Grace Penn is the Associate Director for International Affairs and Operations, reporting to the Associate Provost for International Affairs. She is responsible for supporting Princeton’s oversight of Mpala and advancing the international scope of Princeton’s teaching, research, and service mission.

From December 2015 to February 2022 Grace served as the Associate Director for Affinity Groups in Princeton’s Office of Advancement. In this role she helped to lead University strategy for affinity programming. Grace supported volunteer leaders for the Asian American, Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ alumni groups, working with their boards to strengthen organizational capacity and increase alumni engagement. She also managed the planning process for several large scale on-campus affinity conferences to celebrate these groups of alumni. In addition, Grace supported the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, a national prize for high school students doing work in their schools or communities to advance racial equity.

Prior to coming to Princeton, Grace worked in K-8 education as a teacher, teacher coach and reading specialist in public schools in the Bronx, NY and West Windsor, New Jersey. Grace has deep knowledge and experience managing a variety of stakeholders, building board capacity, project management and diversity equity and inclusion work. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Grace is an alumna of Princeton University with a BA in Politics and a certificate in African Studies, and also holds an MA in international education from Columbia University.

"The road to professional fulfillment is not always a straight line- despite what may seem like a winding path, you will learn important lessons and valuable skills at every step of the way that will allow you to be successful and thrive at each point along the way. When I got to Princeton as a first year in 1995, my goal was to work in international relations. Life took me on a very winding journey from teaching in the Bronx, to planning alumni affinity conferences, and now years later I find myself in international affairs. I don't know what's next, but I know that each of these experiences has been valuable and important, and will continue to be as I move through my professional journey."

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