Black History Month Global Week 2026 Biographies

Student Panelists

Joyin Akinola

See Joyin at the Traveling While Black Student Panel

Hi! My name is Joyin Akinola and I am a Political Science major with a double minor in Global Health and Data Science. I studied in Lisbon, Portugal this past Fall quarter. My studies focused on Portuguese culture, language and international politics. Through my experience abroad, I got exposed to new people and history. One of my favorite parts of my study abroad term was meeting the Portuguese students at my university. It was always really interesting to have conversations with them about the similarities and differences between our lives and oftentimes found people who shared the same niche interests. Studying abroad opened my eyes to numerous opportunities and encouraged me to keep an adventurous spirit wherever I am!

Mariam Fofana

See Mariam at the Study Abroad 101: Resources & Support for Black Students session

Mariam Fofana (she/her) is a third-year undergraduate in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences majoring in History, with a regional concentration in the Middle East and Africa, and double minoring in Cultural Anthropology and Chinese. Her academic interests revolve around Black diasporic histories, language, migration, and community-making across geographic backdrops. She has studied Mandarin Chinese for nearly seven years and spent Fall Quarter studying abroad in Shanghai, where she took courses at Donghua University and interned at an international education consultancy. While abroad, Mariam traveled to over twelve cities across China, acquired firsthand exposure to transnational Black experiences (stumbled upon a West African restaurant in Yiwu), and considerably increased her fluency in Chinese. She also discovered a love for mountainous terrains and drank more cups of mango and pomelo sago than she can count!

Building on this work, she hopes to explore countries in West Africa next, as her research is geographically grounded in the region. Moreover, she is particularly interested in how global learning can complicate understandings of Black history and identity.

Rita Franca

See Rita at the Traveling While Black Student Panel

Hi everyone! My name is Rita França, and I’m originally from Brazil. I’m currently a junior majoring in Communications Studies at Northwestern University. I studied abroad through GESI in Vietnam (Summer 2024) and ALCET in Paris (Fall 2025). Through these two unique and meaningful programs, I explored how culture, communication, and everyday life intersect across different parts of the world. Some of my favorite memories include navigating local markets in Vietnam, sharing meals with classmates, spending long afternoons walking through Paris and practicing French in cafés, and traveling across different countries, which was incredibly exciting and helped me get to know the world in a deeper way.

Evan Harris

See Evan at the Traveling While Black Student Panel

Hi! I’m Evan Harris and I am a Gender and Sexuality Studies major with a Sociology minor. I studied in Amsterdam during Fall 2025. Throughout my time abroad, I explored provinces in the Netherlands and took full advantage of being based in Amsterdam by learning a lot about Dutch culture and exploring the incredible city. Beyond academics and travel, one of my favorite parts of studying abroad was meeting students from universities all over the United States and the world! My experience abroad consisted of meaningful connections and unforgettable memories!

Adelle Johnson

See Adelle at the Study Abroad 101: Resources & Support for Black Students session

Adelle Johnson is a third-year undergraduate student studying Social Policy and Spanish. She studied abroad in Costa Rica through the GESI program in summer 2025, and had such a wonderful time! Some of her fondest memories include weekend trips around the country with her in-country Northwestern cohort, special time spent with her host-family each day, learning about Costa Rican culture in many facets, and new friendships she made over the summer. Adelle looks back on her time in Costa Rica as one of the most cherished experiences of her life thus far and could not be more thankful for having had that opportunity!

Abby Melaku

See Abby at the Study Abroad 101: Resources & Support for Black Students session and the Traveling While Black Student Panel

Abby Melaku is a junior at Northwestern University with a double major in Psychology and Legal Studies. Her academic interests include law, social justice, sociology, and the sciences. In Fall 2025, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark through the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS). Her “core course” in the program was International Humanitarian Law & Armed Conflict, alongside three other elective courses. During her time abroad, Abby was able to travel to 14 countries, make an awesome group of new friends, and try a bunch of delicious dishes.

Alan Silva

See Alan at the Traveling While Black Student Panel

Alan Silva is a 3rd-year studying Art History and Cognitive Science at Northwestern. He is from a little village in the Northeast of Brazil, add grew up in by a family of farmworkers, teachers, community leaders, and artists. He speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish, and has been learning French. Alan studied abroad in Athens in his sophomore Summer and in Paris his junior Fall. He loves drag, creative makeup, cooking, watching movies, and is absolutely fond of museums.

Moderators

Chibuzo Amobi

Global Learning Office (GLO) Student Ambassador

Chibuzo will co-moderate the Study Abroad 101: Resources & Support for Black Students session

Hi! My name is Chibuzo and I participated in the 2025 GESI Thailand Program. My time abroad was filled with unforgettable experiences, from teaching my siblings Nigerian dances and making okra soup for my family and local temple, to sharing laughs with my kind supervisors at my internship. I also had the unique experience of being my host family’s first Black guest and living in a rural village where, for many people, it was their first time meeting a Black person, which made our everyday interactions a meaningful exchange of cultures. I’ll always remember our spontaneous car rides through town, Sunday Thai tea runs, and celebrating Mother’s Day together. Some of my favorite moments included learning Thai from the neighborhood store owner, hiking with my brother, and cooking traditional dishes with my mom.

Ava Thompson Greenwell, Ph.D.

Professor and Faculty-In-Residence

Dr. Thompson Greenwell will moderate the Traveling While Black Panel Discussion.

Ava Thompson Greenwell is a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications where she specializes in teaching video journalism. She has served as co-director of the South Africa Journalism Residency Program and as faculty mentor for the Posse Program.

The Chicago native is director/producer of “Mandela in Chicago,” a documentary film about the city’s anti-apartheid movement and executive producer of “Hearing Silences,” a film about the history of Black women faculty at Northwestern that will debut on campus on February 25. All are invited.

She is also author of Ladies Leading: The Black Women Who Control Television News and produced the Ladies Leading podcast to highlight the contributions of Black women in a variety of fields.

Dr. Greenwell, an academic life coach, has been a freelance correspondent for WGN-TV and Chicago Tonight, a PBS news program. Before Northwestern, she was as a news reporter at WFLA-TV in Tampa, FL; WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, MN; and WEHT-TV in Evansville, IN.

During her time as an undergraduate at Northwestern, she studied abroad in Spain her junior year. She recently returned from Buenos Aires, Argentina where she led a group of graduate students through an immersive reporting experience focused on solutions journalism.

Ryan Rounds

Assistant Director for Program Management and Outreach, Global Learning Office

Ryan will co-moderate the Study Abroad 101: Resources & Support for Black Students session

A Chicagoland native born in Chicago and raised in the south suburbs, Ryan joined the Global Learning Office in 2022 and she advises on and manages programs in France and the Global Horizons program. Her interest in international education began in high school on a trip to Spain where she told a fellow classmate "You don't go to Spain to eat fries and ketchup."

Ryan received her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. She realized that psychology, though interesting, was not her calling and went on to get her M.Ed. in International Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago. In both undergraduate and graduate school, Ryan had the opportunity to study abroad in long and short-term programs in Spain, Italy, and China. Prior to coming to Northwestern, Ryan has worked in retail, non-profit administration, distance learning design and facilitation, taught English abroad, and was most recently a Study Abroad Specialist at Western Michigan University. She has a particular interest in diversifying study abroad student participation. When she is not working, Ryan loves watching true crime documentaries, traveling, ethnic food, following her favorite YouTube content creators, thrifting, and hanging out with her frenchie, Hugo.