Advocating for Others

Kate Albers ’08 focuses on community with UN career

In 2020, Kate Albers ’08 was part of a global United Nations effort to combat hunger that earned the World Food Programme (WFP) a Nobel Prize.

It was the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and global crises that were already challenging were made even worse as the world grappled with a rapidly spreading virus. Albers, along with others on her team, formed a coordinated response, determining which staffers and what support was needed as well as where to address nutrition and food issues in a variety of countries.

“It was the biggest worldwide response to an emergency that we’ve ever coordinated before,” Albers said. “It went really well. It was a way to feel part of something bigger.”

Albers has worked for the UN since 2017, but her interest in global affairs and humanitarian concerns began when she was a student at Columbus School for Girls.

Albers joined CSG in kindergarten, and from a young age she was encouraged to think and learn about different voices and experiences. History and politics classes encouraged her to think about global issues, while an interfaith club in Upper School became an opportunity to discuss ethics and philosophy from diverse perspectives. Her track and cross country coach, Jack Guy, became a mentor to her, and conversations of his work abroad in Afghanistan also made Albers curious about other cultures and communities.

Her growing interest in justice and service ultimately led Albers to take a trip to Costa Rica in Middle School for a volunteer project, an experience she viewed as pivotal to determining her future course of study beyond CSG. While at Emory University, Albers studied abroad in Spain and also volunteered in Tanzania for a month, living with a host family. The volunteer experience showed her that she was able to adapt to different environments and challenges.

“I was realizing that I was adaptable and there was a lot to learn from other cultures in the world,” she said.

Albers graduated from Emory with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Affairs. Following her undergraduate study, she did a year-long program in Zambia under the Princeton Fellowship Program, working for a non-government organization to gain project management experience. It was her first long-term international experience. She went on to work for the International Rescue Committee in New York before attending the John Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies for a Master of Arts degree in International Development and Economics.

Albers joined the UN in 2017, where she has focused on issues involving food security, economic development, and migration. She began working at the headquarters level in Italy, spending two and a half years in Iraq before returning to Italy, where she now serves as Programme Officer for the UN’s International Organization for Migration. Albers’ current focus is looking at mid- and long-term effects of the crisis in Ukraine on those within Ukraine and in neighboring countries, from economic development, to poverty levels, to migration.

Her career has given Albers the opportunity to meet and engage with people from a variety of places and to be in a community of people working toward common goals. And the road that led her here began during her CSG years, when friends, family, and teachers helped motivate her to get out of her day-to-day bubble and focus on her community and the bigger picture.

“The most important lessons I learned during my CSG years came from my wonderful classmates, supportive family, and a few influential mentors like Jack Guy, who taught me how to develop confidence from within, form healthy relationships with others, and address everyday injustices in whatever small ways you can,” Albers said. “My hope is that CSG can help young women to define their own ideas of what success means and to see themselves as important contributors to an interconnected world, no matter what they decide to do with their careers.’’