Angela Bruce-Raeburn was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago and lived the undocumented immigrant experience in Brooklyn New York with her parents who decided to migrate in search of new opportunities.
The black immigrant experience perhaps is the single most significant driver of her interest in issues of equity and social justice and its implications for racial identity.
Angela graduated from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU)– Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, which was the first historically black college to be founded in the US in 1854 receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science in 1986. In 1992, Angela returned to Trinidad to pursue a post-graduate Diploma in International Relations at The University of the West Indies.
Angela was selected by the Rotary Foundation to receive a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship for graduate study in Peace Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Upon completion of the degree in 2005, She received a Rotary World Peace Fellowship to study Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford in England completing that degree in 2006.
Returning to the US, Angela headed straight to Washington DC to accept a Congressional Black Caucus Fellowship and went to work in the Office of then CBC Chairperson Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick from Michigan.
Angela focused on human trafficking and modern day slavery.
Fluent in French, Angela holds three Masters Degrees, in Public Administration, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.
In 2010, the Haiti earthquake and the subsequent international response led her to Haiti as a Senior Policy Advisor for Oxfam America. In her own words, “No where on earth is white supremacy culture under the guise of international development more on display than in this island nation”. After the emergence of the Haiti scandal in 2018 involving misconduct by Oxfam Great Britain’s staff, Angela began to write about the black experience as seen from her immigrant eyes with a focus on her interest in the development sector publishing an article titled, But Wait Until They See Your Black Face in 2018 – https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-but-wait-until-they-see-your-black-face-92485.
Mrs. Bruce-Raeburn has been married for twenty-eight years to Dr. Alan Raeburn who hails from Tobago – the smaller of the twin island republic and a practicing Veterinarian. The couple makes their home in Rockville, Maryland with their three sons Zachary (25), Zion (20), Zidane (18), and their dog Bamboo.
Mrs. Bruce-Raeburn is the founding principal of DiverseDEV – an organization dedicated to starting conversations about diversity and inclusion while challenging the power imbalance in the development sector.