Our Team
Jessica Love
Executive Director
Jessica Love is as an experienced communications strategist who has managed media relations, community and stakeholder outreach for domestic and international nonprofit, foundation and corporate organizations for the last 15 years. Before joining AfricAid, she provided communications counsel to a variety of organizations, including HOPE Foundation for Women & Children of Bangladesh and Fistula Foundation, where she previously spent several years leading communications efforts to raise awareness and funds to treat women suffering from obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury.
Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
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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.
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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.
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OLIVIA
Development & Communications Coordinator
Marcia Smith
Marcia’s personal mission is “Today, I will make a difference!” Marcia holds a doctorate degree from Argosy University, an MBA from St. Leo’s University, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida. She is passionate about education and helping others succeed. For eight years, Marcia lived off-grid (without electricity and running water) and she promotes sustainability for individuals and organizations. She believes firmly that protecting the environment and helping vulnerable communities is vital for future generations to continue to thrive and prosper.
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.
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MARCIA
Grant Writer
FELLOWS
Minat Sherriff
Media Fellow
Minat Sherriff is an undergraduate student majoring in Communication and Minoring in Television, Radio, and Emerging Media. Her goal is to use visual media to create content that informs and empowers groups who are underrepresented.
She is currently AfricAid’s Media Fellow and works with members of the AfricAid team to ensure its vision to create a future in which all African girls have equal access to high-quality educational opportunities that empower them to achieve their goals and better their communities.
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MINAT
Media Fellow
Annie Nowak
Social Media Fellow
Annie Nowak is a graduate student working towards her masters in international human rights at the University of Denver. She got her bachelors in Journalism: Strategic Communications from Ohio University and after graduation in 2019 she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. Her goal is to do work that empowers women worldwide and gives girls a future in which they have access to education opportunities.
She is currently AfricAid’s Social Media Fellow and works with members of the AfricAid team to promote their vision and mission through social media platforms.
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ANNIE
Social Media Fellow
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.
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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.
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Jill
Outreach Coordinator
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Erin Saade
Erin Saade is a director of marketing strategy at a Global Asset Manager in San Francisco, California. Erin has worked in finance since 2004 in New York and San Francisco. She is passionate about women’s financial literacy and entrepreneurship, which provided commonality for Erin when she met Ashley Shuyler Carter. Erin first encountered AfricAid in 2011 while attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business with Ashley. In 2013, Erin joined Ashley in Tanzania to experience AfricAid first hand by visiting AfricAid sponsored schools, programs and partnerships. Erin has traveled extensively, but her most memorable experience was visiting Prisca Lesakire and her family in Tanzania.
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ERIN SAADE
President
Katie Flanagan
Katie’s career spans more than fifteen years working with non-profits, both domestic and international, in fundraising and strategic planning roles. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Boston College and a Masters in Theological Studies from Emory University, and has served on the Board of Directors for Nursing for All and Kupona Foundation.
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.
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KATIE FLANAGAN
Vice President
Tom Leonard
Tom Leonard is the Director of PEO and Special Risk with Benefits Science Technology, an information technology & services firm that uses advanced data science and predictive modeling to augment traditional actuarial science. In his 25+ year career, he has consulted with large multinational insurers, Fortune 500 employers, Latin American government insurers, labor unions, and M&A buyers and sellers. Prior to Aon, Tom held key leadership positions with major firms such as Aon, CIGNA, Milliman, and Great-West while managing functional areas including finance and accounting, actuarial, and underwriting.
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.
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TOM LEONARD
Treasurer
Michael Eber
Michael Eber’s expertise incorporates over 25 years of problem solving, demonstrated aptitudes and leadership skills which save organizations time, create business opportunities and deliver tangible results. Having worked across the US and around the world, and with a passion about people, Michael demonstrates an extensive appetite for technology and deep competencies with process improvement, organizational excellence and facilitation. He is an executive coach, develops and delivers programs across organizations integrating theoretical learning with hands on expertise, and accompanies C-Level decision makers with some of their biggest challenges. His technology and systems capabilities enable organizations to increase their value and impact, while also possessing a fluency in strategic information management and process activation. Michael’s clients include nationally known cultural non-profits and higher education systems, Fortune 100 and private organizations, large urban municipalities and governmental entities.
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.
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MICHAEL EBER
Secretary
Rodney Bell
With 30 years of experience in public relations, marketing communications and corporate affairs, Rodney has worked on the client and agency side of the business. Since 2008 he has also lectured part time at the University of Colorado, Denver within the Department of Communication. He brings a client and service perspective as a former corporate communications and marketing public relations executive and senior account consultant.
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.
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RODNEY BELL
Member
Ashley Carter
Ashley (Shuyler) Carter is the founder and former Executive Director of AfricAid. Since returning from a safari to Tanzania in 1996, Ashley has dedicated her life to supporting girls’ education across Africa. In 2001, at the age of 16, she formed AfricAid, and has helped to lead and support AfricAid’s program-building and fundraising efforts since that time. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 2008, with a degree in Social Studies, specializing in International Development, and earned her MBA in 2013 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. After business school, she worked for the Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco, and then helped to start and lead an education-focused nonprofit organization called CareerWise Colorado. Ashley has been a member of the AfricAid Board since 2003.
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ASHLEY CARTER
Member
Elena Harman
Elena Harman is the former CEO and founder of Vantage Evaluation, Colorado’s leading partner, resource and voice for evaluation. Elena founded Vantage Evaluation to infuse evaluation into the day-to-day fabric of organizations and propel effective purpose-driven work. Currently, she is the Manager of Strategy at SonderMind.
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.
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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.
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DIANE HAZEL
Member
Josephine Masandika
Josephine Masandika is a Tanzania-born engineer at Baxter International. She graduated cum laude from Lake Forest College in 2016 with a degree in Biology and Neuroscience. She earned her Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2019.
Josephine believes that women play an important role in any community’s development and success. She, therefore, dedicates her time mentoring peers from her undergraduate and graduate institutes, as well as coworkers through an internal mentorship program at Baxter International. Josephine holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification and has experience in Lean & Six Sigma methodologies including planning, managing, and executing value and process improvement projects. From her years of research, Josephine is also proficient in biological research methods, biomedical statistics, script programming with Python, as well as concept validation for medical devices. Josephine currently lives in Chicago; in her free time she enjoys cooking, running, and DIY projects.”
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Josephine Masandika
Member
Ben Strawn
Ben Strawn is a partner in the Trial Department at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP. His practice focuses on complex commercial and environmental litigation and he frequently represents businesses in the natural resources, insurance, and real estate industries. In 2018 and 2019, Ben was the Trial Department’s deputy practice group leader. He currently serves as ethics counsel for the firm. Ben shares DGS’ strong commitment to community service. In addition to his service with AfricAid, he serves on the board of directors for the Faculty of Federal Advocates and was its 2019 board president. In 2016, he participated in the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation Impact Denver leadership program. Prior to joining DGS, Mr. Strawn served as a law clerk to the Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (now an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court). Before clerking, Ben was an associate with Paul Hastings LLP in San Francisco, California.
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BEN STRAWN
Member
Melanie Terwoord
Melanie Terwoord is an Assurance Senior Manager with Plante Moran, a public accounting firm with over 3,100 professionals across the globe. With nearly a decade in public accounting experience, she specializes in healthcare, insurance, and non-profit industries, providing valuable insight as a trusted business advisor serving clients across the country.Melanie is passionate about the education of girls and young women, having attended a single-sex school growing up in Ohio. Melanie has experienced first-hand how empowering girls and young women with the necessary tools to choose their own paths means enriching not only their personal lives directly, but also the communities around them.Melanie is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated Summa Cum Laude with both a B.B.A. and Masters in Accounting from Valdosta State University in Georgia. Melanie is based in Denver, CO.
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MELANIE TERWOORD
Member
Mark Williams
Mark is Executive Manager of E911 Integrators, a data integration and migration consulting firm in Colorado that supports law enforcement and emergency service providers across the USA. Mark was one of the original supporters of Selian Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, and has worked over the past 27 years in helping to fundraise for Selian, Losinoni, and the Maasae Girls’ School. He and his wife, Mary, have led numerous groups on Mt. Kilimanjaro Climb fundraising trips to Tanzania. Mark was Ashley’s earliest mentor and was one of the founding members of the AfricAid Board of Directors; he continues to provide guidance today, especially with regard to the complexities of working within the framework of Tanzanian culture and governance.
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MARK WILLIAMS
Member
Emma Winiecki
Emma Saloranta Winiecki is a native of Finland who has lived and worked all over the world, including in Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, India and the United States. Her work has focused on gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights and empowerment and the application of technology, innovation and digital tools in poverty reduction, realizing human rights and promoting equality. She has worked for UNICEF, Plan International, IT for Change, and Girls’ Globe, and her writing has been published on various media outlets including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s blog “Impatient Optimists” and Huffington Post. Currently Emma works as an independent consultant, and has worked with clients such as Plan International and the Foreign Ministry of Finland conducting research on gender, youth employment, technology and innovation, girls’ and women’s safety online and the application of frontier technologies – for example AI and drones – in promoting human rights and socio-economic development.
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.
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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.