For more than 25 years Sujatha has worked as an activist, organizer, and scholar in a range of social justice movements and is a leading voice on new practices in movement building with a focus on race, gender, innovation, and human genetics.
A professor of professional practice in Management, Sujatha is also the founder and faculty advisor for Social Movements + Innovation. A serial start-up leader, she was the Executive Director of CoreAlign, a reproductive justice organization teaching innovation for social change to frontline activists, which she founded in 2012. And before that, she was the founder and Executive Director of Generations Ahead, highlighting the social justice and eugenic implications of emerging genetic technologies.
In her work, Sujatha focuses on forging unlikely collaborations and looking past forced simplifications at the intersection of issues too often considered separately. Sujatha has worked skillfully with a broad and diverse range of leaders, community members, activists, scholars, researchers, and academics, listening for patterns and trends to prepare for the challenges around the corner and into the future.
Sujatha holds a Masters and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Jamila Sykes is a healthcare management executive who designs and leads teams to implement strategic change initiatives that promote innovation and inclusivity.
Jamila serves as Director of Strategy for Health Plan Operations at Highmark Health, the second-largest integrated healthcare delivery system in the United States that is transforming the way people interface with both payors and providers. Prior to her current role, Jamila served as Chief of Staff to the CEO at Crisis Text Line, a leading health tech innovator using data to customize rapid-response crisis intervention services through digital platforms. As the crossfunctional initiatives lead for the executive team, she implemented strategies to simultaneously scale operations and improve quality of care. She continues to serve as a volunteer Crisis Counselor.
Prior to Crisis Text Line, Jamila worked in health information systems project implementation with Accenture’s Health & Public Service practice. In her previous roles she was a Public and Government Affairs Advisor at ExxonMobil and Global Health Program Manager at Yale University, where she developed health systems improvement strategies with ministries of health in Ghana, Uganda, Brazil, and Trinidad. During her formal education she worked at Georgetown University Hospital, GBC Health, The Economist, and the African Development Bank.
Jamila holds a Master of International Affairs and Health Policy and Management from Columbia University and a B.A. in Arabic and Pre-Medical Studies from Georgetown University. Jamila is passionate about building cross-cultural understanding, tackling complex problems, and elevating art of the African diaspora.
Bill is a Managing Director at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. As a Managing Director of the Foundation, he plays a lead role in sourcing new investments and working with the leadership of those organizations as an operating partner and board member as they grow to build capacity and to achieve their maximum impact.
Bill is a physician, entrepreneur, and leader in global health. As a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, he established a research program on diagnostics and operational research in global health. He left Harvard in 2003 to become the Chief Medical Officer of the William J. Clinton Foundation, where he helped broker pricing agreements of HIV drugs and diagnostic tests between African and Asian governments and the major suppliers. He was the founding CEO of Daktari Diagnostics, a for-profit social venture focused on the diagnosis of the diseases of poverty, and most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND), a public-private partnership for global health based in Geneva, Switzerland.
He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, more than a dozen national government organizations on global HIV and tuberculosis treatment, as well as numerous start-up for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises, focused on global health and workforce training.
Bill holds a B.Sc. in neuroscience from Brown University, an M.D. from Yale University, and completed training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Harvard Medical School.
Gerald Abila is the Founder and Executive Director of BarefootLaw. An Attorney, Legal Futurist and Consultant on Law and Technology
He strongly advocates for the adoption of technology by the legal profession, and has delivered a number of talks, including the United Nations and Ted X on various topics including the role of technology and innovation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
He was named among the Top 100 Legal Consultants and Strategists in the world for 2016 by the Law Dragon, one of the leading legal publications in New York, USA for his use of internet and technology to transform the legal profession.
In addition to being an Echoing Green Fellow, he is a Draper Richards Kaplan Entrepreneur and recipient of a number of honors including Legal Rebel by the American Bar Association, Young Achiever awards as well as a Laureate of the African Development Prize by the King Baudouin Foundation.
Gerald, who graduated at the top of his class, holds a Bachelor of Laws, as well as a diploma in legal practice
Claire is a Rotarian, a UK trained lawyer and an advocate of the High Court of Uganda. She is a Commissioner for Oaths and Notary Public with over twelve years’ experience in legal practice.
She previously working with Kampala Associated Advocates, an associate of renowned Dentons (Formerly Denton Wilde Sapte), and the world’s largest law firm being a leading international law firm based in UK and USA.
Claire has previously acted as counsel and relationship manager to a number of leading multi-national companies operating and/or engaged in transactions in Africa such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, African-Import Export Bank (Afrexim Bank). Not to mention regional companies like SABMiller, Tullow Oil Operations Pty, Total E& P Uganda B.V, Toyota Uganda, Helios Towers, AECOM Government Services et al.
Claire is a consultant of the World Bank and regularly participates in their Survey Projects. She is a contributing member of the World Bank Doing Business Project for Uganda, regularly writes articles in her specialist fields and presents at seminars and training events. She has published articles on topical legal matters.
She has undertaken professional training courses on the FIDIC construction contracts and international commercial arbitration. She is also an external examiner of the Post Graduate Bar Course at the Law Development Center.
Denis Kakembo is the Managing Partner at Cristal Advocates where he also leads the energy and tax practice. He is qualified both as a Lawyer and Chartered Accountant with vast experience serving various industries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Before joining Cristal Advocates, he had worked for close to 10 years with Deloitte and Touche where he started his career and rose to senior managerial positions. At Deloitte, he lived and worked in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom for over 6 years and subsequently became the firm’s chief of staff for the Energy and Resources Industry Group seeing him play a lead advisory role in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Denis is widely published and a regular commentator in the local, regional and international media and speaker at various forums regarding the taxation and financing of energy projects as well as the protection of large capital projects within the framework of international investment law.
He holds a Master of Laws degree in Petroleum Taxation and Finance from the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University
