Community Service Award

By Darryl Gangloff

Temitayo Ifafore-Calfee '99 has devoted her life to public service through her passion for health and travel. She is a division chief at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which she refers to as “the U.S. government’s do-good arm,” and she is proud of her work helping Liberia recover from the Ebola epidemic. She is this year’s Community Service Award recipient, selected by the Hotchkiss Alumni Association in recognition of making a difference throughout the nation and the world.

Ifafore-Calfee says “it means a lot” to receive this award. “I think about Hotchkiss and all the different graduates over the years, and it feels like an honor. It feels humbling,” she said. “It’s a big deal. It feels validating.” She will be honored during a ceremony on campus in October.

Ifafore-Calfee is a first-generation American, born in Nigeria and raised in the Bronx, NY. During her summers home from Hotchkiss, her mother would tell her to volunteer with various organizations, from daycare centers to food pantries. “It started early, and then I gained a sense of satisfaction over time. It was no longer something that my mom was telling me to do. I was motivated, and I felt good about it. And then it became part of who I am.”

She didn’t plan to become a public servant, but her love of health and medicine led her to a career in helping others. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Prior to joining USAID, she held senior roles running health programs as operations lead at the Human Diagnosis Project, national program director for Health Career Connection, operations director at Johns Hopkins Medicine International in Panama, and regional director for the William J. Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in Ethiopia.

This work led Ifafore-Calfee to “help serve people on a larger scale” at USAID, where “being a civil servant is part of my job title and, frankly, a part of my identity.” According to its website, the agency “leads the U.S. government's international development and disaster assistance through partnerships and investments that save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, and help people emerge from humanitarian crises and progress beyond assistance.”

Ifafore-Calfee says her USAID division focuses on deepening collaboration with the private sector and strengthening government staff's skills to engage with corporate entities. She has also provided technical leadership on human resources for health systems and has overseen multi-country, $100+ million implementations.

She credits Hotchkiss for instilling in her a desire for travel and service. She chose to attend boarding school and says that selecting Hotchkiss was a pivotal moment in her life. “There's a before Hotchkiss, and then after,” she said. “I felt very empowered being at Hotchkiss. I made lifelong friends and met my future spouse!” She is married to Chris Calfee ’00, and her father-in-law is David Calfee ’64, P’00. “Hotchkiss is a part of my family and my story.”

Her worldview changed at Hotchkiss through travel opportunities and meeting students from around the globe. She participated in community service projects in Mexico and Costa Rica. “I use Spanish every day now. Those experiences gave me a world lens that helped me realize I was going to choose a global career.”

Ifafore-Calfee reflects fondly on Eco Day, the annual School event focusing on environmental stewardship. “Hotchkiss has provided many opportunities for me to see what happens when you get a group of people working together for a common goal. It cemented for me that people can make a life out of service.”

Presented annually, the Community Service Award honors the service contributions that Hotchkiss graduates have made to their respective communities, whether local, national, or international. The award seeks to recognize individuals who—in the estimation of the Nominating Committee of the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association—demonstrate through their volunteer and/or vocational endeavors an exemplary sense of caring, initiative, and ingenuity. Nominate an alumnus or alumna for the Community Service Award.