Tamara Jaycox Kessler joined the board of the Wai Foundation on July 1, 2019 and became chair of the Board of Directors in July 2020. Tamara is the daughter of Kim Jaycox, the foundation’s co-founder and chair of the Board of Directors. She recently retired from a 30-year career in the federal government, during which she served as a federal prosecutor, internal affairs expert, and civil rights lawyer and policy maker. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she advised the Secretary of Homeland Security on civil rights matters, and led both the Criminal Section and the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School, and the proud mother of twin girls.
Eunice Nyakwea Wai has been the president of the Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation since 2005. As the widow of the late Dunstan Wai, she co-founded the DWMCF with a vision of empowering the girls and women of Africa through education. Nyakwea has worked as an independent research consultant in the field of women in education and development for various organizations, including Forum for African Women Educationalists, (FAWE), Women Education Researches of Kenya, (WERK), and edited children’s stories for a children’s magazine. Nyakwea lives in Virginia, U.S.A.
Prof. Ibrahim J. Wani is an independent consultant. He joined the Board in 2016 and brings a wealth of international experience to the Dunstan Wai Foundation. Prof. Wani retired from the United Nations in 2015, after a distinguished career spanning nearly a decade in senior global leadership positions, most recently as the Director of the Human Rights Division at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Before that, he was the Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also in South Sudan; Chief of the Africa Branch and Director for Research and the Right to Development in Geneva from 2005 to 2013; Eastern Africa Regional Representative of the OHCHR based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa and to the African Union.
Prof. Wani taught Law at the University of Virginia and the University of Missouri Law Schools. He also worked at the World Bank, on capacity building and institutional reform issues. He was the Academic Dean at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C. Prof. Ibrahim Wani received his law degree from Makerere University (Uganda), and LLM and SJD degrees from the University Of Virginia School Of Law.
Daniel Ritchie has been Secretary of the DWMCF Board since its inception in 2006. He has had a life-long interest in Africa and girls education, serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya in 1964-1966, working with the World Bank (1968-1997) and creating a scholarship fund for secondary school and university level students in Kenya (2000 to the present). He has worked in more than 20 countries in Africa and in 2010 helped create Champions for an HIV Free Generation in Africa, on behalf of the World Bank, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR, the US program to fight AIDS. He lives in Washington, DC.
Elizabeth Adu has been a member of the DWMCF Board since 2009. She is an international development lawyer and practitioner with over 30 years of experience. She worked at the World Bank (Legal Department and Latin America and Caribbean Region) from 1983 – 2013, with extensive experience in Africa and Latin America. She splits her time between Washington and Accra, Ghana.
Harriet Nannyonjo joined the Wai Foundation Board on December 1, 2020. She is a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank’s Education Global Practice. With over 20 years’ experience at the World Bank, she has led education projects and analytical work in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa Regions. Passionate about education for all, Harriet championed and managed World Bank education projects which resulted in a significant increase in enrollment at both primary and secondary education in Uganda. Harriet holds a PhD in Education from the University College Cork, Ireland.
Jim Adams spend 37 years working at the World Bank on development issues. Over half of his career was spent working on Africa and he had two field assignments in Kenya and Tanzania. He also worked on education programs in Latin America as the manager of the technical group that worked on health and education in the Southern Cone of that region.
Carolyn Stremlau is the executive director of the Banyan Tree Foundation, a private foundation in Washington, DC. The foundation supports organizations in Africa and South Asia to increase opportunities for children to obtain a quality education. It has a special interest in supporting programs that focus on the education of girls.
Carolyn has been involved in Africa since 1969 and has lived in Nigeria and South Africa. She has worked with non-governmental organizations including PACT, Citizens Development Corps, Overseas Development Council, and the Ford Foundation. She holds a PhD in international development from the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
John Nderitu has been a Board member of DWMCF since 2008, and as its Treasurer since March, 2014. He is a Director, Business Improvement with Anthem Inc. a Leading Health benefits company in the US. He is from Kenya and committed to making a difference by supporting girl’s education. He has held a variety of positions of increasing management and leadership responsibilities over his 25 year career in both public and private companies. John holds a Bachelor’s of Science, Finance from University of Massachusetts in Boston and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston College. John lives with his family in Cary, North Carolina
The Board of Directors of the Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation is made up of 10 men and women with varied experience in development and management strategies, economics and Finance, law, health and education. All are passionate about girls’ education and its impact in alleviating poverty among those who face the greatest challenges.
Daniel Ritchie became Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors in January 2023.. He had been Secretary of the Board since its inception in 2006. He has had a life-long interest in Africa and girls education, serving as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya in 1964-1966, working with the World Bank (1968-1997) and creating a scholarship fund for secondary school and university level students in Kenya (2000 to the present). He has worked in more than 20 countries in Africa and in 2010 helped create Champions for an HIV Free Generation in Africa, on behalf of the World Bank, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR, the US program to fight AIDS. He lives in Washington, DC.
John Nderitu became Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors in January 2023. He has been a Board member since 2008, and as its Treasurer since March, 2014. He is a Director, Business Improvement with Anthem Inc. a Leading Health benefits company in the US. He is from Kenya and committed to making a difference by supporting girl’s education. He has held a variety of positions of increasing management and leadership responsibilities over his 25 year career in both public and private companies. John holds a Bachelor’s of Science, Finance from University of Massachusetts in Boston and a Masters of Business Administration from Boston College. John lives with his family in Cary, North Carolina
Eunice Nyakwea Wai has been the president of the Dunstan Wai Memorial Charitable Foundation since 2005. As the widow of the late Dunstan Wai, she co-founded the DWMCF with a vision of empowering the girls and women of Africa through education. Nyakwea has worked as an independent research consultant in the field of women in education and development for various organizations, including Forum for African Women Educationalists, (FAWE), Women Education Researches of Kenya, (WERK), and edited children’s stories for a children’s magazine. Nyakwea lives in Virginia, U.S.A.
Jim Adams spend 37 years working at the World Bank on development issues. Over half of his career was spent working on Africa and he had two field assignments in Kenya and Tanzania. He also worked on education programs in Latin America as the manager of the technical group that worked on health and education in the Southern Cone of that region.
Elizabeth Adu has been a member of the DWMCF Board since 2009. She is an international development lawyer and practitioner with over 30 years of experience. She worked at the World Bank (Legal Department and Latin America and Caribbean Region) from 1983 – 2013, with extensive experience in Africa and Latin America. She splits her time between Washington and Accra, Ghana.
Harriet Nannyonjo joined the Wai Foundation Board on December 1, 2020. She is a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank’s Education Global Practice. With over 20 years’ experience at the World Bank, she has led education projects and analytical work in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa Regions. Passionate about education for all, Harriet championed and managed World Bank education projects which resulted in a significant increase in enrollment at both primary and secondary education in Uganda. Harriet holds a PhD in Education from the University College Cork, Ireland.
Prof. Ibrahim J. Wani is an independent consultant. He joined the Board in 2016 and brings a wealth of international experience to the Dunstan Wai Foundation. Prof. Wani retired from the United Nations in 2015, after a distinguished career spanning nearly a decade in senior global leadership positions, most recently as the Director of the Human Rights Division at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Before that, he was the Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also in South Sudan; Chief of the Africa Branch and Director for Research and the Right to Development in Geneva from 2005 to 2013; Eastern Africa Regional Representative of the OHCHR based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa and to the African Union.
Robert Liebenthal is a development economist and manager with 36 years of management and field experience covering Africa, Europe and Central Asia, as well as global and institutional policy issues, mainly at the World Bank. Since returning to Zambia in 2002, he has held various positions, including national coordinator for the Millennium Challenge Account Zambia (MCAZ) under the Ministry of Finance and National Planning and Co-Country Director for Zambia for the International Growth Centre (IGC). From 2011 to 2015 he was vice president of the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ). He has carried out consultancy assignments for the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, African Development Bank, African Centre for Economic Transformation and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
Ian Porter joined the Board of the Wai Foundation in September 2023. He has spent most of his career at the World Bank, working mainly on countries in Africa and East Asia and including work in the education sector. More recently and since retiring from the World Bank, he has focused an increasing amount of his time on education issues in developing countries, including chairing the Board of Directors of a foundation for early childhood development in Thailand. He splits his time between Washington DC and Bangkok, Thailand.