Sarayu Adeni, MPA-DP

Sarayu Adeni, MPA-DP, is the senior program coordinator for global health at Dell Medical School and Texas Global’s Special Initiatives team. She is the Division of Global Health’s liaison to Texas Global, and she facilitates global health education, partnerships and activities involving faculty, residents, students and community at The University of Texas at Austin and in Kenya and Mexico.

Originally from Austin, Adeni’s past work and current interests include sustainable development, youth engagement, K-12 education, communications and community health — both internationally and in the U.S. She served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic from 2010 to 2012, building PEPFAR-funded teen health promotion groups and supporting women’s and girls’ involvement in local development projects.

Adeni earned her Master of Public Administration in sustainable development practice from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, during which she also completed a graduate consultancy with The Earth Institute’s K-12 education initiatives in Ghana and an internship with Human Rights Watch under the Global Coalition to Protect Education From Attack. Adeni has both a bachelor’s degree in journalism and an interdisciplinary certificate in global studies from UT Austin. She also studied culture, development and social justice while abroad in Chile with the School for International Training. In 2020, she successfully completed the yearlong NAFSA Academy for International Education.

Adeni is a current board member of the nonprofit GirlForward, which serves internationally displaced and refugee youth resettled with their families in Austin and Chicago, with which she participated as a mentor for three years. She also worked previously for the environmental education nonprofit EcoRise and with the Prevention and Early Intervention division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.