Why Two American Teens Want You to Know About PEPFAR
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Sakena met with Maddie, Emilie, and Alie as they shared how global health programs like PEPFAR programs change lives in Kenya and worldwide.
September 19, 2025
©Gates Archive/Liam Kaiser
How a Computer Scientist is Using AI to Save Mothers’ Lives in Pakistan
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Sakena sat down with Dr. Maryam Mustafa , cofounder of Awaaz-e-Sehat, who is building an AI tool to close dangerous gaps in maternal care and help more women in Pakistan survive pregnancy and childbirth.
April 9, 2025
©Gates Archive/Rebecca Conway
A Trusted Voice in the Fight Against TB
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Nandipha Titana, Community Liasion Officer at Be Part, helps fight TB in her South African community by connecting people to care and building trust through her work at Be Part.
March 24, 2025
©Gates Archive
How Marie-Angélique Sène is empowering Africa’s vaccine future
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Sakena met withMarie-Angélique Sène, Head of the Advanced Vaccine Bioprocessing Lab, Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal is empowering Africa’s vaccine future.
January 29, 2025
©Gates Archive/Carmen Yasmine
Love is Not Loud
Torch Magazine | Gates Foundation
“I got married on a sunny, 80-degree day in late September before two reverends, 101 family and friends, four vendors, and my therapist. Not a physical therapist, but the kind that makes sense of my brain.”
January 17, 2025
The Ghanaian researcher who came home
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Sakena met with Yaw Bediako, Ph.D., CEO and cofounder of Yemaachi Biotech, to learn about his life-changing career pivot—from full-time academic to entrepreneur.
July 31, 2024
©Gates Archive/Nana Kofi Acquah
Out of grief, a daughter’s mission to transform healthcare
Portraits of Potential | Gates Foundation
Sakena had the honor and privilege of interviewing Nneka Mobisson, CEO of mymdoc, and hearing the story of her father's legacy and the impetus for her inspiring career in medicine and health tech. It's a story of passion, grit, and determination.
November 9, 2023
©Gates Archive/Nyancho NwaNri
Six picks from a young political leader
Six Picks from a Goalkeepers | Gates Foundation
Sakena had the opportunity to sit down with Goalkeeper Jana Degrott and learn more about her life, career, and how she continues to be an advocate for women and people of color in politics.
September 1, 2023
©Gates Archive/Anne Ackermann
Six picks from scientist Thulile Khanyile
Six Picks from a Goalkeepers | Gates Foundation
Sakena had the opportunity to sit down with Goalkeeper Thulile Khanyile and learn what inspiring and diverse interests she turns to when she needs to look at a problem through a new lens, in her own words.
September 1, 2023
©Gates Archive
Mental Health Days
Bellevue Literary Review, Issue 43
“My second miscarriage was caused by Trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that my doctors attributed to “advanced maternal age.” This was before a team of sociologists released a study declaring Pittsburgh, the place I call home, to be the worst city for Black women. ”
Excerpt from Bellevue Literary Review (BLR)
September 23, 2022
Art in Parks essays
Art in Parks Program | City of Pittsburgh
Casey Droege Cultural Production and the City of Pittsburgh commissioned Sakena and four other storytellers to document the work created by eight local, national, and international artists as part of the Art in Parks program.
Sakena expanded the narrative created by two brilliant artists, Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Sara B. Coleman. Their amazing public artworks appear in Schenley Park.
May 2022
Check out her two essays, “Birds Everywhere” and “Close Your Eyes and Listen” along with the work of her fellow storytellers.
The Blood Remains
Jellyfish Review
“I pin my knees together like a reflex. The technician in charge tells me to scoot down. ‘More,’ she says, ‘until you’re right on the edge.’ I never do it right.”
September 19, 2020
The Fear of Nostalgia: HBO’s Watchmen and African-American Genealogy
Reactor
Fantasy and Sci-Fi has always been political, which is why Sakena was surprised that Watchmen’s overt approach to race ruffled the feathers of many viewers. Science fiction has a way of teaching us about ourselves while giving us some distance between our face and the mirror. Watchmen may have turned up the volume, but the presence of politics is neither a betrayal of the original graphic novel or the genre itself.
December 16, 2019
My City Was Named The ‘Worst Place For Black Women To Live.’ Is That My Cue To Leave?
Huffington Post
In September 2019, City Lab published an article stating that Pittsburgh “was the worst place for Black women to live for just about every indicator of livability.” As a Black woman from Pittsburgh who also happens to be the mother of a Black girl, Sakena’s first inclination was to throw all of her family’s belongings into a moving truck and drive to D.C. where her husband’s family lives.
November 4, 2019
A view of the skyline of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. KEN REDDING VIA GETTY IMAGES
Adopting While Black
Rewire News Group
“When my husband and I found the adoption agency we later signed with, one thing stood out: the absence of brown babies on their marketing materials. I called the agency and asked a few pointed questions. “Most of our clients are looking for white babies,” our case manager said. “In 14 years, you’re maybe the fifth or sixth Black couple I’ve worked with.”
June 5, 2019
