Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza
African Education Program, Co-founder and Executive Director

Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza is a co-founder and the executive director of the African Education Program (AEP), a Radnor High School-born non-profit organization. Sophomore year of high school, Julie-Anne and her co-founders decided they wanted to support students affected by poverty and AIDS ravaging Kafue, Zambia. Their work started with school supplies, computers, and clothes they collected, sorted, and shipped. Inspired by their Zambian peers, and responding to their plea for a space that would provide an educational, creative and safe environment, Julie-Anne, AEP volunteers, and members of the Kafue community opened the Amos Youth Centre (AYC) in August 2006.

Julie-Anne obtained a bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in international relations (with a focus on African development) from American University and proceeded to work as a communications associate for Burness Communications’ Global Team for nearly four years, all the while a volunteer for AEP and travelling each summer to support local programs.  During her time with Burness Communications, Julie-Anne worked on media campaigns and communications projects for clients including the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, the International Livestock Research Institute, and the International AIDS Society.

In 2014, Julie-Anne transitioned to lead AEP full-time as executive director. Today, she spends most of the year in Zambia to ensure ongoing local programmatic excellence, rigorous program evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, communications, and systems.

Julie-Anne is a native English and French speaker. She has worked/traveled to twelve African countries.