Fellows

Agha Mohsin Ali has been working in the development sector since 2006 with National & International organizations including NRDP, WWOP, Youth in Action, UNDP, BBSA, CPEA Network and SEHER on different management positions. He earned a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Balochistan, Quetta Pakistan. While working with the National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) Pakistan in Islamabad as Manager, Program Planning and Partnership Development, he led overall fundraising, resource mobilization, program research, planning, and program development processes. During 10 years of experience he implemented, coordinated, and developed partnerships with major donor agencies like USAID, DFID, UK-aid, UNICEF, USAID, CIDA, UNICEF, UNDP, USIP and IOM. Agha has had in-depth experience in child rights, education, and youth empowerment in Pakistan. He worked to protect children from abuse, neglect, and exploitation as well as to provide access to education through establishment of child-friendly spaces and temporary learning centers in flood affected areas. He has provided child protection actors opportunity to interact, share their experiences and avoid any duplication of resources through the CPEA Network and 12 larger projects on education, child rights, democracy and nutrition. Over this period, he has developed skills in monitoring and evaluation, program development, program implementation, proposal writing and resource mobilization. He has also written different articles and blogs on child rights and education in different news sites like ARY Blogs, Hamari Web, Duniya News and The Nations News. Agha also participated in different national and international forums like the World Youth Conference, 2010 in Leon City, Mexico, where he was as a delegate.

Host Organization: Creative Associates International

 Role at Host Organization: Agha will be assisting project staff with the development of an indicator database for a new evaluation project with the ExxonMobil Foundation. This project will be assessing the progress of client grantees in women’s economic empowerment on outcome indicators.

Asim has nine years of experience in research, big data analytics, program design, and monitoring and evaluation of diverse community development projects that focus on women entrepreneurship and health interventions. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology in Pakistan and pursued his P.hD. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He recently worked in the capacity of research and evaluation for Entrepreneurship Beyond Boundaries project where he developed standard operating procedures and evaluated the pilot intervention in Malaysia. Previously, Asim has worked with Marie Stopes International for UKAID funded project and managed the Franchise Live Application for Monitoring and Evaluation, conducting Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation Research. Additionally, Asim has monitored the 18-months quasi-experimental research study to empower the women in rural settings as part of the behavior change communication strategy, and small-scale community action research projects using the comic power, photovoice and participatory reflection and analysis tools. Asim has a keen interest in working with the development sector organizations on entrepreneurial ecosystem development and system improvement via big data analytics to help marginalized communities.

Host Organization: PYXERA Global

Role at Host Organization: Working directly with senior staff conducting research and providing analysis on existing client engagements, Asim while helping to create processes and improvements to S.I.s operations and services. He will also conduct landscape assessments for existing client deliverables while building a consistent platform to ensure quality and efficiency.

Kiran has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She has earned her Master’s degree in Education from Hamdard University in Karachi, Pakistan. While working with a provincial education foundation as Training and Development Officer, she leads an important portfolio of teachers’ capacity building with special emphasis on early childhood development and child centered learning pedagogies at Learning Support Unit. Her core contribution is towards seeking the betterment through education. She has empowered more than 3000 teachers of Sindh province to become professional teachers, under different projects of Sindh Education Foundation. Given her teaching experience and on-the-ground work with teacher trainings, she is adept at designing robust programs and adapting to various learning styles. She has been active in the International Inspiration, a London 2012’s sports legacy programme which is organized by the British Council as a partner organization and selected as a Master Trainer for Pakistan region. Kiran also serves as Vice Chairperson of an emerging nonprofit Child Rise. It focuses on the children’s rights in Pakistan by ensuring access to quality education, protection from all types of exploitation and economic empowerment to adolescents and women. Kiran is very interested in adolescents and youth empowerment, training designing and facilitation, academic and administrative management. She has also inspired many young students to volunteer by organizing different training programs at community- based setting.

Host Organization: Youth for Understanding- International Secretariat

 Role at Host Organization: YFU will launch a new Learning Management System, taking YFU trainings online for the international network. Kiran will be responsible for building up the content, creating trainings in various areas and topics, serving and supporting the YFU network of 55+ countries.

Maryem has 5 years of experience in the development sector and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Bahria University in Islamabad, Pakistan. Maryem’s association with the development sector has been diverse both in terms of thematic and functional areas. While working as a program officer in USAID’s Small Grants and Ambassador Fund Program, she provided assistance to the grassroots level organization in designing initiatives in education, health, economic development, entrepreneurship, disaster, women’s issues, culture, and the environment. As the regional manager at a consultancy firm, she helped with research and monitoring and evaluation. She also carried out institutional assessments and conducted capacity building exercises for DFID, EU, World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and USAID funded projects. Through these experiences, she developed strong project coordination and implementation skills. Maryem enjoys focusing on the topics of economic empowerment and social entrepreneurship and has a strong passion for women’s empowerment.

Host Organization: Global Communities

Role at Host Organization: Maryem will provide support to Global Communities’ economic development portfolio with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, enterprise development including cooperative development, access to finance, workforce development and private sector partnerships. She will develop specific technical products and tools, including programming frameworks/models for business advisory services and workforce development; cooperative enterprise development tools; and research briefs.

Mehak has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Environmental Policy from the Lahore School of Economics. While working as an Assistant Manager for Communications and Knowledge Management at Nur Center for Research and Policy, Mehak spearheaded a DFID-UKAID funded project for developing the first National Knowledge Portal for Maternal and Neonatal Child Health (MNCH). This knowledge portal serves as a platform to share and collate maximum available MNCH knowledge in Pakistan, to facilitate public health experts and establish policymakers in developing evidence-based policies to strengthen the MNCH sector in Pakistan. Mehak also worked as Project Lead for an operational study with UNICEF on the Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) initiative, where she was intricately involved in organizing training sessions for skilled birth attendants and designing interventions based on the findings of the research. In the past she has worked for different social and development projects, supporting youth and women’s rights, which she feels passionately about. Previously, Mehak has worked on a one year USAID funded project on rehabilitating survivors of gender based violence (GBV) at a shelter-home. Her work involved developing holistic rehabilitation plans for the GBV survivors in order to reintegrate them back into society. Through these experiences, she has developed strong project management, report writing, event planning and communication skills, especially with regards to donor-funded projects. She is also a certified fitness instructor and works part-time at a fitness studio, leading High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

 Role at Host Organization: Mehak will be responsible for managing the Atlas Corps Global Leadership Lab (GLL), a training program for rising global nonprofit leaders participating in the Atlas Corps Fellowship. She will also plan and manage this leadership development program to empower Atlas Corps Fellows in their professional journeys. Mehak will ensure the overall excellent experience for staff, speakers, and Fellow participants.

Shaza has four years’ experience working in the development and corporate sector of Pakistan. She earned a Master’s degree in Organizational and Social Psychology from London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She worked closely with the Minister for Planning, Development & Reform on strategic communications of some of the biggest development projects in the country, including China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Vision 2025. Shaza was part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) team that worked towards modernizing and reforming the public sector of Pakistan through Civil Service Reforms. She brought to the government’s attention the long-neglected issue of mental health and advocated for legislative action through organizing a first-of-its-kind policy dialogue on the issue. Previously, she worked as a Brand Manager at GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan and at an NGO helping flood victims in Punjab, Pakistan. One of her great passions in life is to explore cultures through travel and photography.

Host Organization: Disaster Accountability Project

Role at Host Organization: “Shaza will add critical capacity building support as DAP prepares for the launch of SmartResponse, an ambitious effort to improve effectiveness/transparency/accountability in humanitarian aid donations by collecting and sharing “location-specific” and “pre-disaster” data on the capacity, activities, and history of CSOs, NGOs, and INGOs involved in disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and other human services.

Umair has nine years of experience in journalism, and earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations from University of Karachi, Pakistan and Bachelor’s Degree in Software Engineering from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. Being a career journalist he has worked in print, electronic and online media and has vast experience in news reporting, editing, script writing, researching, interviewing and broadcasting. He has been working for Voice of America (Urdu Service) as an Assistant Editor/Reporter since 2010 where he contributes to and oversees content development and editorial work for different platforms including Radio, TV and Web. He received VoA’s Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution in 2012. Previously, Umair worked as Copy Editor-Web at ARY NEWS, one of the leading news channels in Pakistan; as Staff Reporter at Daily Business Recorder, the most reputable financial daily in Pakistan; and as Staff Reporter at Pakistan Press International, Pakistan’s largest news agency. He has extensively covered international relations, politics, culture, terrorism, conflicts, and government affairs in his career and has written hundreds of original news stories, features, and TV and radio scripts. He has interviewed many foreign and Pakistani dignitaries and celebrities; and developed content and coverage plans for various newsworthy events, occasions and incidents. He is currently enrolled in the Master of Philosophy for European Studies program at Area Study Centre for Europe (ASCE), University of Karachi, Pakistan, and briefly served the Centre as Research Associate before arriving the U.S.

Host Organization: Voice of America

 Role at Host Organization: Umair will learn about the VOA, its unique news gathering and broadcasting operations around the world. He will gain experience in new production and broadcasting techniques, U.S. journalism, and its code of journalistic ethics. He will participate in producing multimedia reports and programs, and he will write and edit scripts and conduct interviews.