Harvard Alumni for Global Women's Empowerment

 

Harvard GlobalWE Connect

2021 Women's Empowerment Expo

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Event Details

Date: 
Part 1: Saturday, April 17, 2021 (health-focused organizations)

Part 2: Saturday, April 24, 2021 (education-focused organizations)

Time:
11:00am - 1:00pm Eastern Time

 

Location:

 

Cost:

Suggested donation of $10 for each event. GlobalWE is grateful for donations from members to support its programming and initiatives. Please consider making any accompanying donation here to support our work: 

 

(and write "2021 Expo" in the Comment field)

Questions: Contact expo@harvardglobalwe.org

 

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Panelists and Participating Organizations

 

Note: Please check back from time to time to view the list of participating organizations, which is being updated.

 

Part 1: Health-focused organizations, April 17, 2021

 

Panelists

 

 

Samlara Baah, Founder, Loo Works

Samlara Baah is a Ghanaian impact entrepreneur. In 2014, she founded Loo Works, with the big bold idea of ending preventable diarrheal diseases caused by poor sanitation in marginalized communities in West Africa, by manufacturing toilet systems using construction materials made from recycled plastic waste. Samlara is interested in development and creating opportunities for entrepreneurs across the developing world. Samlara’s focus is on creating an ecosystem to support low-income communities through advocacy and knowledge sharing while increasing the range of funding models for underserved communities. Samlara is an Echoing Green fellow and holds an MBA from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

 

 

Camille McGirt, Founder and Board Chairman, Healthy Girls Save the World, Inc.

Camille McGirt, MPH, is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School. As an undergrad student, Ms. McGirt took a gap-year and participated in the White House Internship Program (Obama Administration: Office of Presidential Personnel) and she interned in Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's (D-MO) office through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Emerging Leaders Program. When Ms. McGirt left Washington, D.C. she wanted to continue public service efforts and combine it with her passion for public health. During the summer of 2011, she established “Healthy Girls Save the World, HGSW” (www.hgswinc.org) a 501(c)3 non-profit that provides a positive space for girls in North Carolina to foster the development of healthy habits. In 2013, upon graduating from UNC-CH, Camille moved to Brooklyn, New York to work as a HealthCorps Coordinator at South Shore High School for two-years. In 2015 she matriculated into UNC’s Health Behavior MPH program where she attended as a full merit scholarship recipient. Upon finishing her MPH she worked at Booz Allen Hamilton for two-years as a healthcare management consultant. Most recently, Camille finished up a summer internship with Amazon focusing on environmental health program design and will continue to align with opportunities at the intersection of public health with business upon graduation in May 2021.

 

 

Surita Sandosham, Executive Director and Vice President, Heartland Alliance International

Surita Sandosham joined Heartland Alliance International as Executive Director and Vice President in 2018 after working with Synergos, a global nonprofit focused on addressing poverty, for nearly 15 years. At Synergos, Surita led efforts to build and support partnerships around the world and oversaw all of the organization’s global leadership networks. Surita is deeply experienced having held executive positions in foundations and human and civil rights organizations, including Lambda Legal Defense Fund, Equality Now, Amnesty International USA, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Born and raised in Singapore, Surita holds a degree in history and politics from the London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies and a law degree from City University London. A lawyer by training, Surita has practiced law in both Singapore and New York.

 

 

Ricky Sharma, Co-Founder and Co-President, Adolescent Health Champions

Ricky is the Co-Founder and Co-President of Adolescent Health Champions. Ricky is an Adolescent Health Champion because he is passionate about unlocking the potential of adolescents globally because of the transformative impact these talented youth can have on our future. He believes that overcoming gender inequality and creating a more equitable world requires engagement and collaboration from people of all genders. Prior to starting Adolescent Health Champions, Ricky spent many years in the financial industry as a private equity investor and as an investment banker. Ricky received a bachelor’s degree in business and political science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was also a New World Social Innovation Fellow.

 

Participating Organizations

• Angela House
• Barakat Bundle
• Gardens for Health International
• Islamic Relief USA
• Kisumu Medical Education Trust
• Lift + Elevate
• Maya Midwifery International
• Redbud Resource Group
• WEEMA International
• WI-HER (Women Influencing Health, Education, and the Rule of Law)

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Part 2: Education-focused organizations, April 24, 2021

 

Panelists

 

 

Maryam Montague, Founder and Executive Director, Project Soar

Maryam Montague is an Ashoka Fellow, TEDx speaker and CNN African Changemaker. Passionate about women’s and girl’s rights, she is the founder and executive director of Project Soar, the feminist teen girls’ empowerment organization which has worked with thousands of girls across Morocco and has begun work with internally displaced teen girls in North West Syria. Project Soar’s award-winning 25 workshop curriculum in Arabic helps keep vulnerable teen girls in school and protects them from underage marriage.

 

 

Angela Patton, CEO, Girls for a Change

Angela is the CEO of Girls For A Change, a nonprofit youth development organization aimed at empowering Black girls in Central Virginia to visualize their bright futures and potential through discovery, development, innovation, and social change in their communities. As GFAC’s leader, Angela has been recognized in the local Richmond, VA press as a Top 40 under 40, by a coalition of girl serving groups in 2015 identifying Girls For A Change as one of five programs to note, by President Obama in 2016 as A White House Champion of Change for After School programming for Marginalized Girls of Color, and received the Nonprofit partner of the year from the Metropolitan Business League in 2018. Angela is an Ambassador for who she calls “at-promise” (as opposed to “at-risk”) girls and a serial innovator. Angela’s TED talk describing a father-daughter dance for incarcerated dads and their “at-promise” girls has been viewed over 900,000 times. 

 

 

Devyani Pershad, Head, International Collaborations and Head, Communications, Pratham Education Foundation

Devyani Pershad is the Head of Pratham’s International Collaborations unit supporting partners to adapt and apply Pratham's innovations to contexts outside India. As part of the TaRL Africa initiative focused on sub-saharan Africa, Devyani leads technical strategy and approach, and manages partner relationships across several TaRL Africa countries. She also supports donor relationships and grant management. She further provides strategic oversight for TaRL in Côte d’Ivoire & Zambia. In addition to this role, Devyani leads Communications for Pratham. She joined Pratham in 2013 and was working in advisory services prior to joining the organization. She has an MBA from IESE Business School, Barcelona and a bachelors in Economics.

 

 

Anne Thibault, Co-Founder, Suadela

Anne Thibault is a Gender & Development specialist with 13 years of experience working in international development in Latin America and West Africa. As she graduated from the Mid-Career Master in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2019, she co-founded Suadela, a non-profit which has a mission to increase girls’ power by building their negotiation skills. She also works as a consultant for MIT D-Lab on several research projects on gender inclusion and gender-based violence. Prior to Harvard, she worked at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) from 2013 to 2018. As the Deputy Director of J-PAL’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, she led the regional effort to promote evidence-based policy innovation among policy-makers and practitioners. Before J-PAL, she worked for two years at the Chilean Ministry of Economy as the Advisor of the Executive Vice-President for the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency. From 2008 to 2011, she led the development of strategic partnerships in a French-Chilean foundation specializing in job counselling for vulnerable youth. Anne earned a B.A. in Geography from Université de Paris-Nanterre, a Master’s degree from Sciences-Po Paris, and a Master's in International Development from Université de Paris-Est.

 

Moderator

 

 

Sajida H. Shroff, President, Harvard GlobalWE and CEO, Altamont Group

Sajida H. Shroff (she/her) is a passionate educationist with over 20 years of cross-sectoral experience and impact investment expertise, bridging the Strategy, Policy, Education, and Business spheres. She is an entrepreneurial visionary and motivated self-starter, earning commendations from the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools (USA) and the UAE Ministry of Higher Education, among others, while building businesses in both the Middle East and North America. Sajida’s passion for advancing education globally is evident in the multi-faceted work she has undertaken. Her portfolio includes education innovations focused across the lifespan. Geographically, this work has contributed to better outcomes in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Western Europe, East Africa, Central Asia, and MENA. She has balanced this with a strategic focus, recognizing market potential, growth and entry strategies, and possibilities for profit and revenue enhancement. Thus, her understanding of development extends well beyond education to free zone/business park development, government services/policy, retail, real estate, service, and financial sectors.

 

As Chief Execution Officer of Altamont Group (Education Investment and Advisory), Sajida leads a team focused on strategy/policy, monitoring and evaluation, capacity development, and quality assurance/accreditation. Altamont Group advises governments, NGO, and corporates across five continents regarding education investment; smart education solutions; & education innovation that enable access and sustainability. In addition, Altamont Group invests in diverse brick/mortar and technology higher education assets. 

 

Participating Organizations

• Center for Social Emotional Learning
• Chica Project
• RefuSHE
• Sadie Nash Leadership Project
• Sacred Valley Project
• Science Club for Girls
• The Freedom Story
• Women's Global Education Project
• Women's Prison Book Project
• WriteGirl

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Other Details

Questions: If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact expo@harvardglobalwe.org.

 

Views: During our events, we expect our participants to be respectful of one another's opinions and experiences.

The views expressed during our events are solely those of the speaker(s) and participating audience and do not imply endorsement by Harvard GlobalWE and/or Harvard University.

 

Harvard Alumni For Global Women's Empowerment Harvard GlobalWE is a shared interest group of the Harvard Alumni Association.
We are dedicated to the empowerment of women through education, dialogue and connection among individuals working for women's rights and freedoms worldwide. Harvard GlobalWE does not advocate a specific ideology or political or cultural agenda. We are an inclusive organization with membership open to and comprising all genders.

 

Membership is free. To become a member of Harvard GlobalWE, please JoinWE. To learn more, please visit our website and our Facebook group.

 

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