Leila Janah and Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro join CARE’s board of directors to further its mission of empowering women and girls in the fight against global poverty
ATLANTA (October 9, 2012) – Two innovative women renowned for their groundbreaking work to improve the lives of women and girls around the world have joined the board of directors at CARE, the global poverty-fighting organization announced today. Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource, a nonprofit organization that connects women and youth living in poverty to income-generating work via the Internet was elected to CARE’s board of directors in September. She was joined by Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, a public foundation which seeds, strengthens, links and supports women’s rights organizations. Their directorships bring the number of CARE directors to 24.
“We are so pleased that Leila and Musimbi have joined the board,” said W. Bowman Cutter, the chairman of CARE’s board of directors. “They are both expert in the roles that girls and women play in the fight against global poverty, collectively bringing more than three decades of experience with international organizations to our board.”
Janah’s Samasource, for example, links poor women and youth to microwork – small, computer-based tasks taken from a larger project. To date, Samasource has connected over 3,000 people to $2 million in living wages in nine countries around the wold.
Prior to Samasource, Janah was a visiting scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice and Australian National University’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. A Harvard University graduate, she was a founding director of Incentives for Global Health, an initiative to increase research and development spending on diseases of the poor, and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Company).
“CARE helps over 100 million of the world’s poorest people become self-sufficient. I’m honored to join a board of leaders committed to serving them, and to tackling the biggest humanitarian challenges of our time,” Janah said.
Dr. Kanyoro is President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, a public foundation which seeks to achieve universal human rights for women and girls by seeding and strengthening women-led organizations worldwide. Global Fund for Women grants help to expand the choices available to women and girls and ensure their voices are heard at local, national and international levels. A passionate advocate for social change philanthropy, women and girls’ health and rights, Dr. Kanyoro recently served as the Director of Reproductive Health and Population at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and prior to that was the first woman from the global south to serve as general secretary (CEO) of the World YWCA, the coordinating body of all national YWCAs in the world. Before moving to California, Dr. Kanyoro lived in Geneva, Switzerland for 20 years.
She is a member of the Aspen Institute Leaders Council and the UNFPA/IPPF High level taskforce for Reproductive Health and the Global Committee of the Council on Foundations. Dr. Kanyoro has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin and Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary and was a visiting Scholar at Harvard University.
“The work that CARE does is key to the work that we do at the Global Fund and I hope to bring that experience to my board service,” said Kanyoro. “I look forward to our work together.”
Media Contacts: Atlanta:
Nicole Harris, CARE, nharris@care.org, 1.404.979.9503, 1.404.735.0871