MY WORK
Liz’s unique background, having spent 12 years living and working in Africa, with significant stays in Cameroon and Senegal, coupled with her academic background in communications, international development and education policy from Northwestern University and Harvard Graduate School of Education has led her to pursue work in the following domains:
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Focusing her masters degree on the intersection between education, communications and entrepreneurship, Liz developed Cybraries in October 2012, traveling to Dakar for a market study in January 2013, then developing the concept. at the Harvard iLab. She led a successful crowdfunding campaign which brought her to Senegal in October 2013 to launch the project. In January 2015, she was brought onto Tostan’s senior leadership team to build the business plan and launch the Tostan Training Center, an innovative venture to diversify the NGO’s revenue model through a social enterprise. Building on these experiences, Liz co-founded and currently manages Baobab Consulting, a global firm which promotes mutual understanding and equitable collaboration through its communications, PR, branding and intercultural exchange programming.
POLICY RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATION
Liz believes that policy makers must have deep understanding of the issues and regions they are writing policy in, and as such, as contributed to high level policy report writing and communications relating to education, youth, women’s leadership and project management. She has contributed to reports for UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR and UNDP. She also supported the Ministry of Higher Education of Senegal to communicate the launch of the first online public university, Universite Virtuelle du Senegal. Most notably, she was hired by the Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project to work alongside Dr Joyce Banda to write the Advancing Women Leaders in Africa policy toolkit, and plan its launch event.
STRATEGIC
COMMUNICATIONS
AND
RELATIONSHIP
BUILDING
A skilled communications strategist, Liz was an integral part of Tostan’s communications efforts in 2014-2016, leading on internal communications, media relations, public relations, strategic partnerships and training. She supports African leaders in business, politics and development to get their ideas on global stages and find the right partners to achieve their goals. She is a regular contributor to She Leads Africa, and has had articles published for Harvard Alumni for Education and SFAN. She is a sought after host and convener for major events, such as the Harvard Africa Alumni Action Forum in Ghana, SOCAP in San Francisco, the Face Africa WASH Gala in New York, and the Sheroes Forum in Ghana.
TEACHING AND
WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT
Beginning her career with three years in the classroom at an International Baccalaureate school in Dakar, Liz knows how critical education is to build the next generation of leaders in Africa and globally. Currently, she leads experiential learning journeys for American and African students focused on relationship building and intercultural exchange. She also delivers workshops and presentations for students and professionals for reputable organizations such as Google, the African Leadership Academy and Kent Place School on a variety of topics, such as social media usage, finding your career niche, professionalism and skills development, international development, living and working in Africa, entrepreneurship and intercultural collaboration