Bio

Sami joined Founders Pledge in September 2025 as a Seasonal Grants and Monitoring Officer. She has worked in Russia and, most recently, in Tanzania for the last six years, at an anti-trafficking nonprofit supporting child survivors of trafficking, doing grant management, program development, and monitoring and evaluation. Her passion for creating positive change in the world led her to Founders Pledge.

Sami holds a BA in International Studies from American University in Washington, DC and an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of Sussex.

She loves learning new things and meeting new people. Outside of work, you can find her drinking coffee, doing yoga, and honing her new hobby, playing padel (yes, it’s different from pickleball!).

Q&A with Sami

Q: If you could choose anyone famous (real or fictional) to have dinner with who would they be and why?

Mary Oliver - her poetry about life and nature inspires me so much, and I know our conversation would too!

Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A teacher (I still do love school!)

Q: If a movie was made of your life what genre would it be, who would play you?

I’m not really a movie girl, so it’d have to be a Netflix show that people binge all in one day. I’d let Quinta Brunson do the casting for me because she is hilarious and brilliant.