Scholars

Adedapo Sijuwade is a social worker with over seven years of experience in humanitarian services, project management & community development. Adedapo has a degree in Sociology and professional courses in humanitarian works. He is particularly attracted to the quest of creating and enabling a safe environment for vulnerable groups. He believes in timely and collective action in response to the plights of marginalized groups, orphans, and vulnerable children to overcome their unpleasant situations through quality intervention, community engagement, and advocacy. He shares the vision of protecting the dignity of human lives and hopes for a just society for all with an emphasis on enhancing the quality of human existence. Adedapo is a social reformer, who is proactive about addressing social issues. His understanding of social issues, such as gender inequality, poverty, child rights, climate change, resulted in numerous achievements among the communities where he worked. He has been involved in various initiatives in his quest to improve the quality of life among vulnerable children to increase school enrollment and retention among teenage girls to avoid teenage pregnancy.

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.

Alexander Gunkel is a serial entrepreneur using space technology for social and environmental good. Alexander’s company Space4Good leverages satellite earth observation, geographic information systems, and artificial intelligence to provide geospatial analytics to global impact initiatives for data-driven decision making and increased transparency. The company is active in nature conservation, agriculture, smart cities, disaster relief, and peace and justice. Space4Good provides its insights to clients such as The Red Cross, The World Bank Group, The Carter Center, and The European Commission. Additionally, Alexander co-founded Skytree, which invented a CO2 recycling process to reduce global CO2 emissions, as well as RoadEO which is developing a global road quality monitoring and prediction platform to improve road safety and comfort. He is actively mentoring “Tech4Good” entrepreneurs in university-related incubators as well as accelerators, including in Startupbootcamp and Google LaunchPad. Before starting his entrepreneurial career, Alexander studied mechanical engineering and business administration and worked as a Project Manager at the European Space Agency. He is a Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and believes in the power of social entrepreneurship to drive positive societal and economic change.

Allison Coady is a Senior Development Officer at Partners In Health Canada. Allison served as the Interim Director of Major Gifts at Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières-USA (MSF-USA). She joined MSF-USA as the Development Officer for Foundations, responsible for managing strategic relationships with US-based foundation donors. She has extensive international experience working on the ground in 13 African countries in the field of human rights. Prior to working at Doctors Without Borders, Allison was based in South Africa representing Canada’s International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy) and served as Programs Manager for the Denis Hurley Peace Institute (DHPI) in Pretoria. During her time with Rights & Democracy, Allison implemented projects aimed at strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations in their efforts to document human rights violations and protect the rights of Zimbabwean asylum seekers. At DHPI, Allison coordinated conflict management, good governance, and constitution-making training programs for local leaders in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. Allison is a member of the associate board of ALIMA (the Alliance for International Medical Action). She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Amana Parveen has developed extensive industry knowledge and academic experience in the social impact sector through her involvement over the last three years. She is a Political Science honors graduate from the University of Delhi, India. Along with her Bachelor’s degree, she completed a diploma in Women Empowerment and Development. She also holds certifications in Human Rights and Legal Literacy. She has worked in a diverse range of impact environments, including education, livelihoods, fundraising, relief, communications, corporate engagement, and advocacy. As part of her currently Fellowship with the American India Foundation, she is developing a communications and branding strategy along with other deliverables for a European Union funded project on the revival of livelihoods for the indigenous and marginalized women artisans across India with Fair Trade Forum – India. Previously, she has worked on a project named “Let’s Reach Out Kerala,” which aimed to offer psychosocial support to guest workers stranded in and outside the state of Kerala, India, during the first phase of the pandemic. After that, she went on to work on a vaccination project to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 200 guest worker families in Delhi-NCR, India. Through her various experiences, Amana acquired considerable skills, such as project management, communications, graphic designing, development of concept notes, collaboration, and research. Amana is a self-motivated and passionate individual who envisions an empathy-driven world.

Ashley Toombs is the Director of External Affairs at BRAC USA, where she works hand-in-hand with leadership, the board, and key stakeholders on resource mobilization and organizational strategies, as well as manages the climate change portfolio. Ashley has been with BRAC for almost seven years and travels domestically and internationally to provide technical assistance, represents the organization at public events and conferences, and develops global and strategic partnerships. She has worked in international development for almost fifteen years, previously serving in roles with The Nature Conservancy and the Peace Corps. Ashley lived in Peru for over four years, first working as an environmental management volunteer and then as a technical facilitator with the Peruvian Environmental and Education Ministries. She holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs with a concentration in Environmental Science and Policy and a BA in International Studies and Spanish from Fairfield University, where she serves on the Advisory Council of their Center for Social Impact. Through her work, Ashley has spent time in Latin America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Based in the Hudson Valley in Pearl River, New York, locally Ashley also serves on the Advisory Council for her community library and is deeply passionate about all issues related to climate change.

Bashar Timraz has eight years of experience in the nonprofit and government sectors. Bashar earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administrations from Al-Quds Open University in Palestine. Bashar has diverse work experience in administration, coordination, security, reporting, and project management. In his current role as Operations Coordinator in the Field Security and Risk Management at the United Nations for Relief & Work Agency (UNRWA), he provides emergency response to around 13,000 staff members working in 300 UNRWA installations, guarantees a safe work environment for the UNRWA employees, follows up and reports all security incidents as needed, and organizes and maintains security files on all issues related to assessments, security plans, and more. Through his work with UNRWA, Bashar works with staff from different backgrounds, experiences, and working styles. Thus, he has developed strong communication, teamwork, risk-management and problem-solving skills. Previously, Bashar worked at the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs in the projects and planning department, and was responsible for preparing the Ministry’s projects, operational plans, and reports. Working with the government has enabled him to develop report writing skills, strategic thinking, and communication skills, along with the ability to organize media events. Bashar is particularly looking to challenge himself and learn new things focusing on the topics of humanitarian, operations, and economic development.

Benny Katta is a Scholar of “Rural Economy and Digital Tools” with a study on Digital Agriculture, Rural Economy and Social Development. He has 17 years of professional experience in program management and project implementation on rural & social-economic development, corporate social responsibility projects, sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, digital agriculture, capacity building, and commercializing the FPOs. He is a good strategic planner, conflict manager, and social impact player. He has displayed skills in decision making, critical thinking, and demonstrated persuasive communications, team management, and leadership skills. He was recognized with the “Sitara Award” for setting up a benchmark for clean finance handling by Tata Group for DFID Project.