PAST GRADUATES WLW | howwomenlead

How Women Lead

WOMEN LEADERS FOR THE WORLD

2019 GRADUATES

We empower women around the world to harness their leadership, power and courage so that ripples of local impact create waves of global change. 250 fellows from 40 countries are connected in a global network, giving rise to new levels of inspiration, ideation, and innovation.

SPRING 2019 FELLOWS: CLICK ON PHOTOS TO SEE BIOS.

Beth Zonis, USA

Beth directs the Northeast region of the Cleantech Open, the world’s oldest and largest accelerator for cleantech startups. She has over 25 years of experience in program strategy and management, business development and partnerships, marketing and communications, innovation and entrepreneurship. She spent five years at MIT, including at the MIT Media Lab, building innovation ecosystems in Russia and India. Prior to her work at MIT, Beth founded and ran a marketing and sustainability consulting firm. Earlier in her career, Beth spent 10 years at IBM; in her last role there marketing energy-efficient data center solutions. Beth has worked for two startups, one of which grew from five employees to over 1000. Beth was a mentor in the Cleantech Open for 9 years prior to becoming director.

Malinda Wheeler, Kenya

Malinda K. Wheeler
Malinda is one of the co-founders and Executive Director for HOPE worldwide Kenya. She has helped raise millions of dollars in funding over the past years to support youth, children and families in underserved communities in Kenya and has helped to grow the organization from a volunteer organization to an organization with over 136 full time staff and several hundred part time staff, and hundreds of stipend volunteers.
As Executive Director she is action-oriented, adaptable, innovative, and self-directed. She is an engaged leader who is active in leading her team, fundraising, communication, planning, strategizing, marketing, and problem solving. One of her greatest joys is working with her team to serve the needy communities in Kenya. Malinda is able to work with diverse groups and cultures and takes pride in her ability to mentor, delegate and bring out the best in others.
Malinda is excited about the opportunity to engage with Women Who Lead so that she can relook at her leadership style and learn to have a more sustainable impact on those around her in the years to come.
She loves to travel, relax in beautiful surroundings with her family, reading, playing Candy Crush, decorating, gardening and good food. The way to her heart is definitely through a good meal! On her top 10 simple pleasures list is a hot cup of black coffee with honey, lemon, and Himalayan pink salt in the morning, a full moon, and special dinners with her husband.
From a small town in the rural south of the U.S. (population 350), to New York City, Somaliland, and now Kenya – Malinda is challenged by extremes and has thrived in them all, showing that she is extremely adaptable to different cultures and contexts.

Raquel Trabal, USA

Raquel is the Bilingual Attorney Negotiator at the Domestic Violence Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where she negotiates Civil Protection Orders and focuses on empowering pro-se litigants to navigate complex legal systems. She also serves as a subject matter advisor in the Division. In that capacity, Raquel develops systems and protocols to facilitate the processing and adjudication of protection order cases in the Division. Raquel’s goal is to ensure the legal system is accessible to all litigants, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

Alma Tawia, Ghana

Alma is a certified HR professional with over 6 years experience working with high growth multinational companies in Oil and gas, construction and energy sectors as well as an entrepreneur at heart.

In 2017, she founded Prestige Kente a bespoke local handwoven fabric online business out of her love for style and design that weaves contemporary and traditional kente cloth at the same time economically empowering her hometown. Alma loves to inspire and create opportunities for others to also shine hence her commitment to using only locally sourced weavers.

Hannah Sinnhuber, Mexico

Hannah is a midwife and heads a birth center in Mexico City. She attends births, does prenatal and postpartum care along with gynecological appointments, birth control, STIs, and abortions. She is passionate about feminist, women centered health work and believes that the midwifery model of care can change the world.
She cares about every woman having access to a midwife and all midwives having backup from others

Dr. Lorna Sangale, Kenya

Dr. Lorna is a Founder, Chairman, Director and Consultant Anesthetist with over 20 years of Executive and Board Level experience across the public, commercial & not for profit sectors.
She is the Founder of Holistic Medical Africa an Integrative Medical Clinic with a special interest in gender health and nutritional management of autistic patients.
Dr Lorna would like partnership opportunities through HWL to further her vision of ‘Integrative Health for All’ in Kenya.
She is particularly interested in changing the narrative about autism and gender health at the family and national level.

Iryna Rubis, Ukraine

Iryna Rubis is a board member of Fulcrem NGO, ex-CEO, and former owner of Ekonomika+ business media bureau, Ukraine
Media manager with DNA to support Ukrainian SMEs, gender equality, shared values and sustainability concept, freedom of speech and media.
5th, 8th, and 10th SDGs activist and promoter
Ex-leader for delo.ua, womo.ua, mmr.ua, and 10+ event subbrands teams.
Author of a platform for moms in business womo.ua
Chief–editor of mmr.ua
A winner of the Communication of the Future Awards. Twice a recipient of Best Marketing Team in Media Awards. SHE Exports Program Ambassador.

Ndimyake Mwakalyelye, Zimbabwe

Ndimyake Mwakalyelye is the head of the Zimbabwe Service at the Voice of America in Washington, DC, and oversees several reporters and programs broadcasting to Zimbabwe on a daily basis. A journalist by training, Ndimyake believes in the power of media to educate and empower listeners by giving them access to critical information that can enable them to contribute positively to their environment and circumstances.

Monica Elizabeth Menini, Argentina

Monica Elizabeth Menini is a lawyer who graduated from the National University of La Plata, specialized In the field of Family, Childhood and Adolescence Law; Gender; Gender Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Law.
She has received the Advanced Diploma of Specialization in Gender and Public Policies from FLACSO- Latin American Social Sciences Institute; and has got an Specialization in Family Law at Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences-National University of Rosario. She is currently writing the Thesis of the Master in Gender and Public Policies of FLACSO. She is also an expert in Cooperatives of Labor and Cooperatives and Mutuals Law.

Emma Mayerson, USA

Emma Mayerson is the Founding Executive Director of Alliance for Girls (AFG), the nation’s largest alliance of girls' organizations and girls' champions. AFG's mission is to mobilize girls' advocates and educators to address barriers facing girls, create conditions for their success, and advocate for systemic change to achieve equity for all. Together AFG has trained 1500 girls' champions, 90% of whom report that they are more effective in their roles due to AFG training, advanced pro-girl policies including a landmark sexual harassment policy in Oakland and a gender-responsive children's fund policy in San Francisco that has since designated $30 million to girls' programs. Mayerson is a recipient of Oasis for Girls’ Spark Award for Visionary Leadership, the National Council on Jewish Women’s Outstanding Advocate for Social Change Award, the Delilah Beasley Award, Love Never Fail’s Advocacy for At-Risk Girls Award and the National Girls Initiative Innovation Award. She has also received honors in recognition of her leadership from the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women and Equal Rights Advocates. Her work has been featured on CBS Channel 4 News, ABC 7 News, KCBS, the Oakland Post, NPR’s All Things Considered and Telemundo.

Dr. Puleng Makhoalibe, South Africa

Puleng has a passion for creativity, design thinking and innovation. She has twenty years of experience working in the private sector, government and in higher education institutions. She is a speaker, facilitator and a published author. Her academic background entails a BSc in Computer Science and Statistics, an MBA from University of Cape Town (UCT) and a PhD from the Graduate School of Business at UCT. Her research interest is in the area of innovative project management – she conceived a project artistry framework that emerged from marrying the principles of Creative Problem Solving and Design Thinking into the management world.
She heads up the center of Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE) at Henley Business School. She also runs her own organisation, the African Alchemy Inspiration, which has three core areas: consulting, education and a foundation grounded on her PHD research outcomes and the Alchemy books series that emerged from her thesis.

Mpume Langa, South Africa

Mpume Langa is a business executive with over 20 years of experience in strategy, leadership and portfolio management in the financial services industry, after having started her banking career through a Learnership Programme. Her passion and skills for business transformation is manifested on a number of successful implementation of turnaround strategies for various businesses at start-up and corporate levels. She has successfully developed a number of leadership development programmes for local and multinational organizations in line with their business growth and talent retention strategies.
She is currently the Regional Executive for Bidvest Bank Kzn and Chairperson of Women in Business at Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and former Regional Chairperson of Businesswomen's Association of South Africa.

Joyce Gituro, MediaMax Network

Joyce Gituro is a single mother of three wonderful kids, Rachael, Walter and Jakes. She is a friend, a sister and an aunty to many. Joyce is a seasoned communication expert with a wealth of experience in Radio. She is currently the Group Head of Radio at Mediamax Network Limited where she is mandated to offer strategic leadership for six brands; a role she executes with excellence. Before joining Mediamax, Joyce was the Head of Radio Citizen, a leading station in Kenya where she worked for sixteen years. From a news reporter to managing six radio stations, Joyce has grown through the corporate ladder due to her passion and leadership skills. In her own words, she is a servant leader. She is currently the top religious show presenter in Kenya, a show that runs once a week on Milele FM.

Nadejda Dermendjieva, Bulgarian Fund for Women

Nadezhda is Executive Director of the Bulgarian Fund for Women (BFW) since 2015. The Fund is
the only foundation in Bulgaria which supports civil society organizations working to empower women and girls through grantmaking and capacity building. Nadezhda holds master’s degrees in Gender Studies (Sofia University / The Nottingham University) and in Creative Writing (Sofia University) and currently is a PhD student in Feminist Philosophy in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She has fully invested herself in the strategic development of the Bulgarian Fund for Women and into making it a self-sustainable non-profit so that it achieves its mission of strengthening the feminist movement in the country to drive social change.
Nadezhda is confident that through the WLW program she will find herself a safe space in a supportive network of other leaders, will develop even more her potential and will see many new opportunities on her professional horizon.

Councelor Yvette Chesson-Wureh, Liberia

Cllr. Chesson-Wureh is presently the Establishment Coordinator of the Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC) for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security, which was the concrete outcome of the International Colloquium. In a coalition with over 30 other women and youth groups, she initiated a non-violent elections campaign entitled “The Peace is in our Hand” which she successfully established as the “Women's Situation Room” (WSR) for the Liberian elections in 2011. The Women's Situation Room has been successfully replicated in Senegal 2012, in Sierra Leone 2012, in Kenya 2013, Nigeria 2015, Uganda and Ghana in 2016, Liberia 2014 & 2017 and Sierra Leone again in 2018. Cllr. Chesson-Wureh Chairs the Eminent Women's Room of the award-winning Women's Situation Room and provides the technical expertise for its implementation. The WSR has been hailed by the President of the UN Security Council as…” playing an important role in exerting influence over parties to armed conflict”…; and “…which have helped to prevent or mitigate the eruption and escalation of violence, inter alia through observing and monitoring and by engaging stakeholders in constructive dialogue and peace advocacy”. President Obasanjo of Nigeria has found the WSR to be “…a valuable mechanism to monitor potential hotspots, incidents of violence, harassment and intimidation.

Assanatou Barry, The Gambia

Assanatou joined Standard Chartered Bank in January 1996, and worked in several units of Retail Banking before moving to Wholesale Banking in 2007 where she established the Transaction Banking Unit, thereafter managed our Financial Institutions Clients for Gambia and Senegal, As at January 2017, she took the role as the Country Head of Global Banking.
Her goal is to Head an International and to establish her won business and employ women inorder to empower them.

Daanika Kamal, Pakistan

Daanika is a human rights lawyer and development specialist based in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has extensive experience in policy-making, legislative drafting and program implementation strategies with particular focus on access to justice and human rights protections. She is a strong advocate for women’s rights, mental health, and climate change, and is currently working as a Senior Program Officer at the Asia Foundation’s Pakistan Office.
Daanika is also an internationally published author and editor. In 2016, she edited a book titled Climate Change and Human Rights: The Task of Protecting People on a Warming Planet, published by the Global Policy Journal, United Kingdom; and she continues to contribute to various online and print publications in international law journals, national newspapers and literary magazines.
In 2018, Daanika founded a social enterprise, The Colour Blue (TCB), as part of her efforts to affirm mental health as a fundamental human right. TCB is working to promote and encourage the empowerment of those facing mental health challenges, through an inclusive, innovative platform for engagement, effective support mechanisms and quality service provision. Kamal is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences, panels and TV programs, most recently having been featured on the BBC.

Magdalene Amujal, Uganda

Magdalene is the Executive Director of Kulika Uganda, an organization established in 1981 in the UK to provide educational opportunities through vocational and academic scholarships to Ugandan people. Kulika Uganda has evolved into a fully independent Ugandan NGO with an emphasis on community development and the provision of educational opportunities to help people improve their livelihoods. Kulika’s educational training programs equip people with the skills they need not only for their personal development, but also to meet the development needs of the nation. Magdalene is looking to scale Kulika Uganda and increase its presence by establishing robust partnerships.

Magdalene is new to her leadership role and hopes to gain skills and draw on the experiences of other leaders to propel her organization to the next level.

Dr. Nyeisha T. DeWitt, USA

Nyeisha is the Interim Executive Director and Co-Founder of Oakland Natives Give Back. Oakland Natives Give Back is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing academic excellence for all Oakland, California youth. The Oakland Natives Give Back incentive program is Nyeisha’s brainchild, garnishing results from the statewide Every Day Counts Attendance Challenge initiative. Nyeisha is credited with incentivizing youth for perfect and near perfect attendance in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Nyeisha is also working collaboratively with the office of Assemblymember Rob Bonta and OUSD to tackle the chronic absenteeism and dropout crisis in the Oakland community

FALL 2018 FELLOWS. CLICK ON PHOTOS TO VIEW BIOS.

Carolyn Seaman, Nigeria

Carolyn is the Founder and Creative Director of Girls Voices Initiative, an organization which provides safe and engaging platforms for adolescent girls to tell their stories and inspire others to amplify their voices. Girls Voices’ “domino effect” model expands their reach by requiring each girl trainee to mentor a girl from outside the Girls’ Voices’ network. Carolyn’s inspiration for Girls Voices Initiative came out of a strong desire to close the gap of women's leadership in Nigeria. Her strategy is to target adolescent girls and empower them early with the skills to be tomorrow’s leaders.

Girls Voices Initiative is big on innovation and Carolyn hopes to increase her leadership skills and grow her organization’s impact with the skills she will develop at WLW.

CJ Scarlet, USA

CJ Scarlet is a social change agent, motivational speaker, and author. She also facilitates retreats for veterans with PTSD/military sexual trauma, and for women and girls living in imperiled communities. An expert in victim advocacy, CJ has given speeches and workshops at national and international events; and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including MSNBC and NPR. She holds an interdisciplinary M.A. in Humanities with an emphasis on human violence from Old Dominion University.

Named one of the “Happy 100” people on the planet, CJ is the author of The Badass Girl’s Guide: Uncommon Strategies to Outwit Predators and Neptune’s Gift: Discovering Your Inner Ocean. CJ seeks to draw on the experience of the WLW program and community to strengthen her leadership skills and network.

Dalia Saravia, El Salvador

Dalia is a Salvadoran OBGYN, a reproductive rights advocate and also works as a consultant trainer for non government organizations that offer workshops to health providers in Sexual and Reproductive health topics. She also works at a state clinic in San Salvador, where she can see the limited resources offered for Salvadoran women, which motivated her to open a private clinic in San Salvador, FemCenter, to provide quality and affordable reproductive health services to women in a respectful environment.

As a leader in the field of reproductive health, her dream is that FemCenter becomes a clinic where women of all social backgrounds, can get quality health services, attached to Sexual and Reproductive rights, and through these actions, improve the lives of Salvadoran women and their communities. As a participant in WLW, Dalia hopes to gain the tools to improve her leadership skills in order to inspire and empower other health providers to increase the quality of health services provide to Salvadoran women.

Kim Piaget Rodriguez, Switzerland / Mexico

Kim works for Oxfam International as a Knowledge Management Adviser for Gender Justice. Oxfam believes that transforming gender and power relations is critical to challenging inequality. Kim works within a team that drives strategic knowledge, organisational learning and program quality across countries and regions. She is responsible for strengthening and leveraging a community of practice that connects practitioners across regions, flattens hierarchies and increases exchanges.

Kim wants to ensure that she follows in the footsteps of the competent, kind and stand-out women that have mentored her during her own career. In her leadership position, she finds herself deeply committed to her team and community of practice. She anticipates that WLW will help her find the resources, guidance and confidence to lead a purposeful and impactful career, for herself and those she has the opportunity to work with.

Nokuthula Ndlovu, South Africa

Nokuthula is the Founder and Executive Director of the Limit Breakers Global Foundation, an organization that empowers and provides access to education, mentorship and support to girls and women in disadvantaged communities across South Africa. Their emphasis is in providing access to opportunity the tech and innovation sectors.

Nokuthula hopes to deepen her impact through the insights and understanding she will gain from a global community of like-minded and visioned women.

Sophie Ngassa, Cameroon

Sophie is the Executive Director of the Center for Youth Education and Economic Development (CYEED), an organization established in 2010 to improve on the livelihood and dignity of young people, especially women, creating awareness about gender equality and providing opportunities to access STEM education and training.

Sophie plans to scale CYEED by upgrading the organization to be a coordination point for identifying, valorizing, innovating and propagating the benefits and possibilities for girls in STEM. She seeks the pragmatic tools to scale and seek funding. Additionally, she hopes to increase exposure and opportunities through a global network.

Allison Martin, South Africa

Allison is the CEO of UDoTest, a Disease Prevention and Risk Identification Platform that uses At-Home Disease Screening, currently focussed on cancers and STDs. She serves employers, providers and health plans. Allison’s goal is to make an impact in the healthcare ecosystem by providing convenient, more affordable care and education on preventative solutions through a combination of technology, medical advancements and better human engagement.

Allison seeks the support of the WLW program and network to cement the sincere, deep belief and faith that she can and will succeed at this mission that she was positioned to do at this time.

Celeste Marion, USA

Celeste is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Manos Unidas Peru, an organization based on a vision for improving the quality of life for children with disabilities in Peru. Over the last 12 years, she has led the growth of this organization, training teachers, empowering parents and fulfilling her goal of quality education to children who were once deemed uneducable.

Celeste’s desire to participate in the WLW conference stems from a desire to unite with other powerful woman who have walked in her shoes and share similar experiences. Her desire to participate in this conference is to harness the inspiration and tools necessary to continue to be a wise leader, equipping her women colleagues with life-changing leadership skills.

Maria Lemus, USA

Maria is founding Executive Director of Visión y Compromiso. Visión y Compromiso and its Promotora and Community Health Worker Network is committed to supporting Promotoras and Community Health Workers towards achieving healthy and dignified lives for Latinos who endure disproportionate rates of health disparities. Visión y Compromiso provides leadership, capacity building and advocacy for over 4,000 Promotores and Community Health Workers associated with clinics, hospitals, community based organizations in rural and urban communities.

Prior to Visión y Compromiso, Maria was active as a community consultant to local community organizations. Maria has 21 years management experience in the Rural Health Division of the California Department of Health Services and the AIDS Office, City and County of San Francisco and the California Department of Corrections.
Maria is founding Executive Director of Visión y Compromiso. Visión y Compromiso and its Promotora and Community Health Worker Network is committed to supporting Promotoras and Community Health Workers towards achieving healthy and dignified lives for Latinos who endure disproportionate rates of health disparities. Visión y Compromiso provides leadership, capacity building and advocacy for over 4,000 Promotores and Community Health Workers associated with clinics, hospitals, community based organizations in rural and urban communities.

Prior to Visión y Compromiso, Maria was active as a community consultant to local community organizations. Maria has 21 years management experience in the Rural Health Division of the California Department of Health Services and the AIDS Office, City and County of San Francisco and the California Department of Corrections.

Lyndell Danzie-Black, Saint Lucia / Guyana

Lyndell, the Managing Director of Cerulean Management, is a global event and project manager with over 25 years of combined experience. Lyndell advises on business management, organizational development and delivery of competencies supporting organizational transformation and change management. Lyndell has mentored women under the World Bank Innovation Network for the Caribbean, is a trainer for the Small Business Bureau and has worked with many indigenous people in the Amazon areas, training and teaching small business management and entrepreneurship. Lyndell continues to collaborate with various companies, including Calidad International, Barbados, Dwellworks, Shepellfgi, ExxonMobil, Aperian Global, Eco Atlantic Investment International and VNet Communications. Lyndell has also contributed to academia as a Lecturer at the University of Guyana, in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Project Design, World Tourism and Tourism Research.

Lyndell hopes to expand her impact and training skills with enhanced leadership skills and support that she will gain through the WLW program.

Charity Chenge, Nigeria

Charity, the Founding Director of the Centre for Health Systems Support and Initiatives for Development, is a public-health expert with 20 years of experience working at the international, national, sub-national and community levels. Her work has deepened her appreciation of the iterative links between socio-economic well-being and health. Recognizing that in many sub-Saharan African countries, access to health is influenced by social determinants that disproportionately place women, young girls and children at a higher risk of preventable sickness/death, her work benefits these populations.

Charity seeks to amplify the scope of her work through the supportive, motivational and enabling networks which the WLW offers. She is looking to connect with a global community of women who are aligned with her tenet to support other women to live healthy and productive lives, to be empowered, to aspire, disrupt, achieve and lead.

Amanda Arch, USA

e-commerce platform that sells and delivers women's health products using any type of mobile phone, no Internet or smartphone required. Kasha is a for-profit social business focused on promoting women's empowerment for health and self-care while providing confidential delivery of genuine quality products. Kasha is currently operating in Kigali, Rwanda and starting to expand into Nairobi, Kenya. Amanda started her career at Microsoft where she held several positions across finance, strategy, and product marketing. Most recently she worked at Seattle startup Porch.com. She is a supporter of several organizations focused on women's health, education and empowerment such as the Akilah Institute, Rise Up, SHE CAN and Room to Read. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, biking, reading and rock climbing.

Jeridah Andayi, Kenya

Jeridah is the Head of Radio on Citizen Radio, the leading radio station in Kenya. Jeridah is a media powerhouse having dominated the airwaves for close to two decades as a radio presenter in Citizen Radio’s Chapa Kazi, a show centered on empowering, inspiring and engaging women to work in the spirit of nation-building where she delves into socio-economic problems affecting society and solutions that can be used to overcome them. Jeridah also hosts a weekly show targeting women in leadership positions both at the national and grassroots levels. Jeridah’s goal is to use the power of the media to ensure an informed and energized citizenry to launch and drive societal change.

Ebtehal Alrewaily, Saudi Arabia

Ebtehal is a graduate from the King Abdullah Scholarship Program and holds a Master’s Degree of Science in General Physics from California State University and a bachelor in Physics from Jouf University. Her specialty is research work in the efficiency of ionic liquids in oil recovery. She also received a certificate of appreciation from the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) in the United States of America for her voluntary work. Over the last 10 years Ebtehal has lived in 4 different cities between Saudi Arabia and the United States. She worked as a Lecturer at Jouf University and aim to inspires her students to do better and be better.
Ebtehal is one of the founders of a Professional Women’s Organization under development for Saudi Arabian Women. She is passionate about the importance of helping yourself and helping other simultaneously. She promotes the value of volunteering as a giving back to society. She understands the power of engaging both locally and international and she is on a lifelong journey of learning, leading and lifting others. Ebtehal also seeks to create through the organization a professional environment seeded by the values and behaviors of the Saudi nation with the guiding and support of both local and international experts.

Aimee Allison, USA

Aimee Allison, President of Democracy in Color, works to build the political power of the New American Majority, the multiracial electorate powerfully led by women of color. She writes, speaks, and organizes on behalf of these voters that elected Barack Obama and could secure a progressive future for generations to come. Aimee moderated the first DNC Chair Forum to address race and the future of the Democratic Party. Her podcast, Democracy in Color, features congressional leaders, thought leaders and exciting next generation candidates. This September, she will host the first national summit on women of color in politics She the People. She was one of the first women of color to be honorably discharged from the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector and works to support courageous, moral leadership. She has been published in the New York Times and Essence Magazine and is online @aimeeallison.

Wedad Aljobran, Saudia Arabia

Wedad Aljobran,is a graduate from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia scholarship program and holds a Master of Science in Health Administration degree and a BA in Business Administration. She is also a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality “CPHQ”. Wedad joined the kingdom of Saudi Arabia scholarship program in 2012 spending more than 3 years studying in the United States.

Wedad works diligently to communicate the value of quality to the Saudi community. She also seeks to spread the culture of professional participation and empowerment through establishing innovation health care programs from the point of view of an ambitious Saudi woman. The programs will be designed to directly impact the environment of hospitals improving their vitality. As a founder of the first professional network for Saudi Women iSAW, Wedad is establishing her platform of young girls eager for inspiration and who have ambitions to raise the standard and establish a vibrant young Saudi Culture for an ambition community.

Amara Agbim, Nigeria

Amara is the CEO of The Nanny Academy, an organization she established to empower domestic workers to advocate for proper employment conditions. Her organization provides women with credentials, trains them in financial literacy, and empowers them to be their own advocates. The Nanny Academy is working to push the adoption of a national bill of rights for domestic workers to afford them with basic protections and increase their access to justice.
Amara wishes to scale her organization and its impact and she seeks the opportunity to improve her own leadership skills through the WLW program to achieve that.

Hauwa Abbas, Nigeria

Hauwa Abbas is a Public Health Advocate, a Certified Coach & Humanitarian who holds numerous certificates & awards. She looks at development through a holistic lens, using her strategic vision to build and implement plans with a proven track record of supporting organisational needs. Hauwa is the Founder of Silver Lining for the Needy Initiative, a non-profit established in 2009 focusing on maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in Nigeria. Hauwa and her team have designed and delivered programs which have demonstrated unprecedented success in community mobilization, service delivery and advocacy at the local and national levels. Her programs have reached 14 Nigerian states, she is recognized as a Northern Nigerian woman who is raising the bar.
Hauwa’s efforts have also influenced national policy; in 2013, she was a member of the team that drafted Nigeria’s United Nations Commission Plan on 13 Life-Saving Commodities. She plans to continue improving the quality of life for the rural poor and disadvantaged populations in a holistic manner (physically, socially and economically). Hauwa’s goal is to increase the culture of volunteerism in Nigeria and to ensure sustainability of her work by promoting community ownership. As a Rotarian she has been a Club President, Assistant Governor and currently District Chair for Community Service covering 23 states in Nigeria.

Saliwe Mutetwa, Zimbabwe

Saliwe is the Director of the Talia Women’s Network, whose mission is to equip young women and girls with the life skills needed to harness economic and social opportunities, inspiring change and bringing transformation to their lives and their communities. Talia Women’s Network takes a holistic approach to empowerment focusing on personal leadership skills, increasing income-generating capacity, financial literacy and health and wellness.

Saliwe plans to scale her operations beyond the two (of 10) provinces in Zimbabwe currently served and hopes to use the leadership skills she will gain in the WLW program to make this happen.

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