global affairs and global health studies. As an undergraduate, she has grown passionate about strengthening health systems and their resilience through equitable, community-led, evidence- driven development and public health interventions. Prior to her senior year, she worked as an Associate Consultant Intern at Bain & Company, where she supported the integration of two biotech companies during COVID-19 through her role in communications and change management. She also previously served as a project management intern with VillageReach in Lilongwe, where she helped VR transition the operations of a healthcare hotline program to the Ministry of Health. At Yale, she  worked on qualitative research projects focused on various public health topics, notably: health interventions to manage noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) following natural disasters in the Caribbean; an effective NCDs prevention strategy for youth in Angola to be implemented by UNICEF and AstraZeneca; and, most recently, state and local policies in Connecticut that mitigate and adapt to climate change while simultaneously promoting health. She is excited to build upon these undergraduate experiences as a Regional Health Fellow with Population Services International in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where she will support the implementation of various sexual and reproductive health (SRH) projects. Yara enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, singing a cappella, and spending time with family and friends in her free time.