Scholars

Amanda Creary completed her graduate studies at Mercer University, gaining her Master of Public Health degree. She has been working for Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), a program at The Task Force for Global Health, a non-profit subsidiary of Emory University. She previously worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supporting grants, proposals, contracts, and the Office of Budget Services. At TEPHINET, Amanda provides project management, logistical and programmatic support for multiple projects and special initiatives. Most recently, she has worked with Polio Eradication efforts in Pakistan and supports the in-country Field Epidemiology Laboratory Training Program. She has a passion for healthcare, humanitarianism, and servitude and excitement to use knowledge, skills, and mentorship to continue a career in global health. During Amanda’s free time, she volunteers as a patient advocate, helping low-income families and individuals with medical debt forgiveness, which has also influenced her career in the public health sector.

Ahmidu Barrie has over ten years of experience in non-profit administration, logistics, and management. Ahmidu earned his first degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone in 2010 and later pursued his post-graduate degree in public administration at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM). His drive to help his country comes from seeing his parents work very hard to take care of their family, as well as his experience of being abducted and forced to be a child soldier during his country’s civil war. After working with Wellbody Alliance, a local NGO that helped care for amputees and others with war wounds, he knew his life’s work was to help the poorest of the poor. He established the Community Health Worker Program, which brought care to the doorsteps of people living with HIV and TB across Kono District. When Ebola came to Sierra Leone in 2014, Partners In Health began working with Wellbody, and they eventually merged. During this time, as lead Logistician, Ahmidu was tasked with creating Ebola care and treatment centers across two districts. Currently, as Chief Operating Officer for Partners In Health Sierra Leone, Ahmidu is helping shepherd the development of the Maternal Center of Excellence, which aims to improve health outcomes for women in a country with one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. Ahmidu is eager to learn from the experiences of his colleagues and hopes that sharing his experience in health systems strengthening in low-resource settings will be of use to others. The skills and training that he hopes to acquire will enable him to improve his capacities as a leader and be an even stronger advocate of social justice, health equity, and education.

Esther Mutani is currently working as an Assistant Director of Finance for Heifer International Tanzania since June 2019. In this role she is responsible for coordinating operational planning and budgeting, preparing organizational financial reports, and assisting and maintaining strong internal financial controls. Prior to this, she served as the Senior Finance and Administration Officer for South West Cluster and North East Zone in Heifer Tanzania since January 2008. Thereafter, she worked as a Senior Accountant through May 2019 in the country program’s head office. While serving in various positions, Esther acquired vast experience in working with various donors, such as American Red Cross, Starbucks Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, EU, MasterCard Foundation, VSF Belgium, and Winrock International. Esther is very passionate about accounting and financial management, and trained and supported the Heifer Tanzania Finance team in this area, especially on the ERP Accounting System. While working with Heifer International, she participated in the co-mentoring program and provided capacity building on the internal review and planning exercises. She also supported the current ERP accounting system with Heifer Uganda, Heifer Kenya, Heifer Zambia, Heifer Malawi, and Heifer Zimbabwe, on-site and remotely. Esther is a strong believer in Heifer International’s mission, which is “to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.”

Fiona is a driven and organized individual, committed to positive social change in individual and global spheres. She is passionate about learning and minimizing her impact on the environment. Fiona has lived in six countries and traveled to 30 more, which allowed her to understand different ways of life and cultivate her values and passions. In her current role, Fiona conducts training around the world and enjoys observing how people learn and adapting the curriculum accordingly. Fiona has over seven years of experience in NGOs and currently works at SOS Children’s Villages International. In her role as Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, she leads the implementation of results-based management through a participatory training curriculum. She was also Interim Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, which gave her the unique opportunity to lead the M&E network and raise awareness about its importance in an increasingly results-focused environment. Prior to SOS Children’s Villages, Fiona worked as a Project Manager for APLE Cambodia, a child protection NGO. Here, she designed and implemented planning, monitoring, and reporting system that helped diversify funding and facilitated the creation of a multi-year strategic plan. Fiona has a Master’s Degree in International Development and Management from Lund University (Sweden) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from University of Ottawa (Canada).

Godfrey Massay is a land rights lawyer and currently works as a land tenure specialist for Tanzania with Landesa, a global nonprofit organization that partners with governments and local organizations to secure legal land rights for the world’s poorest families. The scope of his work is diverse which includes identifying, supporting, and collaborating with a multi-sectoral group of key stakeholders at the local, sub-national and national level on: (a) the importance of women’s and men’s land rights in Tanzania, (b) the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda, and (c) the need to rigorously monitor progress towards the achievement of women’s and men’s land rights. He previously worked with Tanzania Natural Resource Forum and Hakiardhi, premier natural resource and land rights organizations based in Tanzania. He has written and published numerous journal articles and book chapters in both local and international journals. Most of his works have looked at the theoretical legal frameworks and the practice on the ground in different themes of land tenure as well as the social movements underpinning the agrarian change in Tanzania. His research interests are land tenure reforms, land-based investments, agrarian issues, and gender. Mr. Massay holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B Hons) from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and is based in Arusha.

Katerina Downward has committed her professional life to defending human rights, with extensive experience in the fields of humanitarian response, a proven track record as a leader supporting refugee livelihoods, and a longstanding commitment to social justice. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights, graduating with distinction, from the London School of Economics. She joined METAdrasi as a Project Manager in the education department. In that capacity, she set up three schools for refugee children on the frontier islands of Lesvos and Chios where most refugee arrivals through Greece’s sea borders occur. She was then promoted to Head of the Education and Integration department where in addition to her sustained project management responsibilities, she now leads a team of 60 educators and oversees the implementation of all education programs for refugees and migrants across the country, serving more than 3000 people annually. She was recently nominated to take on additional responsibilities, helming the program for the certification of survivors of torture and building capacity amongst frontline workers in identifying possible survivors. Previously, she worked at an education nonprofit in New York partnering with under-resourced schools to implement curricular materials on social-issue documentaries as a way of engendering civic engagement and human rights literacy. During her formative and academic years, she volunteered at human rights and civil society organizations across four continents and interned at the Washington Peace Centre and Amnesty International.

Lamin Fatty is the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Focal Point for Tostan the Gambia. He trains the community-based facilitators and community management committees CMCs and facilitates the implementation of the community empowerment program modules. He also coordinates the organized diffusion and leads mini and public declaration to abandon the practice of child marriage and female genital cutting FGC. Fatty hosts a weekly, local language, radio show at the Gambia Radio and Television Service GRTS in Basse. He has co-facilitated a training on Islam and Human Rights for religious leaders at the Tostan Training Center in Thiés, Senegal. He has worked for Tostan for more than 14 years, previously as a Program Field Supervisor and over seven years as MERL focal point. He received an Associate degree in Development Studies from the Rural Development Training Institue and a National Certificate in Integrated Rural Development. He researched water resources conservation swampland ecosystem production and the impact of the closure of a state-owned Gambia Cotton Company on the lives and livelihoods of the cotton farmers and former employees in the Central River Region and the Upper River Region. Fatty also works as a freelance journalist with the newspaper Foroyaa.

Maegan Clark has 10 years of experience in Digital Media, Marketing, and Advertising. Clark earned a Bachelor of Communication degree with an emphasis in Public Relations from Arkansas State University and a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. For the last 10 years, she has worked at Heifer International growing her position from an Internet Marketing Specialist to now the Director of Digital Media. She is passionate about using her education and experience to bring awareness to the mass marketing consumer about how they can live a sustainable life while helping to end hunger. While working full-time for Heifer International, Clark also volunteers with her local Junior League of Little Rock promoting volunteerism and community-focused campaigns.