The Ford Foundation recently announced the 2024 cohort of the Ford Global Fellowship, a program which aims to connect and support the next generation of leaders from around the world who are advancing innovative solutions to end inequality. The 26 leaders announced today join an existing network of 72 fellows working across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.
Launched in 2020 with an investment of $50 million over 10 years, the foundation’s flagship fellowship program provides emerging leaders with the tools, networks, and solidarity they need to effectively advance social justice. The Ford Global Fellowship focuses on shared learning across issue areas, building and strengthening connections across borders, and developing a supportive, interconnected cohort from across a wide variety of sectors and regions. It aims to build a powerful network of 240 fellows over the course of the program and serve as a catalyst for the fellows to accelerate the impact of their work, individually and collectively.
“We are thrilled to welcome these 26 inspiring individuals into the Ford Global Fellowship community,” said Hilary Pennington, executive vice president of programs for the Ford Foundation. “The Ford Global Fellowship is a hallmark of our commitment to invest in the ideas, individuals, and institutions creating lasting, systemic change. The newest Fellows are courageous leaders in their own right who are both imagining and actively building a more just future. Their lived experiences and insights will be a powerful addition to our global community.”
Central to the Ford Global Fellows initiative is its “community of practice.” Based on principles of co-learning and co-design, the fellows not only learn from each other as peers but also invite the foundation’s grantmakers, grantees, and other networks of leaders from the broader social justice field to learn alongside them. Experiential, place-based learning trips and sessions are organized by fellows from the 11 regions in which Ford operates. The community works to shed light on their interdependent histories and shared challenges in service of creating space for innovation. Each new fellow receives a no-strings-attached $25,000 stipend, alongside individualized coaching, to help grow leadership skills and reach new audiences.
“The community of Ford Global Fellows have expanded each others’ worldviews, challenged their own and our thinking, and posed inquiries that have sharpened our approaches to creating a more just society and fairer systems,” said Adria Goodson, director of the Ford Global Fellowship. “These 26 new Fellows enter a dynamic learning community and will bring their own wisdom and perspectives, contributing to a more complete picture of the work that lies ahead. Together, Fellows will examine their thorniest questions about disrupting inequality and build towards insights, innovations, and actions that will shape a better future.”
The network of Ford Global Fellows represent a broad range of backgrounds, fields, and approaches to addressing inequality, with areas of focus that include promoting equal rights and opportunities for women and girls, securing rights for Indigenous and traditional communities, increasing political and economic power of people with disabilities, and more. Many are from directly impacted communities and emerged as leaders by drawing from their own lived experiences with the challenges of inequality.
The 2024 fellows cohort are:
Allison Yang Jing
Senior Editor, Game Director/Initium Media
United States
Ashura Michael
CEO/Founder, Free a Girl’s World Network
Kenya
Chioma Agwuegbo
Executive Director, TechHerNG
Nigeria
Dedren Snead
Founder, SUBSUME
United States
Eka Putra Nggalu
Artist and Activist, Komunitas KAHE
Indonesia
Farai Morobane
Social Impact and Development Specialist
South Africa
Jean Kassir
Co-founder and Managing Director, Megaphone
Lebanon
Jefferson Barbosa
Journalist
Brazil
Jennifer Avila Reyes
Editor-in-Chief and Cofounder, Contracorriente
Honduras
Jonathan Jackson
Media Entrepreneur, Innovator, Writer
United States
Kanzha Vinaa
Chairperson, Sanggar Swara
Indonesia
Lucía Vijil Saybe
Advisor on Environmental and Ecological Justice, Study Center for Democracy
Honduras
Luciana Viegas
Executive Director, Black Disabled Lives Matter
Brazil
Michelin Sallata
Founder and Program Lead, POMANARA
Indonesia
Musa Kika
Director of External Relations, Institute for Integrated Transitions
Zimbabwe
Namatai Kwekweza
Director, WELEAD Trust
Zimbabwe
Natalia ‘Nati’ Linares
Co-Founder and Artist & Communications Organizer, Art.coop
United States
Nina da Hora
Computer Scientist and Hacker, Instituto da Hora
Brazil
Dr. Okito Wedi
Founder and CEO, Crtve Development
South Africa
Sahar Aloul
Leadership Team, SADAQA
Jordan
Sylvia Arthur
Founder, Library of Africa and the African Diaspora
Ghana
Tania Pariona Tarqui
Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú
Perú
Tatyana Sleiman
Executive Director, Skoun Lebanese Addictions Center
Lebanon
Weixiang Chen
Labor Researcher
United States
Willie Oeba
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ISM Academy
Kenya
Yolo Akili Robinson
Executive Director and Founder, Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective
United StatesTo learn more about the Ford Global Fellows please visit: https://fordf.org/FordGlobalFellows.
