Fellows

Ahmed is an accomplished development professional with more than five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and sociology from Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone). Like most young Sierra Leonean who envisaged abject poverty and devastation caused by the ten year senseless civil war in Sierra Leone, Ahmed did not confine himself in that situation but rather rose beyond it to make life better for himself and his compatriots mostly in need; some of whom are women and children suffering from sexual and gender based violence, youths whose livelihoods are shattered and pregnant women and mothers in need of sufficient healthcare. Ahmed joined BRAC Sierra Leone as a Young professional in November 2013 and through this appointment, he has been able to provide quality data on development that have been used by BRAC to solve problem of essential healthcare, malnutrition, gender based violence, access to finance etc. As a monitoring manger in BRAC, Ahmed successfully implemented and managed a strong monitoring & evaluation systems of large scale projects for BRAC Sierra Leone. Ahmed also immensely contributed to providing legal aid services to more than 2000 poor and marginalized women and children who suffered various forms of gender based violence, whilst leading BRAC’s human right and legal empowerment team in 2014. During this time, the Ebola Epidemic had broken out so he had to help BRAC management to design a project that caters for the right of quarantined individuals, households and communities badly affected. Ahmed raised around 70,000 (USD) from Trocaire/DFID to provide food and non food items to particularly quarantined households in 50 communities. In addition, Ahmed also facilitated social mobilization activities and psycho social supports to these communities, thereby helping them to deal with the unprecedented crisis.

Host Organization: Sheltering Arms

Role at Host Organization:
Ahmed will be tasked with collecting, compiling, and analyzing programmatic data with a lens towards outcome study, development and implementation. Working in conjunction with QI and programs, Ahmed will develop new ways to capture outcomes with a focus on innovative ways to measure service results and report out on findings.

A development professional with more than ten years of experience of working with public and private sector stakeholders particularly in the domain of public-private partnerships, skills development, counseling & placements, technological sophistication, labour market survey, institutional capacity building, and knowledge management for socio-economic development. Currently, working with Louis Berger on USAID Punjab Youth Workforce Development Project as a Lead for Placements, Partnerships, and Institutional Capacity Building. Ansa is providing strategic, technical & policy support, and advice on formulation and execution of capacity development initiatives for empowering vulnerable and marginalized youth; strengthening partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders at all administrative government tiers with an aim of improving accessibility, equity, and relevance of youth development services for sustainable socio-economic development. Previously, worked with GiZ as PPP Advisor and facilitated the Government and public-sector institutions in bridging the disconnect with private sector for demand-driven workforce development. Prior to that, served at Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industries and Production, Government of Pakistan (GoP), for about eight years in multiple capacities, starting from a trainee metamorphosed into a Manager leading a team of four professionals. The sphere of responsibilities included orchestrating proposals and papers for the Government, multi-funding agencies, creating partnerships with bilateral/multilateral groups, corporate sector, and government bodies along with executing image building initiatives. Her educational pursuits involved an MPA from University of Punjab, Pakistan and a BBIT from Lahore College for Women University. The blend of classroom and on-job learning significantly inculcated leadership, cross-functional team work, effective communication skills, problem resolution, and resilience into her personality. She always has a balanced approach towards life, relishes her work as a development professional, and eager to mark herself as social entrepreneur contributing productively towards socio-economic melioration of local communities.

Host Organization: United Way Bay Area

Role of Host Organization: Ansa will enhance UWBA’s business partnerships work through research, data analysis and the creation of a strategic plan. She will work with the Equity Team to assess current activities of the business partnerships team as well as conduct research on best practices across the nation, including feasibility of expansion in the Bay Area and analyze our data.

Mahak has five years of experience in engaging talent for sustainable organizational performance through capacity building initiatives focused on women and youth empowerment for energy and financial sector of Pakistan. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University of Computers and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad. At USAID-Training for Pakistan Project, she worked on capacity building needs assessments to highlight technical areas which will contribute towards new global practices, challenges and developmental needs in line with Pakistan’s regional pacts. She successfully initiated and implemented 18 training programs focusing on financial management, cyber security, leadership and communication to achieve international best practices for sustainable organizational development. She has worked closely with young leaders from energy and financial sectors to enhance their capacities in areas promoting innovation to help strengthen long-term results. During the implementation of training programs, she also facilitated successful implementation of two courses by USACE for climate and water experts resulting in introduction of new simulation tools for effective management of the overall Indus River Basin. She also worked with ITCILO in organizing a Works Procurement Management course based on Pakistani needs which was later introduced as a regular course at Pakistan Audit and Accounts Academy, Lahore. Previously in 2013, she implemented a nation-wide USAID-Energy Internship Program for youth belonging from underdeveloped areas of Pakistan and it successfully increased women participation from 2% to 9% at Thermal and Hydro Power Plants of Pakistan. The program helped her draft the Gender Strategy for ministries of Pakistan; strategy detailed inclusion of more women in the energy sector in technical areas. She has been voluntarily working with a postpartum self-help group for endorsing mother-child health awareness campaign. All these experiences have developed her working knowledge in program development and implementation, stakeholder liaison and strategic planning for effective project management

Host Organization: Teach For All

Role at Host Organization: Mahak will play a key role in helping build an influential network of champions for the MENA region (Middle East, North Africa) and provide critical behind the scenes support to early stage entrepreneurs seeking to join the Teach For All network.

Tahir is a meticulous resource who started his professional career when he was 16.5 years old only, initially working as a sales man in an upscale department store, he was offered a job as a human resource professional in an established IT firm operating out of UK. Tahir spent almost 3 years with the firm learning human resources operations, he then moved on to another firm and was working in HR & OD. At this point he had gathered around 5 years of HR experience and was then offered a position as Manager HR & OD in one of the largest used Japanese car company operating from Yokohama, Japan. In this job, Tahir expanded the company from 30 people up to 700+ people in a span of 3 years. He was driven with the passion to prove himself as a manager and hence was instrumental in ensuring that the company reached new heights in terms of profits. Tahir has a blend of people management skills, developing people using leadership pipeline method, entire spectrum of human resources management and organizational development. After succeeding with the assignment at the Japanese company he was appointed as Head of Human Resources of a local group dealing in food industry, Tahir developed entire HR systems and Training areas and at the same time worked in a parallel role as Franchising head for the same. After spending 2 years with the mentioned company he was offered a role as Head of HR at a multinational microfinance bank, he served for 1 year and now is pursuing his passion as an entrepreneur. Tahir has a master’s degree in political sciences and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in HR & organizational psychology from IOBM, hence overall he has 13+ years of working experience and complemented qualifications.

Host Organization: Eat Offbeat

Role at Host Organization: Tahir will help Eat Offbeat develop procedures crucial HR processes to ensure an outstanding employee experience and allow for healthy scaling. He will implement those procedures in NYC and examine ways to translate them to other contexts as the company scales.

Victor is a Public health professional with 6 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Jos in Nigeria. Victor currently works as the Active Case Finding Coordinator at KNCV Tuberculosis foundation, a Netherlands based international organization providing technical assistance to countries on Tuberculosis control and eradication. He leads a USAID-funded TB case finding intervention across communities and key populations in Nigeria known as WOW (Wellness on Wheels) which uses a mobile clinic platform in identifying and linking diagnosed TB patients to free treatment through innovative screening and diagnostic methods. Prior to this, Victor coordinated two NIH research projects (ISTAR and mHealth) in Benue while working with Caritas Nigeria where congregation based approaches to prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were implemented with outstanding results achieved. Victor has experience in research, institutional capacity building and project management. He believes that through evidence, solutions can be provided to public health challenges, women and gender issues as well as leadership development. Victor is optimistic that the efficient use of data in designing public health interventions and health policy will ensure sustainability and overall improvement in health systems across Africa.

Host Organization: San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium

Fellow role at San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium:  Victor will serve as a SFCCC a Health Care Data Analytics and Strategy Fellow who will help develop a data strategy and streamline the processes used to collect, store, analyze, and report data. He will The work with partners to develop usable reports and validate the data used to deliver high quality health care to the most vulnerable residents of San Francisco.