Collaborative Leadership Across Boundaries to Drive Change in Society

Shani Alhassan

Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID)

Shani has worked for the past two years as the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer at the Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID); a Non-Governmental Organisation based in Tamale (Ghana). He has worked on projects which focus on issues of women and youth participation, representation in leadership and involvement in decision making at all levels. Additionally, he has helped facilitate the engagement of the youth with state institutions by way of highlighting the problems they are faced with; especially youth unemployment. He has also helped to build the capacity of the youth to be able to fulfill the criteria in accessing government skills and entrepreneurial support.

Joseph Stein

MoringaConnect

Joe first came to Ghana in 2012 as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His first two years were spent gaining a deep understanding of rural agriculture and the problems facing smallholder farmers, as well as spearheading public-private partnerships through Peace Corps Ghana. Through these efforts, he established MoringaConnect as a formal partner of Peace Corps Ghana, increasing the number of Peace Corps Volunteers and moringa farmers across Ghana. Joe extended his service to a third year to work for MoringaConnect full-time, as the Relationship Manager and Development Specialist. He was responsible for building relationships between MoringaConnect and international development partners in Ghana, supporting the Minga Foods brand launch and entry into store outlets, and managing the supply side operations in Ghana. Joe currently serves as MoringaConnect’s General Manager, managing all the operations and supply side operations in Ghana.

Melanie Miller

Melton Foundation & Clover House at St. Francis Community Services

In addition to being an original Fellow of the Melton Foundation and chairing the foundation’s Board of Directors, Mel is a Clinical Social Worker of over 20 years, with clinical specialization in the areas of trauma and abuse. She currently serves as the Director of Clover House for St. Francis Community Services, a national organization with international ties. She is developing and implementing the first Restorative Residential program for minor survivors of sexual exploitation in her state, and one of a few in the U.S. In addition, she holds expertise in program design and assessment. Mel maintains a private, outpatient psychotherapy practice, focusing on supporting trauma survivors in their healing journeys. Mel also serves as Vice President of the American Board of Functional Medicine. In the past, she has served as the Coordinator of the Anti-Sexual Exploitation Community Roundtable for Action (ASERCA), and sat on the National Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance (RHYTTAC) Advisory Board. To balance life as a professional and mother of 4, Mel enjoys family, friends, travel, and good red wine.

Theodora Williams Anti

Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA)

Theodora is the Program Manager of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA). She has over nine years’ experience in development work and working with the youth. She coordinated has coordinated several youth projects including FOSDA’s Youth in Governance Project which was implemented in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Togo and currently leading the Ghana Youth Development Enhancement Project, working with youth groups and Civil society to secure policy spaces for young men and women. Theodora is passionate about development and aspires each day to contribute to making Ghana and Africa a better place with opportunities for all to achieve. Her areas of expertise include Development Project Management, Human Rights, Gender Equality and Governance. She likes counseling, reading, singing, walking and sight seeing.

Oxfam Ghana

Oxfam Ghana’s vision of Ghana includes improved quality of life characterized by active citizenship, shared, pro-poor and sustainable growth in a just and democratic environment, Oxfam Ghana focuses on three main pillars of work, namely agriculture and food security, essential services advocacy (with an emphasis on health and education), and Extractive Governance. Key to the achievement of our change objectives is the integration and mainstreaming of issues of governance and active citizenship as well as gender as cross-cutting themes. Particularly with regard to the rising inequality facing Ghana which threatens to increase the divide between the haves and the have nots, Oxfam Ghana is committed to empowering marginalized groups— especially the poor, women and youth—to advocate and demand positive change in society.

The Melton Foundation

The Melton Foundation actively promotes and enables global citizenship as a way for individuals and organizations to work together across boundaries of place and identity to develop collaborative solutions to the challenges of today’s interconnected world. To achieve this, the Melton Foundation offers a fellowship to young change agents who develop their potential and grow their spheres of influence in order to become effective and ethical leaders, equipped to act locally, with a global context in mind. The Fellowship is currently available to students at our partner universities and is designed around three core aspects of Global Citizenship: Awareness – Responsibility – Action. A 2.5 year, experiential learning based program provides Fellows with the necessary tools and skills to work autonomously and in collaboration with others. After that, they become part of a supported network to continue building their capacity to act as global citizens in their growing spheres of influence, and become role models for a generation of global citizens.