Max hails from Issaquah, Washington, and studied International Studies with an environmental studies concentration and Environmental Science and Resource Management. He worked with environmental education during Alternative Spring Breaks in Eastern Washington, and co-founded Empowered Eco-Education with UW’s Earth Club in South Seattle. When not entertaining kids with nature and science, Max conducted remote sensing research on wetlands, and spent a quarter in South Africa studying ecology and falling in love with the savanna, Venda culture, and birding. As a proud Canadian, Max has enjoyed travelling to Québec to study arctic climate change and work with the consulate of Canada in Seattle. While in Uganda with The Kasiisi Project, Max looks forward to befriending chimpanzees (from a distance), hiking in the Mountains of the Moon, learning Rutooro, and sharing his camera with Ugandans.

Martha is originally from Sleepy Hollow, New York and graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California with a degree in Organismal Biology in 2015. Martha also studied Wildlife Management for a semester with The School for Field Studies in Rhotia, Tanzania and Kimana, Kenya. At Scripps, she completed her senior thesis on inorganic pollutants in Costa Rican watersheds, and she completed an additional directed research thesis on the implications of human encroachment on the Kimana-Kikarankot River during her time studying abroad in Kenya. She also has spent the past two summers interning with the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, which has been an invaluable experience. Martha’s future career interests include wildlife conservation and field research, but a Master’s degree inevitably must come first! Outside of academia, Martha enjoys Zumba fitness and alternative comedy. Martha is very excited to return to East Africa as well as to travel throughout the region, keep up with her Swahili, and learn Rutooro at her fellowship post in Kibaale. Her experience teaching English while abroad in Tanzania as well as her passion for wildlife conservation make her a happy and ready Fellow for The Kasiisi Project.

Alumni Update:

Since fall of 2018, Lindsey has taken on a new role as Assistant Professor of Global Health at Boston University. She is thrilled about the position that she thinks in many ways grew out of her PiAf experience!

Fellow Bio:

Lindsey Locks ‘07 hails from Philadelphia, PA. She majored in history at Princeton and minored in African studies. Lindsey had always had an interest in post-colonial societies, but her interest in Africa reached a new level when she studied abroad at the University of Cape Town, which served to provide the academic basis for her studies on Africa and also enabled her to travel around Southern Africa. Lindsey also found a summer internship through PiAF and spent last summer in Namibia working for a small NGO which provides HIV/AIDS education for Namibian school teachers. Lindsey is psyched to get a chance to explore a new part of Africa and to learn more about emergency relief – she will be working for the United Nations World Food Programme in Uganda.

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:

Lauren is currently a Behavioral Science Consultant with the World Bank’s Mind, Behavior and Development Unit and Gender Digital Advocacy Consultant with Save the Children US. In 2020, she graduated from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she was a fellow with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflict.

Fellow Bio:

Lauren is a recent graduate from Northwestern University and originally from Stamford, Connecticut. While at Northwestern, she majored in journalism, minored in sociology and completed a Certificate in Civic Engagement. She also reported from refugee camps in Malawi and Jordan, worked as an investigative reporting intern, and helped to found a leadership workshop for high school students. She spent three months working at a newspaper in Cape Town, South Africa in 2012, returned a year later on a research grant and has also worked in non-profit communications, specifically related to education and humanitarian aid. While in Uganda, she is excited to tell stories, get to know a new community and explore the world of international development.

Lauren grew up in Plymouth, MN. She was granted a leadership award to attend Colorado College, where she earned a B.A. in International Political Economy with minors in African and Asian Studies in December 2015. Following a semester in China becoming proficient in Mandarin and studying 20th century history and art, she spent the summer of 2014 trekking through the Annapurna region of Nepal investigating sustainability, religion, and the consequences of outmigration for Tibetan refugees. Lauren then traveled to Uganda, where she spent the fall semester studying Luganda and issues of East African development. During this time, she conducted an internship with the Uganda Red Cross Society at the Mungula Refugee Settlement and carried out independent research which culminated in a published report: “Agency of the South Sudanese: Compensating for Health Care in Mungula Refugee Settlement.” Lauren then spent the summer of 2015 traveling around Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Austria, and Germany to conduct research for her thesis, which analyzed market failures in the international provision of protection for Syrian refugees. Following graduation, Lauren worked in Minneapolis as a refugee resettlement assistant at the International Institute of Minnesota. She will spend the summer of 2016 developing extracurricular activities at the Highland Boarding School for Tibetan refugees in Dhunche, Nepal on a Kathryn W. Davis Projects for Peace Grant. Lauren is thrilled to have the opportunity to continue refugee work within Uganda as a Grants Fellow with the International Rescue Committee. She can’t wait to dust off her Luganda and explore all of the incredible hikes, dance clubs and whitewater rafting the region has to offer!

Alumni Update:

Kelly is still at CHAI in Uganda for now (coming up on 2 years), but she’s heading back to the U.S in a couple months to begin a graduate degree in Bioengineering Innovation and Design at Johns Hopkins. She is looking forward to bringing her knowledge of needs identification for essential child medicines and diagnostics to the program, and continuing to pursue systemic change to global health challenges in low-resource settings through strategic private sector initiatives.

Fellow Bio:

Kelly graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, Concentration in Global Health and Development. At Stanford, Kelly did extensive research, communications, and project management work for the Center for Innovation in Global Health and the United Nations Association Film Festival; she also lead afterschool science programming for underserved middle school students, and studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa and Moscow, Russia. After graduation, Kelly interned with the Clinton Foundation in New York, and now looks forward to working for the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Uganda. She hopes to trek the Rwenzori “Mountains of the Moon” and observe the famous gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. In her free time, Kelly likes to go hiking, take photographs, read and write, and cheer on the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

Fellow Bio:

Katie Fiorella ’06 is an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major from Haddonfield New Jersey.  At Princeton, she was a diver on the Swimming and Diving team, spent a summer working for UNESCO in Thailand, and participated in the EEB field semester in Panama.  Since graduating, Katie has been a Princeton Project 55 Fellow working at The Food Project, a youth and agriculture organization in Boston.  Katie will spend the coming year in Kampala, Uganda working for the regional office of the United Nations World Food Programme.  She is excited to learn more about international food security, escape the east coast cold by moving to a country that the equator passes through, and to finally have the opportunity to visit the site of her thesis research, Madagascar.

Alumni Update:

Katie is currently the Deputy Country Director at Action Against Hunger where she focuses on program quality, program development, and future-looking strategy. She is based in Erbil, Iraq.

Fellow Bio:

Katie studied International Development with concentrations in Economics and Sub-Saharan African Studies at UC Berkeley. Her passion for international development dates back to high school when she volunteered in Latin America with the immersion and community development program called AMIGOS de las Américas. Since then, she has worked in development through NGOs (Save the Children International, Women’s Microfinance Initiative), government agencies (State Department), multilateral organizations (UN High Commissioner on Refugees), community development programs (Mutual Financing of African Women, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant), academic research (UC Berkeley, Beatrice Bain Women’s Research Group, teaching “Development Theory and Praxis in Haiti”) and the private sector (Crowdsparc). Through these various experiences, Katie has lived and worked across the world including in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Uganda and Cameroon. Most formatively, in Cameroon Katie conducted research exploring the relationship between different microfinance packages and borrowers’ incidences of domestic violence, which became the foundation of her senior honors thesis. Given her passion for fieldwork and research, Katie eventually hopes to pursue a PhD. In the meantime, Katie is looking forward to moving back to Uganda in order to see her friends, work more closely on-the-ground with refugees and learn from professionals in the field.