After receiving her B.A. in English & Cultural Studies, Portia headed to Thailand on a Fulbright grant to teach English in the northeast of the country. After spending the following year teaching Shan Burmese youth near the Myanmar border, she returned home to pursue a master’s degree in diplomacy and international commerce at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School. Since then, Portia has returned to Thailand multiple times to pursue nonprofit work focused on migrant labor rights, teach English in various capacities, and learn Thai traditional medicine. Portia has also worked as a caseworker for a refugee resettlement agency and served as program manager at a medical surplus recovery organization in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Since 2016, Portia has led student programs for Putney and National Geographic Student Travel in Thailand, Vietnam, and Rwanda.Â