Experienced consultant in diverse fields that include government engagement, policy analysis, STEM, innovation management, surveys, and business strategy. Passionate about driving positive change and fostering innovation in various sectors.

The Out-of-School Youth Science, Technology and Innovation (OSYSTEI) is Program by the Ministry of Education, through the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) and the Strategic Initiatives Unit, Office of the President. It’s my pleasure to serve in my current position where I direct the conception, design, and launch of this pilot program initially in nine counties and now across Kenya. This program supports out of school, pro-youth actions to facilitate the realization of their dreams and ambitions through a culture of curiosity, creativity, innovation, and productive entrepreneurship while providing a systemic and coordinated approach to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) initiatives.In my daily duties, I head implementation to target out of school youth with a passion for STEM and enable sustainable and productive entrepreneurship with them. I’m responsible for the execution of all activities required for program institutionalization at the Centre for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA). I generated $100K USD to fund the initial project phase, produced and led 15 workshops for over 600 youth, and lobbied for the established Directorates of Innovations in counties.

I led a new national program with Kenya as the first African country to meaningfully participate in the global STEM Learning Ecosystem. My responsibilities included securing $600K USD for the project through partnerships, creating policies, procedures, training materials, guide books, and systems, as well as recruiting staff and volunteers. The initial launch started with nine schools and expanded to 82 by the end of my tenure, reaching 10,000 secondary students across ten counties.The success was so great that we were able to have the President of the Republic of Kenya as our honored guest and as the patron of the Inaugural Young Scientists and Technology Exhibition for 2018, where 184 students presented their research projects. (It had attracted 2500 participants!)This exposure and directly led to the expansion of STEM initiatives across the country, along with promotions throughout Kenya and outreach to 20 local media stations.I further supported lobbying and advocacy by the President of Kenya to waive participant patent fees for STEM innovations by children in the country.

The Deputy to the CEO and was responsible for the overall the program design, delivery and oversight in the thematic areas of Health, Education, Economic Empowerment and Leadership and Governance; Policy and Advocacy; Partnership development; Resource mobilization; Staff management with 8 direct reports; Resource management and representation of the organization in various fora. I managed organizational program development and created strategic partnerships between academia, civil society, government, and private sector stakeholders, including USAID, UKAID, SIDA, EU, and Concordia University, resulting in a portfolio worth 300M Kenyan shillings in 2015 to 700M in 2017. My efforts in retaining a media partner successfully raised awareness of the organization’s market presence and improved brand visibility. I led the development of a 5-year strategic plan to expand into a new USA office while growing the portfolio to include social inclusion, STEM, environment, and sports activities. I also established a twinning program between counties within Kenya and municipalities in Sweden and diversified funding sources. I produced programs for youth focused on skills and employability, collaborating with private sector leaders as well as generating policy and advocacy strategies for the re-entry of young mothers into school. I lead numerous firsts including the use of the Iris, as a unique identifier, in the collection of data from the community health units and interoperability with national health information system (DHIS2); Leading research to establish 2017’s biometric census of Kenyan students in a county and linking this to the Education Management Information System (IMIS), spearheading Ward strategic plans in Kenya with successes resulting in adoption across the entire country, and developing a bid to host the Triple Helix Summit.

The key focus of the role was to develop and implement strategies to source appropriate professionals from Horn and East Africa and Southern Africa to meet VSO’s partners’ needs sustainably. I was able to maximize the organization’s capital by driving commercialization activities and creating long-term resource partnerships to establish a sustainable volunteer pipeline and ensure financial support for multiple programs. This included developing and directing the strategy, then subsequently onboarding two corporations worth $15M. I created and supported the launch of two corporate volunteering programs for Safaricom and General Motors East Africa, served as a technical team member, created volunteering policies, and led annual alumni meetings across two new participant countries. The alumni engagement strategy I developed actively produced a positive and supportive workplace for all.

I created and launched several sustainable strategies to source professionals from Horn, East Africa, and Southern Africa to meet our partners’ needs. I oversaw program development for health, livelihood, participation, and governance, and used my talents in communication and organization to establish four corporate partnerships that facilitated volunteer recruitment activities. In order to foster growth, I generated a business case that supported a recruitment expansion into two new regions and oversaw the program’s implementation once it was successfully accepted. I also managed recruitment partnerships, liaising with external organizations to further improve recruitment efforts.

I was responsible for the coordination of the assessment of over 1000 professionals, placing over 600 volunteers across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. To complete this challenging task, I created a performance feedback system and case studies for internal selectors, used throughout in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, and Zimbabwe. Once initial selections were made, I created high-performance teams from the best available talent, executing comprehensive feasibility studies for recruiting talent from across Ethiopia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. I was the lead for the rollout of the first-ever county volunteering program, working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports at the time.

In this role, I utilized my talents to optimize the Human Resources department as a whole, leading to significant improvements in engagement, training materials, and access to job-related performance data, including generating an “ice-breaking” manual to support team-building across multiple departments. I also enhanced the existing onboarding process to drive consensus and ensure job expectations were clearly communicated, creating and launching a monthly orientation program for all new hires. I followed up with all new members to verify the program was completed before the final confirmation. Once confirmed, I executed a twice-yearly and year-end performance review for all staff members, identifying areas in need of improvement and leveraging what some might call deficiencies as opportunities to acquire new skill sets. Additionally, I trained 800 personnel in skills and best practices across diverse topics, including communications, goal setting, performance appraisals, and team building, introducing a “customer-focused” approach to drive satisfaction ratings.

Serving as a Human Resources Subject Matter Expert, I once again leveraged my talents in HR to establish all department functions, working with senior leadership to ensure developments met business requirements. I was the first point of contact for employees, liaised between management and personnel to facilitate communications, and produced and presented resolution strategies to gaps in processes. Part of this was creating organizational policies, executing an in-depth analysis of regulatory requirements to ensure initiatives and processes met operational goals and objectives, developing and supported strategic planning, creating hiring guidelines, and generating training modules and materials to increase internal consensus.

Head of a first-ever HIV/AIDS life skills program targeting public universities in Kenya, I directed the creation and launch of same across three universities, roll out to an additional three, and directing a cross-functional staff of 18 members, this program was a qualified success! To fund the rollout, I led the development of a KES 100M proposal. I lobbied for and won the implementation of a university AIDS Control Units to support Peer Education training and spearheaded an initiative that used “edutainment peer learning” to reach a broader audience base. The successes of this program were so great within the initial three universities launch that it was mainstreamed as a part of overall university education.