FP Virtual Dialogue: Profiles of Resilience

U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, engineer, entrepreneur, and educator who is continuing her career of service as the first woman ever to represent Pennsylvania's 6th District in Congress. Chrissy is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who came to America with nothing. She earned her engineering degree from Stanford with an ROTC scholarship that launched her service in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves, and later earned her M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT. Chrissy has helped lead several thriving Southeastern Pennsylvania companies including AND1 and B Lab.  She went on to serve in Teach for America as a chemistry teacher at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia and then led and scaled a non-profit helping thousands of underserved students all across America build their literacy skills. She is committed to fighting for access to quality, affordable healthcare, common sense gun safety, government accountability and transparency, and working to build a strong, stable economy with good jobs and good benefits for everyone. She’s a mom, a longtime resident of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and a first-time congressional representative heading to Washington to solve real problems for the people and communities of Pennsylvania.

Prior to leading USADF, Glin served as Associate Director with the Rockefeller Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya. From 2009-2011, he was a White House appointee serving as the Peace Corps’ first Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Global Partnerships where he established the Office of Strategic Partnerships. Previously, as Vice President for Business Development with PYXERA Global, Glin established local content, skill-based volunteering, business advisory, employee engagement and corporate social responsibility programs for Fortune 100 companies throughout Africa, Central Asia, Europe and the Americas. Earlier in his career he consulted for the State Department, USAID and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation while living in Ghana and Northern Nigeria. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Howard University; a Master’s level post-graduate diploma in Strategy and Innovation from University of Oxford’s Said Business School and completed the Venture Capital Executive Program at UC Berkeley. Glin is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Directors of Root Capital, a non-profit social investment fund operating in poor rural areas of Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. He is a past member of World Economic Forum’s Transformation Leaders Network and past participant in the Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values, and the Good Society. In 2011, Glin was designated by the White House as a “Champion of Change” for his commitment and contributions to international service and civic participation.

Allison oversees all global research and analysis. She counsels clients on current and prospective market, policy, and security developments with a focus on emerging trends, scenario planning, strategic foresight. Prior to this role, Carlson led FP Analytics’ energy and technology team for over a decade. Prior to FP Analytics (formerly Garten Rothkopf), Carlson led the Latin America program for an international consulting firm assisting European companies investing in emerging markets’ energy and financial sectors. She received her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in international relations and international economics.

A PhD in Energy Finance candidate, with a bachelor’s in Accounting and MBA in Finance, Habiba Ali has for most of her professional career, worked in the energy and environment field. Habiba has been deploying renewable energy solutions like solar lamps, home systems, improved cooks stoves and water filters to rural communities in Northern Nigeria for the past 5 years. She has been instrumental to the distribution of over 50,000 improved cook stoves in Kaduna and Kano states.  She has worked with several international organizations to improve the energy status of the community and she is currently working towards the energy equality of people by implementing affordable payments for Solar Home Systems. She is a member of several networks on gender and energy, energy and environment, climate change and a member of the Practitioners Dialogue on Climate investments and is a GROW fellow and a Cherie Blaire mentee.

Dr. Boer joined the All On team from the Boston Consulting Group, where he was one of the founders of the strategy firm's Lagos office. Prior to BCG, Dr. Boer spent five years with the Heirs Holdings Group in Lagos, in many roles including Chief of Staff to the Chairman, Director of Strategy and CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Dr. Boer has also worked in the Rockefeller Foundation's Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, McKinsey & Company, and with World Vision Mauritania. While conducting his doctoral research in Nigeria for his Yale PhD thesis, Wiebe co-founded AfriOne, the first ISP in North Central Nigeria. He has served on a variety of corporate and public sector boards across Africa and is also a widely published author and speaker including his most recent book, A story of Heroes + Epics: The History of Football in Nigeria. Dr. Boer earned a PhD and two Masters degrees from Yale University and a Bachelor's degree from Calvin College, all in history. He spent one year studying political science at the University of Jos, and completed his primary and secondary education at Hillcrest School, also in Jos, Nigeria where he was born and raised.

Kofi is an entrepreneurial leader with rich experience building products, teams and international partnerships to deliver innovative technology solutions. He leads the digital economy programming function at Mastercard Foundation in Ghana, empowering young women and men to shape and leverage the digital economy to access dignified and fulfilling work. Kofi co-founded Rancard which grew exponentially through development of cloud software platforms for multi-carrier content distribution and AI-powered conversational commerce delivered to millions of users across multiple geographies and more than 80 languages. Prior to co-founding Rancard, Kofi was a senior analyst in the BIOS technology team at Dell in Austin Texas, where he earned a patent. He is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, has served on Ashesi University’s Corporate Advisory Council (2011-2012), and is currently a non-executive director of IC Asset Managers. Kofi has a computer engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, and his passions include Shotokan karate, ancient military history and gourmet coffee.

Adepeju has experience across maternal and child health, law, civic leadership, policy formulation and legislative drafting, as well as youth engagement. A graduate of Law from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Adepeju is a President Barack Obama White House honoree, 2017 100 Most inspiring Women in Nigeria, 2017 Crans Montana Young Leader of Tomorrow, 2017 JCI Top Outstanding Young Person in Nigeria, 2017 JCI Top Outstanding Young Person of the World awardee, 2016 Research Fellow, International Centre for Women, Canada, 2016 PATH Innovation Champion, 2016 D-Prize Awardee in Global Health, 2015 Cordes Fellow, Fellow, Global Women in business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Young Innovator, World Innovation Summit for Health, 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow, 2014 Business and Entrepreneurship Awardee, She Leads Africa’s top 10 female entrepreneur for Diaspora Demo day, 2015 YNaija top 10 most influential Nigerians under 40, and an acknowledged Global Change Leader by the Coady International Institute, Canada. Adepeju studied Business at University of Texas at Austin and has worked with the United Nations Foundation as well as other top organizations, helping to build strategy and develop work plans for establishing businesses or branches across the African continent. She is a two time speaker at the United Nations Foundation Social Good Summit, has addressed the United States Congress Black Caucus group to help the current US administration draw priority focus areas in Africa on healthcare and served on several panels discussing issues across youths, women, innovation, policy formation and business in Africa.

Ms. Kasimbazi earned her BA from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.  She has her Master of Science Degree in Economics from University of Wales Swansea, UK and Master of Arts in Economic Development and Planning as well as a Post Graduate Diploma, Macro-Economic Policy Analysis, Management and Planning in Africa from UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, Darker, Senegal.  She is also a member of a number of professional groups including: Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, East Kololo Primary School, Kinawataka Women's Initiative, PROFOCUS Consultants and Beyond the Sky Tour and Travel Agency.

Ruth Kinoti holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor of Education degree. Ruth has evolved from a classroom teacher to a seasoned Entrepreneur. Her ability to work with development partners and other entrepreneurs for the benefit of small holder farmers especially in Semi-Arid areas of Kenya has earned her the title “Social Entrepreneur and Integrator." Ruth, through Shalem Investment Ltd, a family owned Agribusiness social enterprise, is actively working towards commercialization of smallholder farming as a strategy to grow a sustainable business and to empower farmers to overcome poverty and hunger. Through skill and experience, Ruth has contributed to the growth of Shalem Investments, from a small family business to an impactful social business.

Joy Ndungutse spent her childhood and early adult years in exile due to political instability in Rwanda. She grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda. Continuously exposed to the tremendous hardships that women endured with a lot of patience and empathy Ndungutse saw an immense opportunity in the art of basket weaving. As both her mother and oldest sister were weavers, her parents were able to cover the costs of school with the income generated by the sales of baskets combined with her father’s salary. After graduating from high school, Ndungutse moved to Arusha where she was trained as a secretary. She then worked in a couple of countries, including the USA, for 15 years, where she took her designing classes in the evenings and got involved in humanitarian projects. Ndungutse’s strong desire to work towards women empowerment translated into a weaving initiative when she moved back to Rwanda after the genocide. While running a hotel and the country’s first furniture store, she designed baskets and trained local women to make them using traditional weaving skills and techniques.  Today, Ndungutse is a single mother of three, living in Kigali.  She is Vice-chair/Country Director  New Faces New Voice Rwanda Chapter, Founding Member of Alliance for Artisan Enterprise and  Advisor  to Girl Hub Rwanda.  She is delighted to see that the number of women achieving financial independence in Rwanda is increasing over the years and that the local culture is alive and vibrant.

Steve Zita currently works as the Central and West Africa Regional Manager of CSIS for Citibank. He is the founder of the Elikya Foundation, an organization that promotes youth entrepreneurship, education, sports, and art to young men and women from disadvantaged areas in DRC. Steve holds a Master's of Sciences in Physical Chemistry from the University of Kinshasa and a Business Analytics diploma from Harvard Business School. Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF)  he attended in 2015, he launched the IMANI project that grants scholarships to young female athletes for studies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and serves as a business accelerator for young entrepreneurs from Kinshasa. Steve has served in the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2015 Regional Advisory Board for East Africa and was appointed as an advisor to the 2016  MWF board.