Rana Dajani is an associate professor of biology and biotechnology at the Hashemite University in Jordan as well as the founder and executive director of We Love Reading, a nonprofit organization that aims to foster the love of reading for pleasure among children. Since founding We Love Reading in Jordan in 2006, she has helped the organization expand into 41 different countries. We Love Reading has received many awards, including the Stars Foundation Impact Award, the UNESCO Literacy Prize, and the King Hussein Medal of Honor.

Ruth Levine is the Program Director of Global Development and Population at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Ruth is an internationally recognized for her work advocating to get policy research in the hands of the people who can use it in government. Ruth is the author of scores of books, and she holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Cornell University and a doctorate degree in economic demography from Johns Hopkins University.

Shashi Buluswar is the co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT). Before founding ITT, Shashi was a Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, an organization which gives strategic advice to governments, the UN, NGOs, and foundations on social issues. In recent years, Shashi has worked with the UN’s Peacekeeping Department to restructure global operations, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch large-scale agricultural development programs in Africa and Asia, and dozens of NGOs fighting for human rights, health, education, and economic empowerment.

Peter Njuguna is the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) manager for the National Organization of Peer Educators (NOPE), an NGO operating in East Africa. As M&E manager, Peter helps NOPE deliver and measure a number of health and social service projects. In addition to his work in M&E, Peter works in information and communications technology (ICT) and programs implementation.  

Barney Singer is a civil society and capacity development leader with more than three decades of experience in the public and private sectors. He has taught these topics at the graduate level and has published numerous resources to support CSOs achieve their missions and enhance their organizational systems.

Julisa Tambunan is the Director of Mercy Corps’ GirlSPARKS, a global training hub that helps organizations and individuals build their skills, knowledge and practices to deliver more effective programming to adolescent girls. Julisa is a licensed psychotherapist with MSc in Child and Adolescent Psychology and a BA in Psychology.

Marty Galindo-Schmith is a Senior Technical Advisor at FHI 360. She has a long history providing capacity-building support to local civil society organizations globally, and has worked in Mozambique, Thailand, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Chad, El Salvador, and Jordan. Marty has developed M&E systems, tools, and processes for projects focused on capacity building, health outcomes, youth empowerment, peace building, and economic development.

Jo-Ann Tan is the creator and Director of +Acumen, the World’s School for Social Change. +Acumen’s courses have reached more than 400,000 social change-makers in 192 countries

Dr. Thomas Wolf’s career in philanthropy spans over four decades. He has been both a fundraiser, a donor and a grantmaker, giving him unique perspectives on multiple elements of philanthropic relationships. He is currently a principal of WolfBrown, an international consulting firm that he helped establish. Wolf holds a doctorate from Harvard University where he taught for many years, including a popular course on fundraising. He is the author of How to Connect with Donors and Double the Money You Raise, Managing a Nonprofit Organization in the 21st Century, Effective Leadership for Nonprofit Organizations, and other books.

Paul Brest is Professor and Dean Emeritus (active) at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. He was previously president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.