Board of Directors

Tasiyiwa Mapondera

Tasiyiwa Mapondera has 12 years of experience managing regional, national and international programs at government, nonprofit and community organizations.

She is currently based in Qatar where she is a consultant to the Qatar Business Incubation Center in programs development and training. Prior to coming to Qatar, Tasiyiwa was based in Washington, DC, where she launched her career as a nonprofit fundraiser in 2005. After three years as a development professional she wanted to engage more directly with the initiatives for which she sourced funding and broadened her professional focus. In 2008 Tasiyiwa transitioned to roles in program management with a focus on education, holding such posts as Director of Programs at Byte Back, a workforce development organization providing computer literacy and IT training to unemployed and underemployed individuals in low-income communities in and surrounding Washington, DC. In that capacity, she managed a team of staff and consultants to execute Byte Back’s case management, job placement and adult and youth education programs. During her tenure, Tasiyiwa established new regional partnerships, increasing the number of sites and individuals served by Byte Back’s programs. Over the course of her career, Tasiyiwa has led cross- functional teams in performing organizational change, strategic planning, program design and implementation, and direct service delivery. She has a passion for building teams and facilitating collaborative efforts to solve problems; establishing win-win partnerships between community, government and corporate sector interests; identifying opportunities to improve processes and maximize results, and; designing and executing human development programs.

Tatu Ilunga

Mr. Tatu Ilunga is a Senior Consultant with more than 12 years of experience working in policy, regulatory, dispute resolution and tax frameworks with IFIs, Multinational Corporations, Government Agencies and Civil Society Organizations in low and middle income countries.

As part of his recent work, Tatu is focusing on exploring structured approach to help implement better fiscal policy, more transparency and accountability, particularly in developing economies with prominent Extractive Industries (“EI”), while maintaining investment attractiveness. Tatu is currently consulting with institutions such as the World Bank, UNECA, the AUC and the Ford Foundation, amongst others, on various tax issues as they relate to EI as well as on the implementation and follow-up of the recommendations of the High Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). Previously a Senior Policy Advisor for Tax and Extractive Industries at Oxfam America, Tatu was responsible for leading Oxfam America’s policy work with a special emphasis on tax justice issues as they relate to the extractive industries. Tatu Ilunga’s legal advocacy for Oxfam focused on strengthening developing countries’ EI tax policies, regulations, resource mobilization, and civil society capacity building and efficiency to hold government accountable in EI programs. Tatu worked closely with Oxfam country programs and civil society partners as they developed and implemented tax justice campaigns in both Africa and Latin America. Prior to joining Oxfam, Tatu was with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the Energy and EI Global Practice at the World Bank. He has also held positions with the International Tax Practice of both KPMG and Ernst & Young in Luxembourg, advising multinational companies on a broad range of cross-border tax issues, tax planning and restructuring including in extractive industries. Tatu has testified on Internal Revenue Services and United States Treasury Department Hearings on tax issues and contributed as a panel member for the General Assembly of the United Nations Economic and Financial Committee. Tatu holds a Master of Laws from George Washington University Law School in International and Comparative Law and a Maîtrise en Droit des Affaires (Juris Doctor equivalent) from the University of Lille 2, France. He is fluent in English and French.

Wendy Kitson-Piggott

Ms. Wendy Kitson-Piggott is a microbiologist by profession, trained at McGill University and the University of Guelph in Canada. She is currently pursuing a Professional Doctorate in Health at the University of Bath in England.

She is a co-founder of the Caribbean Med Labs Foundation at the request of regional Governments in 2008 to provide support for technical and quality systems strengthening in Caribbean medical and public health laboratories and to conduct technical and quality systems implementation research.

Ms. Kitson-Piggott has practiced as a public health professional for some 39 years, gaining local, regional and international experience, starting as a veterinary microbiologist with the Ministry of Agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago. From there she joined the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC/PAHO/WHO), providing technical advisory services as the HIV/ AIDS/STI Laboratory Advisor and Training Manager for a European- funded Project "Strengthening of Medical Laboratory Services in the Caribbean."

Christina Novinskey

Christina Novinskey has 15 years of experience working and performing research on health and social policies and public health issues at local, national and international levels.

Currently, she is based in Kenya, where she wears several hats, not least as a health and social policy consultant, director and co-founder of a non-profit preschool, entrepreneur of “Kambu Chai”, a kombucha tea full of probiotics and other ingredients that promote health, and mother of two healthy and rambunctious boys.

Prior to coming to Kenya and after completing her masters in social policy in 2002, Christina began her career in Washington, D.C., at the World Bank, working on the Onchocerciasis (Riverblindness) Control Program. Following this experience, she began to focus on the area of health within social policy. Christina worked as a health policy consultant for organizations such as Harvard Medical International, the Inter-American Development Bank (for which she was a Young Professional Staff), the PanAmerican Health Organization, the World Bank and WHO European Observatory for Health Systems and Policies. For them, she worked on programs and advised organizations on public health issues, such as their preparedness for avian or swine influenza and HPV vaccination, and on health systems and policies, including health care financing, stewardship, human resources for health, health system performance and decentralization, and improvements to health insurance systems. In her private-sector work, she led the content and due diligence for hospital and clinic infrastructure financing projects. She also strived to forge public-private partnerships projects in health. Her work has taken place on the continents of Africa and South America, and specifically in the countries of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Denmark, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, and Suriname. During this time, she was also a visiting student at Harvard School of Public Health, a US Student Fulbright Fellow to Italy, and she completed her PhD in Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 'Determining Policy Priorities in a Devolved Health System: An Analytical Framework'.

Haroun Habib

Mr. Haroun Habib is a leader with a passion for global health, social justice issues and fostering coalitions that empower others to improve their lives.

Currently, he is the Health Sector Analyst supporting the WHO on health information management in Ethiopia and the Lake Chad region with immap, an international NGO. Previously, as the Sierra Leone Project Manager with the Financing Alliance for Health, he has been involved in identifying and developing sustainable financing solutions for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s Community Health Worker program. Formerly, as the West Africa Regional Coordinator for the Global Health Security Agenda with USAID, he utilized his exemplary leadership skills to coordinate program activities and report program deliverables, craft strategic documents and build partnerships with host country government partners for health system strengthening in the three Ebola-affected West African countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) and other countries in the region. Also, Haroun served as a Senior Global Health Specialist with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, an ASPH/CDC Allan Rosenfield Global Health Fellow with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Zambia, where he focused on Global Program Management. Prior to joining CDC-Zambia, Haroun worked as a Policy Support Officer at the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, a Communications Specialist for an international development consulting company, and as an Analyst at a state public health nonprofit organization. He earned an MPH with a concentration in international health from the Boston University School of Public Health in 2007, and he received a BS in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004. As a public health professional, he has experience in a diverse range of health policy issues on the local, state, national, and global level, from HIV/AIDS, to health disparities and minority health, and refugee health and human rights. Born in California, raised mostly on the east coast of the U.S., and with a family background from Sierra Leone, West Africa, Haroun considers himself a global citizen with knowledge of African affairs and a desire to help bridge the gap between Africa and the diaspora.

Duncan Muguku

Duncan Muguku’s professional background is in Project Administration, Program Management, Contracts Management, Proposal Budget Development, Procurement Management and Grants Management experience.

He has worked in various nonprofit organizations and holds an MBA in Strategic Management. Duncan founded ThriveYard. com in August 2016. Duncan’s roles include writing in-depth blog articles, designing website framework, preparing slides, infographics drafts, video concepts, working with freelance graphic designers and website developer, maintaining website, writing eBooks, social media management, marketing, sales, accounting, developing training courses on career success in the future.