Meet our Featured Fellow for 2003

Jodie Fonseca

Jodie Fonseca comes to the Leland Fellowship program with four years of experience in HIV/AIDS education in Africa, where she developed seven workbooks for elementary schools in Malawi. Jodie graduated from Tulane University with a major in English in 1997. She then joined the Peace Corps, and was sent to Malawi to work as an English teacher and women’s leadership advocate. Two years in Malawi instilled in her a love for African culture, music and languages. Jodie jumped at the chance to return to Malawi a year later to serve as a Crisis Corps volunteer, where she worked at the SOS Children’s village as an HIV/AIDS educator, organizing workshops and training fellow faculty members in the use of curriculum and teacher’s guides. Last summer, Jodie interned for Population Services International in Kampala, Uganda, where she co-authored a proposal for a pilot malaria-reduction program and carried out field visits to identify pilot districts.

Jodie holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Tufts University, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Praxis Journal of Development Studies. She speaks Spanish and some Chichewa and French. Her field placement is with CARE in Malawi.