Paxton Lambright is a program officer for both the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders and the U.S-Jordan Leadership Exchange Program.

In this role, she works across both teams to promote community engagement in the U.S., Sub-Saharan Africa, and Jordan. On the U.S.-Jordan Leadership Exchange, she leads the U.S. Exchange programming, which includes facilitating host organization placements, arranging housing, and supporting Fellows once they are in the United States. On the Mandela Washington Fellowship she works to build the Community Engagement portfolio and connect different components of the Fellowship through the development of Knowledge Networks and other opportunities. Prior to this role, she worked on both the Reciprocal Exchange and Professional Development Experience components on the Mandela Washington Fellowship.

Prior to joining IREX, Paxton worked at the Women’s Foreign Policy Group as a communications assistant where she promoted the role of women in foreign policy. During her sophomore year of college, she studied abroad in Jerusalem where she studied Arabic and worked to develop workshops about the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.

Paxton graduated from the University of Southern California with Bachelor’s degrees in global studies (with honors) and Middle East studies, and a minor in Arabic. She is an avid learner of languages including Spanish, Arabic, French, and Hebrew.