Advisors Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Global Give Back Circle

ALICE WANJIRU

Alice is a chemical Engineer who is passionate about sustainability and women’s empowerment. A Global Give Back Circle beneficiary turned benefactor, she believes that inclusion of all genders, communities, ethnicities, especially the very marginalized ones, is non-negotiable if businesses, governments and society are to thrive to posterity.

Born and raised in the difficult parts of Nairobi, she is a testament of how education, mentorship and the right environment can indeed change the destiny of an underprivileged child. She uses part of her time and talent to support her family and her community as well as indulge in personal hobbies.

She currently works for Diageo and holds an MBA from the University of Nairobi.

CAROLINE MENACH

Rural Communities Committee, Advisors

Caroline Menach is the Principal of St. Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School-Morpus and a Coordinator for Margo Day 4 Youth Empowerment-CBO. She is responsible for Curriculum implementation and mentorship of girls at St Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School. Menach has 20 years of teaching experience and 10 years of mentoring girls at high school and at the HER Lab, based at Morpus, Kipkomo Sub County, West Pokot County. Ms. Menach’s leadership skills have enabled the girls who ran away from retrogressive cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages to find a home at St. Elizabeth Girls’ Secondary School. Her commitment and resilience to see the Pokot girl empowered and giving back to the community has seen over 500 at risk girls graduate to the HER Lab and get scholarships to various Universities and Colleges.

At MD4YES, Ms. Menach leads a team in identification of needy-vulnerable girls from the community who have excelled in their studies and enrolls them at HER Lab. She leads a team that networks with the Ministry of Education and World Vision in the advocacy of girls’ education and training of girls on Alternative Rites of Passage. She is passionate, committed, and resilient about girl child empowerment through education and skill development for a better tomorrow to the girl child and ultimately a transformed community.

Ms. Menach is a Lion Member of Lions International, a Melvin Jones Fellow (MJF) and a Secretary of Lions Club of Kitale, Patron to Kamorrow Golden Eagles Soccer team, Chairperson at St. Anne’s ACK Church and a Secretary of the Sub-County Principals’ Chapter. She lives in Kapenguria, West Pokot County-Northern Kenya. Her hobbies are studying the Bible, listening to Christian Music, mountain climbing, jogging and adventure travel.

ESTHER CHEBOSS

Rural Communities Committee, Advisors

Esther Cheboss is a Clinical Officer at AmpathPlus in Kapenguria County, Kenya and is also the Sexual & Gender Based Violence (FGM included) Champion for West Pokot County. She holds a Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Surgery, from Kenya Medical Training College.

Esther is an Alumina of Global Give Back Circle. She participated in the 6-month ‘HER Lab’ program and learned reproductive health skills which positioned her to step into a leadership role, supporting rural women and girls.

LINDA RILEY

Rural Communities Committee, Advisors

Lynda has had fifteen years’ worth of experience in sales and marketing in the pharmaceutical industry before she became a stay-at-home mother of three children. During this time Lynda was active in organizations in Baltimore to improve the lives of poor women and their children such as the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle, Baltimore Public Schools, Baltimore Catholic Schools, and her neighborhood association. Lynda has a BA in Biochemistry from Rutgers University and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.

In early 2017 Lynda began sponsoring and mentoring Leah Cheptech from West Pokot. In October 2017 Lynda joined the GGBC trip to Kenya. During this trip Lynda met Margaret and Monica at a tea for new GGBC college graduates. Lynda has kept in touch with both girls and treated them to a weekend of sightseeing in Nairobi on a future trip. While in West Pokot Lynda met four girls, Rebecca, Scolar, Scholastica and Sheila, who did not have sponsors and Lynda agreed to sponsor all of them for a university education. Lynda found mentors for these four girls among her friends. In early 2018 Lynda decided to sponsor two Starehe graduates, Mercy and Laurette, and two girls from West Pokot, Judith and Felystus. Lynda found more mentors for these girls among her friends. In June 2018 Lynda returned to Kenya with her 22-year-old daughter, Annie, who had recently graduated from university and took nine girls to Lake Nakuru to see the animals, spend a night in a hotel and do a workshop on integrity. Lynda has since added two more girls, Sarah, a Starehe graduate, and Mercy, a current Starehe student. Lynda is still actively recruiting new sponsors and mentors for GGBC girls. She has grown to love her girls and is deeply passionate about empowerment and education for girls.

RUTH WHALEN

Digital Divide Committee, Advisors

Ruth Whalen is the Director of Customer Integration at Sinch. She is responsible for successfully migrating customers onto consolidated messaging services (text messaging, push notifications, emails, and social messaging) for Enterprises such as banks and between telecommunication carriers. In addition to managing projects across the company, she is also a Diversity and Inclusion and is a certified career coach.

Ruth earned her B.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from University of California at Los Angeles, where she was named the Outstanding Bachelor of Science student for the School of Engineering. She continued her studies and received her M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Ruth started her professional career as the 3rd employee of a startup company focused on computerized patient records. That company grew to 1300 employees and was bought by Sybase in 2001 which was later acquired by SAP in 2011. In November 2020, Swedish company Sinch purchased the SAP Digital Interconnect division and Ruth moved into a role to help with integration. All these changes have allowed Ruth to try varied technical roles and has reinforced the importance of flexibility and a willingness to change.

As an empty-nester mother of 3, she lives in Denver, Colorado in the United States with her husband Peter, 2 dogs and a cat. She loves animals and volunteers at the Denver Zoo.

WANJIRA KAMWERE

Digital Divide Committee, Advisors

Wanjira has over twenty-one years of experience in the ICT sector with exposure to the utilization of Information Technology in managing businesses efficiently and profitably. She is passionate about the utilization of technology to change and impact lives and has over five years of experience in the management and execution of end-to-end Corporate Social Responsibility programs at Microsoft. Wanjira is a graduate of the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

MARY MWENDE NDANDI

Digital Divide Committee, Advisors

Mary grew up in Mombasa, Kenya. Her circumstances motivated her to study diligently and she was one of the first girls to join the Global Give Back Circle, an organization that guides at-risk girls to complete their educational journey, gain employable skills, and transition into the workplace. Joining this organization pivoted Mary’s journey and set ablaze her desires to achieve more.

In 2010, Mary received a full scholarship to the American University in Dubai (AUD), and became the first African woman to be elected President of the Student Government. She graduated with honors and pursued a Master’s in Business Administration on a full scholarship at the same university.

Mary’s unwavering desire to succeed has given her the opportunity to share the stage with U.S. President Bill Clinton, attend a training championed by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Women in Public Service Institute at Bryn Mawr College, and be a Youth Advisor for Microsoft’s YouthSpark Initiative, and selected out of 6000 applicants as one of Women Deliver’s Young Leaders. Mary is now working at Johnson & Johnson as a Marketing professional Managing Women’s Health brands for Africa, Middle East, and Turkey. Mary is on a continuous learning journey and her vision is to see to it that she can meaningfully contribute to the making of innovative, dynamic, and fair economies/societies for all, and especially for the most vulnerable of communities.

BLOSSOM BAKER

Digital Divide Committee, Advisors

Blossom Baker has over twenty years of leadership experience in the areas of Cyber Security, Enterprise Modernization, Data and Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Migration, Enterprise Architecture, Organizational Risk Management, IT Governance, Security Policy and Advisory, Program Management, System Engineering, and Integration.

She began her career as a Software Engineer for Lockheed Martin building trajectories to modernize the airspace and integrated security into all phases of the software development life cycle. The advancement of her work led her into leadership roles managing both domestic and international programs. After about 10 years, she began consulting for both public sector and commercial organizations. She later became the Cybersecurity Advisor for the CIO of a leading agency, and participated on Cyber Security and National Security Council. Currently she serves as Sr. Technology Strategist for Microsoft.

She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the University of Maryland, and Masters in Executive Global Leadership from Georgetown University, Washington D.C., and completed an executive program on the Intersection of Cybersecurity and Policy from Harvard University.