Alumni Directory Display

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.

Alumni Update:

After his fellowship, Michael moved to Boston to complete an MD and an MPP at Harvard. He is currently a resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, also in Boston.

Fellow Bio:

Mike Honigberg ’08 is a Woodrow Wilson School major and pre-medical student from McLean, VA. At Princeton, Mike was a varsity swimmer, a dancer with BodyHype Dance company, a tour guide and officer of Orange Key, and co-chair of the PIIRS Undergraduate Fellows. He studied abroad at the University of Cape Town in the spring of 2007, an experience which instilled a love of Africa in Mike. Mike has worked in chemistry and nanotechnology research, in pediatric trauma care in Washington, DC, and in pharmaceutical consulting in Boston. Working this year to prevent and treat pediatric HIV in Lilongwe, Malawi, Mike can’t wait to immerse himself in Malawian culture and explore as much of Africa as possible.

Emma graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Global Health. During her senior year, she lived in Tanzania for four months interning for the National Institute of Medical Research. While there, she conducted research on hospital-acquired neonatal sepsis by observing WASH practices of health workers and collecting microbial samples. She previously interned at The World Bank, assisting on the implementation of health system development projects in fragile countries. As she is passionate about the environment, she interned for a community organization in New York focused on carbon emissions reduction, solid waste management, and sustainability. While in Washington, DC, she worked on confronting the city’s HIV/AIDS epidemic by interning with a mobile HIV testing organization and volunteering in middle schools to educate students about prevention. Emma then led the recruitment process at Georgetown Global Consulting, an organization that provides consulting to NGO’s in developing countries. There she also directed a project in Guatemala, communicating and collaborating with the Spanish-speaking client via a translator. She twice advocated on Capitol Hill for increased funding for the USAID Neglected Tropical Disease program with the END7 campaign to eradicate NTDs. 

Alumni Update:

Renee is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy at the University of California San Francisco, and is also co-Director of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for Emergency and Trauma Care, which focuses on the provision of emergency services in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fellow Bio:

Clare is a politics major from Montreal, Canada. At Princeton, she was manager of the Facebook Agency, a student employee at the library, and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Cloister Inn. She earned certificates in political economy and environmental studies. After graduating, Clare worked at Bain & Company for three years as a strategy consultant in Boston and London. Since completing the program, she spent three months volunteering and backpacking in Central/South America and worked for TechnoServe (business development consultancy) in Swaziland for three months. She is very excited to be in Kenya next year, and she is eager to learn, explore, meet lots of people, and start up some pick-up frisbee (if it’s not unbearably hot!).

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Sarra Hussien graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Psychology from the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in Spring 2024. At USC, she served as the President of Glimpse from the Globe, a foreign affairs publication on campus. She was also the Assistant Director of Advocacy for the Middle Eastern and North African Student Assembly, served on the Executive Board for the East African Student Association, and Director of PBL Programming for the Global Policy Institute, in addition to other leadership positions she held in other student organizations. She was an undergraduate researcher for the Near Crisis Project, where she analyzed the escalation processes of crises in Africa. Sarra also served as an on-call Amharic translator at Al Otro Lado, a local immigration firm. This past summer, she worked for the Africa Office of the Bureau of Refugees and Migration at the Department of State and contributed to the formulation of federal-level refugee policy, gaining more insight on the socio-political history of Africa and how countries like Kenya and Tanzania are addressing the refugee crises. Previously, she spent three months in Amman, Jordan working for the Jordan Health Aid Society, a non-governmental organization that provides health and psychosocial support services in Zaatari Refugee Camp. She also took courses on humanitarian action and refugee crisis response at the School of International Training in Amman, Jordan. Originally from Texas, Sarra enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling, and learning languages.

Tomas graduated from Davidson College in 2015, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. As an undergraduate, he worked with a professor on a study of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, sparking an interest in African conflict that led him to intern at the Enough Project and culminated in a senior thesis on the M23 rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After graduating, he joined the Congressional Research Service, where he assisted Africa analysts with research on a range of projects. While at CRS, he was fortunate to co-author reports on Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Boko Haram, and the Lord’s Resistance Army, among others. Tomas is very excited to join the International Rescue Committee in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he hopes to expand his knowledge of Sierra Leone and West Africa, gain insight into the challenges of governance and development in post-conflict societies, and (with any luck) learn a little Krio.

Alumni Update:

David is a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. Currently he is a Vice-Consul in Kinshasa, DRC.

Fellow Bio:

David is a government major from Irvington, NJ. At Harvard, he was president of the Harvard Haitian Alliance and a mentor to high school students in his hometown. He studied several African languages during his time at Harvard and enjoys listening to and collecting music in his free time. During his summers, he interned at the American embassy in Angola and worked for a bank in New York. While in Uganda next year, David looks forward to picking up a bit of the local language, exploring the country, and making new friends.

Alumni Update:

Ruba was the Outreach Coordinator for Princeton in Africa from February to September 2021. She is currently based in London, where she is attending The London School of Economics to get her master’s in international development and health.

Fellow Bio:

Ruba Idris is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Services, Certificates in Health Services and African Studies and a Minor in Economics. She is interested in foreign affairs, health and development and intends to pursue a Master’s Degree in International Development, and later in the future, a Masters of Public Health. Ruba originally hails from Sudan and her cultural duality as a Sudanese-American has provided her with a deeper cultural understanding of countries in the global north and the global south. She plans to return to the African continent where she is interested in translating economic and entrepreneurial potential present within the young population into concrete skills while reducing the health issues that impact the population and its productivity. She aspires to work for various organizations focusing on development such as USAID, the World Bank and the United Nations. Ruba is passionate about working with people from different backgrounds, exploring various cultures, examining and understanding trends and links within developing nations, and understanding holistic paradigms of development. These interests are portrayed through her panoply of courses, which encompass language, economics, health and history, amongst other topics, and the various activities she has participated in such as study abroad, research and student organizations. During her 4 years in undergraduate school, Ruba worked to cultivate her leadership skills through different leadership roles in student organizations, which include her positions as president of the African Students Organization and the vice president of Model African Union. She has also expanded her cultural competency and deepened her understanding of development through her study and work abroad in Tanzania, Ghana, and Honduras, and through her research work with local African communities. Other than academia, Ruba is also very passionate about fashion and owns a T-shirt business that aims to spread knowledge about the continent of Africa. She hopes to one day incorporate Fashion into the economic development of the continent by cultivating a robust fashion industry. Ruba is a critical thinker and loves to learn and improve her personal skills. She enjoys being mentally challenged and strives to understand other points of views. She hopes to develop into a well-rounded individual who can mold to any sector within the development realm.