Class: 2019
Wanjiru Mukoma
Wanjiru Mukoma has spent most of her career working to improve health and wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in HIV prevention and care, and cross-cutting issues of human rights, sexual, and gender-based violence. She was formerly Executive Director of LVCT Health, a Kenyan NGO and one of the country’s leading implementers of HIV and gender-based violence programs. A researcher, program implementer, and advocate, she has worked in academia and the non-profit sector for the past 15 years. Wanjiru is as comfortable working at the grassroots community level as she is in policy advocacy, championing the rights of the vulnerable and marginalized, especially children, adolescents, young women, and sexual minorities. She…
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Cristina VĂ©lez Valencia
Cristina VĂ©lez Valencia is currently the Vice president for Public-Private Partnerships of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá and is in charge of programs to foster regional integration and economic development, as well as the Chamber's knowledge management among other programs involving public and private sectors. Until June 2019, she served as the Secretary for Social Integration in the Mayoralty of Bogotá. She oversaw a department with over 9500 employees and a budget in excess of $360 million. The department defines and implements social policy in a city of over 7 million residents and is responsible for comprehensive programs for early childhood, aging populations, homelessness, youth, people with disabilities, and…
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Nizam Uddin
Nizam Uddin is Chief Strategy Officer of algbra, a technology-based financial ecosystem dedicated to global financial inclusion by focusing on the underserved and underbanked. Nizam was previously the Senior Head of Mosaic and Community Integration at The Prince’s Trust and Head of the Mosaic Initiative. Nizam has a strong interest and background in overcoming the societal and economic challenges that prevent disenfranchised and minority communities from fulfilling their potential. He is a 2019 US State Department International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) participant and a Trustee of: SOAS, University of London, Robert. F. Kennedy Human Rights UK, and Belong – the UK's Cohesion and Integration Network (COIN). Nizam was awarded an…
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Rebecca Sullivan
Rebecca Sullivan is a sustainable-living advocate residing in a straw bale home off the grid on a 90-acre eco-farm in the Clare Valley, South Australia. She is a self-taught cook and has worked with some of the world’s best food producers, academics, activists, and chefs. She is a food curator, consultant, TV presenter, activist, author, regenerative farmer, and social entrepreneur. Rebecca has worked on many global sustainability projects including the Real Food Festival in London and serving as Taste Curator on Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Her current work includes writing three more books, presenting on green living, hosting workshops, running her social enterprises Warndu and the Granny Skills…
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Nikita Lalwani
Nikita Lalwani is a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. She previously served as a law clerk on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Â At Yale Law School, from which she graduated in 2020, she was the Yale Law Journal's Executive Editor for Articles & Essays and helped advocate for a fairer census as a team leader in the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic. She was also the co-president of the Yale Law National Security Group, co-director of the Yale chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project, and a Kerry Fellow at the Jackson…
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Feng Gao
Feng Gao is the co-founder and managing director of Open Data China, the first civic group and social enterprise in China working on data transparency and digital rights. Under Feng’s leadership, Open Data China actively advises governments and other data holders on how to build an open and transparent data agenda. Open Data China also sets up a community for data users to make their voices heard. In 2015, Open Data China co-launched Shanghai Open Data Apps (SODA), a competition-based open data innovation model. Since then, Feng leads the daily operation of SODA and its sister programs in Chongqing, Shenyang, and other cities in China. The SODA model unlocks more…
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Beverly Lorraine C. Ho
Beverly “Bev” Lorraine C. Ho is Chief of the Health Research Division of the Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau in the Philippine Department of Health. She works to provide the evidence needed to support health system reforms by designing innovative research grants and building institutional capacity for policy research. These efforts have significantly contributed to the passage of key legislation on sugar-sweetened beverage tax, universal health care (UHC), and the institutionalization of the health technology assessment process in the Philippines. Because of her instrumental role in the UHC Act, she was designated Special Assistant to the Secretary of Health for UHC. Prior to this, she worked with various international…
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Ahmed Albasheer
Ahmed Albasheer is an Iraqi comedian, journalist, director, and host of The Albasheer Show, a weekly political satire program that humorizes Iraqi politics. Heavily influenced by comedians Jon Stewart and George Carlin, Ahmed began the show in 2014 as a tool to fight corruption, sectarianism, extremism, and terrorism in Iraq and the surrounding region. Having been banned from Iraqi television station, the show is recorded in Jordan and Turkey and broadcast weekly YouTube, Facebook, and Deutsche Welle’s Arabic channel. It reaches a weekly audience of over 7 million people, the majority of whom area under age 30. Ahmed was born and raised in Anbar, Iraq, fleeing the country in 2011…
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Simidele Adeagbo
Simidele Adeagbo is a trailblazing Olympian, passionate advocate, and inspirational speaker focused on building a better world through sport. Simidele made Olympic history at the 2018 Winter Games, becoming the first Nigerian Winter Olympian and the first African and Black woman to compete in Skeleton at the Olympics. For more than fifteen years, Simidele led innovative marketing campaigns at Nike and now helps audiences unlock the power they have as change makers. Through her signature master classes, Simidele also helps girls across Africa build their leadership skills through the uplifting power of sport. An Obama Foundation Leader and Malala Fund supporter, Simidele has appeared in prominent media outlets such as…
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Onur Burçak Belli
Onur "Burçak" Belli is a Syrian-Turkish journalist. For most of her career, Burçak has focused on conflicts in Turkey, where she has been based for the past five years, working for Die Zeit, a German weekly newspaper, covering conflicts and crises in Turkey and the broader region. With 13 years of experience writing for international media outlets, her reporting is often through a lens of comprehensive rights and freedoms, writing in feature, long-form, or non-fiction storytelling styles. In 2010, Burçak was based in Damascus covering Syria’s reform plans and the Sunni-Alawite divergences amongst the ruling elite. She then moved London, working for the BBC as a broadcast journalist, before returning…
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