Clare graduated from Colorado College with a major in English and minor in Russian, Nonviolence, and Music. The child of anthropologists, Clare spent extended periods of her life living with livestock herders in East Africa, where she learned, firsthand, of the daily challenges impoverished rural families face in developing countries. She also spent some time in Japan, where she learned about Kyoto’s education system. Through these varied experiences, she developed a commitment to eliminating barriers to high quality education and an interest in the policies that shape people’s everyday economic and educational realities. During college, Clare worked on political campaigns, served as a legislative intern for two United States Senators, and founded a college organization to address socioeconomic challenges. In her study abroad to Russia, she conducted research about Russians’ understandings of their identities from a contemporary global perspective. Upon graduating, Clare served as a Youth Specialist for the non-profit, Joint Initiatives, where she developed new strategies for strengthening youth voices at all levels of child and family systems and services. Clare’s fellowship with the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania has a mission she loves – providing high quality education supported by the indigenous community the organization serves.

Colin, a Miami native, graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. While an undergraduate, Colin studied abroad in South Asia, where he analyzed sustainable development interventions in Southern India and examined post-conflict challenges in Sri Lanka. His internship experiences included positions with Human Rights Watch, the Hudson Institute, and a boutique immigration legal team. After graduation, Colin was a program associate with the Population Reference Bureau working to support USAID-funded projects that addressed family planning, the environment, and reproductive health. Colin aspires to be an advocate for integrated development approaches, especially as it pertains to women’s empowerment and resilience. As a PiAf Fellow Colin is excited to serve with International Rescue Committee in Tanzania and build his capacity for grants management and proposal development.

Alumni Update:

Claire is a third-year law student at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where she has been able to further explore the intersections of health, law, and human rights that she saw during her fellowship year in Tanzania.

Fellow Bio:

Claire is from Richmond, VA and graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2015 with a degree in Foreign Affairs and French. While at UVA, she worked to facilitate dialogue around social, economic, and political issues as a Sustained Dialogue leader and group moderator and to promote interdisciplinary engagement in global public health issues as a student advisor at the UVA Center for Global Health. After graduating, Claire partnered with local agricultural cooperatives in rural, southwestern Rwanda to conduct research on gender equity as a UVA Center for Global Health Scholar. Following her return from Rwanda, she gained program management experience through her position on the Central and West Africa team at the National Democratic Institute, where she enjoyed supporting democracy development programs in Guinea, Niger, the DRC, Nigeria, and Ghana and having the opportunity to collaborate in French and English with her West African colleagues to solve programmatic challenges. Claire is excited to pursue her interest in the intersections of health equity, governance, and development through her position with CCBRT. She loves running, hiking, skiing, and cooking, and can’t wait to further explore East Africa and to work on her Swahili!

Alumni Update:

Carolyn is currently living and working in Chicago, IL. Since her fellowship, she has been working in public health policy and social policy. She did program evaluation of public health programs for the US Department of Health and Human Services. Now she is pursuing a PhD in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Originally from New Jersey, Caitlin received her bachelor’s degree in International Studies with a minor in economics. At American, Caitlin led an Alternative Spring Break trip to Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, during which she directed a group of undergraduate and graduate students to investigate food and labor justice in the American agri-food system. Caitlin’s undergraduate research culminated in her thesis: Identity, Food, and Conflict: How Heterogeneous Cuisine Sustains Violence in Somalia. Upon graduation, Caitlin joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign affairs “think tank” in Washington, D.C. Caitlin supported the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development and, in May of 2015, she helped launch the newly-revamped Global Food Security Project. As program manager, Caitlin oversaw all day-to-day logistics of the Global Food Security Project and supported the team’s research on the sustainability and efficiency of U.S. foreign assistance and agricultural development programs. Caitlin is a cat lady and a bookworm at heart, and is excited to eat every piece of delicious seafood she can get her hands on in Dar es Salaam.