Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Akornefa began working at Bates College as an Admission Counselor in 2014. She has had the opportunity to travel across the country for Bates and she is also the geoDean for Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Akornefa is from Madison, WI and studied Music while completing the premed track. At Columbia, she was a coordinator for the Multicultural Recruitment Committee and worked as an intern at the Undergraduate Admissions office at Columbia. She is also an accomplished flutist and performed with the Music Performance Program for students in Music Humanities classes, campus recitals and at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. As a member of the African Students Association, she wrote original songs for their annual showcase and also performed and choreographed for Orisha, a Pan- African Dance group. While in Gabon next year, Akornefa looks forward to perfecting her French speaking skills, having the opportunity to travel around Africa and starting a blog.

Esther Alaran is a first-generation Nigerian American born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Esther graduated from St. John’s University, Peter J. Tobin College of Business, with a degree in marketing and a double minor in finance and international studies. During her time at St. John’s University, she studied abroad in Italy, Spain, and France. In France, she took a “poverty and economic inequalities” course that educated her about the complexity of the global poverty issue which ignited a spark and desire for international development. Inspired by her experience abroad, she participated in St. John’s GLOBE program, a student-led global microfinance loan program, aimed to eliminate property one borrower at a time. She worked on the finance team where her team analyzed the borrower’s needs, ability to repay, and advocated for the approval of the loans. In 2019, she was selected as a GLOBE Fellow where she traveled to Guatemala with three other scholars to learn from local NGOs, volunteer, and meet potential borrowers. Upon graduation, she began her career working in the financial industry working with PNC Financial Bank in the Asset Management Developmental Program, a three year rotational program providing exposure to credit and cash management, estate planning and investments. During her last year of the program she worked in the PNC Private Bank COO office where she learned more about the strategies and initiatives driving the success of the business. Esther plans on utilizing her love of business and finance to work with African leaders to develop innovative solutions to transform the continent and its future leaders. 

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!

Although Nada was born in Atbara, Sudan and spent a part of her childhood in Saudi Arabia, Nada calls Saint Louis, Missouri home. At Princeton she was a member of the Department of Chemistry’s Class of 2014 and spent most of her time as an upperclassman conducting solid-state research aimed at synthesizing and studying thermoelectrics materials suitable for alternative cooling device applications. Outside of the lab, she was involved with Princeton’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign; the Triangle Club, a touring original musical comedy troupe; as well as Community Action, a freshman pre-orientation program. An enthusiast of foreign languages and a firm believer in their utility as mediums for cultural transmission, she has dedicated a significant portion of her coursework to studying Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Arabic and hopes that her time in Botswana will allow her to add Setswana to the list. In the future, Nada plans to use what she has learned from her studies, both scientific and cultural, to inform her actions as a global citizen and a physician. Until then, she is excited beyond words both to join Maru-a-Pula as the new Junior Math Fellow and to adventure across Africa.

Camille graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Human Rights, specializing in Anthropology, and a degree in Latin American & Iberian Cultures. After graduation, she worked on emergency operations with the World Food Programme in Haiti as well as with emergency preparedness and resilience activities, giving her exposure to the work of humanitarian agencies within a peacekeeping context. Camille interned in Colombia for Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, a think tank analyzing conflict, peace, and reconciliation. She was also a legal intern at the European Roma Rights Centre and worked on cases concerning Romani evictions from settlements. She later conducted research in the Brazilian Amazon, accompanying researchers funded by a National Geographic grant, which helped focus her thesis on cultural responses to legal challenges of communities in this region, for which she received the Susan V Huntington Prize. Alongside her studies, Camille developed a lengthy field project involving resettlement with the Biloxi-Chitimacha Choctaw Tribal Council, whose community faces many political and environmental challenges. She has also worked with other human rights and humanitarian organizations in New York and is very excited about her fellowship in Nairobi to continue her work in these fields!

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.

Danielle graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015 with majors in Global Studies (concentration: International Politics and Social Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa) and Sociology and a minor in Public Policy. Danielle is a writer and activist and her undergraduate experiences include work with the U.S. State Department Bureau for African Affairs, summer research and internships in Busia, Uganda and Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and leadership roles in the Washington, D.C. based human rights advocacy organizations STAND and the Enough Project. Danielle completed her senior honors thesis on the United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern DRC (MONUSCO), evaluating the mission’s ability to fulfill its mandate to protect Congolese civilians in the province of South Kivu. While at Carolina, Danielle published blog posts through STAND, Mamafrica Designs, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Enough Project, each examining the economic dimensions of ongoing conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa. While working as a Communications Fellow for Gardens for Health International in Rwanda, Danielle hopes to learn Kinyarwanda, improve her Kiswahili and French, do a lot of hiking and gorilla trekking, and improve her photography skills.

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Muhannad is a Consultant at Dalberg Advisors with documented knowledge and experience in strategy and program development and organizational reform. At Dalberg, he deploys his analytical skills and organizational acumen to solve complex problems and his communication abilities to create convincing storylines accordingly. Muhannad was engaged in multiple Dalberg projects that tackle development challenges, including improving the UN Mine Action Service’s delivery model, designing a $30M global initiative to empower people with disabilities, and conceiving and executing two events on advancing clean energy in Small Island Developing States and closing the digital divide. He also plays the role of Ombudsperson in the Abu Dhabi office, which entails running pulse surveys, facilitating conversations on well-being, and offering an anonymous channel for team members to flag concerns to leadership. Prior to Dalberg, Muhannad pursued several research opportunities in the field of international development, specifically related to governance, economic development, and sustainability. For example, he worked for one year with Professor Robert Kubinec on studying private sector corruption in developing countries in the Middle East and he completed a sustainability research internship with The UAE Dolphin Project, a non-profit conservation initiative. As part of his studies at New York University Abu Dhabi, and driven by his deep interest in the humanitarian-development nexus, Muhannad published a research paper on the effects of recent refugee influxes on regional economic, social, and labor market indicators in Germany. Hailing from Jordan, Muhannad holds a B.A. degree in Economics and is a native Arabic speaker.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Alexandra has stayed on with her fellowship organization, eleQtra, as a financial associate and now splits her time between New York City and Kampala. She is currently working on developing and investing in a number of power projects in Uganda and Rwanda, including gas, solar, and hydro.

Fellow Bio:

Alie is from Tucson, AZ, and is a 2011 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Alie majored in Finance and minored in Mathematics, Economics, and French. While at Penn, Alie lived abroad twice in Compiègne and Paris, France, studying at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. Since graduation, Alie has worked in the Public Sector and Infrastructure Investment Banking group at Goldman Sachs in New York City. In her free time, Alie enjoys dance, yoga, cooking, traveling, and running half marathons. While in Uganda next year, Alie looks forward to exploring East Africa, learning a new language, and influencing international infrastructure development through her work with EleQtra.

Christina graduated with honors from Howard University in 2016 with a degree in Political Science, concentrating in International Relations. She is a recipient of the Laureate Scholarship, the second highest academic scholarship offered at Howard. Christina has years of experience working with youth, which began with tutoring underserved students in Philadelphia during high school. Throughout all four years of college, Christina served as a Peer Health Educator and taught a comprehensive health education curriculum to underserved students in D.C. She was an intern at Families USA, a health care advocacy organization. In that role, she supported hundreds of organizations working to enroll Americans  in the new Affordable Care Act health insurance policy. She was also a research intern at the Global Health Policy Center during the height of the Ebola epidemic; she reviewed relevant journals, reports, and other publications for information that supported the Center’s publications and meetings, and much of her work focused on Africa. A passionate student leader, Christina served as the president of Howard University’s Health Professions Society, which plans programs and initiatives to support students interested in pursuing careers in healthcare. She was also co-president of GlobeMED at Howard, an organization committed to global health equity. She has also held positions in student council, the debate team, and the African Students Association.