THE GRATITUDE NETWORK IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE OUR 2019 GRATITUDE FELLOWS!
(in alphabetical order)
Jana Hardy Kinsey, Executive Director
Jana holds a B.A. in Government from Claremont McKenna College and a JD from Stanford Law School. Before joining AfricAid, Jana founded and led Inherit Your Rights, a non-profit organization focusing on women’s property rights and inheritance law in Tanzania. Under her leadership, AfricAid has grown from 5 employees and 180 beneficiaries in 2012 to 46 employees and over 4,000 beneficiaries in 2018. Learn More.
AfricAid
AfricAid supports girls’ education in Africa in order to provide girls with the opportunity to transform their own lives and the futures of their communities.
CFK
CFK exists to develop local leaders, catalyze positive change and alleviate poverty in the informal settlements of Nairobi.
Hillary Omala, Executive Director
10 years of experience in the areas of health systems. Learn More.
James Kofi Annan, President
James was trafficked as a child fisherman between the ages of six and 13, when he finally escaped and returned home. He managed to complete his university education and worked at Barclays Bank of Ghana for five years before he left the bank to establish Challenging Heights. James is an experienced social entrepreneur, a social justice advocate, and a media practitioner. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana, as well as a Masters of Philosophy Degree in Communication and Media Studies from the University of Education, Winneba. Public speaker and strategist currently sitting on several international boards, leading in the development of children’s rights and anti-trafficking organizations across the globe. Learn More.
Challenging Heights
Prevent child trafficking, reduce child slavery, and promote children’s rights.
Changeist
leadership development and empowerment program for middle and high school youth
Mario Fedelin, Founder and Executive Director
Mario is a graduate of SCLN’s Leadership, LA and a recipient of the Comcast NBC Universal City Year Alumni Leadership award 2013. Mario has been engaged in developing effective community programing while serving on multiple boards refining college access programs for girls in South Central and recreation programs in Pico-Union. Learn more.
Erin Northey, Chief Executive
Editor of FOCUS Magazine. President of the Junior League of London. Trustee of the Hackney Pirates, an enterprising charity working to develop the literacy, confidence and perseverance of young people in Hackney, London. Learn More.
EducAid Sierra Leone
EducAid promotes and provides high quality, holistic education to the underprivileged young people of Sierra Leone.
Education Opens Doors
Impacting the lives of students by equipping them with the college and career resources they need to prepare for and succeed in higher education.
Andy Lovley, Director of Operations
Over the past ten years Andy has worked with underprivileged students in major Taiwanese cities, an impoverished Chilean desert town, and a marginalized indigenous Panamanian island. He draws from over seven years of in-school instructional and management practice. Learn More.
Ashanti Branch M.Ed, Director of Operations
Ashanti found his passion for teaching while tutoring struggling students. He holds a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.Ed. in secondary mathematics instruction. He is a recipient of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange to India and Stanford.d. school K-12Project Fellowship. Know More.
Ever Forward – Siempre Adelante
Our mission is to address the underlying causes of high school dropouts, the growing achievement gap of inner-city youth, and youth violence in a preventive manner.
Generation Wellness
Generation Wellness was created to shift from focusing primarily on cognitive development and academics, to a whole-human approach of strengthening hearts, minds and bodies. The goal is for every student and educator to have access to the tools to thrive in both school and in life.
Lyndsay Morris, Founder and CEO
Lyndsay Morris, M.ED, RYT-200, founded Generation Wellness in 2014, after almost a decade serving in public education as both a teacher and school counselor. She is the recipient of Outstanding Educator of the Year Award in 2011 for her innovative, active, and relational ways of teaching life skills and counseling children and teens. Know More.
Dian Alyan, CEO/Founder
Successful career in Procter & Gamble managing many of its global brands. Lost 40 of her relatives and friends during the tsunami. This personal loss compelled her to establish GiveLight Foundation with the mission to help orphans globally. Today, GiveLight is supporting close to 1000 orphans in 11 countries. Recipient of several humanitarian awards and a Public speaker. Appeared on Television, Magazine and Radio Talk in Indonesia. Learn More.
GiveLight Foundation
GiveLight is a world recognized crisis relief organization building loving homes & family for orphans in response to extreme circumstances such as natural disaster, extreme poverty and war. Today supporting close to 1000 children in 11 countries.
Guardian of Dreams
Guardian of dreams works to transform the quality of care across Child Care Institutions (orphanages/shelter homes) in India. Deliver a 360 holistic range of child care services by partnering with and boosting the expertise of Child Care Institutions and thereby improving & standardizing the quality of care accessible to vulnerable children.
Gloria Benny, Co-Founder
A social entrepreneur and a champion for vulnerable children, Gloria Benny became a social entrepreneur at the age of 20, a firm belief in the right of every child to have access to a great childhood is what drives her mission. Guardians of Dreams is an incubatee of IIM-B’s social incubator supported by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.
Swetha Guhan, Co-Founder
Swetha Guhan is passionate about working with teachers and takes a keen interest in curriculum and innovative practices in the classroom. Swetha has completed her masters in Elementary Education and has worked on building quality academic and training programs at Agastya International foundation, Royal Society of Chemistry and Experifun Educational Solutions before she Co-Founded Key Education Foundation.
Key Education Foundation
The School Readiness program ensures high quality early childhood education by providing schools with age appropriate curriculum and teaching learning materials, intensive teacher capacity building and program support along with parent engagement through workshops.
Learning Equality
Learning Equality is committed to enabling every person in the world to realize their right to a quality education, by supporting the creation, adaptation and distribution of open educational resources, and creating supportive tools for innovative pedagogy.
Richard Tibbles, Product Lead
PhD in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego. Co-founder of Learning Equality. Product Manager and a Software Developer for the Kolibri learning platform. Dissertation research focused on the impact of forgetting on the time course of effective Mathematics learning. Learn More.
Holiday Goodreau, Executive Director and President
Co-Inventor of TickTracker. More than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. A current subcommittee member of the Health & Human Services Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, “Access to Care & Patient Support,” Holiday is a board member of the MSIDS Scientific Research Board in New York. Learn More.
LivLyme Foundation
Raises money for children whose families cannot afford the necessary medication or treatment for Lyme disease. Provide grants and support the medical community until a cure is found.
Mona Foundation
Mona Foundation supports grassroots initiatives that provide education to all children, increase opportunities for women and girls, and emphasize service to the community.
Mahnaz Javid, President and CEO
Doctorate in Educational Technology and Leadership. Taught as an adjunct faculty at the University of Washington Computer and software systems, worked at Microsoft for several years, and more recently at Avanade, a high tech consultancy . Founding members of Mona Foundation. Learn More.
Rosie Waller, Head of Programmes
Rosie oversees the design and implementation of all our work in the field. She’s not a puppeteer herself but over the years has learnt to love and profoundly respect them in all their myriad forms! Rosie has been with No Strings for more than 10 years, having previously spent many years as a newspaper and radio journalist in the UK.
No Strings International
No Strings helps some of the world’s most at-risk children and their families strengthen resilience through behaviour change and psychosocial support programs delivered through the magical medium of puppetry.
Priyo Tech
Equipping teachers with the skills and equipment they need to use technology as a catalyst for quality education within the classroom. Working to develop youth intellectually, emotionally, academically, and financially by providing them with a global level of education.
Palesa Mahlatji, CEO
Currently studying towards an Honors Degree in Business Management. In 2017 she was part of the Red Bull Amaphiko academy and Ygap/spark international Accelerator program. Won Engen pitch and polish (Umtata), GIBS Festival of ideas. Learn More.
Charles Evans, Regional Director
Spent most of his adult life working with non-profit organizations. Charles is a member at Bryant Temple AME in Los Angeles where he works with young males under the ministry, “Bryant Temple Men or Boys to Men,” where he was recognized as the “Man of the Year,” in 2012 for his work with the youth. Learn More.
School on Wheels Inc.
The mission of School on Wheels is to enhance educational opportunities for children from kindergarten through twelfth grade who are experiencing homelessness – children living in shelters, motels, group foster homes, campgrounds, cars and on the streets.
Seeds of Africa
Seeds of Africa is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to educate and nurture children and their families by providing quality education and community development programs by providing students, families, and communities with the resources and skills they need to support themselves and find local solutions to fight poverty, increase civic participation, and enhance community reinvestment.
Atti Worku, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Spoken at The United Nations, Ford Foundation, Columbia University, Bloomberg Philanthropies, New York University, and Women4Climate. Been published by HuffPost and Why Women Will Save the Planet. Serves on the Advisory board for the Open Heart Big Dreams Fund, the Advisory Board of the Cordaid US Leaders Council, and the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows New York Vangaurd Leadership Board. Won Miss Ethiopia in 2005 and represented Ethiopia in the Miss Universe pageant. Learn More.
Sharon Webb, Country Director
Sharon Webb is passionate about education – particularly for girls. For more than 10 years she has been flying the flag for education for underprivileged families and leading programmes to tackle the barriers to education in Uganda. She is also an advocate for rewriting the narrative about Africa and how the continent is perceived from the outside.
Soft Power Education
Soft Power Education’s mission is to improve the quality of life through education and takes a holistic approach to education, work with partner schools to develop their school infrastructure and deliver sessions in food security and skills & empowerment; provide high quality pre-school education and provide therapy & education services to children with special needs.
Sote Hub
Grows startups from rural and small town schools
David Ogiga, Cofounder/Director
Over ten years working in social and change programs in African Education and Conservation. Previous director of Kasigau Wildlife Trust. Consults for Ten Senses Africa, the world’s first fair trade exporter of macadamia nuts with a network of over 35,000 farmers in Kenya and Rwanda. Learn More.
Lauren Reilly, Executive Director
Board member and Chief Learning Officer for the past 4.5 years at Practice Makes Perfect, a nationally recognized summer learning organization. She is a Teach for America alum, NY certified teacher. Taught at both the high school and middle school level first at the International Leadership Charter School and then Democracy Prep. Learn More.
SuitUp
SuitUp provides educational competitions that connect corporations with schools in low-income communities to increase student career awareness and marketable skills.
TeenSmart International
TeenSmart’s mission is to empower, engage, and equip youth ages 10-24 to make healthy and smart life choices by providing them with online health promotion services on our health promotion e-learning platform, JovenSalud.net.
Adriana Gomez, Executive Director
Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico Innovative Health Project Management certificate from INCAE. Learn More.
Tessa Henwood-Mitchell, International Director
Tessa is a Social Entrepreneur and Young Leader in the field of International Development and non-profit management. She completed a double degree in 2013 at the University of South Australia in Social Work and International Relations, with an Associate Degree in Languages and Culture Studies, majoring in Spanish. Learn More.
TIA
Work with children and young people through their transition from state care into independence, empowering them to become thriving members of society and create brighter futures for themselves by providing the necessary training, support, and opportunities.
United World Schools Nepal
To improve educational opportunities for some of the world’s poorest children living in remote and marginalized communities
Surya Karki, Founder and Director
Masters in Management in Business and Economics Bachelors of Arts in Human Ecology. Learn More.
Bridget Durkan Laird, CEO
BS Parks, Recreation and Tourism, North Carolina State MA Education, Concordia University. Learn More.
WINGS for kids
To equip at-risk kids with the skills they need to succeed in school, stay in school, and thrive in life
