Global Alumni
Our alumni are using their knowledge, skills, experience and peer networks developed at the Brown School to drive change around the world. You can find many of them on WashU CNX (the online community designed for networking and mentorship among students, alumni, and friends of the university) and as active members of the International Alumni program.
Grace Cao
Grace Cao spent seven years in St. Louis, where she finished her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Health at WashU. After college, Grace spent 1.5 years working as an Associate Consultant for Bain & Company in their Dallas & Austin offices. During her time at Bain, she was in charge of the Dallas office’s pro-bono projects where she worked with local nonprofits to address their operational challenges and assist with strategy development. She is now working at the Gates Foundation as a Bain secondee in their Gender Equality Digital Connectivity team until the end of October 2024.
– Senior Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
Kate Clitheroe
Kate Clitheroe works with One World Surgery, an organization that provides high-quality primary care, specialty, and surgical services to underserved communities in Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Kate oversees One World Surgery’s monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure that programs are functioning as designed and achieving defined goals. Specifically, One World Surgery looks at surgical outcomes for more complex surgeries, as well as basic outcomes in terms of infection and complication rates. One World Surgery also looks at patient satisfaction and long-term impact of surgeries, among other variables.
– Sr. Director, Programs & Operations, One World Surgery
Mingguo Deng
Mingguo Deng is the Director of Charity Promotion and Social Work for the Civil Affairs Bureau of Chongqing Province, China. He was awarded the Brown School Distinguished Alumni Award in 2023 and currently oversees the development of the social work profession and services in the area. Under his leadership, the number of social work service organizations in Chongqing has grown to 260 organizations. Chongqing has now established a social worker training system to train 10,000 social work professionals annually. Over 3,000 social work studios have been set up in rural communities, and 5,000 social workers have been recruited in this process.
– Director of Charity Promotion and Social Work, Civil Affairs Bureau of Chongqing Province, China
Alice Emasu
Alice Emasu grew up in eastern Uganda and felt compelled at an early age to address the injustices she witnessed against women. After an early career in journalism, Alice co-founded TERREWODE, a Ugandan NGO dedicated to empowering girls and women and improving their health and livelihood, with a focus on maternal health and obstetric fistula. Since its inception in 1999, TERREWODE has provided holistic fistula care to thousands of women in rural Uganda. In 2019, Alice and her team opened Terrewode Women’s Community Hospital in eastern Uganda, the only dedicated fistula hospital in the country. A 2012 Ashoka fellow, Alice holds an MSW from Washington University St. Louis and an MBA from University of Cattolica, Italy. Alice is a champion of women’s rights and a national advocate for reproductive health care delivery improvement in Uganda. Her passion for gender equality and social justice is a driving force for improving health care and economic systems that disempower women and girls.
– Executive Director, TERREWODE and Terrewode Women’s Community Hospital, Soroti, Uganda
Melanie Goldring
Alice Emasu grew up in eastern Uganda and felt compelled at an early age to address the injustices she witnessed against women. After an early career in journalism, Alice co-founded TERREWODE, a Ugandan NGO dedicated to empowering girls and womMelanie Goldring, MSW/MSP ’19, is the Manager of Organizational Capacity and Strategy at The DREAM Project in the Dominican Republic, where she first began her journey as a practicum student and Dream Project Fellow. Since her time at the Brown School, she has built a career focused on the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of culturally responsive educational programs. A dedicated social worker and policy practitioner, Melanie is passionate about educational equity and committed to being an empathetic, compassionate, and innovative agent of change. In her current role, Melanie supports the execution of 18 educational programs that reach more than 6,500 children and youth. Her strategic leadership spans institutional collaboration, grant writing, and impact evaluation. She also serves as Director of Programs at American Youth Understanding Diabetes Abroad (AYUDA), where she has led initiatives for the past eight years following five years as a volunteer. At AYUDA, she oversees diabetes education outreach projects in the Dominican Republic, manages volunteer training programs, and directs fundraising efforts. In recognition of her leadership and impact, Melanie received the Emerging Leader Award in 2024 as part of the Brown School Awards of Distinction.
– Manager, Organizational Capacity and Strategy, The DREAM Project, DR
Noriko Hatanaka
Noriko is a passionate disability rights activist, inspired by her aunt, an artist with severe cerebral palsy, and her grandmother, a social welfare activist and co-founder of the Tanpopo-No-Ye Foundation in Japan. Her work focuses on advancing disability rights, promoting disability art. She is particularly focused on driving social and economic inclusion, especially for vulnerable populations, and is conducting research on how technology can help realize economic inclusion, particularly for persons with disabilities. As a United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Online Personnel, Noriko supports The 34 Gallery, a mental health-focused initiative, as a Graphics Coordinator. She also collaborates with Action for Children Development Trust (ACDT) in Kenya, helping with strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and grant writing for environmental education projects. In her professional role, she serves as Senior Manager at Activarch Consulting, Inc. in Japan, specializing in IT and finance strategy. Noriko integrates her expertise across sectors, conducting research on technology-driven economic inclusion for persons with disabilities, collaborating with the UN, NGOs, and businesses to develop inclusive solutions.
– Senior Manager, Activarch Consulting
Philip Hong
Dr. Philip Hong is the Dean of the University of Georgia School of Social Work and a two-time graduate of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, where he completed both his MSW and PhD in Social Work. His academic training spans social welfare and political science, including a PhD and MA from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a BS in Social Welfare from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. Before becoming dean, Dr. Hong built a long career in workforce development research, leading multi-institutional partnerships focused on employment barriers, psychological self-sufficiency, and career advancement for low-income populations. His work integrates social work practice, policy analysis, and program evaluation, and has shaped national conversations about how employment systems can better support job seekers facing entrenched social and economic challenges.
– Dean and Professor of School of Social Work, University of Georgia
Yueh-Ya Hsu
Yueh-Ya is a Research Associate for Innovations for Poverty Action, a research and policy non-profit that evaluates and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. Yueh-Ya’s team is currently collaborating with BRAC in Dhaka, Bangladesh to evaluate their Ultra-Poor Graduation Program. While at the Brown School, Yueh-Ya worked with the Social Policy Institute and Assistant Dean Dan Ferris and got hands-on experience with research in supporting mission-driven organizations. Learning how to balance objectives and working cultures across academic, government, and industry sectors has proven important. Lee Koelliker’s leadership class sharpened Yueh-Ya’s understanding of stakeholders, organizational dynamics, and the idea of leading without a title. Professor Lindsay Stark helped Yueh-Ya clarify my professional interests and find suitable organizations in support of those goals. Yueh-Ya’s talented classmates’ diverse backgrounds developed his ability to work on cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural teams.
-Research Associate, Innovations for Poverty Action
Mingchao Jin
Dr. Mingchao Jin’s research area currently focuses on global social development, with a particular focus on financial capability. In his research, Dr. Jin assessed the status of poverty in China via asset-based approaches and made relevant policy suggestions. Dr. Jin has also conducted research on how families in Africa can use livestock to improve child nutrition. His current work tries to answer what financial capability means and impacts, and how to improve financial capability for populations in developing countries.
– Clinical Assistant Professor, New York University Silver’s MSW Program in Shanghai and New York
Xixi Kang
Before joining the Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion at the Renmin University of China, Xixi Kang served as the Program Officer for the Social Policy Team in UNICEF’s China Country Office for three years. Her work supported the development and implementation of national social assistance reform projects and research on social protection. In Xixi’s new role, she will manage academic research programs and coordinate policy advisory and advocacy, facilitating the construction of China’s financial inclusion system and contributing to the implementation of a rural revitalization strategy.
– Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion, Renmin University of China
Megan Keenan
Throughout Megan Keenan’s time at the Brown School, she developed new skills in systems thinking and research for the promotion of health equity. Megan used these skills in her practicum experience with Fast-Track Cities-St. Louis, where she worked with community stakeholders and healthcare leaders to improve HIV care in the region. Megan’s international practicum with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) provided her with the opportunity to engage the skills she had cultivated locally and apply them to a global context. Continuing her work in the field of HIV care, Megan collaborated with community researchers in Zambia to analyze the implementation of patient-centered care services with local healthcare providers across the country.
-Senior Researcher, Dartington Service Design Lab
Yingying Zeng
Dr. Yingying Zeng’s research explores the intersections of economic inequalities, health disparities, and the challenges faced by minoritized groups, with a particular interest in the social and economic integration of immigrants. Her work delves into the structural barriers that inhibit equitable access to resources and opportunities for these populations, such as disparities in financial and healthcare access. This exploration is crucial in understanding how systemic inequalities impact the overall wellbeing of minoritized communities.
– Assistant Professor
Zhen Zhang
Zhen Zhang was awarded the Brown School Emerging Leader Award in 2023, and is currently the General Secretary for the RICI Foundation, which has launched the Xinyi Project and the Flourishing Magic School program in Chinga. The RICI Foundation has engaged 3,000 undergraduates and local teachers in delivering 1,400,000 mental health prevention lessons to over 145,000 rural children around China. RICI has also built collaborative relationships with over 150 university student associations and more than 40 nonprofit organizations and local governments. In 2020, Zhen was named in the Forbes China 30 Under 30 List – Social Enterprise Category.
– General Secretary, RICI Foundation