Alumni Directory Display

Alumni Update:

Sarah currently works with the Global Impact Investing Network in New York City, increasing the scale and effectiveness of the impact investing industry. She has loved living in New York and working in the field, but will be leaving in May to travel before starting business school at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in the fall!

Fellow Bio:

Sarah majored in Economics and minored in English. On campus, she played JV and inter-mural soccer, volunteered with the Common Good Grant program, a student run philanthropy, and chaired Bowdoin’s Judicial Board. Since graduating, Sarah has worked as Business Analyst in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations practice. She has worked in a variety of industries, recently focusing on Finance strategy, and is interested in ways that business models can be used for social good. Sarah is originally from Washington DC, and has lived in Boston, MA for the past two years. She is excited to explore northern Ghana, and to better understand what really goes into the production of a cotton T-shirt!

Fellow Bio:

Cat Richardson ’08 is a Comparative Literature major from Princeton, NJ. At Princeton, she pursued a certificate in poetry with the Creative Writing program and studied French and Japanese. After studying abroad in Paris her Junior spring, she is excited for a longer commitment in Ghana and can’t wait to start her year there.

Lauren graduated from the University of South Florida with degrees in International Studies and Africana Studies. Interested in social justice, she mentored at-risk youth and refugees, interned for the Florida House of Representatives, developed a documentary awareness campaign about urban violence, and directed the USF alternative breaks program, leading service learning trips in the USA, Jamaica, and Costa Rica.  Lauren’s senior thesis documented contemporary homelessness in Tampa. Additionally, she conducted research on women’s microfinance in India and the informal economy in Panama. Lauren spent a year in Tanzania as a Boren Scholar, attaining advanced proficiency in Swahili. She was also selected as a 2014 International Speaker at the Indian Student Parliament in Pune, India, where she presented on income inequality and social justice to an audience of 10,000 people. Lauren is excited to explore southern Africa, play soccer, pick up some Setswana, and learn about education and development in Botswana.

India is from Bellevue, WA and is a 2014 graduate from Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges. At Pitzer, India created her own Global Health major and graduated with honors in Spanish. Through studying abroad twice, once in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and later in Botswana, she developed a strong interest in public health and pediatric care. As a former member of the Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer team and previous Soccer Without Borders coach, India is excited to explore athletics in Botswana. India is thrilled to return to Gaborone to work with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, and hopes that this experience will enrich her understanding of international health and pediatric epidemiology. After her PiAf placement, India will pursue a MSPH in International Health: Global Disease Epidemiology and Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Having traveled in over 30 countries, Michael Rivera is an interdisciplinary professional who seeks to understand how effective intercultural communication and empathy contribute to sustainable change. Michael earned dual degrees in music and biology with a certificate in Spanish medical interpreting from Florida State University. Thanks to an undergraduate research grant, he traveled to West Africa for the first time in 2016, where he conducted ethnographic fieldwork and ethnopoetic analysis of music-based health education initiatives funded by foreign and local organizations during the Ebola epidemic. His thesis was selected for presentation at the Society for Ethnomusicology’s annual meeting, and was subsequently published by Indiana University Press in Africa Today. Following graduation, Michael spent the next few years working with education and nonprofit institutions. As an AmeriCorps VISTA member, he established a mixed-methods evaluation system for Chicago-based nonprofit Harmony, Hope & Healing and co-developed the organization’s therapeutic songwriting curriculum for individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. As a 2021 graduate of the Global Leaders Institute for Arts Innovation, he co-designed and facilitated a five-week program evaluation workshop for over 10 Latin American organizations promoting music education for social change. As an ESOL instructor, he taught migrant workers for two years in the States; spent a year as a Fulbright scholar teaching in secondary schools in Côte d’Ivoire; and currently designs and teaches Business and Academic English courses at the African School of Economics in Benin. He is also an advisor for the university’s pre-doctoral program, where he provides career development coaching for students applying to top PhD programs in Europe and North America. In addition to being a PiAf Fellow this year, Michael is a Master’s-level candidate for the Cambridge Diploma in TESOL. He spends the rest of his time making music, studying languages, and writing for the Human Ingredients travel blog.

Sophia graduated with a Communication Studies major, International Studies minor, and Civic Engagement certificate. At Northwestern, she participated in various service and human rights-oriented student groups such as the fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, Northwestern University’s Conference on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and NU Bahá’í club, and served as a volunteer shift leader for Campus Kitchens. She was a member of both the Indian fusion dance team Mirch Masala and club rugby. Outside of school, she served as a volunteer at the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, and interned for non-profits like WorldChicago, the Baha’i Office of Public of Affairs in D.C., and IDEAS Association in Paris. Her interests include drawing and painting, cultural and interfaith activities, belly-dance, and travel. Inspired by her study abroad experiences in Madagascar and Paris, she hopes to continue seeking out new adventures and to pursue a career in international development. She is looking forward to learning as much as possible from all the new people she will come across through living and working in Johannesburg next year.

Anna Roberts is a Fellow with the International Rescue Committee in Sierra Leone. Before this, Anna spent six years navigating public-private partnerships in the United States, focusing her career on improving the lives of the poor. Anna worked as a Budget Director for New York City, serving a high-poverty district with a large population of religious minorities. As Budget Director, she ran the yearly $7mm budget, coordinated Get Out the Vote in four languages, and succeeded in getting childcare vouchers baselined in the NYC budget, benefiting poor families across New York. Anna also spent two years in affordable housing, working with state, federal, for-profit, and non-profit actors across the United States to bid on expiring government contracts in order to keep housing units affordable. Anna is a Dartmouth College alum, and just completed a master’s degree at Sciences Po in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action, with a concentration in African Studies. She is working on a yearlong research project for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights building a Participatory Policy Assessment tool that will better help policymakers evaluate policies related to people in poverty. Anna co-organized the 2021 International Humanitarian Studies Association conference, hosted by Sciences Po, where she moderated panels on conflict and sexual violence. Anna is excited to bring her experience with policy design, research, and stakeholder communication to the development and humanitarian fields.

Alumni Update:

Dan is currently working with ACDI/VOCA as part of the Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program. He worked on the Feed the Future Tanzania NAFAKA Cereals Market System Development project during his first year as a Leland Fellow and is now part of ACDI/VOCA’s Market Systems team in Washington DC.

Fellow Bio:

Dan graduated with a degree in Political Economy, and is originally from Dallas, TX. During his time at Georgetown, he studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, interned for an economic think tank and a sustainable development consulting firm, and led trips as an outdoor guide. Since graduating, Dan has worked in international development for two organizations including a recent position backstopping agricultural development projects around the world for a non-profit called CNFA. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, kayaking, playing and watching sports, and reading. While in Ghana next year, Dan looks forward to expanding on his agricultural development experience, learning some of the Akan language and exploring Ghana’s cultural and natural landmarks.  

Fellow Bio:

Hilary Robinson ‘07 is a history major from New York, NY. During her PiAF fellowship year, Hilary will serve as a writer/activist for Plan Uganda, a field office of the London-based Plan International (a children’s health and community infrastructure international non-governmental organization). She is an avid traveler and her passion for Africa stemmed from her studies at the University of Cape Town and her work with the Treatment Action Campaign in Mbekweni, South Africa. At Princeton, Hilary was the president of the Panhellenic Society and spent the majority of her time volunteering at a variety of children-focused organizations. She earned a certificate in American studies and looks forward to comparing her work in Uganda to both her American and South African experiences.

Anny, a native of Bogotá, Colombia, graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts with majors in Anthropology and Women’s and Gender Studies. A passionate reproductive health advocate, Anny was selected as a Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corp fellow, in 2015 and interned for Ibis Reproductive Health researching the intersection of maternal and child health and abortion access. At UMass she organized and led a service-learning initiative focused on indigenous women’s empowerment and safe stoves for improved indoor air quality in Guatemala. After this trip, she became the Education Coordinator for the Beacon Voyages for Service program at UMass, overseeing the social justice-based education for the program at large. Anny is also a former executive board member of Colombia Vive, a Boston-based human rights organization. Following graduation, she joined Timmy Global Health as their Medical Programs Coordinator in the Dominican Republic (DR). In this role she oversaw a community health promotion program and led regular medical service trips to several communities straddling the Haiti-DR border. Anny hopes to continue learning and advocating in the area of global public health and to dedicate her career to advance health as a human right across geographical borders.