
Our Team

Jessica Love
Executive Director
Jessica
Executive Director

Salima Dadani
Finance Director
Despite growing up in the US, Tanzania remains home to Salima as her place of birth. As the only daughter in her family, Salima was encouraged to pursue her education to the fullest extent. Understanding the necessity to empower girls to create their own destinies, Salima comes to AfricAid with the desire to use her skills and expertise to serve the women of Tanzania. She holds an MBA from University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and has over 20+ years of experience in finance, operations, and management.
Salima joined AfricAid in November 2018 as Finance Director. In this role she manages the donations and expenditures to ensure AfricAid is meeting their funding goals. She loves spending time with her family and enjoys traveling. Hiking during the summer and football in the fall are her favorite activities.
SALIMA
Finance Director

Olivia Berglund
Development & Communications Coordinator
Olivia’s interest in working with international nonprofits began in college, where she had many opportunities to travel and study abroad in places like Nepal, Israel, and France. She is passionate about storytelling, and uses her creative skills to depict unique and important narratives from around the globe. Liv believes that visual media is powerful in influencing people to make movements of change towards a better world.
Initially, she joined the team as a communications intern, but now leads AfricAid’s social media, design, and branding strategies, as well as manages our donor tracking and gratitude processes.
Liv earned her BA in Studio Arts from George Fox University, as well as a minor in French while studying at Centre International d’Etudes Françaises in Dijon, France.
OLIVIA
Development & Communications Coordinator

Marcia Smith
Marcia joined AfricAid in 2021 as Grant Writer. Marcia has extensive experience in both large and small nonprofits. She loves to travel, read (mainly fantasy and sci-fi novels), and spend time cooking with her husband.
MARCIA
Grant Writer
LONG-TERM VOLUNTEERS

Alecia McClure
Blog Coordinator
Alecia enjoys putting her marketing skills toward the cause of global girls’ education. After a career in marketing with large corporations, she developed this interest while working for an NGO that teaches Ugandan women entrepreneurial skills. Growing up in a military family, Alecia lived in 9 places by the time she left for college. She is grateful that her parents always sought out the very best schools for their children. This fortunate circumstance has influenced her to help provide educational opportunities for young women.
Alecia has volunteered with AfricAid since January, 2016. A trip to Tanzania in October, 2018 to experience the programs first hand has made her even more dedicated to share the stories of the Scholars and Mentors through the blogs. She loves receiving a narrative and photos from Tanzania and working on editing and layout to make it the best possible presentation it can be. She feels each blog is a gift – to herself and to all who read them. Alecia earned a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from Duke University.
Alecia
Blog Coordinator

Jill Engelstad
Outreach Coordinator
Jill is passionate about sustainable development, global travel, cultural awareness, and physical therapy; combining these passions, she has directed time and energy toward capacity building for individuals living in conditions of extreme poverty so those in least developed countries can be more fully heard, appreciated, and understood. Her overseas outreach has included capacity building empowerment for women in Tanzania and medical mission work in Romania and Ghana. Closer to home, her public speaking efforts have focused on the significant relationship educating girls has in achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Jill holds a BS in Physical Therapy from the University of North Dakota and a MLS in Global Affairs from the University of Denver. When not working as a physical therapist for SCL Health, serving as Outreach Coordinator for AfricAid, or advocating for adolescent girls’ education in areas of extreme poverty globally, Jill can be found hiking or biking with her husband David or reading a good book with her cat Reese.
Jill
Outreach Coordinator
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Erin Saade
ERIN SAADE
President

Katie Flanagan
Katie fell in love with Tanzania when she joined Kupona Foundation in 2009 as their Executive Director. Kupona was established to create a US base of support for Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), one of Tanzania’s leading healthcare organizations. Under Katie’s leadership, Kupona supported CCBRT’s expansion into the maternal health care space, building partnerships with major players in the global health/NGO space – such as the Fistula Foundation and Johnson & Johnson – that continue to this day.
When she moved to Denver in 2014, Katie joined a friend to create Coppertops Paper, which designed, produced, and distributed wine accessories at the local, regional, and national levels. However, her longtime commitment to working with non-profits, particularly in moments of strategic growth and transition, is her deeper love and she was eager to find a way to stay connected, particularly to the welcoming, vibrant, and inspiring women and girls of Tanzania. She was thrilled to meet AfricAid staff at a Posner Center event and find a way to share her experience with the organization.
KATIE FLANAGAN
Vice President

Tom Leonard
Tom has extensive overseas experience both as a traveler and a temporary resident, living abroad on three continents. After graduating from college, he spent two years in Lesotho with the Peace Corps teaching math at a rural mission school. It was here that Tom witnessed firsthand the challenges that students – particularly girls – faced on their path to higher education. This inspired him to join the AfricAid board in 2019.
Tom is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He graduated with Distinction from Purdue University earning a B.S. in Mathematics/Statistics. Tom is based in Denver, Colorado.
TOM LEONARD
Treasurer

Michael Eber
Michael previously directed a real estate and property management firm, served as the Director of Operations for a $20M private foundation and managed numerous client engagements with Deloitte. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree in international management and public policy. His credentials include Lean Six Sigma green belt certification along with substantial aptitudes and proficiencies with Myers-Briggs, the Highlands Ability Battery, EchoSpan 360 Feedback tools, StregthFinders 2.0 assessments, B.A.N.K. Systems and the Hogan. He is a Colorado native and his interests include the outdoors, international development, travel and cooking.
MICHAEL EBER
Secretary

Rodney Bell
Currently Rodney provides independent strategic communication consulting for PR agency, nonprofit, healthcare, and financial clients. Previously he served one year in the Marketing Communication Director role for a small ergonomic office equipment manufacturer. Before that, he was Director of Marketing for Allonhill, a mortgage due diligence and credit risk review firm in Denver. From 2007 to 2009 he led business development at JohnstonWells Public Relations producing $230,000 in new revenues.
Rodney was vice president of corporate communications at First Data Corporation, a then Fortune 500 global electronic payment solutions company. He led strategic public relations and employee communications for business units, which generated 40 percent of the company’s $8 billion revenue. Rodney completed a two-year assignment as communications lead during First Data’s $6 billion acquisition and integration of Concord.
Rodney began his career abroad, living and working in Harare, Zimbabwe from 1983 to 1985, and returning for a 6-month film project in 1986. He traveled extensively throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. These formative years continue to influence and impact his life and work, and his ongoing interest in that region of the world. Following Zimbabwe, Rodney served the Atlanta Chapter of American Red Cross, leading health services awareness campaigns and national disaster public affairs.
Rodney is a graduate of the 2005-2006 Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Leadership Denver. He served from 2003 to 2009 on the Board of Directors for the Bridge Project, which provided educational opportunities for some of Denver’s most at-risk youth through tutoring and literacy programs. In 2007 and 2008 Rodney traveled to Uganda as a Founding Donor for the Primary School for the Blind launched by Chain Foundation outside Kampala, funded and founded in honor of a Denver Ugandan friend who died from leukemia the previous year.
A 22-year Denver (11 years in Five Points) resident who found home in Colorado, Rodney has traveled to 34 countries and 7 continents. A third of his trips were for volunteer service projects. An Alabama native, Rodney holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in broadcast and film communication from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Roll Tide.
RODNEY BELL
Member

Ashley Carter
ASHLEY CARTER
Member

Elena Harman
Prior to creating Vantage Evaluation, Elena was an internal evaluator at the Colorado Health Foundation, where she helped launch the Foundation’s Measurable Results model. While in this role, Elena discovered the gap that exists between data-forward evaluation and their value to the organizations they intend to serve. With this knowledge in mind, Elena founded Vantage Evaluation to improve the dialogue between evaluators and organizations, and change the way in which the industry approaches evaluation with a focus on outcomes and social impact.
Elena is the author of The Great Nonprofit Evaluation Reboot: A New Approach Every Staff Member Can Understand, a comprehensive discussion on changing the approach to evaluation. She regularly leads community trainings and workshops, and delivered the opening plenary at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s 2018 Nonprofit Day for more than 500 attendees.
She is an active member of the American Evaluation Association, and the 2019 President of the Colorado Evaluators Network. Elena holds a B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences M.I.T. and both a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Evaluation and Applied Research Methods from Claremont Graduate University.
ELENA HARMAN
Member

Diane Hazel
Diane is an attorney at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie in Denver, specializing in antitrust litigation. Diane graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2010 and worked at the Federal Trade Commission for three years investigating and litigating alleged anticompetitive conduct in the healthcare industry.
In 2013, Diane was awarded a Fulbright grant in competition law and moved to Namibia to work with several Namibian government agencies and the University of Namibia. As part of her volunteer work with a women’s organization in Namibia, Diane witnessed firsthand the challenges young women in Africa face to stay in school and continue their education. Despite these hurdles, Diane also left Namibia with hope, having worked with a number of Namibian women—law students and attorneys—who had been given opportunities and were breaking into the ranks of Namibia’s growing middle class. While in Namibia, Diane and her husband visited Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro. The climb still remains one of Diane’s most memorable experiences, and she is glad to have the opportunity to now give back to the people of Tanzania.
Diane and her husband try to return to Africa at any opportunity and have traveled to 11 African countries. Diane’s love of Africa and its people led her to connect with AfricAid when she and her husband moved to Denver in 2016.
DIANE HAZEL
Member

Josephine Masandika
Josephine Masandika
Member

Ben Strawn
BEN STRAWN
Member

Melanie Terwoord
MELANIE TERWOORD
Member

Mark Williams
MARK WILLIAMS
Member

Emma Winiecki
Emma is passionate about doing her part to ensure that all girls and boys have a fair and equitable chance to become who and what they want in this world, and have equal access to resources, services and opportunities that are not hindered by their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status or any other trait. She believes in the transformational power of storytelling and sharing our experiences across the globe to learn from them and draw inspiration from them – which is why she is thrilled to serve as a Board Member for AfricAid alongside talented and passionate colleagues and support AfricAid’s bold and important mission and innovative approach to girls’ education.
Emma holds a BA in Social Services from Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from The New School University, New York. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and two children.
EMMA WINIECKI
Member
Interested in working with AfricAid? Check out our current openings.
AfricAid is committed to equal opportunity for all persons without regard to sex, age, race, color, religion, ethnicity, creed, national origin, marital status, military or veteran status, physical or mental ability, gender identification, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state or local law. AfricAid is committed to maintaining a work environment that is free of unlawful discrimination and harassment. Accordingly, AfricAid will not tolerate unlawful discrimination against or harassment of any of our employees or others present at our facilities by anyone, including any board of director, Executive Director, supervisor, co-worker, vendor, partner, or client.