Julie Fischer

When the Ordered Departure from U.S. Embassy Kinshasa was announced in January 2025, Julie Fischer had been through an evacuation before. That experience mattered. With more than 200 evacuees moving together under enormous stress, Fischer stepped into an informal leadership role — keeping people calm, keeping the group organized, and working with AAFSW's Evacuee Support Network to ensure that when they arrived in the United States, there was clothing, supplies, and a sense that someone had prepared for their arrival. That crisis was one chapter of a much longer story of service in Kinshasa. Fischer taught art therapy to at-risk women at the Telema Mental Health Center. She organized an Embassy garden project. She joined the Board of The American School of Kinshasa and drove governance reforms and a full constitutional revision. She tutored English learners at the Congo American Language Institute. She proofread more than 1,000 bird species entries for an African Bird Club conservation app — a meticulous contribution to documenting the DRC's extraordinary natural heritage. In every context, her instinct was the same: find where she could help, and help fully.

On the Board of The American School of Kinshasa, Fischer chaired the Trustees Committee, where she introduced a structured onboarding and training program for new board members, a board self-rating system, and a formal public comment procedure — changes that outlasted her own term. She also served on the Marine Ball Committee and was a repeat Social Sponsor, helping new arrivals settle into post life.

As a Notre Dame alumni 'ambassador' to the DRC, she organized trash collection efforts across Kinshasa and helped identify and welcome a counterpart ambassador in Brazzaville. At the Telema Mental Health Center, her work extended beyond art therapy to a garden project that gave patients a steady supply of nutritious food, and to artisan shows that helped Telema raise funds for its programs. At the Congo American Language Institute, she didn't just tutor — she recruited other embassy family members to volunteer alongside her.