ADVISORY COUNCIL

Women’s Adventure Manager at AdventureWoman in Watertown, Mass. after a year in South Africa guiding hiking tours. She joined the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Globalization project at Harvard Kennedy School where she was Calestous’s Faculty Assistant in from 2011 to 2017 and Project Coordinator of the Agricultural Innovation in Africa project. Ms. Bartel was previously Editorial Assistant at the journal International Security (MIT Press). Ms. Bartel graduated from Boston College with a BA in History and International Relations. She obtained a MA in Global Development Policy from Boston University.

Robin is the head of business operations at Vimeo, a SAAS video experience platform catering to over 260 million businesses, entrepreneurs, and storytellers. Prior to this, he co-founded two software companies, acted as an external growth and product advisor for tech companies and investors, and held various leadership positions at Endurance and Ashoka. Additionally, he is involved in nonprofit work as a founding board member of Elevate Youth and co-founder of Global PACT. Robin's educational background includes an MBA from MIT and a BA in international relations and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and he also serves as a startup coach for MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamps, having been a student of Calestous twice.

Prof. Norman Clark is an expert in innovation systems and development and Emeritus Professor at The Open University and the University of Strathclyde, UK. His research interests include science and technology development in Africa and South Asia, a field in which he has also acted as an adviser to relevant agencies including the World Bank, UNCTAD, UNDP, DFID, NEPAD, and the CGIAR. He continues to serve on the Governing Council of the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Nairobi, Kenya.

Vice President for the Office of Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) at the World Bank, where she heads the independent accountability mechanism for projects supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).She previously served as Professor of the Practice of Global Development Policy at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Prior to this she was Chief of the Environmental and Social Safeguards Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank after serving as Chief of IDB’s Environment Division where she led the development of the Bank’s environment and disaster risk policies, the IDB’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative, and the development of the Bank’s Sustainability Report. Before joining the IDB in 2003, Ferretti worked at NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in Montreal, where she served as its Executive Director.  Ferretti served as Executive Director of Canada’s largest environmental organization, Pollution Probe, from 1989-1994. She holds a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MES from York University. She worked with Calestous at the Environment Liaison Centre in Nairobi in the early 1980s.

A BSc candidate in Computer Science at University of Massachusetts-Boston and Technologist at HEET, an environmental non-profit focusing on climate change mitigation and building a transition to the renewable energy systems of the future. Mr. Juma worked as a programmer with Mass Open Cloud at Boston University for his gap year. From a young age he worked with computers, and was a software and hardware tester for the One Laptop Per Child Project of the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 2008-11, and introduced the computers to children in Port Victoria, Kenya. Mr. Juma is Calestous’s son.

Roselyda Nanjala Juma lives in Port Victoria, Kenya and leads our Bunyala Advisory Group. She was the first chairperson of Baba Foundation, a community-based organization working on poverty alleviation programs based in Budalang’i. She has been in charge of the construction and maintenance of the family properties, and was the caregiver of their mother, Clementina Juma, until her death in 2017. Ms. Juma ran a small business in Port Victoria for many years, has been active in farming and revegetation of the local landscape, and is a member of the Bunyala Conservation Self-Help Group. Ms. Juma is Calestous Juma's sole surviving sibling.

A Professor in the Boston University Marine Program, is an evolutionary ecologist who studies basic processes that drive the creation, collapse, and conservation of aquatic species diversity on coral reefs and tropical great lakes. His work includes research on fisheries Lake Victoria in collaboration with the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. His interests are increasingly turned toward research on the dynamics of human-natural coupled systems, to create supporting science for global sustainability and climate change adaptation. Prof. Kaufman is also Senior Marine Scientist for Conservation International, a Research Scholar with The New England Aquarium, and Associate in Ichthyology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. He serves on the Science and Statistics Committee for the New England Fishery Management Council and is working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) colleagues to modernize federal ocean science. Prof. Kaufman holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He and Calestous were among the first recipients of the Pew Fellowship in 1990.

Executive Vice President for U.S. Public Affairs and Senior Policy Strategist at Edelman, a global communications firm. She was previously founder and principal at Matterhorn Advisory, consulting to Fortune 500 companies on global development policies and partnerships that improve the lives of people in material poverty. She serves as a Senior Advisor to Texas A&M University's Center on Conflict and Development, and to investment banks dedicated to rural growth. After working in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department during the Administration of President George W. Bush, she served as the post-presidency chief of staff to Mrs. Laura Bush through the launch of the Bush Presidential Center and Institute. Ms. MacDonald also lived and worked in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in one of the world's first organizations dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS - GHESKIO Centers. She has served on advisory boards of organizations operating in Dallas, Burma, Haiti, and Uganda. Ms. MacDonald holds a BS in International Studies from Rhodes College and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she focused her studies on raising levels of prosperity in the developing world through private enterprise.

The Benjamin Peirce Research Professor of Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University. He was the founding Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Professor of physics at Harvard University. In 2009–15, he was Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to Harvard he was Dean of the University of California-Santa Barbara, College of Engineering, Vice President for Research at Sandia National laboratories, and Director of the Solid State Electronics Research Laboratory at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He is credited with developing the field of phonon optics and is active in the field of semiconductor nanostructures. As Dean of SEAS, he was an early champion of interdisciplinary initiatives and worked with Harvard’s Medical School, Business School, and School of Public Health to establish new partnerships. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering and Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Physical Society, AAAS, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Indian Academy of Sciences, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He earned his BSc and MSc in physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and his PhD in physics from Cornell University in 1965.

The Founder and Director of Unfrastructure Design LLC, a design and research firm that works with non-profits, international NGOs, and philanthropy groups interested in developing infrastructure solutions in complex spaces. With over 15 years of professional experience, Mr. Newman has worked in refugee camps in Southeast Asia to create public playgrounds, managed hundreds of construction projects in post-conflict spaces of central Africa, and designed numerous projects in and around Kenya. Mr. Newman earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University, and a Masters in Design Studies with a focus in Risk and Resilience from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

An Aquaculture/Biodiversity researcher at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), based in the Aquaculture Division at the Kisumu Research Centre, specializing in aquaculture production and biodiversity conservation. He is a PhD candidate at Boston University in Aquaculture and Fisheries Conservation Biology in the Kaufman Lab.  Mr. Okechi is working on his PhD dissertation on “The impact of cage culture in Lake Victoria on the environment and fish biodiversity using an ecosystem-based approach”. He is also a Co-Investigator in an NSF-funded project on the “The potential for aquaculture in Lake Victoria and the implications for wild fisheries and fish commodity markets”. He holds a BSc in Agriculture from University of Nairobi and an MSc in Aquaculture from Ghent University, Belgium.

Leads the Federal Grants division of the City of Cambridge, provides pro bono business consulting services to Boston area non-profits through Harvard Business School Community Action Partners, and is a mentor at the Harvard Innovation Labs. She previously led the City of Somerville Community Preservation program and was part of the teaching team of Harvard Ash Center Innovation Field Lab (IFL). She was a Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Fellow and protagonist in three teaching cases. Judith was the first Deputy Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority and was on the Board of Uganda National Water and Sewerage Corporation. She was an environmental specialist and consultant with RTI International in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia. Judith has a Ph.D. from Wageningen University, MPA from Harvard University, MBA from the University of Warwick, MSc in Environment and Natural Resources from Makerere University.

Chair Emeritus of the East African Women in Business Platform, which represents over 20,000 women entrepreneurs and traders from across East Africa. She is a Director at DMT Consultants Ltd., a boutique international development firm and Founder, Women’s Centre for Job Creation (WCFJC) where women micro-entrepreneurs receive asset loans and business coaching.  Ms. Tuma is a published author and hosts a podcast on women business owners in Eastern Africa. She has several years of experience as a consultant / trainer in strategy development and the design and implementation of enterprise development programs in Eastern and Southern Africa with a special interest in women’s entrepreneurship.  Ms. Tuma has worked with over 10,000 women entrepreneurs. She has an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, an MBA from The Anderson School, University of California Los Angeles, and a BSc in Economics from Makerere University Kampala, Uganda.  Ms. Tuma conducted the Needs Assessment of Port Victoria in 2018 for the Juma Legacy Projects.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University. Prof. Zaman’s current research focuses on understanding health systems, improving access to quality care and developing robust technologies for high-value healthcare problems in the developing world. In 2013, Scientific American named a technology from Zaman lab, PharmaChk, among the 10 technologies that will change the world. Dr. Zaman’s recent work has also looked at public health challenges, in both training and practice in Africa. He is currently collaborating on projects in both communicable and non-communicable diseases, using tools of biomedical engineering and computation, with colleagues in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa. He is currently involved in setting up biomedical engineering departments at universities in Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia. He is also the co-Director of the UN Africa Biomedical Initiative. Dr. Zaman is also an op-ed columnist for the Project Syndicate which has syndicated his columns in over 25 countries around the world on six continents.