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.

Maria was born and raised in Mexico City where she attended a French Lycée. She recently graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi with a major in Economics and a minor in Business. As an undergraduate, Maria was deeply interested in social entrepreneurship. She participated in Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s Bootcamp where she created her own startup with a social focus. She also worked at Endeavor Mexico where she studied the challenges and opportunities of Tech companies in developing countries. In parallel, Maria participated in numerous research projects in development economics. From analyzing the gender profit gap in North Africa with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to conducting research on the global trends of education, and leading her own research project on the female labor participation in North Africa, she developed strong quantitative and qualitative research skills. Maria hopes to combine a passion for social entrepreneurship with her research skills to empower women. As a PiAf Fellow, she is extremely excited and humbled to direct said interest toward the Togolese health sector, and work on issues such as infant mortality and women’s death from preventable causes. Maria speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and enjoys long runs, cooking, and playing the piano.

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!

Monica was born in Tennessee but has always felt more comfortable on a plane traveling somewhere new.  At Stanford, she majored in Human Biology with a concentration in Global Development and Social Justice and minored in French.  After her sophomore year, while attempting to research the connection between colonialism and maternal health outcomes, she traveled to Madagascar and Uganda and found herself deeply changed in the process.  Newly committed to social impact, she worked at Dalberg Global Development Advisors in Washington, D.C., volunteered at East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring, directed Stanford’s student government’s Social Impact Initiative, chaired the Pre-Professional Team of the Social Entrepreneurial Students’ Association, and wrote an honors thesis in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law about the effect of contraceptive prevalence on maternal mortality.  Before leaving for Togo, she worked at the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.  Monica is obsessed with coffee and tea from around the world and can’t wait to see what new adventures await her in West Africa.  While still figuring out whether she wants to pursue a career as a physician, she hopes to soak in the experience and become a more informed global citizen.

Alumni Update:

Last year Lauren started a job as a Grants Coordinator for Elevate, a grant writing and non-profit strategy firm in Washington DC. She is excited to continue to use the experience she gained working with Integrate Health to make her an effective member of her team!

Fellow Bio:

Lauren graduated from George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs with a BA in International Affairs, concentrating in Global Public Health and International Development and used her French to spend a semester at Sciences Po in Paris. Since her freshman year, she has worked for the Grassroot Project, a non-profit that trains student- athletes to teach middle school students sexual education, specifically addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in DC. She is a founding member of No Lost Generation, a student initiative partnered with the State Department aimed at providing quality education for refugee youth. She has interned in the West Africa office of Human Rights Watch, focusing on media monitoring for Senegal and Gambia. She spent 6 months as an intern in the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Affairs at Peace Corps supporting the Acting Director. Lauren utilized a summer interning with WomanCare Global, where she worked on a USAID project to support the introduction of new woman-initiated technologies to meet the reproductive health needs of women and girls. She also interned for Athletes for Hope where she connected Olympic and professional athletes to charitable organizations, including Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Active Schools initiative. As a member of the D1 Cross Country/Track team at GW, Lauren was selected by coaches for the Athletic Leadership Academy and was nominated for an Excellence in Student Life Award for contributing to a culture of philanthropy and voluntarism on campus. She is looking forward to continuing her commitment to public health at Integrate Health as their Capacity Building Fellow in Kara, Togo!

Emily is from Duxbury, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University in 2016 with an A.B. in Neurobiology and a citation in French. While there she wrote her senior thesis on the role of the environment in the development of the face recognition system in macaques. Outside of the lab, Emily took advantage of as many chances as she could to travel. She spent a summer studying evolutionary biology at a Harvard program in Oxford, a semester studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, and a summer running an HIV/AIDS education campaign in a rural village outside of Arusha, Tanzania. On campus she served as a director for several different service groups, running after-school science clubs for underserved young girls and directing a “buddy” program to address the social and emotional isolation experienced by Alzheimer’s patients. She has long been interested in the field of public health and is excited to throw herself into this interest during her fellowship year working for Hope Through Health in Kara, Togo.

Amanda graduated from Georgetown University in 2017 with a degree in International Health.  While at Georgetown, Amanda volunteered as an Emergency Medical Technician and ambulance driver in Washington DC. She held a number of internships during her academic career including at HIPS, a harm-reduction NGO that works with high risk populations for HIV prevention and health promotion. She also interned in the Social and Behavior Change Communication department at FHI360, a nonprofit human development organization. Amanda was able to pursue her passion for public health while doing research abroad at the Western Australian Centre for Rural Health, where she focused on social resilience programs for at-risk youth. She conducted evaluations of a social resilience program implemented in schools and helped deliver youth empowerment programs in several schools across Western Australia. Originally from France, Amanda has lived in Colorado for the past 10 years. She loves the outdoors, good food and coffee. She looks forward to exploring Togo and working with Hope Through Health!