Arkansas Business

Anna Reed

Fulfilling a desire to stay connected to home while helping people across the world, Anna Reed spends most of her time in central Africa.

She is a program director for Bridge2Rwanda, an organization headquartered in Little Rock that develops economic and educational opportunities for Rwandans.

Reed diverted in 2009 from her initial career. The Marianna native graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in communication disorders and from the University of South Carolina in 2006 with a master’s in speech pathology. She then worked as a speech pathologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

She said she changed paths after meeting B2R’s CEO, Dale Dawson and was inspired to join in the “whole global impact, while bringing a global perspective to the people around me in my state.”

Reed helped start and now manages the B2R Training Center in Kigali, Rwanda. The center helps top Rwandan students prepare for and apply to colleges and graduate schools outside their country, with a goal of equipping them to return and improve education in Rwanda. Reed also works out of Little Rock, coordinating the Rwanda program, mainly with American schools.