
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

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
Program & Grants Manager
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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
President

Michael Eber
MICHAEL EBER
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

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 was 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
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

Josephine Masandika
Josephine Masandika
Member

Erin Saade
ERIN SAADE
Member

Melanie Terwoord
MELANIE TERWOORD
Member

Mark Williams
MARK WILLIAMS
Member
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.