Scholars

Aboud J. Al Ifranji has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and three years of experience in the UNRWA education sector. A.J. earned a Bachelor’s of Teaching English Language from Al Azhar University in Gaza, Palestine. While working as an English teacher in different UNRWA schools, he helped improve his students’ academic achievement in English in prep schools. While working as a Project Coordinator in Japanese Campaign for the Children of Palestine, he helped improve the quality of education in local government schools across different areas in Gaza, Palestine. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination, planning, monitoring, implementation, reporting, and evaluation skills. A.J. also honed his abilities to work with computerized and office programs, use cameras for video recording and editing, and facilitate different types of trainings, workshops, and meetings, especially for teachers and school staff members. A.J. is also deeply skilled in translating oral and written English to Arabic, researching, working under pressure, multitasking, and leading teams. Throughout his career, A.J. has developed a wide variety of communication skills, along with best practices in data collection, validation, summary, and analysis. A.J. enjoys focusing on topics of education development, cultural variety, sports, animation, movies, and music, and has a strong passion for self development and youth empowerment.

Afsheen Fatima is a lecturer from Karachi. She started her career as a Researcher of Political Affairs for Pakistan Television Corporation. Later, Afsheen moved to Turkey to pursue her Master’s degree in South Asian Studies and International Relations at Necmettin Erbakan University under the Türkiye Burslari Scholarship program. After completing her degree, she returned to Pakistan and began teaching various courses in social sciences such as International Relations, World History, and Sociology. In addition to her work at IQRA University she’s also an intern at The Gender Guardian (TGG) NGO. TGG is the first school in Pakistan established specifically to provide vocational training to the marginalized transgender community in Pakistan so that they can earn a respectable living. Her areas of interest include media and politics, identity politics, minority rights, gender issues, and sustainable development. Previously, she worked for the Salman Sufi Foundation as the coordinator for the Women on Wheels project. This project was funded by UNDP and enabled women to learn how to ride motorcycles to improve their freedom of movement. She enjoys participating in youth-related programs and strongly believes that if we equip our youth with the right skills, things will change. In addition to her professional activities, she’s passionate about making organic soaps, learning languages, traveling, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.

Ahsan Hayat is a graduate of the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, NUST, majoring in computer systems. He’s currently enrolled in an EMBA program at NBS. He has more than 6 years of professional experience, mainly in the telecommunications sector, where he gained hands-on experience in various industries in areas such as telecom operations, service delivery and customer care, governance and standards. Recently, he has been working as an IT Audit Manager, ensuring compliance with global best practices and standards. During his work experience, he learned the methods to comply with global standards and practices, document and design processes, and ensure customer satisfaction through timely service delivery. The operational aspect of the telecommunications sector continues to be his forte, as that is where he gained much of his experience. He also enjoys spending his time reading and participating in writing competitions. He has qualified for the selection exams twice (CSS and PMS). He recently completed the McKinsey Forward Learning Program and is also a member of the Youth Parliament of Pakistan. He follows the issue of climate change and its impact on Pakistan with great interest, as recent events have shown that it’s a matter of life and death for his country in particular and the world in general. It’s time to act now, otherwise the socio-cultural and economic impacts of climate change will threaten our collective existence.

Aishani Jaiswal is a New Delhi based research analyst. Having graduated from the University of Delhi with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, her areas of interest lie in gender, minority rights, and public health. She has previously worked in research and media spaces focusing on South Asian issues and tackling online hate speech. In addition to her professional goals, she is also passionate about mental health issues.

Ako Eyo Oku is a young leader with extensive experience in broadcast media and public service. Ako has worked for the Nigerian Television Authority for nine years, where she has served three different regions and over 200 Nigerian communities with enlightening, educational, and entertaining TV programs. Ako is committed to community development and advocacy for social change. She has been an active leader in several organizations, including the Child Rights Club, Rotaract Club, MDGs/SDGs Mass Awareness Group, Strategy and Innovation for Development Initiative, and the Young African Leadership Initiative. She founded the Global Learning Community Program, a community of practice that encourages worldwide learning at the local level via MOOCs and GLAMs. In 2019, Ako participated in the US government-sponsored Mandela Washington Fellowship, where she received training on Leadership in Public Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ako is a Commonwealth+ Open Source Leader, a World Pulse Ambassador, and an African Changemaker. Ako belongs to Chatham House, TED, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia communities.

Aléré Kouakou is an education development practitioner and an innovator in the phone repair sector. He also graduated with a Master’s degree in Science of Education from ‘’ENS’’ (Institute of Education). After working for over four years in the education sector, he set up his NGO called ALeREAI, which stands for: Aid and Leadership for Rural Education Access Initiative. Currently, he works in civil service as a teacher and is the Country Director of Orion Edutech, an Indian training center. He committed to practicing education development for vulnerable people over the past two years due to two gap academic years in schools and COVID-19. He has been promoting access to vocational training, such as phone repairing courses, on the mission of reshaping quality education in Cote d’Ivoire.

Alexandria Sasek has a B.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Oregon and an M.Sc. in Urban Strategy from Drexel University. Ms. Sasek has over a decade of experience with nonprofits and community development, from activism to academia. She currently leads an internship program connecting youth and local social-impact businesses and nonprofits with paid internships and a professional development workshop series. As a volunteer girls’ softball coach and co-founder of a womxn-run farming collective, Alexandria strives to facilitate safe, creative spaces for youth to experientially learn and imagine their futures. Her experience with community development spans from historical societies to food banks, including leading visioning exercises and a political campaign. Alexandria is passionate about environmental justice, youth empowerment, mutual aid, community engagement, and facilitating spaces for groups to imagine and plan for a shared future on an environmentally precarious planet. She wishes to see more equitable and accessible spaces for truly community-centric plans and public engagement.

Alison B. Omiste is a Systems Engineer and lawyer, both with mention of excellence. She has studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Hradec Králové University, Czech Republic, and Advanced Studies in Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law at Washington College of Law. She is an activist for human rights, gender equality, and freedom. She is a former IACHR intern and lover of technology, particularly its use to build a fairer, more transparent, and equitable society. Alison has been a trainer and speaker in various academic and technological spaces and is the Co-Founder and current National Director of “Mujeres TICs Bolivia” (Women ICTs Bolivia), an organization that seeks to reduce the digital gender gap. Her organization has trained more than 500 women from peri-urban and rural areas of Bolivia on issues of technologies and digital inclusion and has impacted more than 2,000 people with different digital inclusion programs and workshops in STEM areas. She works in constant contributions and investigations presented as amicus curiae before the IACHR and has participated as a team coach and judge in international Human Rights competitions. She is the Vice-curator of the Global Shapers hub and a member of the Ladies of Liberty Alliance and Students of Liberty. Alison is also a Fellow of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and of the Ban Ki-Moon Center for Global Citizen. She is a CISCO instructor with experience as a mentor in digital education.