Board of Directors

Fatimata Walet Abdoulaye


A native of Mali, Fatimata Abdoulaye was sponsored on a full scholarship to the United States by the Sahara Foundation in June 1998 as one of three young female victims of the Tuareg Rebellion in the northern region of Mali. Today, she holds a B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While attending Mount Holyoke College, Fatimata Abdoulaye co-founded and co-chaired the Women in Engineering Students Society. She was active on the board of the African and Caribbean Association and coordinated tutoring projects in the community. She is currently on the advisory board of the NomadHope Foundation. Ms. Walet Abdoulaye joined JPMorgan Chase in July 2006 as a financial analyst in the Corporate Real Estate Strategy division. She is currently an associate in the Analytics and CFO group in Corporate Treasury at JPMorgan Chase.

Ms. Fatimata Walet Abdoulaye is the Co-Founder and Director of SALAM Global Leadership Training and Beyond.

Khadija Ali

A Somali-Kenyan, Ms. Ali is dedicated to creating equal opportunities for educational excellence. Khadija is a 2007 graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in economics and complex organizations. She currently works at Deutsche Bank as an audit analyst. While at Mount Holyoke, she co-chaired the Mount Holyoke African and Caribbean Student Association and played a large part in planning and executing successful educational events. Khadija is a proud member of Streetwise Partners, a program dedicated to building relationships between motivated low-income individuals and business professionals. Streetwise seeks to pair business professionals who mentor low-income individuals in topics such as workplace skills and employment networks.

Ms. Khadija Ali serves as Treasurer and Director of Finance of SALAM Global Summer Leadership Training and Beyond.
Biiftu Aba-Jebel

Biiftu Aba-Jebel is a native New Yorker of Ethiopian descent who has had a passion for working in the field of International Education since her trip to Costa Rica in 2000 with American Field Service (AFS). During that trip, she spent time in her host sister's high school. Ms. Aba-Jebel is currently employed at the Institute of International Education, where she is a program officer for the Foreign Fulbright scholarship program. The Foreign Fulbright scholarship program places and financially supports international students/researchers who win the Fulbright Scholarship to study at universities or accredited institutions throughout the United States.
Ms. Biiftu Aba-Jebel is the Co-Founder and Director of Operations of SALAM Global Leadership Training and Beyond.

Iyore Ayanru

Born in Nigeria to an American mother and a Nigerian father, Ms. Iyore Ayanru spent her first ten years in Nigeria and after that moved to America. Ms. Ayanru has spent many summers mentoring youth, specifically as a teaching assistant in Upward Bound, a program that provides fundamental support to participants in their preparation for college entrance. Ms. Ayanru graduated from Mount Holyoke with a B.A. in public health disparities. Ms. Ayanru is a health advocate who believes that unique and creative educational strategies are the most important aspect in creating lasting solutions to Africa’s developmental problems, specifically health related. In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Ayanru completed her Fulbright Grant in Ghana in which she researched active compounds found in medicinal plants administered to patients exhibiting HIV opportunistic infections. She currently works in development for Community Healthcare Network, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost health care in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Ms. Iyore Ayanru serves as Director of Communication for SALAM Global Summer Leadership Training and Beyond.

Afua Amoah

A native of Ghana, Ms. Afua Amoah obtained a scholarship in 2002 to attend Mount Holyoke College two years after completing her high school education at Wesley Girls in Ghana. At Mount Holyoke, Ms. Amoah engaged in active mentoring and teaching engagements and passionately supported underrepresented students on campus. She tailored her support to the college level after being appointed a Harriet New Hall Admission Fellow assisting the College Admissions office recruitment efforts in the North Eastern United States and Africa. Ms. Amoah holds a B.A. cum laude in mathematics from Mount Holyoke and a B.E. in engineering from Dartmouth College, Hanover. After Dartmouth, Ms. Amoah, joined BlackRock Financial Management as an analyst in the Financial Institutions Group. As an Alumni Fellow, she recruits for Mount Holyoke in the New York metro area. She is also a member of the Girls Quest Mentoring program in NYC.

Ms. Afua Amoah serves as the Fundraising Director for SALAM Global Leadership Training and Beyond.