Alia Whitney-Johnson grew up on a horse farm in North Carolina. Majoring in environmental engineering, she is interested in ensuring that applied appropriate technologies are able to reach the world’s poorest communities. She has traveled to Sri Lanka 3 times to do tsunami relief work, a coastal protection project, and found Emerge, a program that provides economic and personal empowerment to abused teenage mothers through jewelry production and sales training. She loves traveling, people, and Salsa dancing.