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January 2024 Accolades

Gitanjali Rao (2023) was honored by The King Center in Atlanta with a 2024 Beloved Community Technological Innovation Award. The Beloved Community Awards recognize national and international individuals and organizations that exemplify excellence in leadership, pursuit of social justice, and commitment to creating the Beloved Community in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
Olivia Sally (2020) won the Marshall Scholarship. As a Marshall Scholar, she will pursue a M.Sc. degree in education (child development and education) and a M.P.P. (Master of Public Policy). She is the first Marshall Scholar from Yale’s Education Studies Program.

Yale’s website notes that Olivia, who hails from Oakland, California, spent the summer as a White House intern in the Office of the Vice President, where she served the vice president’s advance team, traveling throughout the country to help execute events. Last spring, she was appointed by New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker as the youngest member of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities, the oldest municipal civil rights agency in the United States. Before that, she served as Miss Connecticut Volunteer 2021, where she served as the first woman of color to hold a New England state title in the system’s history.
Cage Sawyers (2017) was appointed by Governor Abbott to the Texas Higher Education Board.

A second-year law student at Texas A&M University School of Law, Cage’s legal education at A&M is focused around capital markets and private equity. He majored in public policy and energy technology at Texas Christian University, graduating summa cum laude in 2021.

Outside of pursuing his J.D., Cage is a passionate creator. He exited his first business, Sawyers Brands LLC, in 2022 and is currently the founder and managing partner of 903 Capital + Advisory, a rural Texas investment fund active in national franchise brands, core economic businesses, and consumer items. Philanthropically, Sawyers is the founder and executive director of Sawyers’ Salute to Service, a veterans nonprofit organization that assists post-service veterans on their path to better physical, mental, and spiritual health post-military service.

Rosita Najmi (2000) gave a Ted Talk on multilingual leadership. She would love to get your feedback on the concepts proposed in the talk. If interested, please fill out a brief survey here

Rosita has worked at the intersection of global social, environmental, and economic development for more than twenty years. As Vice President, Rosita leads strategy, innovation, grantmaking, and measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) at The UPS Foundation. Before joining UPS, she led PayPal’s Global Social Innovation Team, which helped put the company’s operations, employees, and products to work for social, economic, and sustainable development. Prior to PayPal, Rosita was at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she focused on increasing access to financial services for the 700 million people around the world living in extreme poverty.