Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

In the year since his fellowship, Nabil has been working in Washington, DC as a research assistant at the Center for Global Development, an independent think tank that focuses on issues in international development. His work at CGD is concentrated on migration, aid effectiveness, and international financial institutions.

Fellow Bio:

Nabil is from Simsbury, CT and graduated with a degree in International Political Economy and a certificate in International Development. While at Georgetown, he helped start Compass Partners, a nonprofit organization that works with college freshmen around the country to launch their own social enterprises. Since graduating he has been working full-time to bring Compass to more schools in the US and abroad. In his free time, he enjoys running, reading, and making his own ice cream. While in Gabon next year with Olam International, Nabil looks forward to learning more about the role for-profit companies can play in development, eating fresh mangos, and getting to know new people and a new country.

Nima recently graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Sociology. While in college, she explored interests in development, economic inequality, and global trends in race and racism. This year she will be working with Population Services International’s East Africa office, based in Nairobi. The fact that some of the world’s citizens live decades longer and healthier lives than others is one of her biggest concerns, so she is very excited about starting work at PSI. She’s looking forward to applying both new methods (like mobile delivery of health services and social marketing) and more familiar ones (social science research) towards that end. During her fellowship, she hopes to explore the Nairobi food scene, improve her Somali (the language of her cultural heritage) and eat way more nyama choma than is wise.

A Southern California native, Khadija Hassanali graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. As an undergraduate, Khadija returned to her mother’s home country of Tanzania to work with the Asante Africa Foundation, an NGO that administers programs to increase the accessibility and quality of education in East Africa. During her sophomore and senior year, she competed in the Hult Prize Competition, in which she developed social enterprise solutions to tackle the issues of Early Childhood Education and the Refugee Crisis. Inspired by the intersection of business, technology, and social innovation, Khadija interned with Tectonica Studios, a start-up in Buenos Aires, Argentina that creates websites for political campaigns and NGOs. The fall of her junior year, Khadija studied in Granada, Spain, where she honed her Spanish language skills and studied the history of the Andalucia. Most recently, she interned with Deloitte Consulting, where she worked with a major healthcare client in the Bay Area. Khadija is looking forward to developing her interests in technology innovation as a Data Analyst and Project Manager at mSurvey in Kenya. Climbing shoes packed, she is eager to scramble around Nairobi and learn about the city her parents immigrated from.

Alumni Update:

Nicholas is based in Durham, NC while completing a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Nicholas applied to the 2020 medical school application cycle, and ultimately hopes to focus on sexual health amongst LGBTQ* adolescents.

Fellow Bio:

Nicholas, a native of North Carolina, ( UNC ’17) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in American Studies and minor in Social and Economic Justice. While at Carolina, he co-founded UNC’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to challenge stigma surrounding mental illness. He worked with University administration to enhance mental health-related policies and procedures affecting students, faculty, and staff. He has also worked with the Infectious Disease Clinic at UNC Hospitals to craft a nutritional program for the clinic’s HIV patients, with a focus on the intersection of nutrition, race, and class. Nicholas is an alumnus of Columbia University’s Summer Public Health Scholars Program (SPHSP). While studying at the Mailman School of Public Health, he served as an HIV/AIDS Prevention and Outreach Intern with CAMBA where he facilitated focus-group sessions comprised of parents of LGBTQ* youth to communicate the relationship between familial acceptance and positive health outcomes in queer adolescents. For fun, Nicholas enjoys spending time with friends, watching sports (go Heels!), staying active, and binge-watching Rupaul’s Drag Race. He’s honored to join BIPAI Botswana and explore Gaborone and beyond!

Fellow Bio:

Leah (Princeton ‘11) is an English major from Montclair, NJ. She also earned a certificate in Spanish and studied in Spain through the Princeton in Toledo Program. While in college, Leah spent a semester at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and studied at the University of Leeds in England during the fall semester of her senior year. At Princeton, Leah danced in the Expressions dance company and interned at Princeton Alumni Weekly. While in Uganda next year, she hopes to travel, take African dance classes, and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro without passing out.

Alumni Update:

Ela is currently the Communications Manager for Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, an international unit focused on housing market systems development in more than 40 countries.

Fellow Bio:

Ela, a native of Canada, graduated from Davidson College with an honors degree in History focusing on colonial Africa and the diaspora. While at Davidson, Ela studied abroad in Dakar, Senegal and completed independent research at the British Library as a Kemp Scholar and Kelley Scholar, which culminated in an 80-page honors thesis on the British East India Company’s dependence on African slavery. After graduating, Ela worked for Habitat for Humanity International in Washington DC, supporting their global programs in WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), land tenure, gender, and urban development. As a fellow, she helped organize regional conferences on land tenure in South Africa and the Philippines and represented Habitat at the ninth World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Prior to working for Habitat, Ela served on the international Board of Directors of WE Charity, traveling as a speaker. She also shared the stage with Al Gore, on various occasions, addressing top media executives, including CEOs from Fox, Time Warner, and Universal McCann. Ela is also a proud alumni of Pearson College UWC in British Columbia, Canada.

Alumni Update:

Alex is currently a first-year MBA student at the Yale School of Management. She will be spending her summer interning at the Boston Consulting Group in Philadelphia.

Fellow Bio:

Alex is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame where she majored in Political Science and Peace Studies. Since graduating, Alex has worked as the Raise Hope for Congo Assistant Campaign Manager at The Enough Project, part of the Center for American Progress, in Washington D.C. She develops campaigns targeting both the U.S. government and major electronics companies that use the Democratic Republic of Congo’s minerals to address the root causes of conflict in eastern Congo. As a student, Alex studied in Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, and most recently she traveled to the eastern Congo with Enough. In her free time, she plays soccer on two co-ed teams and likes to go on long bike rides around D.C. Alex is excited to explore West Africa and see first-hand how multinational companies can operate successfully and responsibly in Africa.