When the opportunity to co-create with The Obama Foundation a 5-day experience for an inaugural cohort of 200 African leaders, ALA’s Dean of Global Programs was clear: “Zuki and I are the team for this.”
Uzo Agyare-Kumi’s Global Programs division at African Leadership Academy partners with organisations across the world to run leadership development programs on our campus and through our community. We draw upon 10 years of curriculum innovation in Entrepreneurial Leadership and African Studies, and the skills of over 1000 alumni and faculty to facilitate and lead experiential leadership journeys for other high-potential leaders.
For each Global Program she runs, Uzo appoints a dedicated Program Director from this amazing pool of talent. Zukiswa Mthumunye was an obvious choice having already translated our ALA BUILD curriculum into a civic leaders course for the YALI program, a brainchild of the Obama Administration, in 2016.
Uzo Agyare-Kumi
Uzo is an education veteran, who began her career in community organizing and social activism. She spent 10 years doing grass-roots organizing first with the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace (CIDJAP) in Nigeria and then with the East London Communities Organisation (TELCO), becoming one of the first black female community organizers in London. In 2004, she was appointed National Director for the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ), where she not only ran a growing organisation but authored a book – Fighters of Freedom – to commemorate the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slave Trade Act (1807-2007).
After relocating to Ghana with her family in 2006, she worked with Government of Liberia to recruit professionals into key roles within the Civil Service before focusing on the education sector and working for the World Bank to invest in private sector programs targeted at improving schools in Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
In 2011, Uzo decided to move into education delivery and become Principal at Tema International School (TIS) in Ghana. TIS is one of the leading independent secondary schools in West Africa.
In 2014, she moved to South Africa to become Dean of African Leadership Academy, driving our own leadership development model. She has since taken on the role of Dean of Global Programs, to accelerate our ability provide access to ALA’s leadership development programming to hundreds more young leaders every year.
Zukiswa Mthimunye
Zuki is an alumnus of ALA’s Entrepreneurial Leadership faculty team, where she was responsible for designing and facilitating experiential, transformative learning experiences. She has a unique ability to foster a capacity to drive social innovation thinking especially in Africa, by young African leaders. She led our work with the YALI program in 2016 and delivered some of our first educator training programs for adults. She taught at ALA under the guidance of our founding entrepreneurial leadership faculty team and has strong experience in using ALA’s BUILD model to deliver experiences for adult participants.
She is currently a member of faculty at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg, South Africa and lectures in contextual leadership, management, team effectiveness, and social entrepreneurship across the MBA, executive education, and entrepreneurship programmes. She also works closely with ALA on a range of projects that extend our impact across Africa.
Zuki holds a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from Columbia University; Master of Science (MSc.) in International Business from the University of London; a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS); and a Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A) in Industrial Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Want to know more about The Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa Program?
- Support The Obama Foundation in their work across the globe at Obama.org
- Meet all 200 leaders selected for the inaugural class of Obama Leaders: Africa
- Watch all the plenaries and panels.
