Parfait Gasana did not speak English 10 years ago when he moved to the United States from Rwanda. It was through the help provided by a tutoring program in New Haven that he was able to learn English. Parfait is co-founder and Board President of the Kigali Reading Center (KRC), a non-profit dedicated to spreading the joy of reading to children in Rwanda. Parfait earned his MS in International Relations at the McCormack School, where he received the Beacon Graduate Leadership Award and the Ambassador John W. McDonald Award for Leadership and Innovation in Global Governance and Conflict Resolution for his work with the KRC. He received his BA in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, with a minor in Human Rights. Parfait is currently Operations Manager of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development at the McCormack School of Government at the University of Massachusetts Boston.