Nitisha Pandey
India (Host: Generation)Selorm is a dedicated and dynamic professional who is deeply committed to driving positive change and sustainable development across Africa. Armed with a Master’s in Business Administration, Selorm possesses a rich tapestry of skills encompassing project management, research, and social enterprise development. He is a visionary founder and lead strategist at Ecowillow Ghana, fostering environmental governance and nurturing youth talents. Selorm’s extensive engagement with various organizations, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and ActionAid Ghana, demonstrates his passion for societal progress. As a seasoned researcher and recruitment consultant, he has led initiatives amplifying voices in social enterprises and driving impact strategies. Selorm’s trajectory is characterized by a fervent belief in competent leadership, social entrepreneurship, and fostering a sustainable future for generations to come.
Host Organization: Generation
Role at Host Organization: As a Global Business Development Fellow, Selorm will help identify potential employer partners and the key stakeholders at those companies, initiate outreach, and pitch to interested organizations. They will use Salesforce to record and track interactions and analyze their pipeline. They will also provide account management support to key employer partners, support the delivery of key partnership initiatives (e.g. running events, gaining employer feedback, designing capacity building sessions) to grow the relationships.
Morine Nchangwie
Cameroon (Host: American Red Cross)Morine has four years of experience in the humanitarian and nonprofit sector. She has earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, (IRIC). While working remotely as a Community Development and Resilience Officer at the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED), she collaborates with UNDP, the Israeli Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s Ministry of Planning, and local/national partners to promote sustainable livelihoods and resilience in the East region of Cameroon. Morine has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills by successfully training and empowering over 1000 youths and refugees in host communities through financial literacy, education, and peace building projects. Previously, Morine worked with a community-based organization as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, where she provided support to over 150 adolescent girls and young women, empowering them to raise their voices against gender-based violence, facilitated training in financial literacy for 100 young people living with HIV, helping them establish savings association groups for self-growth. Morine’s versatility shines through her previous role as a Corporate Communication Assistant at the Embassy of Israel in Cameroon. There, she managed public relations for the embassy and facilitated partnership opportunities between Israeli entrepreneurs and their Cameroonian counterparts in areas of start-up companies, agriculture, and water. She also played a vital role in supporting the embassy’s communication strategy during campaigns and key events. Passionate about humanitarian relief, community development, youth and women’s empowerment, Morine is dedicated to helping young people realize their full potential.
Host Organization: American Red Cross
Role at Host Organization: As a Movement Transformation Fellow, the Fellow will sit within the Movement Transformation/Collective Impact & Partnerships Engagement (CIPE) team at the American Red Cross. The CIPE team works to ensure strong partnerships between the American Red Cross and other national societies, and provides support to national societies (NS) through work with the IFRC to be effective, local actors that can reach scale and deliver sustainable disaster management services to its communities. The team achieves this by developing long-term plans in support of the NS goals and in alignment with ISD objectives, as well as furthering the ways in which we work as a distributed network. The Fellow will primarily be focused on the development of the new IFRC Certification & the New Way of Working files in coordination with the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other Movement partners. The Fellow will coordinate between the American Red Cross and IFRC to ensure quality representation at the most important events, whether at the global, regional or country levels.
Akriti Asthana
India (AIF Banyan Impact Fellow, Host: American Red Cross)Akriti is a dynamic professional with a passion for building communities and a 6+ years of experience in alumni relations under her belt. She’s the kind of person who knows how to connect people, inspire engagement, and get things done!
Akriti’s career journey has taken her through both for-profit and non-profit sectors and her unique blend of experiences has shaped her into an alumni relations expert. In her most recent role at the prestigious Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Akriti wore many hats as the Alumni Coordinator for the India system. She dived into four main areas: Learning and Development, Events Management, Communications, Alumni Induction and Database Management, to ensure that the alumni network stayed organized and thriving.
Before her BCG adventure, Akriti was managing the Alumni Relations Office of Ashoka University, where she had the unique honor of being a founding member. In this role, she served as the bridge between the university administration and its valued alumni, forging meaningful connections. Akriti also led the university’s alumni fundraising program which contributed towards scholarships for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Akriti holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Delhi University, following which she embarked on a transformative path that led her to the esteemed Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University. This postgraduate diploma in Liberal Arts ignited her passion for the intersection of humanities and inclusive leadership. It’s here that she discovered her belief in the driving forces behind growth—innovation and adaptability.
Akriti is a slow solo traveler and a storyteller at heart. She finds solace and inspiration in exploring new places at her own pace. Slow solo traveling allows her to immerse herself in different cultures, savor local flavors, and discover the beauty of the world, one destination at a time.
Host Organization: American Red Cross
Role at Host Organization:As a Learning and Development Fellow, Akriti will be supporting the Learning and Development efforts for the department. She will help facilitate access to, utilization of and learning from existing data, evidence and knowledge generated from past operations both within the American Red Cross and with the RCRC Movement.
Nitisha Pandey
India (AIF Banyan Impact Fellow, Host: Women's World Banking)Nitisha is a gender justice advocate and a communications professional with eight years of experience in project management and social media marketing in the nonprofit sector. A computer science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate and moved to the impact space with the motivation to do meaningful work and the need for job satisfaction. During her Post Graduation from Indian School of Development Management, she became passionate about gender equality and developed a bias for action in her personal life. She identifies as an evolving feminist and is actively working towards a future where all women and girls can fulfil their potential. She currently leads the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program at the country level in Nomi Network which is impacting the lives of 500+ girls in three states of India at risk of child marriage, child labor and, school dropout which results in exploitation and trafficking of girls. In her role, Nitisha has designed the program strategy and life skills curriculum which empowers girls from vulnerable communities to make decisions about their life and career while also being active voices of change in their communities. Previously, Nitisha has worked as a fundraising professional with CARE India and Indian School of Development Management working with corporates, institutions and, individuals. As a proactive person with excellent management, communication and networking skills, Nitisha has a knack for thriving in fast paced environments. As a trained menstrual heath educator and sustainability advocate, Nitisha has facilitated over multiple trainings on sustainable menstruation directly engaging with more than 700 people. With a determination to improve the health of all women and girls, Nitisha founded The Bloody Feminist on Instagram where she creates purposeful communication to educate young people to feel confident and have control of their own bodies.
Host Organization: Women’s World Banking
Role at Host Organization: As a Marketting and Social Media Fellow, Nitisha will develop social media content, create compelling and meaningful media graphics, track and report on performance metrics using data and social listening to identify industry trends and cultivate peers, partners and other key stakeholders activities.The Fellow will engage with the team to support on a range of activities including the production of marketing materials, updating reports and presentations, conducting relevant research on industry trends and relevant event/speaking engagement opportunities.
Morine Nchangwie
Cameroon (Host Org: American Red Cross)Morine has four years of experience in the humanitarian and nonprofit sector. She has earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the International Relations Institute of Cameroon, (IRIC). While working remotely as a Community Development and Resilience Officer at the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED), she collaborates with UNDP, the Israeli Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s Ministry of Planning, and local/national partners to promote sustainable livelihoods and resilience in the East region of Cameroon. Morine has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills by successfully training and empowering over 1000 youths and refugees in host communities through financial literacy, education, and peace building projects. Previously, Morine worked with a community-based organization as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, where she provided support to over 150 adolescent girls and young women, empowering them to raise their voices against gender-based violence, facilitated training in financial literacy for 100 young people living with HIV, helping them establish savings association groups for self-growth. Morine’s versatility shines through her previous role as a Corporate Communication Assistant at the Embassy of Israel in Cameroon. There, she managed public relations for the embassy and facilitated partnership opportunities between Israeli entrepreneurs and their Cameroonian counterparts in areas of start-up companies, agriculture, and water. She also played a vital role in supporting the embassy’s communication strategy during campaigns and key events. Passionate about humanitarian relief, community development, youth and women’s empowerment, Morine is dedicated to helping young people realize their full potential.
Host Organization: American Red Cross
Role at Host Organization: As a Movement Transformation Fellow, the Fellow will sit within the Movement Transformation/Collective Impact & Partnerships Engagement (CIPE) team at the American Red Cross. The CIPE team works to ensure strong partnerships between the American Red Cross and other national societies, and provides support to national societies (NS) through work with the IFRC to be effective, local actors that can reach scale and deliver sustainable disaster management services to its communities. The team achieves this by developing long-term plans in support of the NS goals and in alignment with ISD objectives, as well as furthering the ways in which we work as a distributed network. The Fellow will primarily be focused on the development of the new IFRC Certification & the New Way of Working files in coordination with the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other Movement partners. The Fellow will coordinate between the American Red Cross and IFRC to ensure quality representation at the most important events, whether at the global, regional or country levels.
Becs Brocken
United Kingdom (Org: CAMFED)Becs Brocken is an experienced fundraiser with experience working for and volunteering alongside non-profit organizations and leaders in the UK and North America. With a particular interest in youth activism, access to education and gender equity, Becs joined CAMFED, the Campaign for Female Education, in 2021. While at CAMFED as the Senior Manager of Corporate Relations, Becs has developed opportunities for entrepreneurs, small business owners and global corporations to engage their teams and customers with global social impact goals. Becs earned her bachelor’s degree in Arts Management from the University of Leeds, where she explored how non-profit organizations motivate employees. Since then, Becs has worked to build philanthropic partnerships with forward-thinking organizations and their leaders to support the long-term sustainability of non-profit organizations committed to making the world a fair and equitable place for everyone.
Urvashi Suraj
India (American India Foundation Scholar)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.
Eduardo Ayala Fuentes
United StatesMr. 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
United StatesAlex 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
India (AIF Banyan Impact Fellow, Host: Collaborating for Resilience (CoRe))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
United States (Org: Heifer International)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
BrazilRebecca 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.