Leila Mohamed: Nurturing Africa’s brilliant young female leaders and living authentically
[bctt tweet=”I am unafraid of mistakes, I gauge my growth by how fast I make mistakes in a given week” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] Leila Mohamed is a wordsmith, a loving soul and a force to reckon with in education, health care, and organizational leadership. She heads admissions and strategic partnerships for the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund; an organization that has sent brilliant African women to universities in the United States, across Africa and Europe for the past 15 years. Leila has interacted with ambassadors, and rubbed shoulders with top business and humanitarian leaders including the serial entrepreneur Dr. Chris Kirubi, Eva Muraya (CEO Brand Strategy and Design Group), Connie Nielsen (Actress and Co-Founder of The Human Needs Project), Diana Ofwona (UN Women Regional Director for West and Central Africa), just to name a few, in a bid to create networks to help Zawadi Africa in its commitment to its scholars. She graduated from St. Lawrence University and has a Master’s in Public Health Management from the University of Southern Maine in the United States. SLA contributor Kerubo Wall, also a Zawadi alumna, has known Leila for the past five years. She caught up with Leila to highlight the crucial work she does. Who is Leila Mohamed? I was born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya and I am the second born in a family of seven children. I enjoy running, creating value at work and for people I care about. Most importantly, I enjoy being authentic and braver every day. I spent a significant part of my life in the US for my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees through the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund – an organization that secures full scholarships for African high school graduates with leadership potential and coaches them throughout their academic and professional journeys. What gets me out of bed every day is the allure of progress. Not only for personal and professional development but also for my immediate family, my Zawadi Africa family and the opportunity to be impacted by the powerful stories of the young girls we work with in our offices and in the high schools we visit. You head alumnae relations for Zawadi Africa, what are the greatest aspects of this job? What are your fondest experiences? Alumnae relations is a significant part of what I do at Zawadi Africa. We have an all women team running the program and my colleagues are passionate about women’s empowerment. I love to win, so it is exciting to work with other diligent women to create opportunities for our scholars. Shoutout to my colleagues, Eva Ntalami, Lilian Kwamboka, Hajara Musah and Rose Nyaondo. As a Zawadi Africa alumna, I feel a special connection to this transformational program as it directly impacted my life for the better. As the alumni relations lead, I support a team of Zawadi Scholars to organize our annual US leadership conferences. I enjoy this role because it involves paying attention to the needs of our scholars and finding ways to amalgamate those needs into a theme and list of speakers who would speak to their current needs. [bctt tweet=”As a Zawadi Africa alumna, I feel a special connection to this program as it impacted my life for the better” via=”no”] At our leadership conferences, our scholars are inspired to discover and use their strengths and passions to invest economically, socially and academically in Africa. The opportunity to spend time interacting with, and asking questions of key leaders in various industries is often life-changing for these young women, many of whom are the first to attend college in their families. Our past speakers have included Mr. John Pepper (Retired CEO of Procter and Gamble), Atsango Chesoni (Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission), PLO Lumumba (Former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director), Patricia Ithau (Regional Director Stanford Seed – Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kenya), Suzan Kereere (Head of Global Merchant Client Group – Visa), and Peter Nduati (CEO – Resolution Health), just to name a few. This year, Zawadi Africa celebrates 15 years of giving the gift of higher education to more than 350 incredible young female leaders across Africa and mentoring over 20,000 high school girls. To celebrate this landmark, Zawadi Africa is stepping up its fundraising to reach higher heights and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight our GoFundMe page as a convenient means that friends can support us through. Please do consider helping our noble cause of creating a pipeline of Africa’s next generation of women leaders. To the people who have supported us, we thank you. You post a lot on your social media about authentic living. Could you speak to that? Most of what I talk about in my social media can be summarized by a quote by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, “… It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.” I am passionate about growth beyond the realities of our destruction -particularly the excellence an individual brings to their area of work and/or relationships. The Philosophy of Living intrigues me -how do we thrive despite life’s successes and turmoil. The separation of one’s worth from one’s gains or losses. Maintaining one’s sanctity of humanity and joy despite what it is you acquire or lose externally. Tough times shape us into stronger beings, and more importantly, the constant reflection and being connected to one’s own humanity helps us understand the ultra-complexity of people. The beginning and end of living an authentic life is not only practicing being true to oneself, which is a moment to moment agenda, but also being humble and being open to feedback. This is what I reflect mostly about on social media with my family and friends. The things I analyze are simple, from random conversations with family members, a