“I entered Hamilton intending to major in science to attend medical school,” Cora says. “After taking a philosophy course, I fell in love and ended up a philosophy major with a minor in Africana studies.”
As a grad student pursuing a master’s in public health at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Cora found her niche in the HIV field. “I conducted in-depth interviews with drug-using and nondrug-using women to explore multigenerational drug use and HIV risk perception, and was a program assistant for a CDC-funded STD outreach project for adolescents,” she says.
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Cora’s first job after Rollins was with the CDC as a contractor in the Division of HIV and AIDS Prevention where she developed comprehensive prevention programs for HIV-positive individuals. In 2012, she relocated to Africa and began providing technical leadership on HIV program implementation to various ministries in Botswana. She later served as deputy country director for CDC Rwanda overseeing the office’s administrative and financial operations.
Now in Lesotho, Cora is providing operational oversight for a team of 11 public health professionals. “I see myself continuing to work in management and operations in another country,” she says. “I love what I do and love working overseas in Africa.”
