YECENIA ANDRADE – Graduate Program: Latin American Studies, MA; Public Health, MPH
Yecenia Andrade, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, holds a bachelor’s degree in public health and Spanish, cum laude, from Wartburg College. Her academic and professional journey reflects a deep commitment to health equity, cultural humility, and community-based service. Yecenia has contributed to a wide range of public health initiatives both in the U.S. and internationally. Her experience includes facilitating mental health referrals for underserved communities in post-Katrina New Orleans, co-leading the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program at a Denver community center, and addressing sex education stigma within a migrant community in rural Iowa. She has also served as a patient liaison at a behavioral health clinic in Phoenix and, most recently, worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia, where she collaborated with local counterparts to promote water security and sanitation, prenatal care, and health literacy. As the daughter of immigrants and a first-generation college graduate, Yecenia is passionate about amplifying community voices and designing health interventions that honor the lived experiences of those she serves. As a dual degree seeking student in Global Health and LAS, she is committed to expanding her knowledge and skills to better support marginalized populations. Outside of her academic and professional work, Yecenia enjoys roller skating and exploring new ways to stay active and build community.
Brooks Durand – Teach Arizona, Education, MA
Brooks Durand served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador (’22-’24) in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. He worked in a K-12 public school in Salcedo, Cotopaxi where he co-taught English classes. During his service, he used a crowd-sourced and donation-funded Peace Corps grant to build a multimedia English laboratory at his school. He also organized and guided a Spanish/English cultural exchange with an American high school using live video calls in the multimedia laboratory. One of the most memorable experiences he had was planning and organizing the senior prom for U.E. Salcedo. Brooks spent time on the weekends tutoring local English teachers through a Ministry of Education program called Ecuador Habla Inglés. He also collaborated with other volunteers to deliver workshops for Ecuadorian English teachers on ESL pedagogical techniques. After his service, he was awarded a Fulbright grant as an English Teaching Assistant in Taipei, Taiwan. He cherishes his international experiences and the relationships he’s made in these communities.
Brooks is excited to serve the local Tucson community, focusing on immigrant and refugee populations, in the areas of education and literacy. He will be completing his M.A. of Education in the Teach Arizona program and will be teaching secondary Spanish. His hobbies include learning languages, exercising, traveling, and cooking.
OLIVER FAHRNER – Graduate Program: Natural Resources & the Environment; Emphasis in Wildlife Conservation & Management, MS
Oliver is pursuing a master’s degree in wildlife Conservation and Management from the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. He developed his passion for ecology and conservation while earning a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After graduating, Oliver spent two years working in native habitat restoration at UCSB’s Cheadle Center, helping to create and monitor habitat for rare, threatened, and endangered species. He served in the Peace Corps as a Youth Development Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 2022-2024. He taught high school science, physical education, and English classes and organized a local soccer team. Throughout his Peace Corps service, Oliver engaged youth in environmental education, led outdoor ecology excursions, and helped organize community clean-up projects. A long-time employee of the Morgan Autism Center in his hometown of San Jose, California, Oliver spent the 2024-2025 school year working as an Instructional Aide with neurodiverse children and adults. He is excited to return to the field of conservation biology and to connect with the Coverdell and graduate communities at the University of Arizona. In his free t ime, Oliver enjoys the outdoors, most commonly walking, hiking, skiing, climbing, and camping. He also enjoys reading and attending sporting events.
TYLER FRANK – Graduate Program: Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies, PhD
Tyler is an educator, specialist in adult learning and literacy and a history nerd. He served in Peace Corps Peru 2012-14 as a youth development volunteer working in a small mountain town in the Peruvian Sierra at an elevation of nearly two miles. His work there focused on adolescent peer health promotion, youth sports, and alternative education.
In the US, Tyler works in adult basic education, serving adults returning to school to earn a high school equivalency. Having previously completed an MA, Tyler is returning to the Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies Department in the College of Education at the University of Arizona to pursue a PhD. He is interested in continuing his focus on adult learning and literacy, particularly in digital literacies.
Outside of school, Tyler enjoys lots of other nerdy endeavors such as reading history books, studying languages, and writing. An avid cyclist he looks forward to getting out for rides in the Arizona sun again while avoiding potholes and goat’s heads.
Michael Geiger - Graduate Program: Landscape Architecture, MLA
Michael is originally from Upstate New York but has been a proud Arizona resident since 2019. Working as an Academic Advisor for Arts programs at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and Pima Community College here in Tucson, he is excited to switch teams and be a student again. He earned a B.S. in Community Health, a major chosen specifically to join the Peace Corps, and focused his capstone project on Malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. He served as a Health Extension volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa from 2017-2019 determined to tackle issues of HIV, Malaria, and Malnutrition. Michael’s host community was in the semi-arid Dodoma Region, which experiences average rainfall of 0mm (yes, zero!) from June-September. This harsh climate quickly shifted his project focus to the unfamiliar territory of water security, arid permaculture and multi-purpose tree nurseries. He trained with local partners and built rainwater catchment tanks, created biointensive gardens and installed drip irrigation systems. He felt great excitement watching plants grow from seeds and especially enjoyed the community garden design phases of his projects.
In his downtime during service, Michael rediscovered the imaginative world of drawing and hasn’t stopped since. He also picked up his first camera there, and began searching for endemic animals to photograph while exploring Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains, a Sky Island chain very similar to ours in southeastern AZ. His love of art and design, deep appreciation of nature, and habit of procrastinating important tasks with yard work combined to make him a perfect fit for the Master of Landscape Architecture program. He is eager to take these passions and practices to new heights in another dry climate slice of the world. His work will make a positive impact on the health of people, plants, animals, ecosystems and the urban climate of Tucson and beyond.
RILEIGH HIDALGO FAHRNER - Graduate Program: Special Education (Mild to Moderate), MA
Rileigh served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the Education sector as a Spanish Literacy Promoter from 2022-2024. She worked with teachers to integrate interactive teaching practices into the classroom, with students to improve their reading skills, and with families to strengthen their involvement in education. Her work involved modeling and co-teaching literacy strategies, improving classroom management skills, developing teaching materials, tutoring students, involving families in literacy, and promoting a culture of reading. She also created a girl’s club to work with young girls to promote a culture of healthy relationships, confidence, and self-esteem. Rileigh graduated with her B.S. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2020. She worked in behavioral health and gained meaningful experience and a professional certificate in ABA therapy. After serving in the Peace Corps, she continued to work in the school setting, teaching in a school for children and adults with autism. Her passion for education and working with the neurodiverse community led her to pursue a master’s degree in special education (mild to moderate). She uses her interests (art, nature, yoga) as tools to educate children and their families. She is dedicated to providing resources to marginalized communities and to promoting equality for marginalized people.
MARLANA HINKLEY - Graduate Program: Water, Society, & Policy, MS; Public Administration, MPA
Marlana began cultivating her passion for universal safe water access as an undergraduate student at Cornell University. While pursuing her B.S. in Environmental Engineering, Marlana conducted research on gravity-flow drinking water treatment technologies with the nonprofit AguaClara Reach. Post-graduation, Marlana served as a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) volunteer with the Peace Corps in the Comarca Ngӓbe-Buglé, Panama from 2015-2018. While there, she worked alongside local counterparts to improve access to safe drinking water through infrastructure improvements and capacity building efforts. Following her Peace Corps service, Marlana transitioned to working stateside as an Environmental Engineer for the Indian Health Service, serving the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Eastern Arizona. Throughout her five years serving San Carlos, she noticed public policy gaps in promoting the long-term sustainability of water resources infrastructure and came to recognize that engineering alone will not solve the world’s worsening water scarcity issues. Her goal in obtaining a dual degree M.S. in Water, Society, and Policy and Master of Public Administration is to hone the skills required to have a seat at the policymaking table and to serve as a liaison in ensuring sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation for underserved communities.
JOY KUHLO - Graduate Program: Urban Planning, MS; Real Estate Development, MRED
Joy Kuhlo, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, joins the Coverdell Fellowship after several years in the affordable housing sector. She is driven by a passion for crafting realistic and sensible solutions that truly address the needs of communities. This commitment traces back to her time as a Youth Development Specialist in Zaouiat Cheikh, Morocco, from 2019-2020. There, she taught English and life skills, organized after-school programs predominantly for girls, and served on the Gender and Development committee.
Now, Joy is thrilled to move to Tucson and further explore the intersections of housing policy, community development, and neighborhood design in relation to the health and well-being of families and youth. A few of Joy's favorite things are: the moon, spending time by natural bodies of water, solving the NYT crossword, and orchids.
ABIGAIL LENZ – Graduate Program: Family & Child Health, MPH
Abigail is pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree at the University of Arizona’s Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Physiology from University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado. Abigail served with the Peace Corps as an Early Childhood Literacy Development volunteer in Uganda, East Africa, from 2022-2024. While there, she worked at a rural primary school and collaborated with local counterparts to improve the literacy skills of both the students and teachers. She wrote a grant to construct a new library building after observing the limited access to books and the great enthusiasm of the learners who wanted to read. As a secondary project, she spearheaded a bio-fortified school garden, to bring more nutritious crops to the community and educate the students on a healthy diet. This led Abigail to pursue an MPH in Global Health. She hopes to gain knowledge and skills required to contribute to areas such as malnutrition, food security, and maternal and child health. In her free time, Abigail enjoys hiking mountains, reading, biking, and backpacking.
CALEB MILFORD - Graduate Program: Natural Resources & Environment; Emphasis in Wildlife Conservation & Management, MS
Caleb is the Strategic recruiter for Peace Corps on campus and is studying to get his graduate degree in Wildlife Conservation. He served in Peace Corps Nicaragua from 2016 to 2018 as an environmental education volunteer teaching elementary school science classes, building school gardens/ tree nurseries, and developing environmental community programs. Since then he has spent time continuing his work in environmental education in a handful of different countries, always looking to educate the next generation of professionals. Starting in 2021, Caleb got involved with Casa Alitas, a local shelter here in Tucson that receives Migrants seeking Asylum. As an operations manager he helped to grow the organization in size and scope in order to receive more than a thousand immigrants a day. While this work was incredibly rewarding and inspired by his time in Nicaragua, he hopes to get back to his scientific roots and continue the much needed conservation work we need around the world.
In his free time Caleb enjoys soccer, pickle ball, tennis, volleyball, exploring national parks, hiking, biking or really just anything that gets him outdoors.
WINSTON POSEGATE – Graduate Program: Teaching English as Second Language, MA
R. Winston Posegate is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served as an English as a Foreign Language instructor/co-teacher in Armenia (2019–2020) and North Macedonia (2022–2024). He has over 30 years of experience teaching and tutoring English to speakers of other languages, including 20 years of self-employment – mostly while living on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas – and his current role as an ESL and digital literacy instructor in the Adult Education and Literacy program at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. He is passionate about learner-centered instruction, intercultural understanding, and expanding opportunities for immigrants and refugees. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and knowledgeable in several other languages, Winston has studied or worked in six U.S. states and territories as well as eight other countries. He enjoys music, photography, geography, economics, exercise, and cooking, and he brings a global perspective and deep cultural and linguistic curiosity to his work as an educator.
Winston has both a B.A. and a post-baccalaureate certificate from Hawaii Pacific University, and he will begin his M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Arizona in Fall 2025
NOAH RIOS - Graduate Program: Public Health, MPH
Noah is originally from Saint Paul Minnesota. He has served in the Eastern Caribbean from 2011-2014 where he worked on community development and youth development projects. From 2016-2017 Noah served in the Philippines as a Response Volunteer working as a Solid
Waste Management Specialist. This led Noah to pursue an MPH in the Environmental Health Program and graduate certificate in WASH at the University of Arizona. His research interests include water quality and management, health equity, and mitigation of waterborne diseases. In his free time, Noah enjoys going on motorcycle trips to national parks, trying new foods and long-distance running.
LIZZY SMITH - Graduate Program: Entry to the Profession of Nursing, MS
Lizzy served with the Peace Corps in Costa Rica as a Youth Development Facilitator from 2022-2024. She focused her volunteer efforts on projects that supported emotion regulation, life skills, health promotion, and community engagement in 4th-12th graders. As a part of the first cohort back after the worldwide pandemic evacuation, she helped re-establish the Peer Support Network in Peace Corps Costa Rica, supporting other volunteers navigate their service. She also co-planned and co-facilitated trainings for incoming volunteer cohorts regarding programmatic, cross-cultural, and integration challenges.
A proud Virginia native, she graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2020 with a degree in Kinesiology & Health Sciences and minor in Public Health. With a passion for health, she has worked as a Covid-19 screener and medical assistant before deciding to pursue nursing. She also has over 10 years of volunteer and paid experience working with young English as a second language learners. In her spare time, she loves cooking/eating, going on walks, watching documentaries, and spending time with loved ones.
CHERYL VALDEZ - Graduate Program: Public Health, MPH
Cheryl is a committed volunteer with a diverse background in health. After studying dentistry, she gained experience working in various health settings across different countries. This experience fueled her passion for preventing health issues and providing comprehensive patient care, believing that prevention is often better than treatment.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the crucial role of health workers, prompting Cheryl to take more action. In 2022, she joined the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa, where she collaborated with the Ministry of Health to prevent diseases and improve community health. She noticed that dental care was often neglected in rural areas, so she trained local health workers and promoted dental health in schools.
Cheryl also partnered with NGOs to advance gender equality and respectful maternity care and led a project to enhance water infrastructure at a local clinic. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public health with a focus on global health to deepen her expertise and further her impact on communities worldwide.
Cheryl is passionate about blending traditional medicine with Western practices for a balanced approach. In her free time, she enjoys learning new languages, attending cultural events, hiking, reading, and spending time with friends and family.