Operations · Gender Lens · Systems Thinking · AI Integration
Operations Strategist for NGOs and Social Enterprises
I help mission-driven organisations run better by combining 10+ years of professional experience across the IT, education, development sectors with a growing expertise in AI-augmented systems that free up people to do work that actually matters.
At a glance
Actively pursuing AI operations skills, including prompt engineering, workflow automation, and AI evaluation frameworks, to bridge the gap between operational leadership and the AI-transformed workplace.
Background
I am an operations leader who thinks in systems. That means I do not just fix the problem in front of me. I look at how the parts connect, where the pressure points are, and what changes at root level will hold over time.
A gender lens runs through everything I do. I ask who benefits, who is left out, and how systems can be designed from the start to include rather than compensate. That orientation comes from direct experience with UNDP Somalia's Gender Unit, in HIV prevention work, and in research with vulnerable communities. It shapes how I approach every operational challenge.
My work is grounded in three core convictions: that education is a pathway to liberation; that meaningful development cannot be achieved without gender empowerment; and that when applied thoughtfully, technology should enhance human capability rather than replace it. I have carried those principles across school operations, international development programmes, census fieldwork, and research coordination.
I am now deliberately adding AI operations skills to that foundation because the organisations doing the most important work in education and gender empowerment deserve the same operational advantages as the private sector, built responsibly and with equity at the centre.
Career journey
What I bring
Ten years of operational experience across education, international development, and social research, now being deliberately extended into AI-augmented work. Here is what I offer today, and what I am building toward.
I can assess how an organisation actually runs, identify where the pressure points are, and design practical improvements that stick. This includes workflow mapping, documentation systems, process redesign, budget management, and change implementation.
This is not advisory work from the outside. I have run operations from the inside, which means I understand what proposals look like when they meet the reality of a Monday morning.
Best suited for NGOs and social enterprises that are scaling, restructuring, or preparing to integrate new technology into existing workflows.
I bring a gender lens to operational work, not as an add-on, but as a design principle. That means asking, from the start, who this system serves, who it excludes, and what it would take to build inclusion in rather than retrofit it later.
This comes from direct experience: mapping gender gaps across UNDP departments in a fragile context, designing differentiated training across literacy levels, conducting research with vulnerable populations, and coordinating programmes where gender equity was a stated goal and not just a footnote.
Best suited for organisations working in gender, health, education, or empowerment who need their operations to reflect the same values as their programmes.
I am building AI fluency with intention and transparency. I have completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education webinar on Machine Learning for Leaders, am working through Claude 101, and am actively building an AI-powered portfolio site where the AI is the product and not a feature bolted on.
I am not yet an AI engineer. What I bring right now is the ability to think clearly about where AI can genuinely help an organisation, where it cannot, and what questions to ask before committing to implementation. That kind of judgment, grounded in real operational experience, is what most AI projects are missing.
As I complete the AI Fluency and nonprofit-specific courses and progress through the PM/Ops specialist track, this section will be updated to reflect what I can actually deliver.
Best suited for organisations curious about AI but unsure where to start, or those who have started and hit friction they cannot diagnose.
Work history
Ten-plus years across operations, research, and international development, with each role building skills that are directly relevant to AI-augmented organisational work in education and gender empowerment.
Led end-to-end school operations for 7+ years, from strategic planning and financial oversight to staff management, process design, and stakeholder engagement. In an education context, every operational decision ultimately affects what children learn and how teachers work.
Supported business development, administrative operations, supply chain, and communications for a development consultancy firm working across social impact sectors.
Co-facilitated virtual learning programmes and developed curriculum content for professional development inside one of India's largest technology companies: early experience at the intersection of technology, education, and organisational change.
Managed census operations for over 1,200 enumerators across Juja Sub-County during Kenya's national census. Population data is the backbone of evidence-based development planning and gender-responsive policy.
Coordinated and managed field research at Kangemi Health Centre targeting 212 participants, supervising a team of six. A study at the intersection of gender, health, and social inequality.
Baseline survey for DFPA on LGBTI youth in Kisumu County. Research at the intersection of gender, identity, and empowerment.
Conducted field research for a multi-country DfID-funded project spanning Nairobi, Dhaka, and Kathmandu. Documentation work tied to human rights, justice, and the empowerment of survivors.
Supported UNDP Somalia's Gender Unit: conducting research, developing training frameworks, and coordinating across departments and UN agencies. A formative experience applying a gender lens inside a large international institution in a fragile context.
Planned, coordinated, and implemented an international training programme funded by SIDA, bridging Swedish programme design with Kenyan environmental governance realities. A direct intersection of operations, environment, and international development.
Lived and worked in India for nearly a year, coordinating virtual learning programmes and supporting a global diversity conference inside one of India's largest IT companies at the time.
Lived and worked in Ghana, as a volunteer, conducting HIV and AIDS peer education and supporting people living with the disease. Work at the intersection of gender, health, and community empowerment.
Academic formation
My formal education has been international from the start; attending an internationally-oriented university in Kenya and, gaining a postgraduate qualification in South Africa. These experiences reflect a long-standing orientation toward crossing borders and contexts.
Concentrated in Industrial/Organisational Psychology and Management. USIU's international student body and American liberal arts framework made this a genuinely cross-cultural educational experience, a foundation that shapes how I understand people, systems, and organisational behaviour to this day.
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, a qualification that formalised skills I had already practised in India and Kenya, and connects directly to my work in education and empowerment. Studying in post-apartheid South Africa added a powerful context for understanding structural inequality and systems-level transformation.
Giving back
A thread running through my entire career: showing up where it matters, even when there is no salary attached. These experiences span education, health, environmental needs, and basic community support; the three pillars made visible.
Ensured consistent monthly water supply for the children's home while addressing food security needs by providing essential staples, beans and maize, as situations required. Practical, unglamorous, necessary work.
Taught English weekly to upper primary school children at the remand centre. Education as a right, even for children the system has already marginalised.
Taught English informally at least once a month to children aged 8 to 18 at the orphanage, while working in Hyderabad. Carrying the education commitment across borders.
Collaborated with a team to support an elderly people's home: engaging residents, fundraising, managing resources, and purchasing essential items.
Conducted HIV and AIDS peer education training in high schools, researched curriculum for youth prevention programmes, and supported self-help groups for people living with HIV/AIDS. Gender and health empowerment in practice.
Writing and thinking
Writing is how I process what I am learning and share it with others navigating the same questions at the intersection of operations, gender, and AI in mission-driven organisations.
Before AI, we called it "silent failure" too, when a process looks correct on paper but something has gone wrong downstream. Here is what operational leadership in education taught me about catching it early.
Coming soonA gender lens is not an add-on to responsible AI, it is foundational. What development sector experience teaches us about designing systems that include by default rather than compensate later.
Coming soonI am not pretending to be an AI expert. I am a senior operations leader who is deliberately and transparently adding AI skills. Here is what that journey actually looks like from Nairobi in 2025.
Coming soonGet in touch
Open to operations consulting, AI readiness engagements, programme management roles, and remote/international opportunities with NGOs and purpose-driven organisations working in education, youth development, public health and social research, gender empowerment and international development.