International Programs

Nelly was born in Western Kenya and trained as a nurse at a college in Kisumu. When she married a man from Kuria, Nelly moved to Nyametaburo and began working at the Dispensary as the head nurse. She joined Nuru out of a desire to proactively care for the community through trainings and large scale health awareness campaigns.  She is married to Boniface and has one child.

Julius is 24 years old and was born and raised in Kuria. He is the oldest of 6 siblings, and has been involved in community activism since his teens.  He started a self-help group for vulnerable women in his community (i.e. HIV patients, second wives, widows, single mother, etc), and has worked and volunteered with Kenya Volunteer Development Association for the past 8 years (yes, he started when he was still in Primary School!).  He earns money for his family by farming maize, and in his free time he works with foreign volunteers that come to Nyabohanse. He is thrilled to be working with Nuru as the Volunteer Partner Program Field Manager, and is excited to introduce volunteers to his home community of Kuria.

James is a native of the Nyametburo and Nyangiti area.  He attended secondary school in Kisii but returned to his home community to work as a representative with British American Tobacco Co. He has since left BAT and is excited to be working with Nuru to end extreme poverty in his home community by teaching farmers to increase their maize yields. James is married and has 3 young children.

Francis Magige was born in Tanzania, but moved to Kenya to finish his academic studies when he was 12 years old. After completing secondary school, he was trained and certified as a teacher and began a long career in education. Francis served as a head teacher in Kenyan public schools for over 20 years before becoming an Education Officer for the Ministry of Education in 2000.  In 2006, he retired from the ministry, but continued to work as a secondary school teacher in Tanzania in order to pay for his children’s education. Francis joined Nuru in 2009 as the Education Field Officer, where his lifelong experience as an educator guides him everyday as he works to improve the state of education in Kuria West. Francis is married to a Mama Christine, also a teacher, and has 5 children.

Philip is a native of Kuria, Kenya and an experienced leader of community-based partnership and empowerment programs. After completing secondary school he traveled to Nairobi and entered seminary to become a priest. He later sacrificed his aspirations for the priesthood to join the workforce and assist his father in providing for the education of his brothers and sisters. Philip worked for over two decades at Standard Bank in Nairobi, starting as a clerk and eventually rising to become a customer service manager and accountant. Now retired, Phillip has chosen to invest his retirement years back into his home community where he’s involved in poverty reduction efforts both in his local church and community. He and his wife Anastasia have 5 children.

Eunice was born in Tanzania (just a few minutes walk from Nyametaburo and Kuria). After completing her Form 4, she enrolled at a teacher's college in Kenya and worked in the Kuria area. Eunice manages the Nuru Field Office in Nyametaburo, and assists in all kinds of clerical work. She is married and has five children.

Andrew was born and raised in the Nyametaburo and Nyangiti area, and has traveled throughout the Bukira West District.  He completed Form 4 at Isibania Secondary School and worked as a clerk with the electrical commission of Kenya.  Before joining Nuru, Andrew worked as a monitor with Alliance Tobacco company where he developed deep relationships with local farmers.  As Nuru's Educational Field Officer, Andrew leverages those relationships to encourage local farmers no longer plant tobacco but to join Nuru and grow maize. He is married with two young children.

Moses was born in Nyametaburo. He has five brothers and three sisters. After completing secondary school he attended Nairobi Aviation College, obtaining his diploma in sales and marketing. He worked in cotton exports with Badugu Ginning in Tanzania before returning home, where Nuru had recently launched the Community Economic Development Program. Eager to work with the community and create awareness of Nuru, he immediately volunteered with the CED Program. Moses continues to educate and serve the community as CED Field Manager.

Chelsea is a recent graduate of Stanford University, where she earned degrees in Sociology, Arabic and Feminist Studies. Throughout her undergraduate career Chelsea has taken the opportunity to explore issues of community development and grassroots social change from both inside the classroom and beyond. In addition to her formal studies, she has traveled to countries in South America and the Middle East in order to conduct independent research and service learning projects dealing with education and women’s issues in the developing world. She is interested in cultivating these interests into a lifelong career in international development and is thrilled to have to opportunity to work with Nuru as their first intern in Foundation Team Three.

Prior to coming on board with Nuru International David held several research and evaluation positions with government agencies and private organizations. David left his position at an environmental consulting company to come and serve with Nuru. In 2010 he married his best friend Janine Brown, who has been with Nuru since FT1. Believing strongly that our lives are to be lived and poured out to those in the world around us, he feels privileged to work and learn alongside the people of Kenya with Nuru International. David was born and raised in a small town outside of Atlanta, GA. Since he was a child, his love for the environment, outdoors and adventure have guided many of the journeys and experiences that have marked his days. David went on to study at the University of Georgia and Wollongong University in NSW, Australia and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Health Science and a Masters in Public Health. With a love for travel and a deep seeded desire to see and better understand the world in which we live, he has studied, traveled and worked in Australia, Peru, Africa, Fiji, Costa Rica and Mexico and completed a 5-month thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail; walking the length of the United States from Maine to Georgia.

Janine is a Georgia girl who earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Georgia State University and went to West Virginia to pursue a Masters. While earning her Master of Public Health, Janine found that she was passionate about creating sustainable and holistic healthcare solutions that would help people survive, thrive, and live life to the full! Janine gained experience with community mobilization from a grassroots campaign she initiated in Morgantown, WV to raise funds, awareness, and promote advocacy for children in need of inexpensive drugs for preventable illnesses. She also learned how to lead volunteers during her experience as Program Manager for a local WV Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Her travels to Tanzania to research community health programs assured her of the specific calling on her life to "go". Gratefully, she met a group of dreamers in Nuru who coupled vision with action, and she's thrilled to have the opportunity to fight to end extreme poverty alongside them.

Aerie has worked extensively with community economic development and micro-finance both in Europe and in Africa. Before coming to Nuru, Aerie worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Foreign Commercial Service, and the Peace Corps. He earned his BA in International Affairs from John Cabot University in Rome, Italy and his MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. While serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso, he developed micro-financial strategies to address extreme poverty in the Sahel Desert.

Lindsay was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Studying psychology and health science at Boston College and the University of Cape Town incited her interest in health disparities, and later inspired her to earn a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins. While concentrating in Health in Crisis: Humanitarian Assistance and Health Communication, Lindsay primarily focused on the strategic design of behavioral health programs, disease prevention, and women’s health in low-resource settings. She has extensive experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has most recently worked in rural Uganda to design and implement malaria, HIV/AIDS and waterborne disease prevention programs. She values holistic, sustainable approaches to improving livelihoods worldwide, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to translate her passion for combating extreme poverty into practice alongside Nuru’s team of innovative thinkers.

Originally from in Ohio, Jamie has worked with research studies on topics such as foster care, geriatric social work, genetics, Somali refugees and female sex workers in India, to name a few. Most recently, she worked as a research assistant studying Alzheimer’s disease at Boston University. Her passion to serve those in need stems from her experience working as a case manager with homeless populations in Dayton, Ohio and San Francisco. She earned a dual Master’s in Public Health and Social Work from Boston University and holds her BA in Journalism from University of Dayton. Jamie is excited to join the Nuru International team to create sustainable solutions to end extreme poverty.

A product of East meets Midwest, Jessica was raised by a mother from Thailand and a father from Oklahoma. She began working with refugees along the Thai-Burma border over ten years ago and has been committed to using what skills and resources she has to support the advancement of vulnerable populations ever since. Prior to joining Nuru International, for over two years she managed innovative programs for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and its subsidiary the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children. These programs focused on capacity building, life skills and leadership training, and community education for thousands of Burundian refugees, along with comprehensive case management and advocacy for hundreds of vulnerable unaccompanied refugee and immigrant children. She also served as the Education Program Officer for Mercy Corps, a Program Specialist with the International Rescue Committee/Women’s Refugee Commission, and a Program Assistant for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). She interned with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2005 and the Centre for Refugee Research in 2004. She holds a Masters of Social Work with a specialization in International Social Development from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and a Bachelor of Arts in International Politics split between the University of Central Oklahoma and the University of Leicester in England. Her work abroad has focused primarily on education and the protection and empowerment of women and children in Southeast Asia and East Africa, and she is honored and excited to be supporting Nuru’s incredible work in Kenya.

Jake Harriman graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998, earning a B.S. in Systems Engineering. He then served seven and a half years in the Marine Corps as a Platoon Commander in both the Infantry and a special operations unit called Force Recon. During his military career, Jake led his Marines on four operational deployments, including two combat tours in Iraq and disaster relief operations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the Asian tsunami. He was awarded the Bronze Star for actions in combat during his second tour in Iraq. From his experiences, Jake came to believe that the “War on Terror” won’t be won on the battlefield alone: the contributing causes of terrorism - disenfranchisement, lack of education, and extreme poverty - must also be eradicated. Jake left his career in the Marine Corps and dedicated himself to studying humanitarian development, organizational leadership, and the problem of extreme poverty. He enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) to build an organization focused on tackling extreme poverty. Jake graduated with an MBA in June 2008 and, in the following September, led a team to launch Nuru International’s first seed project in Kuria, Kenya.

Rebecca has worked extensively throughout the poorest regions of Central America since childhood. In the past few years, she has worked with the micro-consignment model, led micro-business consulting, in addition to piloting construction workshops for men in Magdalena, Guatemala. She just finished working with New Development Solutions Group and Social Entrepreneurship Corps leading the initial internship program in Nicaragua. Rebecca earned her B.A. in Latin American Studies with a focus in International Development from the University of Connecticut. She desires to give every inch of herself to help establish sustainable change that ignites in peoples’ hearts. She feels truly blessed to be part of the Nuru International Team and vision.

Thomas grew up in New York after moving from South Korea to the United States at a young age. He attended the University of Virginia graduating with a BA in Economics and a Masters in Teaching. He then taught history in a middle school in Maryland for six years. Thomas has experience in the education sector in several developing countries such as Mongolia, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan and desires to use his talents and skills in the international development sector. He recently received his MBA in International Organizations from the University of Geneva and completed a three month internship at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Prior to joining Nuru International, Lindsey served as the Global Grants Manager for the Salesforce.com Foundation. There she was responsible for the strategy, management and success of the Foundation’s multimillion dollar annual granting initiatives. Prior to joining the Foundation, Lindsey was the Project Manager and Editor at M Financial Group in Portland, Oregon. Lindsey has held and continued to hold many committed volunteer roles. For 3 years, she served as the San Francisco Project Homeless Connect dental lead where she launched a program to provide dentures to the homeless. She currently sits on the Board of Baraka Africa, an organization empowering orphans throughout East Africa, and she also supports the work of SIMOO, a Maasai cultural preservation organization based in Kenya. Lindsey holds a BA in English from Carleton College. Her passion for community based development in Kenya dates back to 2002 when she lived and studied there. She has been actively involved in poverty alleviation efforts for 10 years and is thrilled to work with the Nuru team to address this need.

Jennifer graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Supply Chain Management and a BA in Chinese, and ever since has relished the chance to improve any business process she comes across. She started flexing her Microsoft Excel muscles while working in the areas of quality, business planning, and project/program management at Hewlett-Packard for 4 years. However, she has always had an interest in social justice, volunteering with Vox Culture Houston, The Stanford Goat Project, and International Justice Mission, among other organizations. So, when an unexpected opportunity to join the fight against extreme poverty popped up with Nuru, she jumped on the opportunity. Now, she spends her time streamlining processes with our Kenyan counterparts and creating Excel whizzes from our staff.

Matt holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Plan II Honors from The University of Texas at Austin. For two years he taught 8th grade math through Teach for America where he had the humbling and rewarding experience of helping his students believe in themselves. After teaching, he went on to complete his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, he realized his passion for designing user-centered products for the developing world and worked on the DrinkWell project, which aims to combat micronutrient deficiencies in the developing world by fortifying drinking water with vitamins and nutrients. Through DrinkWell he met Nuru and he discovered a team that was passionate about alleviating poverty by first listening and learning from the poor. After finding out that Nuru could use an engineer, he promptly signed up for the opportunity to end extreme poverty alongside them.

Matt is dedicated to working with smallholder agriculturalists and rural communities as they interface with their natural and socioeconomic environment.  Before joining Nuru, Matt worked with The Nature Conservancy and Peace Corps in Honduras, and throughout the U.S. Interior West with the USDA Forest Service.  He earned his BA in Government and Spanish from Lawrence University and his MS in Forest Sciences from Colorado State University.  Matt has experience in small plot sustainable agriculture, agricultural extension and project development.  Matt is thrilled to join Nuru International as its first agriculture fellow in September 2011.

Naruth has been doing rural development work in sub-Sahara Africa for the past ten years, and has been involved in projects ranging from agriculture, water/sanitation, health/nutrition, education, and small business development/income generation to disaster relief and refugee assistance. He has lived and worked in Pakistan, Mauritania, Niger, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya. He holds an MA in Sustainable Development with a specialization in Development Management from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. He joins Nuru with the goal of doing his best and helping others to do their best to end extreme poverty.

Nicole is a water resources engineer and project manager with nine years of experience working in environmental consulting and construction management. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Detroit, Nicole was aware of poverty and the power of activism from a very young age. Aspiring to be part of the solution to the global water crisis, she attended the University of Michigan and obtained a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Upon graduation, she joined a major environmental consulting firm in Chicago where she worked on pollution reduction sewer infrastructure programs for major municipalities including the City of Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis as well as waterway improvement projects in rural areas. Her travels to Latin America, Africa and the Middle East opened her eyes to the realities of extreme poverty and became the catalyst for volunteer work with several international humanitarian organizations and ultimately a new career working for the poor full time.  Nicole feels like she has the best job in world, forging friendships with brilliant poverty alleviation organizations and building into Nuru’s wildly talented staff.  She draws inspiration from the Kurian people, whom she has had the privilege of working alongside as a Water and Sanitation Program Manager for three rotations. Nicole is now working as Nuru's Training Director.