SMU Honors Emerging Leader Brittany Merrill Underwood

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(L to R) SMU President R. Gerald Turner and SMU Alumni Board Chair Leslie Melson

DALLAS, TX (11/01/2013)(readMedia)-- DALLAS (SMU) - Brittany Merrill Underwood '07, an international advocate for women and children from Atlanta, Georgia, received the Southern Methodist University's Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes an alumnus or alumna who graduated in the last 15 years, for outstanding achievements.

A part of the esteemed Distinguished Alumni Awards, Underwood and other philanthropic, civic and business leaders were honored in a presentation and dinner held Thursday, Oct. 24, on the SMU Main Quad.

Brittany Merrill Underwood has had an extraordinary impact by transforming the lives of impoverished women and children. While at SMU, she spent the summer of 2004 in Uganda and was moved by the dedication of local women who sought to transform their communities. In 2006, Underwood founded the Ugandan American Partnership Organization (UAPO) to partner with a Ugandan ministry to build a three-story orphanage with the capacity to house 180 street children. She moved to Uganda after completing her B.A. with a major in journalism and a minor in political science. Her first orphanage project was completed in 2009 and was featured worldwide on CNN and in other media outlets.

While working on the orphanage in 2007, Underwood established the Akola Project, a nonprofit that offers women opportunity through vocational training, education programs, employment opportunities, support groups and savings and loan associations. By providing sustainable skills and reliable income for women, the Akola Project has lifted more than 1,200 women and children out of extreme poverty. Locally made, high-quality, fashionable products from the women of the Akola Project have been sold in more than 220 boutiques throughout the United States.

Since 2004, Underwood's organization has successfully drilled more than 23 clean water wells in displaced communities, constructed two vocational training centers and created a thriving social business for women. Underwood received a master's degree in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2013 and continues to devote herself to improving the lives of women and children as the founder and president of the Akola Project.

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