Alumni Update:

Liz holds a J.D. from Duke University, with a term at the University of Hong Kong. She currently works as an associate attorney in the Washington DC office of the global law firm, Clifford Chance LLP. Her practice focuses on international project and corporate finance and other cross-border development finance transactions. Liz previously worked at a social change consulting firm where she managed the launch of a new social venture serving communities of color. 

Fellow Bio:

Liz graduated with degrees in Journalism and African Studies. She is originally from Nairobi, Kenya. While an undergraduate, she did independent studies that focused on topics of wealth disparities in Kenya and Black Economic Empowerment policies in South Africa. She also spent a summer doing research on ICC cases and investigations. Liz interned at TransAfrica Forum, a foreign policy advocacy organization for Africa and the African Diaspora, and at a human rights advocacy organization in Cape Town, South Africa. Liz looks forward to returning to South Africa and learning more about the work of the African Leadership Academy.

Fellow Bio:

Liza is a biology major from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At Columbia, she was president of GlobeMed partnering with a health and human rights NGO in Northern Uganda, a volunteer advocate for the Crime Victim’s Treatment Center supporting victims of acts of domestic or sexual violence, and leader for Columbia Outdoor Orientation Program taking freshman canoeing down the Delaware River before school begins. Liza loves laughing and the great outdoors more than anything. While in Mwanza, Tanzania next year, Liza looks forward to learning as many stories as possible to continue building her understanding of our global village.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Lisa took time off to backpack Thailand and Australia with some friends. She is now living in Washington, DC (her roommate is other former PiAfer!) working for Deloitte’s federal emerging markets practice, where she’s been focusing on capacity building and training development for USAID and its counterparts.

Fellow Bio:

Lisa is originally from San Diego, CA  and graduated with a B.A. in International Affairs. While at GWU, Lisa dedicated a year of service to the AmeriCorps Heads Up initiative, where she led literacy programs for a class of second graders in an inner-city Washington, D.C. elementary school. She also worked with Calcutta Kids, a maternal-child health NGO in Calcutta, India, designing behavior change communication curriculums to combat diarrheal disease among slum children. Upon graduating, Lisa returned to Calcutta to create and implement health training modules for Calcutta Kids’ team of community health workers. In her free time, Lisa enjoys doing yoga, taking naps and seeing live music. While in Gabon next year, Lisa is excited to live by the beach again, as well as learn how the for-profit businesses model can be adapted to incorporate social and environmental impact.

Fellow Bio:

Léa majored in the Woodrow Wilson School with a certificate in African Studies. Originally from Walsrode, Germany, she studied abroad in Egypt and spent her summers reporting political news on the radio, studying Kiswahili in Tanzania, and conducting research in rural Kenya. Since graduation, Léa has been exploring the treatment of gender-based violence in crises as a Labouisse Fellow, through placements in Australia, Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She loves accents and music to dance to like no one is watching. In the DR Congo next year, she is looking forward to learning more about the security field and eating delicious fish at the shores of Lake Kivu.

Alumni Update:

Kelly received her MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2018, where she focused on social impact and emerging markets. She now works in management consulting at Deloitte in San Francisco.

Fellow Bio:

Kelly is a Culture and Politics Major and African Studies minor who grew up all over the world in the United States, the UK and Russia. At Georgetown University, she engaged in various activities including serving as Secretary of the African Society of Georgetown and student tutor at the African Immigrant Refugee Foundation. Kelly studied abroad at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and spent summers interning in Ghana and Kenya, fulfilling her love for traveling and meeting new people. While in Rwanda next year, Kelly looks forward to making new friends, using her Kiswahili while picking up French and Kinyarwanda, dancing up a storm and going on some exciting trips around the region including finally climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Alumni Update:

Kelsey is working in the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center as an Assistant Director, where she had the privilege of welcoming four African heads of state to their offices as part of the first-ever US-Africa Leaders Summit in August 2014. She’s also continued her quest to find the best Ethiopian restaurant in Washington, DC!

Fellow Bio:

Kelsey is from Williamsburg, VA. She graduated with a BA in Political Science from Davidson College, where she was involved in the student newspaper, political organizations, and a women’s eating house. While at Davidson, she spent a semester abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, and traveled to Bogotá, Colombia. She also spent a summer in Washington, DC through the Davidson in Washington program, where she interned at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. While in Ethiopia next year, Kelsey looks forward to meeting new people, trying to pick up the local languages, and documenting her year in photographs.

Alumni Update:

Kate is now living in Washington, DC, working at the Council on Foreign Relations as Associate Director of Studies and missing Malawi’s sunsets.

Fellow Bio:

Kate studied International Relations and History, with a minor in French Literature, and studied abroad at Sciences Po in Paris. Since graduation, Kate has been working at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. There, she has worked as a research associate for U.S. foreign policy, special assistant to the director of Studies, and most recently, assistant director of Studies. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, sailing, biking, swimming, as well as baking.

Alumni Update:

Since her fellowship with African Impact, Kate moved to New York City to intern with the International Federation for Human Rights, a human rights group that conducts UN advocacy. She now works in Development for the International Rescue Committee, a refugee relief organization and PiAf fellowship organization. She will be attending graduate school this fall of 2015 for a Master’s in International Affairs, with a focus on International Law and Human Rights.

Fellow Bio:

Kate majored in International Studies with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. While at Emory, Kate was an officer of the Amnesty International club and Human Rights club, and a volunteer at The Village School, an elementary school for refugee girls. Kate has volunteered in Arusha, Tanzania, and studied Spanish and Political Science abroad in Salamanca, Spain. During her time in Atlanta, Kate has worked for the Amnesty International Southern Regional Office and the Carter Center. In Zambia next year, Kate can’t wait to see Victoria Falls, travel, and be inspired every day as a fellow at African Impact!

Alumni Update:

John has moved north to Rumbek, South Sudan, to manage a women’s social and economic empowerment program with IRC. The work’s been challenging and fascinating, but after two years in South Sudan he’s leaving in June. Though as they say there, once you’ve drunk the Nile waters, you’ll always come back.

Fellow Bio:

John graduated with a B.A. in African & African-American Studies and a minor in Digital Imaging & Photography. Though a New Jersey native, John has called St. Louis home for the last four years. In the past, he has served as editor-in-chief of his university’s social justice magazine, OneWorld, and interned as a case manager for refugees with special needs at the IRC’s Baltimore resettlement office. John studied in Nairobi during the spring of 2011 and traveled throughout Kenya, northern Tanzania, and western Uganda. He is excited to return to Nairobi and continue to pursue his interests in immigration and refugee affairs.

Alumni Update:

Jill is currently working at Hanover Research in their education research department. Though she has only been here for a short time, Jill is already excited by the exposure she is getting to the most pressing challenges facing higher and K12 educators. She won’t lie and say that she never thinks about returning to Africa-focused development work, but right now Jill is having a great time exploring education from a slightly different vantage point.

Fellow Bio:

Jill graduated with a degree in History, concentrating on Empires and Colonialism. She is originally from Chappaqua, NY but for the past five years has traded suburbia in for life in the big city. During college she helped found the Pre-Veterinary Society and was an avid member of Columbia’s Equestrian Club. Her interest in Africa was ignited when she studied abroad in Uganda and Rwanda, and developed during the spring of her junior year spent in Cape Town. Since graduating, Jill has devoted herself to tutoring, finishing up her Pre-Vet requirements, and exploring the New York City she never got to see while sequestered up in Morningside Heights. She can’t wait to begin working with the Kucetekela Foundation and delving into Lusaka’s hip-hop and Sunday brunch scenes.