New Fellows-Elect from University of Chicago

The Fellowship community is excited to welcome two new Fellows-Elect from the University of Chicago, members of the class of 2025: Kelly Bridges and Sahar Omer.

Kelly Bridges worked as an advocate to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation in developing countries. She served as a Senior Associate at Global Water 2020, a time-bound advocacy and facilitation initiative aimed at solving critical challenges in the global water, sanitation, and hygiene (commonly known as WASH) sector.  In 2016, Kelly graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar with a B.A. in Science, Technology, and Society, concentrating in Energy, Environment, and Technology. She also earned her M.Sc. in Water Science, Policy, and Management at the University of Oxford in 2017.

Sahar Omer is a native of Sudan and immigrated with her parents as an infant to Auburn, Alabama, where she was raised. Sahar graduated from Harvard College in 2020 with an AB in Government and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations with Honors. At Harvard, Sahar was active in religious and cultural organizations, serving on the board of the African Students’ Association for one year, the board of the Society of Arab Students for four years, and the President of the Islamic Society for two years. Sahar also co-founded and co-directs ZAHARA for Education, an education initiative focused on creating and facilitating educational opportunities for students in Sudan and the United States.