Alumni Spotlight – Gretchen Knoth ’07

Tell us about your college experience and career trajectory.

I majored in Anthropology and International Studies with a concentration in Economics at Bryn Mawr College. After graduating, I received a Fulbright grant and spent a year in Indonesia teaching English at a religious high school. Shortly after returning to the US, I earned a M.A. degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and have spent nearly 15 years supporting U.S. foreign assistance programs in Central America, Africa, and Asia.

Over the course of my career, I have been really fortunate to work in all sorts of different technical and geographic areas. In Myanmar, I worked on a humanitarian project providing grants to organizations working in disaster preparedness and response; in the Philippines, I worked on an economic growth project that provided credit guarantees to local financial institutions lending to small and medium enterprises; and most recently I have worked on a global public health project where we partner with host country governments to procure lifesaving medicines to combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, Ebola, COVID-19, zika, malnutrition, and maternal mortality. 

Looking back, Waynflete influenced my career path in many ways. In high school, I volunteered with Safe Passage, an NGO founded by Hanley Denning, a fellow Mainer. I travelled to Guatemala City to volunteer for two weeks as part of a group of Waynflete students, parents, and teachers. While I didn’t know about the field of international development at the time, the experience opened my eyes to finding a career path that was meaningful and impactful.  

As a much younger student, I always loved Focus Week because it gave you the chance to explore another country or culture and learn about their food, music, language, and customs. I’m sure that influenced me on some level to study Anthropology and then go on to live and work abroad. 

What are you passionate about? What inspires you and motivates you?

I’ve always loved learning other languages and travel, so my college pathway and career trajectory were really borne out of that. I also try to carve out time for hobbies and interests outside of work. For fun, I love playing tennis and taking pottery classes. 

What do you love most about what you do? 

U.S. foreign assistance improves lives abroad, but it also impacts Americans at home. Much of what I do in my job now focuses on preventing the spread of communicable diseases to stop them from reaching U.S. shores. The recent COVID-19 pandemic underscored the fact that diseases aren’t confined within geographical borders and can spread faster than at any other time in history given the scale and speed of air travel.  

I feel lucky to have visited some amazing places that I never would have experienced on my own. I also really love working alongside extremely smart, hard-working, and dedicated colleagues from all over the world who share a common purpose and values.