Deborah Karny Gonkpah started at Bucknell University in the fall of 2022 and has worked on campus as a Strategic Philanthropist Intern and as a Public Safety Community Service Assistant. In the summer of 2023, Deborah returned to Liberia to install three new latrines (after previously installing one) and ran a Community Led Sanitation Project after receiving funding from SHE-CAN’s Make A Change Program ($2K) and the Davis For Peace Grant ($10K). She also was a Program Management Intern for Mercy Corps in 2023.
Deborah is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of We Can Liberia, a non-profit youth organization with the mission of empowering Liberia through cleanliness, education, and business. Deborah has hosted numerous radio shows on sex education and sanitation awareness and has generated cash for the Moduc Orphanage Home, the Buchanan Jail Complex, and the Buchanan Government Hospital. This inspired her public sector and medical field ambitions. She has provided school supplies to 155 girls and 43 boys in Bong, Grand Bassa, and rural Montserrado, and her We Can Liberia scholarship program is now supporting ten disadvantaged students.
In high school, she graduated among the top three students in her class and was one of the top scorers on the WASSCE, Liberia’s national exam. She was awarded the George Weah Learn Project Scholarship and the Nyonblee Care Foundation Scholarship.
Deborah believes that education is power and is a tool that women can utilize to realize their full potential. She believes in the empowerment and engagement of women and intends to educate fifty girls through We Can Liberia by 2030.
Highlights From Deborah’s Past Work Experience:
- Strategic Philanthropist Intern, Bucknell University and Advancement
- Program Management Intern, Mercy Corps 2023
- Public Safety Community Service Assistant, Bucknell University
- Buchanan National Port Intern, Grand Bassa
- Radio Gbehzohn Intern, Liberia
Dean’s List
GPA: 3.75
Languages Spoken: English, Kolloqua, Spanish
