If you asked the 25-year-old version of Ami Thakkar why she was attending Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), she would have told you she was hoping to become an international journalist — probably in Southeast Asia.
Today, the 47-year-old version has spent more than 20 years in international development, working in more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Her current company, RTI International, is a nonprofit research institute that applies science and technical services to public policymaking.
“In my first journalism class at SIPA, I had to interview an asylum-seeker, and I got so [engaged] in his story that it was dissatisfying to have to wrap it up and move on to the next story,” Thakkar says. “I wanted to see the next stages and where he ended up.”
From that experience, she decided to focus on international development and has never looked back. She joined the U.S. Department of Labor, which also has a mandate and…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
