Alia Whitney-Johnson (2011 - 2012)

United States of America

Having launched her first venture at the age of seven, through which she became an internationally commissioned jewelry designer, Alia has always had a passion for design, entrepreneurship, and organizational development.

After entering college, she began to channel her entrepreneurial spirit into community-building projects, which sparked her interest in international development. She has since engaged her passion for development in refining a process to convert agricultural waste into charcoal for use in Haiti, conducting tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka, and developing appropriate technologies for infrastructure in Guatemala.

She has also been a consultant to the World Bank and worked for the MIT School of Engineering, where she was the first Project Coordinator for the MIT Global Village Project, a project that aims to connect the MIT community with meaningful service projects around the world.

Her greatest passion, however, lies in her work in Sri Lanka with young women who have survived sexual abuse. After traveling to Sri Lanka in the summer of 2005, she founded the Emerge Beads-to-Business Program to enable Sri Lankan teenage mothers who had survived rape to develop business and life skills through jewelry design. As the program grew, she formed Emerge Global, a non-profit that aims to empower young women around the world who have survived abuse to rediscover and celebrate their personal beauty, develop their self-sufficiency, and become leaders within their own communities.

Her work with Emerge Global has led to numerous speaking engagements at a variety of venues, including universities, conferences, professional women's groups, leadership trainings, high schools, libraries, and a rape crisis center. Alia has also received a number of awards and honours including her selections as one of Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women, a Truman Scholar for her commitment to public service, and  as one of 20 young social entrepreneurs under the age of 30 to be a YouthActionNet® Global Fellow through the International Youth Foundation. In 2010, she was a finalist for a Do Something Award®, which recognizes young world-changers who are pivotal “do-ers” in their field. Emerge has been featured on Good Morning Sri Lanka twice as well as in major publications such as the Boston Globe and was named Boston’s Small Charity of the Year by the Classy Awards. In June of 2011, Alia was elected to MIT’s board of trustees, for a 5-year term.

Having spent years developing and refining strong educational programs for Emerge, Alia spent her time as Sauvé Scholar refining Emerge Global’s business strategy, financial model, and operational plan so that it can continue to grow in a sustainable way.

Alia holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Her masters research focused on how human resource management within Sri Lanka’s apparel industry affects women’s empowerment.

She loves traveling, meeting new people, dancing (she joined several cohort peers in enthusiasm for salsa), and the very special girls of Emerge.

Links:

Emerge Global Website
Video about Emerge Global

Mother Tongue

English, Spanish (moderate)

Country of origin

United States of America

Country of Residence

U.S.A.

Profession

Development specialist and social entrepreneur