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Kate H. von Achen graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science with a focus on Women in Developing Countries in 2006. The summer following graduation, von Achen traveled to East Africa for the first time to study Fair Trade coffee cooperatives in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with United Students for Fair Trade. von Achen immediately fell in love with Uganda and could not wait to return. Six months later von Achen found herself back where she belonged. In January 2007, von Achen returned to Uganda with Global Youth Partnership for Africa to study the conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda. It was then that von Achen decided to obtain her Masters of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

In August 2007 von Achen moved to Uganda to start her M.A. program. In her first year, von Achen helped to start a successful socially-conscious business working with Women tailors in Uganda. Feeling the need to do more, von Achen left that business and decided to start Awava in September 2008.

von Achen plans to defend her dissertation, The Effects of Western Market Access on Women in Post-Conflict Development: A Case Study of Unyama and Bobi Camps in Gulu District, Uganda in May 2009.

Hanna Schwing is completed her Bachelor's of Arts in International Studies through the University of North Texas, focusing on Regional Studies in Africa and International Development. She has helped found two student organizations at the University of North Texas, one supporting local HIV/AIDS awareness and another to raise interest in African Studies. In 2008, she traveled to Sierra Leone with the Global Youth Partnership for Africa to study post-conflict reconstruction and development. Hanna moved to Kampala, Uganda in January 2009 to assist Awava operations in Uganda and has been acting as Assistant Country Director since June 2009.

Sarah Elizabeth Clark was born and raised in lovely Prairie Village, KS. In 1997, Sarah moved to Lawrence, KS, where she studied graphic design at The University of Kansas School of Art and Design, earning her BFA in the spring of 2002. Sarah began working in the food service industry during her undergraduate years and continued working in the industry in order to fund her post-graduate travelling adventures. She first travelled abroad in 2006, independently making her way to Brazil to explore its vast geography, culture and language for six months. Sarah has continued studying Brazilian Portuguese at the University of Kansas, and dreams of one day traveling to each of the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world.

Upon returning to Lawrence, KS, Sarah managed a favorite local bar and coffee shop, The Bourgeois Pig. Sarah relocated to Kampala, Uganda where she served as Assistant Country Director-Uganda for Awava from January to May 2009, and is currently working as Assistant Country Director-US. Sarah hopes to make an impact in gender equality through her involvement with Awava.

Glenna Gordon is a freelance photographer and writer who has been based in Africa since 2006. She is currently working on several long term projects in Liberia.

Molly Murphy lives and paints and sleeps in Lawrence, KS.