Jioni Tuck

Jioni Tuck was born in California and raised in Washington, DC.  Her interest in international development began at Jackson-Reid High School, where she joined the international studies program and participated in service-learning programs in Panama and Guatemala.  Jioni attended the College of William & Mary, where she majored in Government and minored in Public Health.  As an undergraduate, Jioni worked for multiple international development research teams conducting research in Nicaragua and Tanzania.  During her junior year, she spent a semester studying human rights and history in Argentina.  After graduating, Jioni moved to Guatemala as a Princeton in Latin America Fellow, where she worked for a small community-based NGO (non-governmental organizations). At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved back to the US and worked as a contact tracer and case investigator for Partners in Health.  Most recently, Jioni has been living and working in Guatemala, running the Monitoring and Evaluation department for Semilla Nueva, an agriculture and nutrition-focused NGO.  Jioni will pursue a master’s in public health focusing on global health and epidemiology to join USAID as a Population/Health/Nutrition Officer.  She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and is studying French.  In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing the guitar, and traveling.  Jioni is honored to be joining the 2023 class of Donald M. Payne Fellows and is excited to start her career with USAID.