¡Hola a todos!

My name is Sasha Baumann and I will be your Project Director this summer in San Juan, Dominican Republic. With a background in global public health and sport for development in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, I am overjoyed to be returning to work with AMIGOS: the place where it all started for me!

In 2012, I discovered AMIGOS as a Volunteer in Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica. It certainly made a positive impact in my life, as I continued with AMIGOS as a Chapter Trainer in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin and then later as a Project Supervisor in Bahoruco, Dominican Republic in 2014.

I hold a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from Grinnell College, where I competed with the varsity Women’s Soccer and Ultimate Frisbee teams. During the summers, I held various research assistantships in the U.S. and Spain examining the social and cultural factors that affect maternal and child health outcomes. This is where I developed a love for international public health, which I will be studying in the fall in the Global Population and Family Health Masters program at Columbia University in New York.

These experiences also led me to the adolescent sexual and reproductive health non-profit Grassroot Soccer, and I spent over a year serving as a Fellow with their Global Partnerships team in Cape Town, South Africa. After traveling through East Africa for the past couple of months, I am thrilled to be heading back to the Dominican Republic to meet with our partner organization Plan International and prepare for an amazing summer together in San Juan! Our projects will focus on engaging communities in sports activities and tournaments to promote youth leadership, teamwork, and gender equality.

In my spare time, you can find me tossing a frisbee, hiking up tall mountains, reading Junot Díaz in a hammock, or dancing to afrobeats and reggaeton. Looking forward to getting to know you, ¡nos vemos pronto!