Our People
A team of diverse, global staff committed to excellence

Abigail Burgesson is an Independent Development Practitioner and Philanthropy Adviser and brings over 25 years of experience as an International Development Practitioner and Women’s Rights Advocate. She has worked extensively within the non-profit sector in Ghana with organizations across Africa and internationally.

Her background includes working with the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) for 21 years in different capacities. Abigail was part of the two-team organizational leads for the Equality Fund partnership that drove the winning bid for a competitive tender process in 2019 run by Global Affairs Canada to administer a CA $300 million fund. Abigail now leverages her extensive experience for her Consultancy - Fern Resource Alternatives (Fern Consult), to support leaders and organizations at all levels and sectors.

Abigail is an alumna of the University of Ghana and Boston University’s European Program in the UK. She has completed training in International Negotiations from the Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Aissatou Bah is a Senior Program Officer (Gender Norms Learning Agenda, GNLA) at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The GNLA team is tasked with sourcing learning and evidence to support leveraging entertainment media and cultural influence to effect societal-wide changes/shifts in norms that impact health, economic, and safety outcomes for adolescent girls and young women. Based out of Nigeria, she anchors the team’s grantmaking and strategy in Africa.

Aissatou has previously worked for Empower-The Emerging Markets Foundation, BRAC USA, and the Government of Sierra Leone. She has over 15 years of experience working on girls’ and young people’s rights, programs, and movements. She exists to support, platform, and resource young Africans and their stories as a path to bringing about a more just and equitable world. Aissatou grew up between Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone was formally educated at the University of Ghana, New York University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Betsy Williams is the Founder and Co-Chair of Emerging Public Leaders. She is also co-founder of the President’s Young Professionals Program in Liberia and currently serves as PYPP International Advisory Board Chair and on the PYPP Liberia Board of Directors. Ms. Williams launched PYPP with H.E. former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Her work has focused on the intersection of social development, foreign policy, and global health, having launched and supported innovative programs at USAID, JSI, Asia Society, and Physicians for Human Rights.

She graduated cum laude from Princeton University and is currently a Member of the Advisory Council, at Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs. Betsy received her MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University where she currently serves as Member of the Board of Advisors (previously Vice Chair of the Board of Overseers).

Christabel E. Dadzie is an international development specialist with over 14 years of experience working on economic development in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia with various international development organizations including United Nations entities and USAID.

Currently, she works with the World Bank as a Senior Social Protection Specialist, managing Ghana and The Gambia portfolios to promote social inclusion and end extreme poverty. Additionally, she supported the Social Protection and Jobs portfolio in Liberia. She is the founder of Ahaspora Young Professionals, an organization that supports Ghanaian professionals who have lived or studied abroad and return home to make a difference.

Christabel is on the Management team of the Moremi Young African Women Leadership Initiative and a member of the Women’s Advisory Board of The College of Wooster in Ohio, where she earned a BA in International Relations. She also has an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Emmanuel Lubembe is an independent consultant and experienced transformational leader who has extensive experience both as Head of Public Service Transformation in the Government of Kenya and as a senior consultant in Deloitte and Touche, spearheading performance improvements in national government.

Emmanuel has worked as a lead mentor in public service performance and supported county and development partner programs aiming to improve the performance of public servants. He spent over 30 years in the public service in various capacities. Emmanuel also introduced the concept of the Prime Minister’s Roundtable Meetings involving multiple stakeholders. Emmanuel served as the Head of Public Service Transformation in the public service, and upon his early retirement, joined Deloitte and Touche in a senior position focused on performance in the nascent county governments.

He has an MBA in Strategic Management and comparative studies of countries with well-performing public services in Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe

Melissa Bukuru is the Principal for Financial Inclusion and Resilience at Ownership Works, a new nonprofit seeking to expand employee ownership of companies and build equitable wealth for all. Previously she was a Director at Lion’s Head Global Partners, an Investment Bank operating across frontier and emerging markets globally.

Melissa was an Analyst in Global Policy Development at Soros Fund Management where she managed several policy-related projects for the principals of the fund. Melissa has also worked at the Open Society Foundations in New York managing grants for African civil society organizations. She worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she researched conflict, technology, and democracy in Africa.

She holds a BA in Global Studies from The New School in New York, where she also studied creative writing. She was born in Burundi and spent her childhood in New York City and Quebec.

Michelle D. Gavin is a Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an international policy leader with over fifteen years of experience in the public and non-governmental sectors. Previously, she was the Managing Director of The Africa Center. From 2011 to 2014, Michelle served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Botswana and the U.S. Representative to the Southern Africa Development Community. Before that, she served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Africa on the National Security Council.

She earned a Masters of Philosophy in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar; and a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Sharmi Surianarain serves as the Chief Impact Officer of Harambee Youth Accelerator in South Africa. Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator develops African solutions for the global challenge of youth unemployment. Sharmi brings extensive experience in human capital management, education, and facilitating links to employment across Africa, India, and the United States.

She served as Vice President of Lifelong Engagement at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) where she oversaw a network of 2,000 young African leaders, and managed ALA’s Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, Africa Careers Network, and ALA’s alumni engagement team. Sharmi is an Aspen African Leadership Initiative Fellow, Class of 2020, and sits on the Boards of Ongoza, Metis, and is on the Advisory Council for the NextGen Ecosystem Builders Africa 2020.

Sharmi holds a BA from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an MA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Todd Johnson is a Managing Partner at Sofala Partners, a leading Africa-focused strategic advisory and business intelligence firm. Prior to joining Sofala, Todd served as the Risk Leader for Standard Industries, directing global non-financial risk mitigation, including deal and partnership risk management, political and country risk, and security intelligence. He has previously worked as the Risk Leader for GE Africa and began his career at the Central Intelligence Agency, working eight years as a political-military intelligence analyst.

Todd is an adjunct lecturer at IESE Business School in Barcelona and co-teaches a course on business in Africa. Todd has a BA with Distinction from the University of Kansas and an MIPP with Honors from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a former Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and a current member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal United Services Institute.

T. Nelson Williams, II is the Chief Administrative Officer at Conex Oil and Gas Holdings and CEO of the Conex Foundation. He possesses 20+ years of experience in leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. These include Bank of America, SunTrust Bank, American Express, Ticketmaster, First Investors Corporation, and Bass Hotels International. T. Nelson previously served as Managing Director at the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), and Vice President at Bank of America.

His civic involvement extends to International and local boards including, ECOBANK Liberia, YMCA, Teach for Liberia (Advisory Board Chairman), President’s Young Professionals Program (Board, Co-Chairman), American Management Association (AMA), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from St. Augustine’s University, an MPA from North Carolina Central University, and an Honorary PhD in Christian Leadership and Business from CORE Kingdom University.

President Sirleaf served as the president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, becoming the first elected female head of state in Africa. During her time as president, Ms. Sirleaf advocated for freedom, justice, and peace. In 2011, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in fighting for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. Ms. Sirleaf was awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2017.

Prior to serving as president, Ms. Sirleaf worked for five years as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Program, as Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, and was the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Project for Africa. She received her Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University.