Flemister Fellows

The Center for International Affairs and World Cultures is proud to announce the Flemister Fellows. The program is named after Zandra Flemister, the first Black woman selected to be a Secret Service special agent. During her four years in the Secret Service, she protected the family members of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (1974-1978).

Flemister was born November 21, 1951 at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany in the then U.S. Zone of Occupation. Her father was a U.S. Army Sergeant and her mother was a U.S. government microfilm technician.

At age 5, Flemister moved to the US and grew up in East Hartford Connecticut. Her mother, Pearl Flemister was active in the Civil Rights Movement and brought Zandra along with her to the 1963 March on Washington. They rallied at Union Station near the Capital and marched from there to the Mall.

At age 16, Flemister was part of the Poor People Campaign March on Washington in the months following the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. A little later she joined the Poor People’s Campaign contingent protesting outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

In 1969, Flemister was accepted to Northeastern and its’ Black Studies Summer Institute, an earlier iteration of the present John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. Flemister received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Northeastern in 1973. She went on to receive her Master’s degree in Military Logistics at the National Defense University in 2003.

At Northeastern, Flemister studied abroad in the Soviet Union and Mexico.

She joined the State Department in 1978 as a Foreign Service Officer. The Foreign Service was her lifelong goal, and she loved consular work.

She had 30 years of State Department experience including running interagency visa screening programs in Pakistan and South Korea, establishing a multinational anti-visa fraud working group in London, and extensive counter-narcotics experience in Pakistan and the department Attained rank of Senior Foreign Service Officer. She won a Superior Honor Award for her role in the aftermath of the October 2005 South Asia Earthquake, handled two very sensitive visa cases under congressional and press scrutiny and oversaw the administrative arrangements after a fatal terrorist attack.

She retired in 2011 and passed away in February 2023 at the age of 71.

To learn more about Zandra Flemister, read her biography here.

The endowed Zandra I. Flemister ’73 Trailblazer Fund at Northeastern University will honor her legacy by supporting new generations of changemakers studying in the field of international relations. The Fund will support undergraduate students from underserved populations with financial need, with a preference for first generation college students. To celebrate Zandra’s life and strengthen her impact, please consider contributing to the Fund in these ways:

● Financial assistance for tuition and experiential work and study opportunities abroad. Click here to make your gift.
● The Zandra I. Flemister Fellows program that provides student Fellows with exclusive mentorship and experiential learning opportunities at the Center of International Affairs and World Cultures at Northeastern. Click here to make your gift.
For questions/requests, please contact CSSH Director of Development Deth Sao: d.sao@northeastern.edu | 617.373.3474.

Mary Raines Alexander (she/her/hers)

Major: International Affairs with minors in Mandarin Chinese and French.

Mary Raines Alexander is interested in East Asia regionally, specifically human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as pre- and post-WW2 East Asian relations like with the Rape of Nanjing. She is also interested in post-conflict development, human rights, innovation in international security, resilience, and post-colonial lenses in history, especially Irish history. Mary also has aspirations of obtaining a graduate degree abroad and applying for a language Fulbright. After graduation, she hopes to work in both the government and non-government sector.

Mentor: Philip Thai, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies; Director of Global Asian Studies