Darren Smith, Chair

Darren Smith is a Portfolio Manager at 337 Frontier Capital. He is a finance professional with over 15 years of experience, namely in emerging markets in Africa. A native of Canada, Darren received his Bachelors in finance from Bishop’s University in Quebec

Ambassador Jeanine Jackson, Vice Chair

Jeanine Jackson is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer and a retired Colonel of the U.S. Army Reserve. She was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Malawi in 2011 where she led a $250 million development, governance and security assistance program.   As U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso from 2006-2009, she improved military cooperation and increased infrastructure and development assistance.  She is most proud of the $13 million Millennium Challenge Corporation program to improve educational outcomes, particularly for girls, by building 132 elementary schools and implementing complimentary interventions.  Ambassador Jackson has been a key player in activities related to creating, adapting, rebuilding and reopening U.S. Embassies.

Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Ambassador Jackson worked in Saigon as a civil service employee in the Office of the U.S. Defense Attaché and then served 10 years as an active duty Army officer, primarily in Germany and Korea.  She continued her military service for an additional 20 years as a reservist while pursuing her Foreign Service career.

Since 2015 Ambassador Jackson has worked part-time for the U.S. Army’s Mission Command Training Program, training and mentoring thousands of  military leaders on the importance of working with the U.S. Government Interagency and International Organizations during both peace and war situations.

Ambassador Jackson earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education from Hastings College, Nebraska followed by a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.  She is an accomplished musician.  She met her husband Mark when they were both Army Lieutenants serving in Germany.  He is a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Reserve and is also a retired member of the Senior Foreign Service. Enamored of Africa’s cultures, they have independently traveled more than 30,000 miles overland on the African continent.  She is the recipient of many Superior Honor Awards, Senior Foreign Service Performance Pay commendations, and the Presidential Rank Award.

Zokeseh Labala, Treasurer

Zokeseh Labala is a Senior Business Analyst at WestEd. A finance and accounting professional with over ten years of experience, Zokeseh currently works as an internal consultant analyzing current finance processes and implementing business process improvement initiatives. Prior to his role at WestEd, Zokeseh served in a corporate finance capacity at non-profit American Institutes for Research and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Passionate about helping under-resourced Washingtonians reach their college-ready and professional goals, Zokeseh has served as an academic mentor for DC middle and high-school students for the last seven years through the College Bound program. Zokeseh received a Master of Science in Finance (MSF) from Loyola University Maryland and will complete his Master of Science in Accountancy (MACCY) from the George Washington University in the fall of 2018.

Marcella Distrutti, Secretary 

Marcella joined the joined the Social Protection and Health Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2014, first as part of the Young Professionals Program, in the Bank’s Dominican Republic Country Office, and later as Health Specialist.

Before joining the IDB, Marcella worked in the Women’s Health Division of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she was involved in developing and supporting the implementation of policies related to sexual and reproductive health. Marcella also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the Clinton Foundation. Her work expanded to states and municipalities across Brazil and in countries such as Guinea Bissau and Rwanda.

Marcella’s current operational and analytical work focuses on topics related to health system strengthening and health financing, as well as sexual and reproductive health and, more recently, malaria. She has an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics and Political Science and a MA in International Development and Economics from Johns Hopkins (SAIS).

Marcella is interested in joining AGE Africa, as part of the Board, because she identifies with the vision. One of its main goals is girls’ empowerment, which is something Marcella has also been striving for in her career, through the health sector. In Marcella’s own words, “empowering women and girls, increasing their human capital, and preparing them for the future, contributing to ensure that they can reach their full potential, is a vision that resonates deeply with me in my own work. I would like the opportunity to continue working towards this goal, through the education sector.”

Over the years, Marcella has supported the work of different organizations, mostly in the health sector, but is interested in service and contribute more directly to an organization’s mission. “Joining AGE Africa’s Board would be an opportunity for me to realize this intention and to give back. Given my professional background in government and multilateral organizations, and my experience with project design and implementation, I believe I would be able to contribute and add value to your work, including setting the strategic agenda and providing oversight to operations. I believe I would be able to bring a different perspective to discussions and support the group’s work across its projects. Please consider my candidacy”.

H.E. Ambassador Edward Yakobe Sawerengera

Ambassador Sawerengera has just completed a successful tour of duty as Ambassador of Malawi to the Federative Republic of Brazil, during which he facilitated and signed, on behalf of his Government, the Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Agreement between Brazil and Malawi. Prior to this, Ambassador Sawerengera worked as Director General for State Residences (Chief of Staff). While at State House, Ambassador Sawerengera established favorable and constructive working relationships with various sections of the Presidency, including State House, the President´s Advisory Team, and the Office of the President and Cabinet.

Ambassador Edward Yakobe Sawerengera has had a remarkable and distinguished career in public and private sector management in Malawi. For 20 years, Ambassador Sawerengera worked at the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), a state marketing agency, where he rose through the ranks to the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Operations. He worked tirelessly to ensure efficient and reliable markets for smallholder farmer outputs, and provision of adequate farm inputs at all ADMARC depots.

In the past 15 years, Ambassador Sawerengera has held several executive leadership positions including; Deputy Chief Executive Officer of David Whitehead & Sons (DWS), a textile Company; Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), a strategic grain reserve for the state; and Executive Director of Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), a government project designed to finance self-help community projects and transfer cash through safety net activities.

Ambassador Sawerengera holds a Diploma in Agriculture from Bunda College of Agriculture of the University of Malawi (1975), a Post-Graduate Certificate in Agricultural Marketing and Supply from Loughborough Cooperative College-UK (1986), and an MBA in Strategic Management from Strathclyde Graduate Business School-UK (1997). He is a strategic thinker with excellent negotiation skills, and the ability to build partnerships and networks with relevant stakeholders. Throughout his career, Ambassador Sawerengera has achieved productivity improvement and turned non-performing operations around.

His Excellency Edward Y. Sawerengera presented his letters of credence to the United States on 16 September, 2016. He is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Malawi to the United States on a residential basis. He is also accredited on a nonresidential basis to the Bahamans, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Ambassador Sawerengera is happily married.

Aubryn Allyn Sidle

Aubryn is a Doctoral student and Cornell Fellow at Cornell University where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Development Sociology. Aubryn has a technical background in life skills and girls’ education program design with a particular focus on secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa. As a researcher she is focused on understanding the impact of soft-skills and gender rights programming on marginalized and rural girls’ educational and health outcomes. As a practitioner, she works to amplify the voices of small, local and locally focused NGOs in the global policy conversation on girls’ education.

From 2010-2016 Aubryn served as the Executive Director of AGE Africa, where she built an innovative and scalable program model for girls’ retention and achievement in secondary school in Malawi. Under her leadership AGE Africa’s programs and resources expanded at an average of 30% per annum, and the AGE Africa’s signature after school program CHATS, achieved global recognition as a promising practice in girls’ secondary education by the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nation’s Girls’ Education Initiative and others.

Aubryn has served in an advisory capacity on issues of governance, program design, and fundraising to several startup NGOs and US-based nonprofits, including the Tiba Foundation and the Grace Youth Center, in Tenants Harbor Maine. She has served on the boards of Peachtown School in Aurora, NY, and the program committee of the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, California. Most recently, she served on the Steering Committee of the Coalition for Adolescent Girls in Washington, D.C. She earned her Master of Science in Development Management at the London School of Economics where she focused her research on organizational design and the barriers to participatory programming for youth service delivery NGOs.  Aubryn obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in Anthropology and Africana Studies, magna cum laude.

Margaret Mwanza Gadabu

Margaret Mwanza Gadabu is currently the Head of Chancery at the Malawi Embassy in Washington DC. She has over 9 years of experience in diplomacy and international relations. She works with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Malawi. Her areas of interest include understanding Foreign Policy and its implications on social-economic development, as well as harnessing trade opportunities for development. She is passionate about supporting the girl child to develop to her fullest potential and believes in equity and equality for everyone. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from the University of Malawi, and a Master of International Relations from the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Jeni Gamble

Dr. Jeni Gamble has spent more than 20 years working to improve policies, systems, and services for the most marginalized and vulnerable throughout the US and globally, including survivors of gender-based violence, marginalized children and youth, and those experiencing homelessness. Gamble currently serves as the Assistant Dean and Director of Field Education & Experiential Learning, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work. She holds a BA from the University of Kentucky and an MSSW and Ph.D. degrees from the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. She is also board secretary for Finn Church Aid Americas, Finland’s largest humanitarian aid and development organization, and an Ambassador (KY) for the United State of Women.

A Kentucky native, Gamble’s early nonprofit work focused on eliminating gender-based violence and improving criminal justice and victim service programs. After moving to Washington, DC., she focused on global and girls’ education policy, practice, and research and served as the Associate Director of the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution. During this time, she accelerated the policy priorities of one of Brookings’ fastest-growing research centers, co-chaired the Girls CHARGE collaborative of more than 60 global organizations, and contributed to various public sector safety and education plans, including the United States Global Strategy To Empower Adolescent Girls. She has held leadership positions with both national and local organizations, such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness (DC) and the Center for Women and Families (KY), and often consults with organizations around social entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategic planning and growth. Gamble held a previous faculty appointment at the West Virginia University School of Social Work. Gamble lives in Lexington, KY, and is an avid runner, crafter, sewist, and craft beer enthusiast.

Sruti Patel

Sruti grew up in Kenya and attended school there until moving to England with her family to continue her education. At the London School of Economics, she studied International Relations and the Politics of Empire. This propelled her into the world of finance with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Her most recent adventure has been at EFG Hermes. She joined in 2017 as Head of Frontier Equity Sales. Before EFG Hermes, she was Head of Equity Sales at Exotix. She was responsible for building out the firm’s international client franchise and sales platform, initially based in London and New York. She previously worked on the Equity Sales team at Africa’s largest bank, Standard Bank, where she set up an international client base for sub-Saharan equities from London. Rewinding further, she was a research analyst covering sub-Saharan financials at Renaissance Capital. In her own words, “you can take the girl out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the girl!” She considers it her obligation and privilege to promote and contribute to the development of sub-Sahara Africa. From its capital markets to transferring skills to women in the local financial industry to providing girls with the same opportunities and support that she was lucky to have. Over the last five years, she focused on Corporate Social Responsibility at the firms she’s worked at, leveraging off their platforms to promote organizations whose causes are aligned with hers, who deliver measurable results, and above all who can be trusted.

Rodrigo Briceno

Rodrigo Briceno, CFA is a Managing Director at Invictus Capital Partners.  He joined the firm in 2012 and is responsible for executing Invictus’s securitization strategy.

Mr. Briceno has overseen the issuance of over $15 billion of residential mortgage loans across thirty-five securitizations under the Verus shelf. With this help, Invictus became the first Non-QM issuer to have its inaugural transactions rated AAA by three different rating agencies. His primary responsibilities include managing the rating process, security structuring, bond investor marketing and underwriters/legal coordination.

During his time at Invictus, Mr. Briceno also helped manage and report on the $2.0 billion RMBS portfolio. A native from Chile, he holds an MBA from The George Washington University where he was the Men’s Tennis Assistant Coach and a B.A. in business administration from Wichita State University.   Rodrigo has participated in the past two editions of the AGE Africa ride for Malawi where he learned about the challenges faced by young women in Malawi to get an education and is committed to make an impact by joining AGE’s board.