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Kelsey Zavelo

Program Coord, Senior
Fuqua School of Business

Overview


Kelsey Zavelo is Assistant Director of Student Programs at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. In this role, Kelsey manages CASE's field-leading portfolio of social impact programming for MBA students. As an experienced educator and higher education professional, she is deeply committed to student development through mentorship and advising. 

A long-time resident of the Triangle, Kelsey earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from NC State and a PhD in History from Duke University.

As a historian, Kelsey's research focuses on the politicization of African affairs in the United States in the wake of decolonization, particularly as it relates to the development of modern conservatism and business education. Her dissertation, “Apartheid Diplomacy: South Africa and the Rise of the American Right,” shows how recent U.S. and South Africa histories were mutually constitutive through an examination of conservative America’s real and imagined interests in South Africa and the South African government’s multiform investments in shaping U.S. foreign policy. 

Kelsey is the faculty lead for Fuqua's flagship Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) South Africa course. GATE is an elective course that allows MBA students focus on a region’s history, politics, economy, and culture—both in the classroom, and through in-person travels through the region.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Program Coord, Senior Fuqua School of Business