Katie graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and a secondary degree in Energy & Environment. During her time at Harvard, Katie pursued her passion for sustainable and inclusive economic growth both internationally and domestically, culminating in a thesis quantifying the political and economic impact of China’s growing presence in Africa. Katie has spent a significant amount of time living in China, with a summer conducting economic research in Beijing for the Harvard-China Project and a fall semester studying at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Domestically, Katie has explored her interest in the intersection of economic and environmental issues as a Sustainable Finance Intern at the Environmental Defense Fund in Boston, where she led a project to catalyze state level investment in clean energy. On campus, Katie worked as an analyst for the Harvard Consulting on Business and the Environment club, offering data-driven insights and actionable solutions for clients, and also served as a Freshman Outdoor Orientation Program leader. Additionally, Katie was selected as a Young Future Energy Leader to discuss solutions to climate change with a global cohort of students at the 2017 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Katie is deeply grateful for the opportunity to continue to explore her interest in development while working for eleQtra in Mozambique!

Sarah Rooney is a 24-year-old from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who studied Culture and Politics and African Studies at Georgetown University. She took her study of African issues to Tanzania, where she studied Community Development and Women’s Studies for a semester at Ruaha Catholic University in Iringa, and conducted a research project on women’s views towards sexual health education in Ikaning’ombe, Mufindi District. While at Georgetown, she created and managed a Sexual Assault Prevention Education (SAPE) program for the on-campus student-run nonprofit of 400 employees, served as a communications and outreach intern for the Correspondence Department of the Obama Administration, and worked on curricula development and database management while interning for Human Rights Campaign. She received a Community Service Award in 2017 for her work on the SAPE program. Following her graduation in 2017, Sarah became an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with a small nonprofit called Fair Chance, which provides free capacity building for community-based youth organizations in Washington, DC. At Fair Chance, Sarah conducted outreach and organized workshops for nonprofit Executive Directors. Meanwhile, she volunteered with the community organizing nonprofit, ONE DC, where she organized low-income tenants around a right to decent housing and planned a local artist-focused fundraising event that brought in $125,000 to the organization for the creation of a new community center. In her spare time, Sarah loves to play soccer, paint, listen to music, meditate, and garden. Sarah is a passionate individual who plans to dedicate her life supporting organizations and movements working towards equality and justice.

Rachel graduated from American University with a BA in International Studies and focused her studies on sustainable international development and African regional studies. While studying abroad in Nairobi, she interned with SAVO, where she worked on project design, grant-writing, survey administration, and site visits in Kibera. Rachel also studied in Morocco and interned at Transparence, Maroc. Upon her return to the United States, Rachel interned with Roots of Development, an NGO that empowers people in Lagonave, Haiti, to direct their own development, then worked with the organization as the monitoring and evaluation coordinator, where she developed project’s M&E and impact assessment strategies. Prior to the Princeton in Africa fellowship, she worked with the Tahrir Institute of Middle East Policy as the projects and communications assistant. Rachel looks forward to learning about social and economic development in West Africa and supporting the capacity-building of aspiring Beninese thinkers as a Projects Coordinator at the African School of Economics.

Alumni Update:

Jillian is currently a project coordinator at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, where she manages an NIH-funded project seeking to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in young black adults through a culturally and environmentally tailored mobile health program. She recently completed a Certificate in Public Management and began her MPH where she will focus on global health and health policy.

Fellow Bio:

Jillian, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, graduated from the University of Virginia with a dual degree in Global Development Studies and English Literature. While at UVa, Jillian was a member of the University Guide Service, a Rotunda Student Ambassador, and the Head Manager for the Varsity Women’s Volleyball Team. Since 2016 she has led an action-based research project investigating the use of public health models in alleviating youth violence in a township outside of Cape Town, South Africa. She and her research partner are currently writing a paper suggesting a complimentary use of contagious and chronic disease models in conceiving of youth violence in order to design effective and sustainable community-based programs to combat consequences and implications of youth violence. For this work, Jillian and her team were recipients of a Davis Projects for Peace Award, multiple UVa research grants and awards, and were participants in the Clinton Global Initiative University conference in 2017. Through her internships, Jillian has developed a passion for using data storytelling to empower traditionally marginalized populations, while also creating layered narratives of impactful work for both donor and internal facing communications. Jillian is excited to explore the global development field and all that Tanzania has to offer in her role on the External Affairs team at CCBRT.

Ellie graduated from the College of William and Mary, where she studied Public Policy and Africana Studies. At William and Mary, Ellie volunteered with adults with developmental disabilities at the Arc of Greater Williamsburg, and mentored recently-arrived migrant students adjusting to the local middle school.  Her experience in East Africa began when she spent a summer traveling in Uganda before college. She then returned to serve as an Education and Communications Intern for the Maendeleo Foundation, a social enterprise providing digital literacy and entrepreneurial skills training to clients in Mukono, Uganda. In this role, she produced external communications and contributed to grants-based funding applications for the Foundation.  Ellie’s undergraduate research was executed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she spent four months conducting ethnographic fieldwork with Maasai labor migrants. Her honors thesis explores the social networks that arise to mitigate the risks of both voluntary migration and forced displacement for pastoralist populations in Tanzania. In preparing for her research and during her time in Dar, Ellie honed her Kiswahili skills and developed her interest in the effects of national-level public health and economic policy making on marginalized communities in Tanzania.

Michal graduated from American University’s School of International Service, focusing on governance and identity in Africa. At American, Michal was a founding member and Inaugural Gala Director for No Lost Generation, a student-led refugee advocacy initiative partnered with the State Department, where she raised $4,000 benefitting children’s education in Kenyan refugee camps. Throughout her undergraduate career, Michal developed her finance and research related skill sets with various organizations including the State Department, Peace Corps, International Rescue Committee and Search for Common Ground. Michal expanded her academic background in African affairs by studying abroad at the United States International University – Africa (Nairobi) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). She interned with the Center of Domestic Training and Development in Nairobi, an organization serving vulnerable women and girls, and was a volunteer for SOAS’ Annual African Development Forum. After graduating early in December 2018, Michal was a full-time Finance Fellow at a political consulting firm in Washington D.C., where she supported research and fundraising alongside business development initiatives. As an Eritrean-American, Michal is excited to return to the continent and work with BIPAI Swaziland and Eswatini’s Ministry of Health to increase access to health care for marginalized peoples.

Alumni Update:

Joaquin currently works for the New Zealand government’s export promotion and business development agency, accelerating New Zealand exporters’ journey to bigger, better, faster growth in international markets.

Fellow Bio:

Joaquín is a recent graduate from Georgetown University where he majored in Finance and International Business. His career path and interest for both business and international development have led him to varied professional experiences, from interning at Google helping content creators monetize their websites and apps to spending a summer in Nicaragua optimizing donor data strategies for an education nonprofit. Most recently, he worked at Citibank’s Government Affairs team at the intersection of public policy, financial inclusion and financial technology regulation in Latin America. While at Georgetown, he actively led the Georgetown Global Consulting student organization providing pro-bono consulting services to microfinance institutions and NGOs across the globe. Joaquin will earn a MicroMasters certificate in Data, Economics and Development Policy from MITx before embarking on his PiAf fellowship year with the West African Rice Company (WARC) social enterprise as a Junior Consultant in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Joaquín is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Colleen is a double alumna of George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, where she graduated with an MPH in Community-Oriented Primary Care in 2019.  During her undergraduate years, she volunteered at Children’s National Medical Center as a social services advocate for families. Colleen spent time in Kenya in 2016 studying urbanization, health, and human rights, and completed a research project there on the management of HIV and tuberculosis. As a graduate student, she worked in staff training and development for GW Campus Recreation, where she was responsible for the hiring and training of over 100 student employees. Colleen also worked with GW’s Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service as the Program Coordinator for Civic House, a first-year living learning program for students interested in getting involved in the DC community. As a registered EMT, Colleen volunteered over 500 hours on an ambulance for a local fire department, and regularly taught community CPR classes in Maryland. Colleen was the recipient of the Academic Excellence in Public Health award in 2017, as well as the Nashman Prize for Community-Based Participatory Research in 2019 for her study on knowledge and perceptions of youth sports-related concussions in a local non-profit. She is excited about returning to Africa and continuing her commitment to public health as the Integrated Primary Care Support Fellow for Integrate Health in Kara, Togo!

Emily, born and raised in Houston, TX, graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Neuroscience. While at Wellesley, Emily completed a multi-year internship at the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital where she conducted clinical research examining neurocognitive recovery following sustained cannabis abstinence in adolescents and young adults. In her spare time, she mentored students from a Boston housing project through the Mission Hill After School Program, and also participated in multiple global health projects in rural Nicaragua. After finishing school, Emily wanted to experience working in the nonprofit sector and moved to Honolulu to serve as an Americorps VISTA at Hawaii Children’s Action Network. In this role, she designed and oversaw a community outreach program to engage stakeholders, community partners, and donors, and also launched and coordinated a volunteer program. Emily is passionate about creating sustainable solutions to support and empower vulnerable populations. She believes in the power of robust research and preventive strategies to improve health outcomes in under-resourced global regions. For fun, Emily enjoys hiking, surfing, and climbing with friends. She is excited to serve and learn in her post as a Research Fellow with the UNC Malawi Surgical Initiative.

Alumni Update:

Lambert is currently interning with congressman Adam Smith (WA9) as Payne Fellow. In mid-August, he will be moving to Duke University for a master’s in water resources management. 

Fellow Bio:

Ngenzi Lambert graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Environmental Science with a focus in water resource management and a minor in Geographic Information System. He wants to use his research experience and his knowledge about the African continent to help local communities in Africa conserve and manage water resources. Lambert moved from Republic of Congo to Kent, Washington with his family as a refugee from the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He has been conducting his undergraduate research with Dr. Alex Fremier looking at how land use patterns in Ghana and Burkina Faso affect sediment accumulation by using remote sensing programs. Lambert was a McNair scholar and a Doris Duke Conservation program fellow. These programs have helped prepare Lambert to pursue his passion. He has been able to present his research at over 20 different conferences. Lambert’s presentation was recognized as an outstanding research presentation. In addition, Lambert won the President Award and was nominated as an outstanding senior of his department. His accomplishment has awarded numerous scholarships and paid summer internships around the nation. In his free time, Lambert enjoys playing soccer and the outdoors with friends.