Fellows

Aida Merabet has over ten years working experience with different nonprofits and corporations in the fields of business empowerment for women and youth educational programs in Algeria. She earned an MBA in Management Marketing from ESG Paris. Aida is the Founder of the social enterprise “Power Harmony Solution.” Previously, Aida worked as the Middle East Partnership (MEPI) Alumni Local Chapter Coordinator, where she strengthened commitment to civic activism, thus creating an environment where alumni can work together to bring positive change to the region. She helped empower young people to work for their economic success as an Education & Training Officer at Injaz El Djazair. As a Hub Manager for the Middle East and North Africa Business Women Network (MENABWN), she was responsible for leading and managing a program to support business women in Algeria. She has also served as an Algerian Country Officer Alwane-Algeria, with Women’s campaign International, an initiative that seeks to empower Algerian women to hold decision-making positions and to enhance their leadership roles so that they can become role models for the region. She also enjoys volunteering, whether it be as the Under Secretary General for Algeria’s national Model United Nations conference or as the Algeria Country Coordinator for the World Peace Initiative Foundation’s Project Peace In and Peace Out (PIPO).

Host Organization: Atlas Corps | American Express

Role at Host Organization: Aida will support the overall strengthening of leadership development in the nonprofit sector through a partnership with American Express. In her role, Aida will help to expand the American Express Leadership Academy franchise. Building on the American Express role in supporting best-in-class leadership practices and capacity building, she will coordinate and grow the alumni network; manage and coordinate the global Alumni Summit, help develop and improve communication and dissemination of best practices and provide overall project support for the Leaderstories.org website.

Oluwabusayomi is a Journalist with over seven years of experience in using storytelling to educate, empower, and encourage positive outlook on rural development, entrepreneurship, and youth leadership in Africa and across the Commonwealth region. A graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, ’Busayomi’s work has been featured on news platforms and magazines with continental and global reach. She has also published in the How We Made It In Africa: The Book. (2018). Oluwabusayomi is the co-founder and managing editor of Rural Reporters – a Nigeria-based news platform with in-depth coverage of under-reported issues in rural communities in Nigeria and across Africa. She also served as the Assistant Editor of Leading Change, the University of Cambridge website for The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme. Her experience in the nonprofit sector includes working as the Communications Officer for Network of Migration Research on Africa (NOMRA), serving as an Editorial Assistant at Development Diaries, and volunteering as an advocate of Women Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights in Nigeria for Ipas. Oluwabusayomi has worked as an independent research consultant for Euromonitor International since 2016 covering consumer behaviour and lifestyles and other industry-related research in Nigeria. She draws on her experience as both a Journalist and industry watcher to communicate from an insider’s perspective. Oluwabusayomi, a fellow of the International Women’s Media Foundation, enjoys shining the spotlight on people who are breaking barriers in their field and communities. She is interested in making rural development issues an integral part of global development.

Host Organization: Transparency and Accountability Initiative

Role at Transparency and Accountability Initiative: At TAI, Oluwabusayomi will focus on developing and implementing a strategic communications plan for the organization. She will also help TAI undergo a strategy refresh in 2019, disseminate our new strategy widely in 2020, and work on fast changing, globally relevant issues with leading philanthropic funders.

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.

Destiny has over seven years of experience as a marketing expert, business developer and a professional trainer. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Literature from the University of Benin and has been trained professionally in Project and Business Management. He is the founder and lead consultant for ProfileSME, an organization focused on providing business and marketing solutions to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. Through his leadership, ProfileSME has provided sustainable business solutions to more than 17 businesses in the southern region of Nigeria. During his work with business owners and entrepreneurs, he developed competence for business management and strategic marketing skills. In 2013, he co-founded Project Management Development Centre (PMDC), a professional training body focused on developing emerging youth as business and professional leaders in Nigeria. In 2015, the negotiated and secured the Project Management Development Center partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Bayelsa State, through which he trained about 1,400 youth in Business Development, Project Management and Human Resources Management Skills. He is a volunteer to the Open Journals Nigeria, a platform that seeks to help young Intellectuals share their intellectual works and papers. Destiny is passionate about Business development and management, communication/marketing and youth engagement, development and empowerment.

Host Organization: Addgene

Role at Addgene: At Addgene, Destiny will gain an understanding of Addgene’s unique business model and use Addgene’s distribution data in conjunction with market research to develop and execute a plan to grow Addgene’s presence in select international markets.

Efe has seven years of professional experience and almost ten years of volunteer experience in civil society. After finalizing his AFS year in Wisconsin in 2004, he started as a volunteer in community based activities in Istanbul, Turkey. As a graduate of Psychology, Bilkent University in 2010, he took civil society field as a profession and worked both in the field and in providing operational support with UN-FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations), AFS (American Field Service) Turkey, Violence Stories in Turkey with CRA (Cross Cultural Research Association), LGBT and Human Rights with SPoD (Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association) and KAOS GL, and Refugee and Asylum Seekers Rights with MdM (Medecins du Monde). As his primary interest in Human and LGBTQ Rights, he has prioritized a gender-based advocacy in the institutions and projects he has worked for. In 2015, he founded Harup, a project space that combines LGBTQ advocacy and arts as a medium. He has worked with several national and international media platforms where his writings and interviews were published. His intention is to be able to combine his passion for arts and culture and human and LGBTQ rights in order to work closely with different advocacy methods while keeping ties with local and global community.

Host Organization: Human Rights Campaign

Fellow Role at Host Organization: Efe will be a member of the HRC’s Global Office assisting with assignments to support programs in HRC Global and the HRC Foundation.

Ester Pitrelli has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University, Italy, and she is currently enrolled in a distance learning program for a Postgraduate Certificate in Poverty Reduction from the School of African and Oriental Studies in the United Kingdom. She worked at Save the Children Italy as Communications and Donor Retention Officer where she led many direct marketing projects, including a fundraising program for the least developed Mediterranean areas. Previously, Ester worked as a Project Officer in Zambia for an Italian nonprofit organization where she increased organizational awareness, and wrote new project proposals on several topics including a home based care for people living with HIV/AIDS. . Ester is mainly interested in focusing on the topic of poverty reduction, especially for children. She hopes she will have the opportunity to use her current studies and acquired skills to become a professional in communication for development.

Host Organization: Save the Children

Role at Host Organization: Ester will contribute to Global Sponsorship Growth by developing an effective ICS Fundraising Launch Approach. She will also implement the Global Sponsorship Market Intelligence to find top markets for the launch of the ICS product. Ester will support improvements of the Sponsor Experience by collaborating with SC US, SC Italy, SC Korea and SC Australia to increase the quality of acquisition and retention communication streams for various channels.

Esther has over three years of experience in the non-profit sector, having served as Executive Director of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Jamaica. She holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Media and Communication from the University of the West Indies, Mona. While at CAB, Esther had managerial responsibility for the operations of the Bureau, Skills Training Centre, as well as the Early Childhood Institution it operates. As an Executive Director, she gained experience in corporate governance, operations management, and youth training and development. Esther previously worked as a Public Relations Officer with the Jamaica Information Service, (JIS) the public relations arm of the Government of Jamaica. Esther has also involved herself in youth leadership and community development in voluntary capacities in local community based organizations. Her professional experiences honed her into a strategic planner, who is competent in the application of communication for social transformation. Esther is passionate about empowering citizens through information and education. Through her pursuit of an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship, she aims to create a synthesis between development communication and entrepreneurship that will dismantle abject poverty and its effects, throughout her sphere of influence.

Host Organization: Atlas Corps

Role at Host Organization: Esther will support the work of the Chief Development & Engagement Officer to raise the profile of the organization, to better share the story of Atlas Corps, with the purpose of increasing the pool of potential Host Organizations and individual candidates and leveraging additional funding opportunities. She will be integral to the management of the organization’s social media strategy, and will be involved in event planning, and publications development, while assisting the execution of Atlas Corps’ Fellow Recruitment Strategy.

Farida is a Data Professional with a diverse background spanning multiple sectors. Throughout her journey, Farida has honed her skills in research, data mining and analysis, and project evaluation. She possesses advanced proficiency in popular Python frameworks for Data Science, including Pandas, Numpy, Matplotlib, and Seaborn. Additionally, she is skilled in tools such as Alteryx, SQL, Excel, and Tableau, enabling her to effectively leverage business intelligence tools. Farida has a BS in Statistics and an MSc in Data Science.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As a Data and Impacts Fellow, Farida will gain an understanding of Generation’s data operations and impact metrics, and onboard onto multiple projects in a key supporter role. The Fellow will be proficient in accessing and analyzing D&I data and become comfortable executing independent projects such as research support, data analysis,and synthesizing findings. The Fellow may work on advanced projects as well as work to close-out and transition
ongoing work and initiatives.