Alumni Directory Display

Katie is a 2012 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a major in Political Science and minor in Global Poverty and Practice. After graduation, she worked in Washington, D.C. with the Department of Justice focusing on foreign corruption cases. She is passionate about disaster response and protection of displaced populations, with experience as a Disaster Assistance Team responder with the American Red Cross and as an intern with the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Katie is excited to broaden her knowledge of work in the humanitarian assistance field as a PiAf Fellow with the UN World Food Programme in Malawi, and looks forward to exploring the local music scene in Lilongwe, diving in Lake Malawi, and meeting new friends in “the Warm Heart of Africa.”

Ben grew up in Durango, CO (Go Broncos!) and graduated from American University’s School of Public Affairs with an interdisciplinary degree in Communications, Law, Economics, and Government. During college, Ben interned at several private organizations and government agencies while also working at AU’s Student Veterans Office. During his junior year, Ben studied for eight months in Nairobi, Kenya, and interned with Sisi ni Amani, a local peacebuilding organization that used targeted text messages to monitor violence and encourage peace during the run up to Kenya’s 2013 election. Ben also served as an official election observer at Kenya’s election headquarters during the week of voting. After graduating, Ben worked for the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He also served as the president of the Congressional African Staff Association, a bipartisan and bicameral group of congressional staffers who organize events on African issues and promote the continent on Capitol Hill. Ben is very excited to head back to Nairobi, where he hopes to add to the IRC’s incredible work, build on his Swahili, explore more of the continent with other Fellows, and experience another election.

Alumni Update:

Jessica has been living in Nairobi for the past two years, working with the East African NGO Twaweza and studying citizen activism and education for PiAf board member Evan Lieberman. As the research winds down, she is preparing to return to the US for graduate school in the fall of 2014.

Fellow Bio:

Jessica is from West Hartford, CT. She majored in ecology and evolutionary biology with a certificate in environmental studies. At Princeton, Jessica sang with the Princeton Tigerlilies, Princeton’s first female a cappella group, and was a member of Tower Club. During the spring semester of her junior year, she studied abroad in Panama with the EEB department’s semester-in-the-field program. Jessica is looking forward to working with 2iE in Burkina Faso to help bring clean water to rural families, and she is hoping to improve her French as well.

Elaina, a Maryland native graduated from Princeton University with a major in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a certificate in Global Health and Health Policy. Her interest in science and research began in high school when she was a part of the Science National Honor Society. She continued exploring biology fields the summer after freshman year at the Food and Drug Administration helping to research better ways of blood and platelet transfusions. After her junior year, Elaina spent 6 weeks in South Africa carrying out her Senior thesis research on the effects of African Elephants on ecosystem health. After spending the summer in South Africa she knew she wanted to go back to the continent to attempt to carry out more research in the field of conservation biology. She is excited to gain more experience in the field and continue to explore national parks as well as the African continent. 

Uma Guarnaccia graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s in Applied Psychology and a minor in Media, Culture, and Communication. At NYU, she made the Dean’s List two years in a row. Her interest in travel and service began with her trip to the Dominican Republic, where she developed curricula and taught English. She also spent a year fundraising for the same project. Uma expanded on this experience while studying in Ghana for four months. In Ghana, she volunteered at City of Refuge, an NGO, where she produced, directed, and developed two documentaries. While there, she also mentored children who were survivors of child slavery. Additionally, she developed curricula, tutored children on reading comprehension and English language skills, and created the school’s yearbook. Uma also has extensive research experience from her time as an intern at the Yale University Child Study Center. While there, she conducted structured assessments on anxiety disorders affecting parents and children. She analyzed data using SPSS to create two research projects. The results were presented at various research fairs and conferences. She also interned with Columbia University’s Global Mental Health Program, where she conducted qualitative interviews for a research project on intimate partner violence and substance abuse in Uganda. In addition, she wrote news content for the Global Clinical Practice Network website and produced a short video to raise awareness for refugee mental health. Subsequently, she also interned at The Quad Manhattan, an after-school program where she taught children with special needs.

Sofia graduated from Yale University in 2018, majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in in Urban Environment. Throughout university, she was heavily involved with the Yale Refugee Project. Raised in Mbabane, Sofia attended Waterford Kamhlaba UWC. In university, she maintained strong ties to the African continent, returning to work at the Wonder Workshop arts studio in Dar es Salaam, and later as an international volunteer and backhandler at Cheetah Outreach in Cape Town. During her junior year, Sofia studied as an exchange student at Université Paris IV: La Sorbonne, and was granted fellowship funding to return  to Paris the following year to pursue an independent urban studies research project using GIS and interviewing refugees and asylum seekers about urban green space. Sofia has also worked for MAD/Yale Leadership Summit and for the Louisville city government’s Office of Performance Improvement and Innovation. Sofia is passionate about making cities more accessible to marginalized groups.