RISA CHARITABLE TRUST
email:info@risafund.org
web: www.risafund.org
TEL: 774.276.0202
9120 173rd Ave SE
Snohomish, WA 98290 USA
Board Co-President
Sara G. Byala joined RISA in the fall of 2003 as the organization's Development Director. In that capacity, she was responsible for donor development, grant writing and networking in both the US and South Africa. Sara resigned as Development Director in May 2004 in order to finish her PhD in African History at Harvard University. Upon her departure as RISA staff, Sara wished to continue working with RISA to implement its mission, so was appointed to the Board in April 2004.
Byala is a Candidate for a PhD in African History at Harvard University in Boston, MA. At Harvard, she has paid specific attention to gendered and economic studies of African History. She has passed General Exams in the fields of Ancient and Modern African History, Early-American History, Afro-American History, and Anthropology. She spent the last year living in Johannesburg, South Africa, researching her dissertation on the history of a cultural history museum in Johannesburg over the century, tentatively titled "Thinking in Three Dimensions: Objects of Africa and the Construction of South African Identity in the 20th century." Whilst in Johannesburg, Byala spent a considerable amount of time participating in various grass roots initiatives aimed at alleviating the persistent inequalities within the country. These heightened her intense desire to work towards immediate betterment in the country, in addition to contributing to South Africa in an academic setting. She is currently in the process of writing her dissertation.
Byala is also a graduate of Tufts University, where she received a BA in History with an Interdisciplinary Minor in "Africa and the New World Studies." She completed an undergraduate thesis entitled "A Rock in a Minefield: African Women's Life Strategies in 20th century South Africa" that examined three generations of South African women's resistance to racism and sexism.
Byala was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and immigrated to the US as a young child. She is now based in Cambridge, MA, where she lives with her husband Chad.