Michael is from Stanwood, Washington and graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2015 with a B.A. in Science and Management (an inter-disciplinary major focused on biology and economics) and a sequence in Human Rights, Genocide, and Holocaust Studies. After his sophomore year in college, Michael worked with ThinkImpact for two months in eastern Rwanda where he collaborated with a team of community members to develop a social enterprise focused on promoting small-scale agricultural projects. In the fall of 2013, Michael interned in the finance department of the San Francisco-based biotechnology company FibroGen. The following summer he worked at Stiftung Solarenergie, a non-profit solar energy company in the Philippines, where he led healthcare workers in orientations for solar energy systems and researched the response of development organizations to Typhoon Haiyan. During his senior year at CMC, Michael was a fellow at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights, where he completed a thesis analyzing the economic and public health effects of progressive drug policies. In his free time, Michael enjoys backpacking, longboarding, and trying weird new foods. While in Ghana this year, Michael is extremely excited to learn more about infrastructure development in emerging markets through his work with eleQtra.

Although she was born and raised in Los Angeles, Melissa braved the arctic tundra of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with honors in 2015. She majored in International Studies, with an emphasis on global environment/health, and held dual minors in Science, Technology, and Society and African Studies. While in school, she was an intern for the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, served as an Employment Specialist Intern with the International Rescue Committee, and was an intern with USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS communications team. As part of a class on South African history, Melissa traveled to the country where she spent three weeks doing research on HIV treatment/prevention programs. She also spent half of her junior year abroad in Barcelona in a Spanish culture and immersion program. (Melissa is fluent in Spanish and has working proficiency in French.) Melissa has a long-standing concern with issues relating to global health, disaster/emergency aid, and hunger relief. She is excited to apply all she has learned to her work with the World Food Programme. In her spare time, she enjoys soccer – a game she hopes to continue playing while in South Africa. Before she comes back to the U.S., Melissa hopes to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Melissa previously worked as a Partnership Analyst at the United Nations Office for Projects Services (UNOPS) Brussels Liaison Office. She was born in San José, Costa Rica and in 2009 she moved to Northampton, Massachusetts to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Government at Smith College. In 2014 she completed a Master’s Degree in International Security at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris). She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French. Throughout her career Ms. Salazar has worked at a variety of international and governmental institutions such as: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Presidential House of Costa Rica, and the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office in Geneva. Her international experience has given Ms. Salazar an insight to the world of international diplomacy, and has made her passionate about development and security issues. Previously, Ms. Salazar was a member of the Smith College Club of France, where she acted as Point of contact for the Smith College Junior Year Abroad (JYA) students in Paris. She is also an active member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Honor Society in Political Science. She is a huge fan of travel, and her desire to discover the world has taken her to places like Israel, Malaysia and Chile. Melissa is looking forward to her work with Olam next year.

Meghan is originally from outside of Philadelphia, PA and graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park in May 2015. Meghan minored in Global Studies with a focus on global poverty. In 2013, Meghan participated in a short-term study abroad experience in Uganda, where she studied Global Leadership and Sustainable Development.  Meghan also served as the Development Intern for a Global Health non-profit, where she executed their first social media fundraising campaign and headed the official launch dinner in downtown Washington DC. Additionally, Meghan was deeply involved with the University of Maryland Alternative Breaks (AB) program, where she served and learned about social justice issues domestically and abroad. Also through AB, Meghan traveled to Haiti for two winters, and taught English at a pre-professional school. Through this she fell in love with teaching and saw education as a catalyst for development.  As a result, she spent much of her college career teaching Biology and Organic Chemistry to freshman and sophomore students. Meghan is so grateful to be serving in Botswana next year, and is excited to learn some Setswana, explore Southern Africa, and have a transformative experience teaching with Maru-a-Pula!

Melissa received her A.B. degree in Social Studies from Harvard University and master’s degree with distinction in Development Studies from Cambridge University.  Her academic work has focused on the intersection of health and politics, and she has additionally worked on access to medicines advocacy and research with the MSF Access Campaign, the Harvard School of Public Health, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, the Health Global Access Project in Nairobi, the Student Global AIDS Campaign, and is a commissioner for the Lancet Youth Commission on Essential Medicines Policies. Prior to joining CHAI, she was a consultant at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, focusing on advocacy and support to key populations in the context of transition from funding.

Meghan studied Global Health and Africana Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. Her journey in East Africa first began summer after freshman year when she took part in a peace development program in Kenya and interned at Ushirika, a community health clinic in Kibera Slum. She split her junior year between two countries—Tanzania and Costa Rica. In Tanzania, she studied intensive Swahili and worked as a maternal and neonatal health intern at the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital. She also adopted a kitten there and brought her back to the States! She spent her second semester in Costa Rica focusing on tropical medicine and carrying out research on zoonotic parasites. She was able to return to Tanzania that summer to collaboratively found a sports program focused on women’s empowerment and gender relations. At Holy Cross, Meghan spent a year researching social change in female genital cutting, a project which developed into her thesis. She is beyond excited to be back in Tanzania—besides working as hard as she can at BIPAI and making new friends, her goals are to learn to make her chapatti actually taste like it’s supposed to, improve her Swahili, and climb Kilimanjaro!

Alumni Update:

Meghan currently manages the US presence of Gardens for Health International. She is proud to be the only US employee for the organization which is fully locally-led and staffed in Rwanda.

Fellow Bio:

Meghan is from Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies with a focus field in Gender and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there, she wrote a senior thesis on the challenges of girls’ education in postsocialist Tanzania based on a case study of an American non-profit funded secondary school for vulnerable girls in Morogoro, Tanzania. She had also visited Tanzania the summer before when she spent two months running an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in a rural village outside of Arusha. She has also explored girls’ education organizations in the U.S., having been a Corporate Intern at Girl Rising in New York, where she managed corporate outreach and partnerships. Outside of these interests, she was also the president of her college a cappella group, the Harvard LowKeys, and plans to continue singing in Tanzania. While working for IEFT in Monduli, Tanzania, she hopes to learn even more about interventions in secondary school education in Tanzania while also being able to improve her Swahili, eat as much chapati as possible, and psych herself up to climb Kilimanjaro.

Caroline received her BA in International Studies from American University’s School of International Service, concentrating in peace and conflict resolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. While in school, Caroline interned with the international NGO, Search for Common Ground, the Department of State, and she spent time volunteering with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Before leaving Washington, DC, she will finish a fellowship with The Nexus Fund, an organization dedicated to supporting the global community to end mass atrocities. Caroline has traveled to Rwanda to study healing and justice after genocide, and she has studied Swahili in Zanzibar, Tanzania as a 2013 Boren Scholar. In 2014, Caroline was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar, and she hopes to dedicate her public service career to promoting transitional justice and reconciliation programming in the Great Lakes Region. Caroline is thrilled to have the opportunity to return to East Africa, and she looks forward to navigating the city of Nairobi and supporting the International Rescue Committee’s mission of helping those whose lives have been shattered by conflict or disaster to gain control of their futures.

Martha is originally from Sleepy Hollow, New York and graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California with a degree in Organismal Biology in 2015. Martha also studied Wildlife Management for a semester with The School for Field Studies in Rhotia, Tanzania and Kimana, Kenya. At Scripps, she completed her senior thesis on inorganic pollutants in Costa Rican watersheds, and she completed an additional directed research thesis on the implications of human encroachment on the Kimana-Kikarankot River during her time studying abroad in Kenya. She also has spent the past two summers interning with the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, which has been an invaluable experience. Martha’s future career interests include wildlife conservation and field research, but a Master’s degree inevitably must come first! Outside of academia, Martha enjoys Zumba fitness and alternative comedy. Martha is very excited to return to East Africa as well as to travel throughout the region, keep up with her Swahili, and learn Rutooro at her fellowship post in Kibaale. Her experience teaching English while abroad in Tanzania as well as her passion for wildlife conservation make her a happy and ready Fellow for The Kasiisi Project.

Originally from the Netherlands, Marlotte has spent the majority of her life in the United States and now calls Rockwood, Tennessee home. She graduated in May 2015 from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she double majored in Psychology and Child Development and double minored in European History and Environmental and Sustainability Studies. While in school, she interned for EnvironmentAmerica, Urban Green Lab, and the Houston Zoo’s Conservation Department, and designed her own research study focused on children and adults’ perceptions of helpful and harmful environmental actions. She also assisted on a research program investigating long-term cognitive effects of chemotherapy and radiation in Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients. In her free time, Marlotte loves any and all animals and enjoys cooking, any outdoor activity like hiking, sailing, or swimming, and discovering new places. She is excited to explore Kenya, learn Swahili, and work for the World Agroforestry Centre. Following this fellowship, she plans to pursue a PhD in Environmental Policy and Management.