Andrea is an East Bay native who attended college at UC Davis, where she graduated with a double B.A. in International Relations and Spanish. In her time at college she studied abroad in Granada, Spain for nine months, establishing her love for Spanish and Latin culture. After graduating college Andrea worked as a teaching assistant at an elementary school in El Sobrante, and as an intern at Community Resources for Science, a non-profit that brings science education into the classroom. She has always been interested at working for Kiva, and is thrilled at the chance to work at an amazing, international organization.  She loves to try different foods, go hiking, drinking a good wine, and thinking about her next travel destination. 

Ceejay is finishing her senior year at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a BS in Environmental Economics and Policy and a minor in City and Regional Planning. Her professional interests are finance, international development and water resources. She hopes to find opportunities to combine all three interests to foster grassroots community development. Ceejay has worked at the Clinton Global Initiative and has been an active member of the SaveDarfur Coalition for six years. She has travelled widely in the developing world, including recent extended stays in South America and India. Her path to Kiva began in Bolivia where she met a Kiva fellow who recommended she get involved when she returned home. She is very excited to be a part of the development team and learn about Kiva from the inside out!

Emily comes to Kiva.org as a graduate from UC Davis with degrees in Sociology and French. Post graduation, Emily worked for a refugee-focused MFI in Sacramento. She found her true passion for the impact sector while interning at Net Impact, where she was charged with all of registration, volunteers and in-kind donations for the annual conference that yields over 2,700 change makers. Furthering her interest in cross sector relationships, Emily helped implement Taproot Foundation’s communication strategy. Working with the Kiva Fellows Program, Emily is excited to support the essential link between Kiva Fellows, MFI’s and Kiva.org. A Bay Area native, Emily is an avid skier and hiker who one day hopes to regain her title as the San Jose Sharks “Fan of the Game”.

Janessa joins Kiva after living and working in Cairo, Egypt for three years. While there, she taught elementary school, studied Arabic and worked as a researcher and editor at Al Ahram's Center for Political and Strategic Studies. She is passionate about the Middle East and has done a great deal of travel throughout the region. Janessa is excited to learn more about microfinance and the impact it can have on poverty. She also volunteers at the International Rescue Committee where she works with refugees from around the world. She has a BA in Philosophy from UC
Berkeley. Janessa enjoys yoga, baking cookies, and practicing Arabic.

Jenny is joining Kiva’s product team.  Jenny was born in Manchester in the UK but retains a strong Hong Kong family background.  Having graduated from the University of Oxford with a Masters degree in Chemistry, she spent time working with Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) in Cambodia before joining Oliver Wyman in January 2010 as a management consultant specialising in financial services.  Over the past three years Jenny has worked on and executed engagements spanning across retail and investment banking, from strategic pieces and operating model design, to managing implementation of initiatives and due diligence projects.  Inspired by Kiva’s mission, Jenny is keen to put her skills and experience to good use to support Kiva’s work in channelling capital to create opportunities for entrepreneurs in developing communities.  An avid traveller with a keen interest in emerging markets, Jenny has worked and travelled extensively in South-East Asia, South America and Sub-Saharan Africa.  She is attempting to learn Spanish in anticipation of further travels in Central/South America (rolling ‘R’s are currently a challenge!).  When not working Jenny can typically found drinking too many mugs of tea, playing the piano and looking for opportunities to pursue snowboarding, scuba diving and climbing (badly).

Katie was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest with a stint in Lombok, Indonesia that instilled in her a strong appreciation of international development programs (and warm weather). Katie attended Stanford University and loved studying everything from art history in Florence, Italy to polio vaccine in the lab. Her studies focused on global public health and infectious tropical diseases, and she hopes to pursue a master's degree in global health in the near future.  She joins Kiva after a summer working with iDE Cambodia on a sustainable rural sanitation program. She is coming on board as a Community Support intern where she is excited to become an expert on Kiva's programs and enhance lenders' experience with the organization. In her free time she enjoys exploring the city, drinking coffee, watching terrible action movies and learning about scary parasites.

Mark was born and raised in the English Midlands, and currently lives in London. He graduated with a Masters in Physics from the University of Oxford in 2010, spent time travelling in Europe and South America and joined management consultancy Oliver Wyman the year after. Mark has been fortunate enough to explore the US with his work, and is excited about returning to San Francisco to volunteer at Kiva Zip, hopefully making a lasting contribution to an incredible social experiment. In his free time Mark enjoys a variety of sports, music, cooking / eating and good comedy.

Monica grew up in Oakland, California and comes to Kiva following an internship with Doctors Without Borders in New York City. She received her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in Ohio, where she studied Neuroscience and Biology. Monica is all about making it easier for people to do what they want to do - whether that means building a research database for Doctors Without Borders or supporting the Intern Program at Kiva. In her free time, Monica enjoys swing dancing, crocheting, rooting for the SF Giants, and eating her way across San Francisco.

Sidny joined the Kiva Zip team in March and has been working both in Kiva HQ and around the Bay Area. She loves talking about Kiva and has enjoyed helping the U.S. Kiva Zip team find borrowers and trustees all over the Bay. Before Kiva, Sidny worked at the Foundation for Sustainable Development and majored in Geography and International Development at Dartmouth College.  Although she studied international issues and has had several experiences living abroad, Sidny has recently become passionate about the lack of access to capital in the United States. She is proud that Kiva Zip provides people with opportunities domestically and believes Kiva is well on its way to making the whole world a better place.