Julie Fischer

During the January 2025 Ordered Departure from U.S. Embassy Kinshasa, EFM Julie Fischer emerged as an informal leader of more than 200 evacuees, drawing on prior evacuation experience to keep the group calm and organized while coordinating with AAFSW's Evacuee Support Network to secure clothing, supplies, and a morale boost upon arrival in the United States. In Kinshasa, she volunteered at the Telema Mental Health Center, teaching art therapy to at-risk women and organizing an Embassy garden project. She served on the Board of The American School of Kinshasa, where she led governance reforms and a constitutional revision. She supported English learners at the Congo American Language Institute and, as a volunteer with African Bird Club, proofread more than 1,000 DRC bird species entries on the Birds of Africa app.