Brian Mukhaya ‘17

This bio is current as of 2023.

Brian Mukhaya is a Research Associate at Clean Air Task Force (CATF), a research and analysis non-profit environmental organization. At CATF, Mukhaya is on the Africa Energy and Climate Innovation Program, where he supports stakeholder engagement, modeling of energy systems, research and policy development. Prior to joining CATF, Mukhaya worked as a senior auditor at Deloitte and as an associate at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust. At Notre Dame, Mukhaya majored in Accounting, minored in International Development Studies and was part of the International Scholars Program.  

This profile was current as of 2017, when he was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.

I am writing an International Development Studies Minor senior capstone that attempts to understand why mentorship may be a more effective tool to stimulate growth among small businesses than classical training. The research is based off a randomized control trial by Notre Dame faculty in Dandora, and I will utilize the numerous interviews I conducted in the area to assess what factors may have contributed to the success among the businesspeople who received mentorship. In addition, the capstone will offer a critique to some of the methods that have been advanced by the World Bank and other institutions on how to promote growth for businesses in urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Over the past three years, I have been fortunate to receive funding by various organizations around campus. During my freshman year, I took part in the Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP) through the Center for Social Concerns. This opportunity exposed to issues of urban poverty and sparked a fire for me to seek an understanding of how small business ownership can contribute to better living standards. I also received funding from the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) to travel to Kenya and conduct the preliminary study of Dandora, pre-test my interview questions and comprehend the challenges facing the people in the area. For the past two years, I have been a research assistant to Fr. Bob who has been working predominantly on issues in Sub-Saharan Africa regarding persecution of Christians, and democracy and ethnicity. This research gave me an opportunity to understand how to gather secondary data, prepare interview questions and other essential techniques in research.