Philanthropy

Hamsini Balaji is serving as an American India Foundation (AIF) Fellow for the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society and she will be helping build a social enterprise to brand the products of Self-Help Group (SHG) Members to increase access to larger markets and create sustainable livelihoods. Hamsini values curiosity and community, which has led her to the development sector to apply systems thinking to identify interdisciplinary and cyclical solutions to development challenges. Hamsini’s prior experience has involved serving as a Technical Program Officer and Measurement Advisor for a USAID nutrition, WASH, and women’s empowerment program. She holds a Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California and has designed and developed two social enterprises during her graduate career. Personally, Hamsini is exploring what it means to be a woman, the power of women, and their ability to organize for social change. Through the Fellowship, she hopes to co-design a solution with rural women and understand the operational and field realities of the development sector. In her free time, she enjoys exercising, spending time in nature, reading, and dancing.

Urvashi Suraj hails from Mumbai and is currently serving as a Banyan Impact Fellow in Dewas, India. A Chartered Accountant by profession, her career has been a unique blend of corporate and social sector experiences. Prior to the fellowship, she worked on the partnerships team at a social impact startup, where she built strategic alliances with ecosystem players. She has also previously worked in the statutory audit function at KPMG, reviewing financial statements and testing internal controls of public and private limited companies. Urvashi is passionate about community-driven development and the power of collaboration to achieve impact at scale.

Muhammad Asadullah, a first-gen CS graduate, an IT professional, and an entrepreneur, has dedicated himself to his passion for the digital IT field and has already accomplished much in his career. He is the first-ever young IT professional from Pakistan to be recognized as a Future Leader by McKinsey & Company. As Co-Founder and CTO of Rich Technologies Limited (IT Company) and of OpenMenu.pk (Startup), he has made a name for himself as a young leader in the competitive world of technology. His involvement with companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (AWS) speaks to his commitment to his field and to giving back to the community. Besides his successful career, he is a passionate entrepreneur with innovative startup ideas, a desire to positively impact the IT ecosystem, and innovation with unique solutions and products. This drive has earned him a spot in prestigious global startup and entrepreneurial programs such as YC Startup School Cohort, The Founder Institute, Katalyst Labs, AWS Activate Founders, and Microsoft for Startups Founder’s Hub. He has been selected as the judge for the global CODiE Awards, called “The Oscars” of the tech industry. Since 1986, the SIIA (Sofware & Information Industry Association) CODiE Awards have honored top companies, products, and people as leaders in innovation and excellence. Moreover, he is the founder and director of the “Google Developers Community Pakistan.” the largest tech and developers community network in Pakistan, and founder of the global nonprofit Twins Club & Foundation, the world’s first twins community by twins.

Mian Muhammad Alim comes from a small muddy village in the Sibi District of interior Baluchistan. Without any access to essential utilities, Mian still managed to turn into a young and enthusiastic man with good learning and hard-working habits. He learns quickly and always tries to complete his assignments as well as possible. He has good hands-on documentation and technology and has participated in different personality grooming and business studies-related events. Main is currently in the research phase of his Master’s degree in Management Sciences while he has already completed 16 years of education in Business Administration with a 3.56 CGPA from BUITEMS University. He has a certificate of main management courses from Minnesota State University Moorhead, USA through a cultural exchange scholarship. After completing five years of full-time employment with the State Bank of Pakistan and one year of full-time social entrepreneurship, not-for-profit community service, and encouraging civic engagement, Mian plans to enhance his capacities and abilities in development finance and economics. He strives to make workable plans or make plans work in the next two years and terminally transform into a policy maker and change advocate. He has a vision to ultimately establish a development finance institution or economic institution for the country and region for sustainable growth and inclusive prosperity.

Mr. Ayala Fuentes is a Chilean-US American nonprofit management and fundraising professional based in New York City. He has been dedicated to working in diverse, culturally-specific, and community-driven cultural and civic spaces. Throughout his more than 10 years of experience, he has supported organizations through periods of mission evolution and leadership transition, managing relationships through change, and creatively engaging diverse teams and external stakeholders and partners, especially in multicultural and diverse settings, including the Latinx and LGBTQ+ community.

Alex Szebenyi is a software engineer and the CTO for Acquaint, a nonprofit community of volunteers who overcome the “us and them” mentality through one-on-one conversations. As CTO, Alex is responsible for all the organization’s technical aspects, including developing the Acquaint software platform, which volunteers use in over 55 countries. Separately, at insurtech-startup AssuranceIQ, he has worked as a principal software engineer. Over the last three years, he led critical teams before and after one of the world’s largest and fastest fintech startup exits. Additionally, Alex has worked at tech startups focused on machine learning/AI and immigration. His career started after receiving a BA in Biological Sciences from SUNY Buffalo. He performed neuroscience research in a chemosensory lab, contributing to several papers before transitioning to software engineering roles. Alex’s interests include neuroscience and building software systems that empower personal growth on a global scale. At Acquaint, he focuses on building social cohesion and international solidarity by using technology and volunteerism to facilitate positive contact across divisions of all kinds. Generally, he is also excited about ways to sustainably empower the nonprofit sector to innovate in the tech space.

Manushi Sharma is a global health professional with over seven years of experience in program management and implementation. Through her engagements with – The George Institute for Global Health, The Royal Thai Ministry of Public Health, and The Public Health Foundation of India, she has developed a deep insight into the context and complexities of addressing health system gaps in countries of the global south. Manushi has hands-on experience in supporting and providing strategic leadership for planning, developing, and implementing public health research projects in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. Notably, she has published in peer-reviewed journals and has co-authored a book on the economics of non-communicable disease prevention. She has organized and delivered several capacity-building sessions and policy dialogues and presented her work at international conferences. She has liaised and managed partnerships with various stakeholders, including United Nations agencies, the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, governments, and civil society organizations. Manushi is passionate about social entrepreneurship, participatory approaches in social research, and evidence-based policy.

Host Organization: Collaborating for Resilience (CoRe)

Role at Host Organization: As the Learning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Fellow at Collaborating for Resilience, Manushi will gain experience in principles of multi-stakeholder dialogue to promote citizen engagement in policy reform and implementation and will apply these principles through one or more international partnerships. Manushi will manage partner collaborations and undertake action research in one or more program areas, and lead analyses focused on outcome monitoring, learning and evaluation. The Fellow will also help support action research and learning systems that build the capacity of civil society partners to drive governance innovations, distil insights from comparative analysis of outcomes across different partnership sites working towards systems change, and communicate lessons for policy and practice.

Keelia Sulak is a data analyst who is passionate about improving the world through data. Originally from Chicago, Illinois and now in Portland, Oregon, Keelia has a unique background that has brought her from boardrooms in New York City to organic farm fields in rural North America. After graduating school early with distinction she worked with ProWorld Volunteers in Belize, where she lived in a Mayan village and worked with community businesses. Once returning home, her business background led her to a position as a data analyst. There she had the rare opportunity to work alongside the Director of North American Analytics, which allowed her to gain a vast amount of knowledge and experience. She later transitioned to a position in project management working with schools and food pantries across the Midwest. For many years she worked with locations such as The Greater Chicago Food Depository and Chicago Public Schools with a mission to not only provide food for kids, but work toward equal access to organic and nutritious food for all. Keelia now works at Heifer International where she has found a home and is able to merge two of her greatest passions, data analysis and nonprofit work. Since joining the organization, she has helped expand the team’s analytics offerings and develop efficient methods of monitoring campaigns to help ensure fundraising goals are met. She looks forward to working with the team at Heifer International for many years to come.

Rebecca Castello is a public employee at the Federal University of Pará, where she has been an administrator for eight years. She has worked in nonprofit sector for over three years as a volunteer. She obtained a PhD in Social and Environmental Development from the Center of Higher Amazonian Studies in Brazil, focusing her studies on public university management. She also has an MBA in entrepreneurial education from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro-PUC, as well as in public and people management. She works in social projects in her own community, organizing events and actions focused on the distribution of food and clothing in areas with vulnerable people, assisting newcomers in nursing homes, and distributing toys to low-income children. She participates as the manager of a start-up project that aims to reduce food waste in the Brazilian Amazon region, combining sustainable development and greater access to low-cost food for the local population. In addition, she has worked in an institution for children for adoption, where she developed storytelling and children’s games. Through these experiences and her academic background, she has developed skills in project management, monitoring and evaluation, and research, always focusing on sustainable development, economic development and philanthropy aimed at distributing food to low-income people.

Amos KLA is from Cote d’Ivoire and is a training Computer Application Developer. He is in the process of obtaining his Executive Master’s degree in Engineering Option Data. He has four years of experience in Information Technology, including at an international recruitment firm Empower Talents & Careers in Ivory Coast, where he helped street musicians to live off their talents with his Ivoireflow music promotion platform. As an IT developer, he was involved in the entire IT project cycle: design, production, and maintenance. He is currently IT Manager in this recruitment firm. Through these experiences, he developed many qualities such as rigor, professionalism, sense of organization, and adaptability, as well as strong project coordination and implementation skills. He enjoys focusing on the topics of culture and technology, and has a strong passion for youth empowerment. He was laureate of AYADA Lab, which is a Franco-German incubation program carried by the French Institute and the Goethe Institute which allowed him to attend training and participate in networking across Ghana, Nigeria, France and Germany..

Apsara Prabhakar has four years of experience in the social sector, and has earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology, Sociology, English in 2016 from CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in India. Apsara has also completed a Master of Social Work (Clinical and Community Practice) in 2018 from the same University. She was the recipient of the “Best Youth Social Worker” Award by the Institute of Person Centered Approaches in India, 2017. While working as a Senior Program Manager at ShARE, she was involved in implementing and monitoring a leadership program across top universities in Europe, America and Africa. Her role also involved alumni management and communications. Apsara previously worked in Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness as a Program Associate in the Private School Program team. Her responsibilities involved volunteer management, school relationship management, documentation, and being an educator for citizenship values and life skills. Apsara has extensively worked as an intern with Operation Smile (OS) and KAARMIC Education. With OS, she has helped coordinate three medical missions that provided free cleft lip/palate surgeries. She also formed an OS student club at her university in 2017 and was selected to participate in the International Student Leadership Conference in Italy. With KAARMIC, she worked on promotions, recruitment, partnerships and as a trainer imparting learning tools, conversational English and art skills to students. Apsara has also interned and volunteered with various other social sector organizations including United Way, Smileys India, CRY, Make a Wish Foundation, Healing Dove Foundation, NIMHANS, Spastics Society of Karnataka and Centre for Social Action. These experiences have helped Apsara acquire and enhance her program management and implementation skills. She enjoys organizing events and working with youth, and is passionate about leadership and the field of education.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

Role at Host Organization: At Atlas Corps, Apsara will be serving as the American Express Leadership Fellow. Apsara will support the overall strengthening of leadership development in the nonprofit sector by helping to expand the American Express Leadership Academy franchise. Building on the American Express role in supporting best-in-class leadership practices and capacity building, the anticipation is that Apsara will serve to coordinate and grow the alumni network; manage and coordinate the global Alumni Summit, help develop and improve communication and dissemination of best practice and provide overall project support for the American Express Leadership website.

Karen Michelle Zapata Herrera has 4 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico, and a Master of Management Science in Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in China. As a Schwarzman Scholar, she specialized in the global governance of migration, leadership in public crisis and emergencies, and civil society organizations, and wrote a thesis titled “The role of national policies and NGOs in addressing the mental health of left-behind and migrant children in China, Mexico, and the U.S.”. She is currently the Social Investment Coordinator at the Mexican nonprofit Alternativas y Capacidades, managing civil society strengthening projects, as well advising donors on how to improve their philanthropic programs. Previously, as a Jr. Project Manager at Hult Prize Foundation, she contributed to young entrepreneurs’ development and leadership by recruiting young leaders across the Americas region and operating the global communication strategy for mentors. Previously, as the Fundraising and Grants Specialist at World Vision, she managed and designed the private international grants proposals in topics such as WASH, education, economic empowerment, child protection, among others. Michelle has also volunteered and interned at several other nonprofits aimed at children and youth development and protection, including Children International, International Youth Federation, among others. Through these experiences, she has developed strong project management, grant writing, business development, and volunteer management skills. Michelle is passionate about child migration, social entrepreneurship, and youth empowerment.

Host Organization: One to World

Role at Host Organization: At One to World, Michelle will be serving as the Fundraising Fellow. Michelle will help implement strategies to meet the organization’s annual fundraising goals, working closely with One To World’s Executive Director, Director of Development, consultants, and Board of Directors. The Fellow will support all functions of the Development department, including gift processing, management of donor data, special events planning and execution, cultivation and stewardship of donors, and private grant prospecting, writing, and reporting. The Fellow is a vital piece of a small team that generates revenue to support the organization’s direct services for K-12 youth and international scholars, and will contribute to meeting a fundraising goal of almost $1 million a year.