Josie Krieger, originally from State College, Pennsylvania, graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2022 with degrees in history and economics. During her time at Penn State, Josie was actively involved in various academic and extracurricular activities, earning numerous honors and awards, including the inaugural Rhea S. Schwartz Fellowship. 

Josie's work with displaced communities began in 2021 as an AmeriCorps Refugee Case Management VISTA in Kansas City, Kansas. She continued her development work through an internship with Management Systems International (MSI) on their Third Party Monitoring in Central Africa project in spring 2022, focusing on the evaluation and monitoring of USAID-funded projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Following graduation, Josie served as an AmeriCorps Community Program Management VISTA at the Utah Refugee Center, where she created programs to support the integration of Utah's refugee community and managed volunteers. 

Josie is passionate about language learning and has studied Turkish through the Critical Language Scholarship program in Baku, Azerbaijan (2019) and Ankara, Turkey (2022). She also has language skills in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and French.

Currently, Josie is pursuing a Master's in Global Human Development at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, with an expected graduation in May 2025. She is a 2023 Donald F. McHenry Global Public Service Fellow and is specializing in Education and Livelihoods Development in a Crisis Context, while also pursuing a certificate in Refugees, Migration, and Humanitarian Emergencies.

Summer Internship

In the summer of 2024, Josie interned with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Amman, Jordan, where she researched complementary pathways to resettlement and analyzed data on refugee access to healthcare systems. She is currently interning at the World Faiths Development Dialogue, conducting research on the relationship between religion and development. As part of her work with WFDD, Josie co-authored the IF20 Human Traf icking and Modern Slavery Partnerships for Solutions Policy Brief. Additionally, Josie is working as a Youth Programs Intern at Catholic Relief Services.

Capstone Project

For her GHD capstone project, Josie is currently working with Spark Microgrants to evaluate the motivations of Community Based Facilitators (CBFs) in Facilitated Community Action Projects (FCAPs) across Rwanda, Malawi, and Uganda. The project involves conducting a systematic literature review to establish parameters for analyzing extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for volunteer community work. The capstone focuses on gathering data through CommCare surveys, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides, and Key Informant Interview (KII) guides. The project aims to communicate key findings, methodology, and recommendations to multiple stakeholders through a final report and presentation.