Communications & Marketing

Debra Nhokwara is a media professional with four years of experience in communication and social development. Debra holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the National University of Science and Technology (ZW). She was awarded a Chevening Scholarship and completed her Masters in Gender and Media at the University of Sussex. During her tenure at Nhimbe Trust, she helped in developing and implementing COVID-19 Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) policy framework and a CCI portal to support artists and cultural professionals during the pandemic. She served as a Production Assistant for Bulawayo Arts Festival 2020 and the Amavuso Project. As aCommunication and Information Consultant at Transparency International-Zimbabwe (Bulawayo Region) she trained 30 citizen journalists new writing and investigative journalism skills. She was the editor of Hayibo S’khangele (We are Watching), a newsletter used as an advocacy tool to report corruption cases in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. Debra is an experienced Public Relations Officer skilled in crisis management, project management, advertising, managing digital campaigns, planning digital marketing strategies, designing marketing material, and creating social media content. She is proud to have worked at Mike Hamilton Public Relations Consultants and at 143 Communications. Debra is passionate about women’s issues and she is part of project that manufactures reusable pads for disadvantaged women. Recently, she published a podcast called Shadow Pandemics Behind COVID-19 to raise awareness on child sexual harassment during the pandemic.

Host Organization: The Hunger Project

Role at Host Organization: At The Hunger Project, Debra will be serving as the Global Communications Fellow. Debra will work in partnership with fellow Hunger Project communicators to develop robust content and strategies that elevate the voices of individuals engaged in programs in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. The role will sit within the Global Communications team and work closely with members of the communications, program and fundraising teams to ensure The Hunger Project’s brand, messages and impact are compelling, understandable, accurate and widely accessible. Ultimately, this position drives toward the mission of ending hunger by equipping our global team with the resources needed to expand our global movement of partners, supporters, advocates and investors.

Patricia Ainembabazi has more than nine years of experience in both non-profit, private and public sectors, leveraging expertise in policy advocacy, strategic communications, project management, report writing and public relations. She holds a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) in Tanzania and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Nkumba University in Uganda. She’s also completed a Masters’ in International Law, from Middlesex University in the UK. Over the years, Patricia has been engaged in policy Advocacy for Human Rights and Rule of Law at the regional level with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Union), as well as the Pan African Lawyers Union in Arusha Tanzania, both experiences that have led to successful judicial reforms to several African governments, NGOs and individuals. Prior to serving in policy advocacy and community management for judiciaries at the regional level, Patricia worked as a news reporter with the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC-Tv) and well as trading with VOLCAFE specialty Uganda. Informed by a deep understanding of current affairs, Patricia’s main interests are political theory, human rights, international public law and international relations. Prior to serving as an Atlas Corps Fellow, she worked as the Engagement Manager at Reteno & Associates, in South Africa, where she to drove several policy shaping projects as well as community development, with an admirable success rate, ranging from the promotion of civic space and reviewing laws that infringe on basic human rights in sub-Saharan African countries.

Host Organization: FACT Coalition

Role at Host Organization: At FACT Coalition, Patricia will be serving as the Research and Advocacy Fellow. Patritia will join a small FACT Secretariat team and will contribute to the achievement of the Coalition’s 2021-22 strategic outcomes. The position is a hybrid post that combines the Atlas Corps’ tracks on research and writing, communications, and policy and advocacy.

Fernanda Nunes Gimenez is a Public Relations professional, with a generalist and multi-tasking profile with a Post Graduate Degree in Business Communication and Communication and Culture. Her focus is to facilitate the day-to-day of organizations with communication, organization, and creativity. She gained extensive knowledge and expertise in planning and executing events, and in the communication and branding field acting as Event Producer, Communication Coordinator, and Marketing Analyst in both private and public companies, and nonprofit organizations. In the last 12 years, she has developed skills in negotiation, project management, customer service, leadership & team organization, content production, social media, as well as soft skills to navigate a constantly changing world. She also has experience in the creative economy as an amateur Flamenco dancer and freelance writer. Due to that, she feels comfortable in taking responsibilities and focusses on the job to be done, demonstrating a high level of professionalism. Before becoming an Atlas Corps Fellow, Fernanda was working as a Virtual Assistant executing secretariat, marketing, communication, management, and financial tasks. Topics of education, youth development, arts, peace resolution, humanitarian relief, and economic development gain her attention following what she experienced in her 34 years.

Host Organization: Partnership for Central America

Role at Host Organization: At PCA, Fernanda will be serving as the Executive Assistant Fellow. Fernanda will be the primary support and administrative operator to the PCA’s Executive Director. This role is essential to promoting the PCA’s efficiency, legitimacy and reliability as an organization; the Fellow’s work not only strengthens the organization’s internal systems and communication, but also maintains vital relationships with private and public sector partners. Responsibilities include external communications and administrative support, partner and program management, and policy research support as needed (economic/health/education/regulatory, etc.)—with the flexibility to adapt to the interests and unique skill sets of the Fellow.

Yery M García has been working as a researcher and practitioner in communication, development and social change for more than five years. She holds an M.A. in Media Practice for Development and Social Change from the University of Sussex in the UK and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Havana. She has worked as a communications consultant in several international cooperation agencies such as UNICEF, WFP and Oxfam. Since 2014 she has been working as a journalist in Cuban and international media outlets covering issues related to transparency, participation and accountability. She is also a non-formal educator and has been a member of several citizen capacity building projects using new information and communication technologies.

Host Organization: Transparency & Accountability Initiative

Role at Host Organization: At the Transparency & Accountability Initiative, Yery will serve as a Communications & Knowledge Sharing Fellow. She will focus on developing and implementing strategic and digital communications for TAI, managing all of its social media platforms, growing its digital presence, and providing innovative ways to communicate TAI’s unique role as a thought leader and knowledge resource for practitioners leading change around the transparency, civic participation, and accountability field.

Irina Mkrtchyan is circular economy and grant writing expert, as well as environmental enthusiast from Armenia. She holds a master’s degree in Marketing, PR and Advertising from the University of Sheffield,UK and a second master’s degree in agribusiness from Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU) in Armenia. She holds a BA in marketing and agribusiness from the same university. She is the co-founded and development lead of “ISSD” Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities” NGO (founded in 2017), where she is leading various environmental and rural development projects, supported by organizations like UNDP, Norwegian Retailers Fund and others. Irina is supervising grant writing, marketing, fundraising and development activities. She has raised over 550,000USD in grants and donations within the last 2 years. She has 13+ years of experience in marketing, consulting, public relations/outreach, solid waste management and environmental protection, green communication, strategic planning and development, project/grant management, startup management. She is specialized in designing, planning, executing and monitoring project and marketing/PR campaigns. Irina has strong knowledge and international experience in various industries including Fortune 500 companies, the World Bank, UNDP, GEF, World Resources Institute. Her professional/research interests are circular economy, waste management, recycling, marketing, grant writing, rural development, women empowerment, environmental protection and policy development, partnership development for implementing joint projects.

Host Organization: National Academy of Public Administration

Role at Host Organization: At National Academy of Public Administration, Irina will be serving as a Business Development and Communications Fellow: Supporting the organization’s development and fundraising efforts, and expanding and implementing communications strategies to leverage technology and social media for visibility of the organization.

Pearl Gahwera has over three years of experience of brand management in advertising, marketing, communication, and public relations, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Finance) from Makerere University Business School, Uganda. For the past 4 years, Pearl has been a full-time volunteer at 40 Days Over 40 Smiles Foundation (4040), a youth-led non-profit organization in Uganda, which supports children in vulnerable communities to improve their learning outcomes. Through her work as the Head of Communications at 4040, she has provided strategic and implementation support towards the organization’s work like the Angaza Literacy Program, which supports 300 children annually to improve their learning outcomes, and the Angaza Learning Centre. Pearl recently transitioned into the Angaza Learning Centre Project Lead role where she oversaw the planning for the set-up of the learning centre as well as liaised with the community leaders where the centre is scheduled for set-up. Previously, Pearl worked at Scanad Uganda, an advertising agency, where she supported 3 brands to improve their products, communications as well as growth in the industry. Pearl is also a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community in Kampala for the outstanding work she is doing towards social impact in Uganda. From these opportunities, Pearl has developed outstanding leadership skills, project planning and implementation as well as great communications and marketing skills. She is interested in education, unemployment, gender inequality and civic education.

Host Organization: Advocates for Youth

Role at Host Organization: At Advocates for Youth, Pearl will be serving as an AMAZE Global Partnerships Fellow: Assisting in efforts to maintain, expand, and facilitate communications and partnerships associated with Advocates’AMAZE International work.

Edrida Pulungan has 10 years worked in the Secretary-General House of Regional Representatives of Republic Indonesia and expert in partnership. She earned a double Bachelor’s in Economics and Education and also a double Masters in International Relations and Sociology. She currently pursues a Ph.D. in Government Science. She worked as a Parliament PR and was then promoted as a Policy Analyst in research and budget center which has opened her mind about public policy and collaborative government. During COVID-19 to recovery economy, she innovated a penta-helix model for developing creative economy under law no. 24 and proposed her innovation to the minister. She is also active in building partnerships with senators, local, central government, private sector, academician, community, and media to overcome the social and economic problem by initiating discussion Local Heroes Network which involved youth and community. Edrida was awarded as a Government Official by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform. Edrida was concern with collaborative government, partnership, capacity building, climate change, woman empowerment, peace, and a creative economy. She published books, research, and opinion about global issues. Her book was part of the collection of Global Peace library in Paris, the title” The Peace Message of The Earth” and visited UNESCO. She is a Climate Change Leader trained by Al Gore. She also the Founder of Lentera Pustaka Indonesia which promotes literacy and the Founder of Corps International Government 4.0. She was selected to be part of Global Woman Leader ASEAN by IWB Malaysia. As a future leader, she believed her contribution to the Indonesian government and the US will increase the best partnership in the future.

Dwi Rezeki Kirana Bangun is a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Indonesia Open University. She has been working in Indonesia Tax Court for six years and has a strong understanding of taxation and management both in theory and practice. Besides that, she developed an interest in nature and the environment. She is currently participating as a Hutan Itu Indonesia (HII) volunteer, one of the leading organizations campaigning about Indonesian forests. She also participated in fundraising and collected 86 million rupiahs to adopt more than 430 trees in the Sumatra forest. Recently, HII and more than 140 collaborators declared 7 August as Forest Day in Indonesia for the first time. This action is acknowledged by the Minister of Environment and Forestry. Combining her government experience and volunteering in HII, she initiated a movement called Forest is Our Friend (FiOF). Every month, FiOF presents a talk show called ‘Forest Talk’ that invited various speakers from all over Indonesia, such as Dayak Tribe Community, musicians, filmmakers, researchers, and anyone related to the forest. Her main goal is to raise awareness for Indonesian people to know more about the importance of protecting the forest as it is the source of clean air, clean water, and home for millions of people, flora, and fauna. She encouraged people to take real action by planting trees in their homes or protecting the existing forest with tree adoption and visit national parks to support ecotourism.

For approximately more than 11 years, Veronika Oxtafia has been working in the Public Prosecutor Institution (Attorney General Office of The Republic of Indonesia). As a Public Prosecutor Officer, Veronika Oxtafia handled multiple criminal cases and there are parts of them dealing with crimes against children. Within her law enforcement duties, Veronika focuses not merely on law enforcement efforts, but on the other side, she as well as committing deterrence duties to overcome or at least decreasing the number of crimes against child/children, and as consequences, the children would still receive their physical and/or psychological protection amongst their society later on and still could get their bright future. Due to those reasons, Veronika has committed sort of cooperation with Dinas Pemberdayaan Anak dan Perempuan (Child and Woman Empowerment Service) under the Merauke District Government to makeover District of Merauke to be a region with its characteristic that welcome and care towards children through several deterrence efforts such as establishing a halfway house for street children in District of Merauke.

Zhifa Lailatunnazhifah is an International Relations graduate with a keen interest in public policy and community development. Her career began with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), where her legacy of trilateral cooperation “China-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program” remains. She acquired four years of experience directing international conferences, working closely with the Indonesian diaspora across the world, and accomplished 60% growth of FPCI chapters at local universities. She assisted a female parliamentarian at the House of Representatives. During her tenure, she was accountable to aid with Commission I counterparts and delivered support in the Privacy Data Protection Bill drafting session. She is currently managing a capacity-building project for Indonesian women entrepreneurs under Kinara Indonesia and Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Her compassion to bring impact to society has been cultivated since doing community service assignments in high school. She is currently leading Think Policy Society, a community for Indonesian young professionals with a focus to promote evidence- and empathy-based policymaking in Indonesia. Her professional journey has exposed her to the urgency of implementing a gender-transformative approach in public policy. She is now working on an interesting project, where she got to support gender justice values and meaningful and inclusive youth participation with Rutgers International. During her spare time, she likes to read about world history, social movements, and behavioral studies.

C Novika Maharani was born in Malang, Indonesia. She completed a Bachelor’s of Law in International Law at Sebelas Maret University. Passionate in the international field, she is currently working as an Analyst in the Deputy of International Economic Cooperation – Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia. Her main duties are to analyze matters related to building and maintaining economic partnerships between Indonesia and countries in the American continent countries. The analysis is not limited to trade agreement negotiation, bilateral forum meetings, and dispute settlement in World Trade Organization. Through working in her current unit and institution, she began to learn the importance of partnership as it is stated as 17th SDGs, whether it is between inter-ministries or agencies, and partner countries. Inspired by the importance of cooperation and collaboration between ministries and agencies in Indonesia, she joined a community called Abdimuda Indonesia, with other young Indonesian Civil Servants. Abdimuda Indonesia aims to promote young Indonesian public servants to have a smart mindset to contribute to their work, encourage social movements, also prepare them as the future leader of Indonesia’s government. Other than that, she is also a member of Think Policy, a think-tank for young professionals that undertakes brainstorming and research of Indonesia policy. By joining Abdimuda Indonesia and Think Policy, she contributes and encourages collaboration for young public servants and young professionals to build critical thinking patterns towards various policies and help them to reach self-development opportunities.

Ayunda is a communication professional with years of experience working for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Currently, she is focusing on the communication for development (C4D) field where she is interested in any work related to behavioral and social change. She believes that communication plays a crucial role in helping social change in the community. She is currently working for the International Labour Organization and involved in several projects related to labor issues. Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked as a Public Relations and Communications Manager at SOS Children Villages, an INGO that provides care for children who lost or at risk of losing parental care. As a communication professional, Ayunda does not dedicate herself to a particular development issue, but she is very interested in children, public health, and equality topics. Before dedicating herself to non-profit organizations, she used to work at Public relations firms where she developed her skills at developing and executing communication strategy plans for multinational and technology companies. She is now pursuing her calling as a C4D expert and wishes to explore opportunities and collaborations with more international development organizations. Ayunda holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia majoring in Communication. She later awarded by Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Communication for Development (C4D) at the University of Reading, the United Kingdom.