Alumni Directory Display

Lance (Asa) Cooper was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied philosophy at the University of Georgia before moving to France to pursue a Master’s degree in International Affairs. It was his experience working with refugees in Paris that directed his interests toward humanitarian response and international development. Asa subsequently pursued a degree at the Fletcher School at Tuft’s University focused on human security and conflict resolution in East Africa. During his time at Fletcher, he worked for peacebuilding organizations in Central and East Africa, as well as UNICEF’s Tanzania Country Office.  In his spare time, he enjoys running and reading. 

Brenda Coromina was born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Florida, where she attended community college before transferring to Georgetown University. There, she majored in international history with a certificate in religion, ethics, and world affairs. During her academic career, she was a casework assistant and civics instructor for the International Rescue Committee, coached students for their citizenship exams for the Immigrant Resource Center, interned at the U.S House of Representatives, and most recently, the U.S Embassy in Tunis where she facilitated creative programming. During the summer of 2019, she worked as a gardening intern for the Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center where she assisted the upkeep of an organic community garden. She is excited for the opportunity to work with the International Livestock Research Institute where she will be translating scientific literature on agricultural development to broader audiences.

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Merete Cowles graduated from the University of Vermont with degrees in Health & Society, Anthropology, and a certificate in Global Health. While at UVM, she was awarded the George Henry Perkins Award and the Outstanding Senior Award for her academic and extracurricular achievements. With a special interest in displacement and crisis response, Merete spent a semester studying refugee health in Amman where she interned at the Institute for Family Health, leading projects on disability rehabilitation and psychosocial support for refugee survivors of gender-based violence and torture. Upon her return, she interned with the Humanitarian Affairs team at CARE where she mobilized resources for numerous successful USAID and private grants ranging from $55k to $5M. After graduating, Merete joined the Refugee Women’s Centre to deliver emergency aid to the displaced populations navigating France’s Northern coast. While providing mobile material, medical, and psychosocial support, she also developed and implemented innovative internal communications strategies to improve staff access to safeguarding, service referral, and capacity-building resources. She continues to use her strategic design and storytelling skills to celebrate the resilience of conflict-affected women and amplify their voices to global audiences while consulting at impactful organizations such as the Batonga Foundation and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. Driven to create a positive impact while expanding her comfort zone, Merete loves to travel cheap, hike often, make art, and connect with friends both old and new.

Alumni Update:

Nicole has been working with her host organization, CHAI, since her fellowship year. She is currently an epidemiologist based in Eswatini, supporting national malaria programmes in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique to manage malaria surveillance systems and measure progress towards elimination.

Fellow Bio:

Nicole Dagata graduated with honors from the University of Florida with a BA in Economics. Her journey into her career in international development began when she sought funding to implement a project aimed toward improving community health. Her vision, Food for Thought, garnered support to develop and facilitate nutrition workshops for local youth. The success of the project inspired Nicole to travel to Guatemala where she had the opportunity to conduct program impact research. Her time there brought to her attention numerous health disparities which regularly effect marginalized groups. Nicole left Guatemala with the desire to devote herself to providing aid to these communities. After graduation, Nicole began working in the malaria control program for an NGO called PATH. She coordinates field activities, report writing and utilizes data management tools to provide summaries of data captured throughout health facilities in Africa. Outside the office, Nicole serves as Prevention team lead on DC’s HIV Working Group, a coalition aiming to spread awareness about HIV prevention and treatment by organizing free HIV testing. Additionally, Nicole supports Children’s National Health System as a Patient Care Volunteer, working directly with the hospital’s globally diverse group of patients to provide companionship before medical procedures.

Yasmin Dagne is from Silver Spring, MD, and is a recent graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She received certificates in Arabic Language and Culture and African Studies, and studied at the University of Cape Town. On campus, she was a member of the International Relations Council and of diSiac Dance Company. She was a 2013-2014 Fellow at the Program on Religion, Diplomacy, and International Relations at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination. She has interned for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa and for the National Democratic Institute. She is excited to work for WFP in Dakar and to live in the country whose world-renowned musicians created the soundtrack to her childhood.

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.