OUR TEAM
Board Members
Executive Director
Christa Mikowicz
Christa is currently living in Gabon and taking a hiatus from her career to care for her two daughters, Milan, 4, and Cora, 2. Prior to moving to Gabon, Christa worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, covering issues ranging from environmental crime and counternarcotics to counterterrorism and anti-money laundering. Before that, Christa spent her career in finance. As an investment banker, she specialized in middle market mergers and acquisitions and $1B+ high yield debt offerings. Christa also spent time working in philanthropy consulting at Arabella Advisors and impact investing at Calvert Impact Capital, both Washington, DC-based firms. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo from 2010-2012, and met her husband, Lyle, a fellow Peace Corp Volunteer, the first day of training. Christa holds a BS in Finance from UNC Charlotte and an MBA from Duke University.
Christa was born and raised in the beach town of Wilmington, NC, and loves warm weather and sand between her toes. She also loves cooking and drinking wine, often at the same time. Christa is a 200-hour RYT-certified yoga instructor. Traveling tops her list of favorite things, though, and she hopes everyone gets to have the experience of being lost in a foreign country at least once.
Board President
Brittany Touchon
Brittany is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Togo as a Community Health and AIDS Prevention volunteer from 2008-2010. Brittany earned a Masters in Social Work degree from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 2016. Brittany is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker whose career has focused on assisting individuals with optimizing their mental and physical health. She worked most notably at Community Connections - Washington, DC's largest mental health agency and at JPS Health Network - a public hospital system in Texas that was rated the number one hospital in the United States. She currently works as a clinical social worker for Rehab Without Walls working with patients who are recovering from neurological injuries. She lives with her husband and son in Hurst, Texas.
Vice President
Kayla Kauffman
Kayla is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Togo as a Community Health and AIDS Prevention volunteer from 2008-2010. After her service, Kayla earned her PhD from the University of Virginia, specializing in the history and religions of West Africa. As part of her doctoral research, Kayla regularly returned to Togo to conduct immersive fieldwork. Kayla is currently a legal services proofreader and the founder of Writ Large Assistance, a business that offers editing services to authors.
Board Treasurer
Tolu Oleru
Tolu was born in Nigeria and raised in the Washington DC area. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Pittsburgh, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, and an MBA from Duke University. She began her career as a CPA, and after business school, became an investment banker executing capital markets and M&A transactions for large multinational corporations. She currently works as venture banker in DC, and advises growth-stage startups on optimal treasury and funding strategies. She also serves on the board of The Family Place DC. Tolu loves to travel and has visited five of the seven continents; she hopes to reach all seven by 2026.
Board Secretary
Stephanie Palmer
Stephanie currently works as a program officer in the Neglected Tropical Diseases program at Helen Keller International and provides programmatic and technical support to four Ministries of Health in West and East Africa. Prior to joining Helen Keller International, Stephanie worked for 5 years in The Carter Center’s trachoma control program as the Program Coordinator and then Assistant Director and for one year as The Carter Center's technical adviser to the Guinea Worm Eradication Program in Niger. From 2001-2004, she served as a community health and AIDS prevention volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Togo. Stephanie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and religion from Cornell College in 2001 and a Master’s of Public Health degree from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 2013. Her thesis, which she researched in collaboration with The Carter Center Niger and Niger’s National Eye Care Program, was selected as a finalist for the Charles C. Shepard Award which recognizes the most scholarly research among graduating students. Stephanie has authored or co-authored a number of scientific publications on trachoma.
Board Member
Ryan Blackwell
Ryan grew up in the Washington DC area and graduated from the College of William and Mary with a degree in government. He worked at an immigration law firm and a social services agency before moving overseas and developing a passion for teaching and promoting educational equity. From 2017 to 2020, Ryan served with the Peace Corps in Togo as an English and Gender Education volunteer and English Advisor. After completing his Peace Corps service, Ryan joined the Mississippi Teacher Corps program where he earned his master’s degree and taught at a high school in the Mississippi Delta region. At present, Ryan is teaching social studies in Kake, Alaska.
Board Member
Ann Bevilacqua
Ann Bevilacqua is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Kpalimé, Togo from 1973 to 1975. She worked as an English and Art teacher at the Collège Protestant de Kpalimé where she established the school’s first lending library with gifts from the US and French embassies. After returning stateside, she earned an MS in Information Science from Drexel University and an MA in French from Middlebury College. She worked as a Computer Literacy Instruction Librarian at Columbia University and New York University in the 80s and left librarianship to found Upper Broadway Bodega Software in the 90s. She is currently retired and living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Board Member
Austin Maggard
Austin graduated from Miami University with a B.S. in Accounting in 2016. He accepted an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps in Togo from 2016 - 2018 as an English and Gender Education (EGE) volunteer. Aside from teaching English at the local middle school, he led malaria trainings, designed a financial literacy program, organized a camp for Togolese youth with disabilities, and volunteered as a development officer for Pathways Togo. Austin resides in Chicago where he previously worked as an M&A advisor at Deloitte. Currently, Austin is at Alvarez & Marsal where he provides financial / performance improvement consulting services to CFOs of portfolio companies.
Board Member
Saha Yelebo
Sahaletou Yelebo Marie (Saha) was born and raised in Togo, West Africa. In 2013, Saha joined the Integrated Health team in Togo where she worked as a community outreach coordinator and then was part of the team that launched the maternal and child health pilot program. Eager to explore her love for women's empowerment, Saha joins Pathways Togo in 2015, where she led the middle and high school program. While assisting young scholars and advocating for their educational rights, Saha saw firsthand the challenges girls face due to societal perceptions of women's roles in society. This experience motivated her to attend graduate school to strengthen her skills in human rights advocacy. She moved to the United States in 2017, hoping to achieve this goal. Saha is completing her Master's in Human Rights Practice at the University of Arizona and hopes to graduate in the fall of 2022 while continuing to work with Integrate health as the Development and Communication Coordinator. Saha is excited to have the opportunity to continue helping Togolese girls from afar.
Board Member
Kokou Alphonse Sodjinsi
Kokou Alphonse Sodjinsi was born in Lomé, Togo. He completed his Master in French Literature & Communications at the Université de Lomé, and taught French in high schools for a while before coming to USA in 1999. In USA Kokou received a Bachelor and a Master’s degrees in Information Technology from Regis University. He currently works as one of the IT Managers for HDR, an Engineering and Architecture company in Denver, Colorado. Kokou is passionate about providing technology awareness, and (ICT) Information & Communications Technology trainings for young ladies and women in Togo.
Board Member
Yasmine Boumaiz
Yasmine graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology and a B.S. in Psychology in 2020. As an undergraduate, Yasmine served as a Mentor and Mentor Leader for America Reads and Partners in Print, which was an organization that provided after-school mentorship for elementary school students and their families in Prince George's County. After graduating, Yasmine became a Teach for America Corps member and taught Algebra I for ESOL and newcomer high school students. Currently, Yasmine is working as a Clinical Research Assistant at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Board Member
Daniel Ryave
Daniel is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served as a Community Health and Malaria Prevention advisor in Togo from 2016-2018. While in Togo, Daniel led the Malaria Action Committee, served as a Regional Coordinator for the Monitoring & Evaluation Task Force, and co-directed a camp for children with special needs along with fellow board member Austin Maggard. Daniel holds a BA in Cognitive Science from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA and MS Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.
Board Member
Mariama Fofana
Mariama earned a B.S. in Extended Journalism and Media Production with a concentration in Public Relations from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Originally from Cote d'Ivoire and Mali, she is a first-generation American motivated by curiosity and a passion for culture and human rights. Mariama is joining the Pathways Togo board after a year of working with our staff in Togo as a Communications and Media Specialist Peace Corps Response volunteer.
Throughout her service, She used her mixed background in nonprofit communications, social media management, writing, and digital creation to help increase Pathways Togo’s reach and raise funds for our mission.
As a 2024 USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Fellow, Mariama is now working towards a Masters in Intercultural and International Communications.
Board Member
Katy Kienitz
Katy is a nonprofit leader and a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served from 2009-2011 as Girls’ Education and Empowerment volunteer in Sokodé, Togo. Katy’s time in Togo was transformational in her life and career as it introduced her to many powerful Togolese women who were making a positive impact on the lives of girls in their communities in ways large and small. They showed her that ordinary community members have the power and influence to make an impact in the lives of those around them, and Katy has tried to embody that spirit in the career she has chosen in the nonprofit sector.
For over 15 years, Katy has been driving programmatic, technological, and operational growth at mission based organizations in New York City where she thrives taking on the challenges unique to the nonprofit sector. In her current role as COO at Project Sunshine, Katy leads technology, operations, international programs, and human resources teams to further the mission of bringing play to children with medical challenges. Katy lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, and daughter. She is thrilled to join the Pathways Togo board to use her nonprofit skillset to help provide critical resources to Togolese girls so they can access the education they deserve.
Board Member
Danielle Naugle
Danielle served as a Community Health and AIDS Prevention Peace Corps volunteer in Togo between 2007 and 2010. She worked first in the small village of Avassikpé teaching life skills and peer educator courses in local schools and promoting the cultivation and consumption of Moringa, a tree with very nutritious leaves. After two years in the village, she extended her service for a third year and moved to the capital city, Lomé, to work on a national family planning project implemented by Population Services International. Danielle joined the Pathways Togo Board of Directors in 2013 and has been serving as the Executive Director since 2014. She works at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs as a Research & Evaluation Officer and lives in Togo with her husband and four children.
Board Member
Danny Suits
Danny Suits brings a unique blend of global service and professional expertise to our board. As a former Peace Corps volunteer, he dedicated several years to community development and educational initiatives in Ghana, focusing on growing small enterprises and novel agricultural practices. His commitment to service continues to influence his leadership style, where he emphasizes collaboration, accountability, and long-term impact.
Following his Peace Corps experience, Danny completed a three-year dual-degree graduate program at Duke University, combining an MBA with a Masters in Environmental Management: Danny’s academic background includes a strong foundation in business and technical education. He has applied this knowledge across various roles, integrating innovative strategies with practical solutions to drive positive outcomes in a variety of sectors from agriculture to finance. His passion for education and service makes him a valuable asset to our organization, always seeking ways to foster growth and learning within the team.
