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Global 
Education Development & partnerships 
Specialist

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To truly have a meaningful impact on teachers, learning experiences, learners, and global education challenges— one must teach in a classroom in the most low resource setting you can imagine. This is how I became absolutely desperate to have a strong understanding of every facet of education today, and find innovative solutions for the most complex education challenges. 

 

I have since worked as an Education & Strategic Communications Analyst for the Minister's Delivery Unit in my country's Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE). There I came to understand education financing, policy, school catchment area planning, community-led school leadership, education during emergencies, and the most crucial element of education sector— teacher professional development and continuous professional development. 

 

I have also worked for the World Bank Education Practice in Sierra Leone. Serving as a World Bank STC, sharpened me as a significantly and exceptionally strong technical education expert. Working for The World Bank, the globe's leading DFI, meant zero room for sub-par work, and I became an expert in every facet of education systems strengthening. As an Education Specialist within a team of Senior Education Specialists and sister sector specialists, serving on the $USD 66M Free Education Project, I supported programs across the sector, and was progressively promoted to lead and manage programs, sub-projects, consultants and teams. Through this work I came to specialize in:

 

  • Project leadership & management for education development programs 

  • Grant writing and business acquisition for education development projects

  • Donor relations, partnerships & stakeholder management in education nonprofits

  • Education Partnerships*

  • Climate Smart Education Systems*

  • School Nutrition and feeding plans* 

  • Needs assessments, program design, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for education development programs

  • Education in Emergencies (EiE), education in conflict, fragility and violence contexts, education during disaster relief & safe learning environments*

  • Designing and implementing distance learning programs*

  • Education policy and advocacy

  • Learning theory, learning design, curriculum design, instructional design

  • Universal design for learning (UDL), Social emotional learning (SEL), play-based learning, interactive audio instruction (IAI)*

  • Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Early Childhood Education (ECE)

  • EdTech and innovation for accelerating learning***

  • Higher Education

  • Technical and vocational skills training and vocational education programs***

  • On the job training, apprenticeships and internships acquisition***

  • Gender-responsive education sector planning (GRESP)*****

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I hold a Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) in International Development Studies and Political Science from McGill University, and a Masters in Education (Ed.M.) in Learning Design, Innovation and Technology (LDIT) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (summa cum laude). 

United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI)                            
Gender at the Centre Initiative (GCI) Communications Lead—Remote, Global
Program Countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Sierra Leone 

March 2023 - August 2023

  • Managed communications, business development, and technical education programs for GCI, whilst supporting UNGEI education and business development goals with technical, administrative, financial and communications tasks. 

  • Authored the official GCI Advocacy Brief and donor proposals which secured millions of US dollars in funding for Phase II of GCI, by bringing in two new donors. 

  • Collaborated closely with the funders, colleagues, partners, and project teams to lead, develop, and manage program activities including trainings, conferences, and advocacy programs. 

  • Co-led a program to establish National Young Feminists for Education Coalitions in Niger and Mali, resulting in ministry invitations to join the Local Education Group.

  • Planned and executed monthly GCI events such as global webinars, high-level international training workshops with and for government officials, and high-level international conferences for advancing global education policy. 

  • Co-led UNGEI events, including the flagship Feminist Network for Gender Transformative Education (FemNet4GTE) Summit, hosting 140+ feminists from 20+ countries and partner organizations, facilitating international commitments to gender-just education sectors.

  • Supported UNGEI sessions at UN and international development events including Women Deliver, UN CSW, CIES 2024, and PANCOGEd1. 

  • Managed administrative needs for UNGEI teams, coordinating meetings and tracking action points for efficient operations— effectively supporting UNGEI’s transition from program-based funding to organisation-based funding. 

  • Led GCI's digital presence and growth by creating high-quality bi-weekly social media content, a bi-annual newsletter for 400+ global partners, and producing 4 online blogs annually.

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The World Bank Group                                                               
Education Specialist— Freetown, Sierra Leone

March 2021 - March 2023

  • Managed distance learning, emergency response, EdTech, gender-responsive, and inclusive education  projects within the USD$66M Free Education Project.

  • Managed donor-relations with Irish Aid, EU, and FCDO to ensure collaboration and eliminate duplication within the multi-donor trust funded Free Education Project. 

  • Managed work plans, financial projections, budgets, task teams, project activities and partnerships to implement education development projects.

  • Supported teacher professional and continuous development projects to improve classroom instruction in low-performing peri-urban, rural, and hard-to-reach schools.  

  • Organised procurement of teaching and learning materials, school feeding contracts, and school-based health care services for underserved schools. 

  • Supported research, strategy and development to develop evidence-based teaching and learning materials  to drive accelerated learning outcomes for K-12 subjects across 5000 Sierra Leonean schools. 

  • Managed partnerships with the government, international and local NGOs, school committees, teacher associations, and other key stakeholders to eliminate duplications and achieve complimentary outcomes.  

  • Managed consultants and ministry staff for projects to train 11,000 teachers on inclusive education principles and pedagogies and 33,000 teachers on preventing school-related gender-based violence.

  • Led research to redesign the national radio teaching program to reach 2 million children with interactive distance learning programs during and after the Covid-19 Pandemic school closures. 

  • Coordinated field missions— overseeing logistics, leading meeting preparations, leading meetings, monitoring and leading classroom instruction, and preparing key strategy documents to carry out project monitoring and evaluation missions.

  • Produced policy briefs, rapid evidence reviews, and practice-based publications and blogs to ensure continued knowledge building and contribution to the sector.

  • Oversaw communications programs for the USD$22M Skills Development Project, managing staff development, activity outcomes and progress reviews— training 10,712 youth nationwide with technical and vocational skills, and developing relationships with employers to ensure 5,502 youth were employed within 2 years.

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