Zoë Johnson


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It all began when Zoë was eight and her parents took her on a nine-month round the world backpacking adventure.



Before they departed, she was painfully shy and had never before set foot on an airplane. Twelve countries on three continents later, she returned home with the confidence that comes from discovering that people everywhere—no matter how different their life circumstances—have things to learn from each other.


Since then, her desire to engage with the world has taken her to five continents for work, study, and pleasure. She is currently working as the Donor Tracker Policy and Editorial Lead with SEEK Development, where she is excited to be part of a team working to support positive, systemic change in the development sector.


Zoë is a graduate from the MPhil in Development Studies at Oxford's Department of International Development where her research critically explored how processes of social, economic, and political change in Ethiopia shape young women’s perceptions of their own opportunities. She continued her work in Ethiopia as the Field Research Manager on a project with the Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance, exploring young women’s expectations and experiences of work and life in the Hawassa Industrial Park.


She also holds a BSc in Global Resource Systems from the University of British Columbia where she studied food systems, with a regional focus on South Asia.