Scholars

Agha-Nwi Fru is a communication and program management professional currently serving as Communications Expert for the United Nations Populations Fund in the conflict stricken North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. She is a founder of the non-profit organization Association Sembe which highlights community stories from Cameroon’s conflict stricken regions, especially the Boko Haram crisis in the Far North Region of the country. Prior to this, she worked as a Database and Reporting Officer on a USAID-funded program implemented by Creative Associates International to support stabilization efforts in remote communities along the Cameroon-Nigeria border which were destabilized by the Boko Haram insurgency. Before, Agha-Nwi worked on another USAID-funded program dubbed the Cameroon Peace Promotion Program implemented by Equal Access International in the North and Far North Regions of Cameroon. Here, she was the lead Producer on a team that produced radio broadcasts about peace and social cohesion. Before working on peace building projects, Agha-Nwi worked as a journalist for seven years. She holds a Master’s degree in Project Management from the Social Change School in Madrid, Spain, and another Master’s degree in Organizational Communication from the University of Douala, Cameroon. Agha-Nwi enjoys engaging in peace and resilience building activities at the root level and is highly passionate about women and youth empowerment. Her goal is to help people, especially vulnerable groups like women and youth in conflict-stricken communities, to tell the stories that are important to them, and she hopes to achieve this through the Sembe project. She currently resides in Buea, Cameroon and loves to share a good laugh with her entourage.

Agnija Kazuša has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s of Science in Communication from the University of Latvia. While working as a referee at Riga Social Service, Agnija helped more than 150 foreign residents in Latvia prepare documents for receiving crisis benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Agnija worked as a content creator and editor for the World Peace Initiative Foundation and Peace Revolution project for three years to help raise awareness of mental health, mindfulness, and meditation. In this role, Agnija managed the Peace Blog and edited more than 500 articles; helped to create video stories; conducted Facebook Live interviews with peacebuilders from all over the world; organized more than 200 mindfulness activities in Europe, Asia and the Pacific; and provided coaching to 183 individuals on Peace Revolution’s online self-development platform. Agnija has volunteered as a facilitator and project coordinator with several youth organizations, including Lielvarde Youth Organization, European Students’ Forum AEGEE, AIESEC, Make Room, and FEJS (Forum for European Journalism Students) Latvia, which she co-founded. Through these experiences, she developed content creation, project coordination, and implementation skills. Agnija enjoys focusing on the topics of mental health and education and has a strong passion for social inclusion.Agnija Kazuša has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s of Science in Communication from the University of Latvia. While working as a referee at Riga Social Service, Agnija helped more than 150 foreign residents in Latvia prepare documents for receiving crisis benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Agnija worked as a content creator and editor for the World Peace Initiative Foundation and Peace Revolution project for three years to help raise awareness of mental health, mindfulness, and meditation. In this role, Agnija managed the Peace Blog and edited more than 500 articles; helped to create video stories; conducted Facebook Live interviews with peacebuilders from all over the world; organized more than 200 mindfulness activities in Europe, Asia and the Pacific; and provided coaching to 183 individuals on Peace Revolution’s online self-development platform. Agnija has volunteered as a facilitator and project coordinator with several youth organizations, including Lielvarde Youth Organization, European Students’ Forum AEGEE, AIESEC, Make Room, and FEJS (Forum for European Journalism Students) Latvia, which she co-founded. Through these experiences, she developed content creation, project coordination, and implementation skills. Agnija enjoys focusing on the topics of mental health and education and has a strong passion for social inclusion.

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.

Aleksandra Sergeeva earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Hospitality Management from International Management Institute in Switzerland, and a professional degree in Nutrition from National Institute of Professional Education in Russia. She is interested in public health, especially in the area of foods and nutrition. Aleksandra has worked in a company which produces and sells peptide products for more than one year. Her main duties are providing the actual information about the achievements in the area of health promotion and illnesses prevention. She creates articles and provides consultations. Aleksandra’s working experience is related to the hospitality industry, where she had a chance to observe current trends of customer demand from service, food, and beverage sides. Aleksandra took her career pathway from hospitality management and found her passion in being a nutritionist. She would like to start a non-profit educational organization as she sees the importance of improvement in public nutrition. She believes that healthy nutrition and professionally balanced diets are important for everyone. The major skills she acquired through recent experience are social media marketing management, copywriting, and public speaking. Aleksandra’s main interests are educating people about healthy lifestyle, writing articles, and creating recipes.

Alena Udalenkova is a fundraiser, fundraising consultant, and project manager. She has got three degrees — Specialist of Marketing from Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics, Master of Management from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and Master of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Manchester. Her professional experience includes employment at NGOs, government, and business. Most recently, she has been a self-employed fundraising consultant and project manager. In 2021, she started to work for an NGO called Need Help which helps to fundraise for more than 300 NGOs in Russia and support the awareness of social problems in the country. Alena has also worked for World Wide Fund for Nature as a senior project manager at the fundraising department. Afterwards, for almost a year, she travelled across protected nature areas in Russia. Her areas of interest in the social change sector are environmental issues and education.

Alexandra Bakiewicz has years of experience in communications and engagement, and she has earned her degree in Business Administration from the State University of New York, Polytechnic Institute. In 2018, Alexandra founded the digital communications firm AM Bakiewicz Consulting. Having been employed at a variety of companies and international non-profits across the United States, Alexandra has worked tirelessly to amplify her clients’ voices in the digital world. While working at international non-profits, she has developed digital media strategies to further her clients’ missions on an international level. Alexandra strives to uplift the voices of emerging social sector leaders worldwide. It is her personal passion and mission to make sure their stories are continuously told.

Alexandra Vislyaeva earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from a university in London. As a student, she tried different fields of the profession, such as broadcasting, interviewing, writing articles, and editing. Her best broadcasts were about social issues, such as food waste in England, and her articles were about people whose stories needed to be heard. After university, Alexandra returned to Moscow and helped a children’s hospice, House with Lighthouse, online with translating medical leaflets about palliative care. Currently, Alexandra works as a Project and SMM Manager at a charity foundation, Childhood River, which helps children from orphanages find families. Before that, and to find out how the social sector functions in Russia, she interned with Into the Future Fund. She helped to organize an animal rescue month with online and offline events (both fundraising and educational), cooperated with the fund’s partners, and made sure the donated money was delivered to animal shelters. Alexandra plans on using her professional journalistic and organizational skills to expand the sector of cancer care for adult patients in Russia, as she considers it overwhelmingly underestimated and abandoned. She is particularly interested in the age group 14-35 because it is hard for these patients to share experiences and communicate, as they are not frequent visitors to the hospitals. Alexandra aims at making it easier for these people to find each other and share their experiences.

Alrayyes Swirki is a Palestinian feminist and human rights activist who graduated with a Master’s degree in journalism. From 2019 to 2021, she was a project coordinator at the Center for Women’s Legal Research and Consulting in Gaza. From 2017 to 2019, she worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, monitoring and reporting on human rights violations in the Gaza sub-office. She is committed to the cause of human rights and social justice.