Rumbidzai Chisenga is the Director of Programs at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center). In this role, she leads the Amujae Initiative, the EJS Center’s flagship program, which prepares women to unapologetically take up roles in the highest echelons of public leadership.

She is one of 12 globally identified civic innovators who were part of the inaugural class of the Obama Foundation Scholars Program (2018 -2019), through which she completed a leadership development residency at Columbia University in New York City. Prior to this, she was a Program Manager at the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), a pan-African think tank that advocates for the adoption of Afrocentric approaches in addressing the continent’s socioeconomic development challenges. Ms. Chisenga was instrumental in setting up the MINDS Scholarship Program for Leadership Development, developing the program’s operational processes at inception. She was also in charge of the MINDS Youth Program on Elections and Governance, a civic education initiative that equips African youth for meaningful participation in governance. Under this program, Ms. Chisenga coordinated an alumni network spread across 53 African countries.

Ms. Chisenga has extensive experience working in the private sector as a cross-sectoral management consultant and has previously founded a social enterprise.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Economics and Accounting) from Rhodes University in South Africa and a master’s degree in Management (Entrepreneurship) from Wits Business School in South Africa.

Ms. Chisenga is a member of Global Advisory Boards for WomenLift Health and #ShePersisted. She is an alumna of the Emerging African Leaders Programme (hosted by the University of Cape Town, South Africa) and the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program (hosted by the Policy Center for the New South, Morocco).