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.

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.

Amelia Hagen brings ten years of experience across education, entrepreneurship, and event management. Amelia earned a Master in Science in International Event Management with a focus on Sports Mega-Events at the University of Brighton (UK) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Iowa. She currently serves as the Entrepreneurship and Business Development Manager for the Swiss Institute of Hospitality Management and the North American Development Representative for Sport and Sustainability International. In 2018-19, Amelia developed the new Social Entrepreneurship and Design Thinking Program at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She also worked as a UNDP Environmental Management Consultant for the 2018 World Nomad Games. To further understand opportunities for grassroots development within Sports Mega-Events, she volunteered at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics and multiple FIFA events in Russia, including the 2018 World Cup. Prior to moving to Central Asia in early 2018, Amelia co-founded and led a university social enterprise boot camp in Manila, Philippines, and coached university students in developing their own sustainability-related initiatives in the UK. Throughout her global career, Amelia has fostered essential skills in diplomacy, project management, leadership, capacity building, and event management. Her purpose in leveraging international events for peace development is rooted in global education coordination and teaching experiences in Italy and Japan. She is particularly interested in harnessing the global sports event world to promote gender equity and sustainability initiatives among youth under the Sustainable Development Goals umbrella.

Basimenye Nhlema is the Chief Operating Officer at Partners In Health, Malawi. In this capacity, she leads the operations department and heads seven sections including Supply Chain, Procurement, Distribution, Transport, IT, Infrastructure, Human Resources, and Administration. Prior to moving to Operations, Basimenye served as the Community Health Director for Partners In Health Malawi for four years. In that role, she managed the Community Health Worker (CHW) program, the Community Programs team, and the Program on Social and Economic Rights (POSER), interdisciplinary teams focusing on community health in a rural and impoverished population. The CHW program had 1200+ CHWs who focused on education and health screening at the household level; the Community Programs team runs an innovative integrated screening program for sexual and reproductive health and chronic conditions among adolescents, women of childbearing age, and the general population in remote areas; and the POSER team provided support to patients’ basic social and economic needs. Basimenye was also part of a team that worked on transitioning CHWs in two pilot sites of Neno district from a paper-based system to a digital platform called Medic Mobile. Basimenye holds a Bachelor of Arts-Humanities degree in Drama and Public Administration from the University of Malawi and a Master’s of Arts degree in Dramatic Arts from Witwatersrand University, South Africa.

Benjamin Shako has over three years of experience in the social change sector and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While working as the Communications Chair for the Union for Democracy and Social Progress/Youth League in Congo, Benjamin helped establish and maintain the strategic direction of the organization, develop communication plans and messages for various youth league activities, and raise awareness about the league platform as a networking hub for youths. Benjamin is also a Thought For Food (TFF) Ambassador, where he raises the reputation of the food and agriculture industry to create a sustainable food system nationally and globally. Previously, Benjamin worked with a community-based organization, where he conducted an awareness campaign on Ebola prevention and ending child marriage in Congo. Benjamin has volunteered for several nonprofits, including the YALI Regional Leadership Center East Africa, the Center to Support Marginalized and Exploited Youth, International Youth Fellowship, and AIESEC in support of Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 13, and 16. Through these experiences, he developed strong communication, planning, volunteer management, and advocacy skills. Benjamin deeply values empathy, team work, and global collaboration. In the future, Benjamin plans to serve in an elected position to effectively promote solutions to address the social issues facing his country. He enjoys focusing on the topics of leadership, marketing, governance, and agriculture, and has a strong passion for youth and community 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.