Alumni Directory Display

Esther graduated from Duke University with a degree in Political Science. She has a diverse background working internationally and domestically and is driven to develop sustainable avenues of assistance that foster thriving local economies. Most recently, she worked for the City of Cleveland’s Department of Economic Development where she worked to stimulate the attraction of private investment and support entrepreneurship and small business development. Her portfolio invested over $20M, leveraged over eight times of private investment, and caused the creation of ~1500 jobs in the local economy. She also has significant field experience, having conducted qualitative research with displaced populations in eastern Nepal and Cairo, Egypt, worked in Amman, Jordan on conflict prevention, and conducted outreach with immigrants at the Legal Aid Society in the boroughs of New York. Esther sees the potential for social enterprise development and impact capital to deliver financial inclusion and economic development globally and looks forward to joining Global Partnerships in Nairobi, Kenya as a Social Investment Associate to invest in and scale sustainable, impactful enterprises.

Isaac Kim is a recent graduate of Georgetown University with a major in International Politics and a certificate in African Studies. Originally from Northbrook, Illinois, Isaac focused his undergraduate education on the human impacts of environmental change and policy. Previously, Isaac worked as an external relations intern at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Multi-Country Office of Washington, DC, supporting the external relations team’s engagement with US government officials to sustain support for UNHCR’s humanitarian work. Additionally, he has interned at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, worked as a community development intern at the Lalibela Game Reserve in South Africa, and helped organize the Georgetown Africa Business Conference. In his free time, Isaac enjoys singing choral music and working as a camp counselor at Lac du Bois, a French language immersion camp.

Alumni Update:

After her fellowship, Frances traveled around the globe. On her return to the US, Frances took an AmeriCorps position in an inner-city high school in Boston, and then taught for 2 years in a San Diego middle school. Frances then returned home to Ann Arbor, MI to attend law school. She moved to Washington after graduation and worked for a law firm for 3 years before landing her dream job with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, where she investigates claims of innocence and litigates them if she finds them credible and legally viable.

Fellow Bio:

Tiffany ’09 was an Anthropology and French double-major at the University of Virginia. She is a Liberian-American who lived throughout Africa during her childhood. At the University of Virginia, Tiffany was an active member of the organization of African Students and her fourth year participated in a year-long academic internship program in which she worked for a local nonprofit organization. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, reading, and cooking dishes from all around the world. UVA alum, Tiffany spent the past year working for two NGOs: Africare (in Washington, DC) and the American Jewish World Service (in New York City). While in Uganda, next year, Tiffany looks forward to getting acquainted with the local culture and food, and learning a lot about herself in the process.

Hilary recently finished her Master’s Degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she studied International Development. She spent the first year of her MA on the SAIS campus in Bologna, Italy, and then worked in Paris last summer as a consultant for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Interested in global health, Hilary was an Emergency Health and Nutrition intern for Save the Children in DC this past fall, and looks forward to gaining more experience with PSI in Nairobi next year. Hilary also received her BA from Johns Hopkins, where she pursued a double major in International Studies and Spanish, and a minor in Entrepreneurship & Management. She loves traveling, biking, and running, and is hoping to explore East Africa and learn Swahili while in Kenya.

Alumni Update:

Ruby is currently the Internship Coordinator at Generations Ahead, an organization that empowers young parents, in Traverse City, Michigan.

Fellow Bio:

Ruby graduated from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan in 2017, focusing in African Development and Policy. At the University of Michigan, Ruby was the co-president of the Roosevelt Institute, a student-run policy think tank. Through Roosevelt, she led an initiative to increase the university’s procurement from local women- and minority-owned businesses and published a policy on reforming regulations for Michigan charter schools in the national 10 Ideas Journal. She was also president of the Advisory Council for the Global Scholars Program (GSP), a living community focused on global social justice. Ruby has interned with the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative in Washington, D.C., the Department of State at the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, and local political campaigns in her hometown of Traverse City, Michigan. While working at the Embassy, Ruby loved traveling to speak with students about higher education and testing out her Swahili on her very patient co-workers. She is extremely excited to return to Tanzania and work with IEFT. Ruby loves reading by the lake (any lake), her dog, Rosie, and hosting game nights with friends.

Alumni Update:

Ryan currently works as a Program Officer with FHI 360.

Fellow Bio:

Ryan is from Holland, Pennsylvania and graduated with a degree in Anthropology. Interested in the intersections between public health, culture and food, Ryan conducted senior thesis research on neighborhood food access in Baltimore city and worked for a year as a research assistant at the Center for a Livable Future. At Hopkins, he participated in the Baltimore Collegetown Leadershape Program and organized food justice volunteer initiatives through the Center for Social Concern. Abroad, Ryan interned for a summer with the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health and Population Services International in Kigali, Rwanda, spent a semester studying abroad across Kenya, and pursued an independent study of the street food industry in Kisumu, Kenya. Ryan looks forward to picking up some Wolof, traveling through West Africa and exploring Senegalese culture this upcoming year.

While originally from the Netherlands, Liselot spent majority of her life living in different cities across America and now calls Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home. She graduated in May 2016 from Georgetown University, where she majored in International Health. While at Georgetown, she was a volunteer and community outreach intern for DC SCORES, a health-policy research intern at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), and a volunteer in the DC community as a tutor and teaching assistant. During her senior fall semester, Liselot was a researcher at the National Institute of Medical Research in Dar es Salaam, completing her senior thesis on anemia and its risk factors in children under the age of two in rural Tanzania. Throughout college, Liselot was also a member of the varsity tennis team. When not playing tennis, her summer experiences included being an ambassador and a high school teacher in Zanzibar for America’s Unofficial Ambassadors, a fitness fundraising intern at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and a neurology nursing assistant at a hospital in Amsterdam. She is looking forward to discovering a new part of Africa, continuing to work in the public health sphere, meeting new people, and hopefully using her fluency in Dutch to learn some Afrikaans.

Alumni Update:

Julie is continuing to work as a Staff Attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project where she represents forced migrants in the legal processes to safety.

Fellow Bio:

Julie (Northwestern ‘11) is from West Bloomfield, Michigan and studied Social Policy, Political Science and Global Health in college. During her time at Northwestern, she co-directed the Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights, the largest-undergraduate student-run, student-attended conference on human rights in the country. She wrote her honor’s thesis on the effects of overseas cultural orientation programs on refugees’ perceptions of America and studied the traditional and modern health fields in Kampala, Uganda. Julie has worked for both Heartland Alliance and Refugee One doing advocacy and resettlement work with refugees. Julie is thrilled to be returning to Uganda next year to work with the Lutheran World Federation. She is excited to eat matooke, practice her Ugandan dance moves and meet inspiring people.

Fellow Bio:

Emily (Wesleyan ‘11) is from Princeton, NJ. She majored in Psychology and French Studies and received the Writing Certificate. At Wesleyan, Emily was a member of the club ski team, the Ebony Singers gospel choir, and she led a community service group that taught elementary school children about disabilities through puppet theater. While in Botswana next year, Emily looks forward to learning more about pediatric HIV/AIDS care before she heads off to medical school.