Who We Are (original)

Our team

GambiaRising is a small, committed team of Gambians and Americans working to make it possible for deserving Gambian students to stay in school. Every dollar of new donations for scholarships goes directly to support the students; a Board member pays all overhead, and none of our team receive any pay for their work on behalf of those we serve. Currently, we support more than 2,000 students in more than 80 different Gambian schools from nursery school through Gambia College and the University of The Gambia.

Mike McConnell

Mike began an informal scholarship program while serving as Country Director for Peace Corps in The Gambia from 2007 through 2009. In 2010, the program was formally organized and registered as GambiaRising with him as Managing Trustee. Prior to serving in The Gambia, he was an educator, CEO of several technology companies in Silicon Valley, and co-founder of Niman Ranch, a leading brand of family-farmed, humanely-raised meat. He has served on several Boards of young technology companies and was on the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund for six years. In 1967, while with the Fulbright program in India, he helped start the Samanvay School in Bodh-Gaya, and remains a supporter of that institution.

Kebba Sanyang

Kebba Sanyang is UpCountry Program Coordinator for GambiaRising and a Director of Gambia Rising Gambia. Kebba is also the Quality Coordinator for the Catholic Education Secretariat along the south bank of the River Gambia. Prior to that, Kebba was Principal of St. Therese's Basic Cycle and Senior Secondary Schools in Fula Bantang, Central River Region, where GambiaRising has been most active in supporting students as well as the school. One of the most dynamic educators in the country, he is passionate about education, committed to the students, and is one of the best school administrators in The Gambia. Despite other opportunities being available to him, he has stayed in remote Fula Bantang to be part of creating a center of excellence there.

Maimuna Baldeh

Maimuna studied at St. Therese's in Fula Bantang, then Armitage Sr. Secondary School, and after teaching for one year at St. Therese's in Fula Bantang, enrolled at the University of The Gambia, where she earned her Bachelor's degree with support from GambiaRising. Maimuna now works in the IT Department at Trust Bank, and coordinates GambiaRising's program from Banjul through Kanifing, plus our program for students at GTTI, Gambia College, and UTG. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Gambia Rising Gambia.

Lamin Cham

Lamin Cham is the Peace Corps' IT Specialist and is a member of the Board of Directors of Gambia Rising Gambia. Reliable, committed and professional, in his spare time, he assists GambiaRising both with its banking and paying school fees for some of the students we support in the Kombo (the capital area) and also as its IT advisor in The Gambia. Lamin also coordinates the receipt of student and school supplies from the U.S. (Nb: although Lamin is employed by Peace Corps and a number of returned and current Peace Corps volunteers assist with our program, there is no formal relationship between Peace Corps and GambiaRising, and Lamin and others work on the program on their own time.)

Alieu Gaye

Alieu is from Misera, where he formerly taught at the Misera Basic Cycle School and then became Assistant Head Teacher at Kuli Kunda Lower Basic School. in 2020, he organized the construction of a new school in the remote village of Brikamanding, funded by donations through GambiaRising, and was named the first head teacher of that school. He also instituted adult literacy programs at several schools in the Lower River Region, with a focus on teaching mothers to read and write, while also promoting education for all the children of the village. Alieu has long been active in promoting the protection of girls and fighting FGM. In 2023, Alieu was named the Head Teacher at Massembe Lower Basic School, near the Peace Corps training center.

Ebrima Sanneh

After interning at Peace Corps The Gambia for one year, Ebrima became one of the first scholarship recipients of GambiaRising. Having graduated with a degree in accounting, he now directs Ascend Together, a student enrichment program founded by returned Peace Corps volunteers. (He also works part time as an accountant.) Ebrima lives in Sinchu Alhagie, north of the Banjul airport, and coordinates our program for more than a dozen schools in the area. Ebrima is also a member of the Board of Directors of Gambia Rising Gambia. You can read more about his work here: http://createsend.com/t/t-BD7D31653F375EFD

Isatou Camara

Isatou is a teacher at St. Matthew’s Lower Basic Cycle School in Kaimo. She also lives with her son at the school. Isatou is responsible for students in the catchment area of St. Matthew’s School as well as Sibanor. She has also helped a teacher from St. Matthew's go back to Gambia College to get their degree, with support from GambiaRising.

Natoma Camara Sillah & Mpahoreh Sillah

Sabi is a largely Serahule community south of the town of Basse in the Upper River Region. When 3 Peace Corps volunteers who had served in Sabi wanted to start a scholarship program there, we agreed to help. Working with Kebba Sanyang, a Nurse from Banjul, Mpahoreh Sillah, agreed to coordinate things on the ground. When Mpahoreh traveled to the U.S. for further study, his wife Natoma, also a nurse in Basse, offered to take on the responsibilities of coordinating, and expanding, the program in Sabi.

Tumani Danjo

Tumani is a senior teacher at Kunkujang Keitaya Lower Basic Cycle School, and when he heard that someone in a neighboring village was helping children go back to school, he came to find out more. He began working with Ebrima Sanneh doing one simple thing: documenting when children stopped coming to school and finding out why. He visits their homes, documents the causes, and recommends new students to Ebrima for consideration for our program. He is a tireless advocate for the children of his school.

Father Moses Drammeh

Father Moses was the dedicated National Coordinator for GambiaRising after Father Jean's departure and into 2018, handling funds distribution, student selection, prioritizing appeals, and liaison with supported students in the Kombo districts around the capital. Father Moses was stationed in Lamin, between the airport and the capital, and is the Rector of the Seminary at St. Peter's. After a two-year hiatus while undertaking a graduate program at Duquesne University, Father Moses returned in 2020 to re-join our more de-centralized network of Coordinators, based at St. Peter's.

Rafael Jawo

Rafael is a key member of the School Management Committee in Fula Bantang; his grandfather was the founder of St. Therese's school there. He is also a retired agriculturalist and taken a number of students into his home so they could attend St. Therese's. When you see tree planting anywhere in the Fula Bantang area, it is likely that Rafael's nursery was involved. His vision is driving the agricultural program at the new senior secondary school being built with our support in Fula Bantang.

Mariama Jallow Minteh & Ebrima Minteh

Originally from Fula Bantang, Mariama now teaches at Lamin Daranka Lower Basic Cycle School. Working with her husband Ebrima (a former Peace Corps intern who is now the Housing Assistant at the U.S. Embassy), they are helping more than 150 students from their home of Lamin Daranka to enroll in (or go back to) school. Mariama has also helped several teachers from Lamin Daranka go back to Gambia College to get their certificate.

Isatou Kanteh

Isatou Kanteh is from Diabugu-Tenda in the Upper River Region, and married into Sakolly Kunda.

She is a tailor and happy to be a community coordinator for Gambia Rising.

Yaya Sonko

Yaya was GambiaRising's first in-country co-ordinator, after Mike and Father Jean moved to the U.S. and Senegal respectively. While doing so, Yaya worked at Peace Corps in the Finance and Training departments. Yaya now resides in Massachusetts and works at a benefits administration company. But when he is not working there, he is our Student Records Coordinator, updating student records, and organizing their videos and photos from all our Gambia-based team.

Bjorn Betzler

Bjorn is a member of Gambia Rising's Board of Trustees. He was an agriculture and natural resource management volunteer with Peace Corps in the Gambia from 2007 to 2009. Post Peace Corps, Bjorn earned a masters degree from Tulane University. He is an experienced humanitarian specializing in food security, with experience in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and globally. He currently works for Save the Children as an Emergency Food Security advisor out of his home base in the rural Southwestern UK, where he and his partner have a very small farm.

Brian Carroll

Brian is a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees. He served in the agricultural sector of Peace Corps The Gambia from 2007 to 2009, working in the rural upcountry promoting the use of various agroforestry techniques, while also spending time working with a women's skills training center. Currently, he is a Client Representative with IBM focused on bringing technology-based solutions to healthcare organizations in New England.

Marnie Florin

Marnie is a member of Gambia Rising's Board of Trustees. Marnie was a Health and Community Development Volunteer with the Peace Corps in the Gambia from 2008 to 2010. While there, Marnie focused on grassroots, reproductive health education and worked with a local women's group to build a garden. Currently Marnie works at Google as Diversity Manager.

Philipa Sofia von Kerckerinck

Philipa served as an Education Volunteer for the US Peace Corps in The Gambia from 2007 to 2009, shortly after graduating from Occidental College with a BA in Biology with a Marine Emphasis, and a minor in Religious Studies. This combination of science and spirituality is one that continues to fascinate her to this day. After completing her Master’s Degree in International Affairs and Development at The New School in NYC, she founded Roots Tribe Yoga, newly named InnerConnected, a 501c3 organization that uses yoga, mindfulness, and play to empower children around the world.

Philipa has a passion for inspired philanthropy and impact investing which aligns with her desire to create positive change throughout the world. She is a dedicated student of Yoga, has lived in a myriad cultures around the globe, speaks four languages, and has a deep fascination with the Natural World. Currently residing in Berlin, Germany, Philipa is working as a dog trainer and animal communicator. She continues to explore the importance of flexibility, perseverance, and maintaining a sense of humor when handling life’s adventures.

Joanna LaHaie

Joanna is a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees. She did her Corps service in The Gambia where she was a Math Teacher Trainer at Armitage Senior Secondary School on the island of Janjanbureh. During her service she worked closely with the GambiaRising students who attend Armitage, as well as with Kebba Sanyang to help facilitate the program. Now back in the US, she now works for the U.S. State Department.

Sarah Lee

Since 2008, when she completed her Peace Corps service as an agriculture and forestry volunteer in The Gambia (2005-2007) and in Senegal (2008), Sarah has been running a scholarship fund to support 10-15 students/year from her former Gambian host-village. In 2016 Sarah joined the GambiaRising board and the KAM Scholarship Fund gained GambiaRising's fiscal sponsorship. Sarah's most significant accomplishment during her Peace Corps service was leading a team of Gambian government staff and American volunteers to expand a school tree-growing competition to all regions of The Gambia for the first time. Her work experience includes water policy research in the Middle East, drip irrigation product testing and sales in India for a Silicon Valley start-up, and water program management in sub-Saharan Africa for a Washington DC-based NGO. She holds a BA in sociology from Cornell University and an MS in water resource management from McGill University's bioresource engineering department.

Emily Lundberg

Emily has worked closely with Mike McConnell since GambiaRising's founding, when she was a PhD candidate at Columbia University. Emily worked with Mike and Ebrima Marong to found Working Water Gambia, funded by the U.S. non-profit, Water Charity. She was named COO of Working Charity for its worldwide Water for Everyone program until joining GreenMax Capital in 2022 as Communications Manager.

Erin Miller

Erin was a Peace Corps volunteer for more than three years in The Gambia, from 2006 - 2010. Since returning to the U.S., she has received her Master's degree in Public Affairs and Leadership from the University of Texas, worked with the Human Rights Campaign (for six years) and is currently a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Business Partner at Cruise, Inc.

Maggie Okponobi

Maggie has been a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees serving since 2016. She served as an Education Volunteer with the US Peace Corps in The Gambia from 2012 to 2014. For the next two years she stayed in country and taught Kindergarten/ grade 1 at the Banjul American Embassy School. Since arriving back in the U.S., Maggie has received her MBA and worked in the sales and environmental fields. In addition sitting on community boards, she has mounted several campaigns for the Gambian village school she served in and simply enjoys life with her family.

Josh Shrager

Josh is a member of GambiaRising’s Board of Trustees. He was a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service serving in Mexico and in The Gambia. While in The Gambia, he directed the U.S. Embassy's Public Affairs Office leading outreach efforts, education programs, and media initiatives. Prior, Josh spent five years at the U.S. Department of the Treasury where his roles included serving as the Deputy Treasury Attaché to Saudi Arabia and as the Treasury Director of the Iraq Threat Finance Cell. More recently, Josh was a Director at the artificial intelligence company Quid, Inc. Currently, Josh is a Senior Vice President at the data analytics and technology firm Kharon. Josh also serves as an adjunct professor at American University's School of International Service.

Stephanie Stawicki

Stephanie is a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees. She served as a Health and Community Development Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia from 2007 to 2009, in the village of Patcharr, near Fula Bantang. Currently, Stephanie Stawicki is the Director of Operations for Wharton Online at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In her role, she manages the online course production team and business operations.

Those for whose support we are grateful:

Salieu Taal

Salieu Taal is President of the Gambia Bar Association. Since we met him in 2017, he has supported our students and the development of the legal structure for our Gambian organization. His advice and counsel have been invaluable.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/salieu-taal-75b6305/

Alieu Ceesay

Alieu Ceesay is a Gambian telecommunications engineer living both in Maryland and Kotu. He has provided an invaluable service to GambiaRising and our students by sharing unused space in containers that he ships from time to time, so that we can provide refurbished laptops to our highest-achieving college students, and hard-to-find equipment for Gambian schools.

Dr. Emil Kujabi and Dawda Faye

Dr. Kujabi is the Catholic Education Secretary, and "Godfather" of the new senior secondary school in Fula Bantang. He is a tireless advocate for students and education and manages all the former Catholic mission schools in The Gambia, which are now part of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education's public-school system.

Dawda Faye is Education Officer for the Secretariat and a key administrator at the Secretariat. He worked with Matthew Gomez to extend our program to the North Bank Region, visiting families there, assessing cases, and recommending students for the program. And when it comes to questions of school construction and improvement, Dawda is alreadys ready to help, designing buildings, creating budgets and plans, and making sure that things go smoothly.

Emeritus: those who have helped us along the way:

The "Founding Father": Father Jean Diagne - co-founder

Father Jean Diagne is a dedicated priest in the order of Spiritans. Father Jean was parish priest in Bansang from 2006 to 2010, where a Peace Corps volunteer introduced him to us. As parish priest, Father Jean was manager of all mission schools in the Central River Region, but worked tirelessly at St. Therese's. Although he was transferred elsewhere in west Africa in 2011, he continued to coordinate most of the scholarship activities for GambiaRising until handing over the reins to Father Moses in June, 2013. (Please note: there is no formal relationship between the Spiritans or the Catholic Church and GambiaRising, and Father Jean worked and Father Moses works on the program on their own time, supporting students without regard to religion or tribal background.) We are grateful to Father Jean for his role in getting GambiaRising off the ground and helping set its direction.

Cat Janda

Cat was a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2022. She now serves on our Development Council. She served as a Primary Teacher Trainer at Jallow Kunda Lower Basic School in the Central River Region of The Gambia from 2011-2014. Cat worked with the teachers on improving literacy, interactive teaching methods and school leadership. In the community she worked to design income generating projects as well as a women's football organization. Cat arrived back in the US in February 2014 but returned to The Gambia in for six more months as a Peace Corps Response volunteer, working with the Ministry of Education and Peace Corps on monitoring and evaluation. She now works in a youth program in Houston.

Bill Meyers

Bill was a founding member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees and is now a Trustee Emeritus. After retiring from a career as an Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Bill joined Peace Corps where he served as an Education (IT) Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia from 2007-9, teaching at the Gambia Technical and Training Institute (GTTI), and as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2010-11 in Uganda.

Rebecca Spotts

Rebecca was a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees from 2011-16. She served as an Education and Gender & Development Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia from 2006 to 2008, stationed at St. Michael's Basic Cycle School in Njongon. Currently, she is Director of Global Development Program Management at World Learning.

Mark Strohbehn

Mark was a member of GambiaRising's Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2021. He served as an agriculture and micro-enterprise development volunteer with Peace Corps in The Gambia from 2007 to 2009 and spent most of his time working to build the management capacity of a local women's village-level savings and loan program and helping small-holder farmers increase their access to local markets. Currently, Mark is working as Director of the Stabilization and Transitions Unit for GT Global.

Jon Vallee

Jon Vallee loved The Gambia and its people. In his retirement, he travelled there often and worked with his friends to directly benefit upcountry Gambians. In recent years, his focus has been on his partnership with GambiaRising and our UpCountry Coordinator Kebba Sanyang first to improve St. Therese's Basic Cycle School in Fula Bantang, then, when he found out he had only a few years to live, to inspire and organize the building of a senior secondary school in Fula Bantang. Jon left us in early 2017, but his work will continue to benefit young Gambians for generations to come. He was a great friend and partner.

Stephen Weiland

Stephen was a member of GambiaRising’s Board of Trustees from 2017-21 and now acts as a Technical Advisor. He served as an Education sector Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia from 2015 to 2017, in the village of Seno Bajonki, near Soma town. Stephen is a graduate of SIT Graduate Institute, where he earned his master’s degree in sustainable development, and was Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for the International Foundation For Electoral Systems before moving to Tanzania in 2022 to serve as Volunteer Coordinator for the Tanzanian Children's Fund.

THE TEAM

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Regina Martin