Samfee Kamayanoh Doe ’11 has been selected as one of 28 Milead Fellows from among 2,120 candidates from 44 countries.
For this highly prestigious award conferred on African women, Doe was chosen as the sole representative of Liberia, her home country. She is the daughter of Felicia Politee and Sam Gbaydee Doe. Her father, employed by the United Nations, holds master’s degree in conflict transformation from EMU.
“The 2013 Fellows are between the ages of 19 and 25, but are already actively leading change on pertinent issues, both at the grassroots and international level,” said a news release from the Milead Fellows program. “From poverty to women’s economic empowerment, environmental justice and political participation, this new generation of African women leaders are proof that Africa can produce the bold, visionary and inspirational leadership needed to lift Africa to its rightful place on the global stage.”
Samfee Doe double-majored in biology and psychology at EMU and is now enrolled in St. George’s University in Grenada, pursuing both a medical degree and a master’s in public health. The Milead Fellowship requires her to attend a three-week leadership conference in Ghana, plus conduct a project to benefit the country she represents. Doe likely will be juggling a year-long public health project in Liberia with clinical rotations in the United States, which she expects to begin in the spring of 2014.
In 2011-12, Doe was accepted into the Keith B.Taylor Global Scholar program, which enabled her to spend a year at The University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England. There she focused on how the national health service works in the United Kingdom.
Samfee was one of 10 students in her graduating year to be selected for EMU’s top honor, the Cords of Distinction, awarded for “outstanding contributions to the university, community or society.” In addition to her academic achievements, she was a standout runner on EMU’s track and field team.
“EMU courses prepared me well for medical school,” she said in an email to Crossroads. “I wrote my advisor [Greta Ann Herin] thanking her after the first month of school.”