Nana Yaa Boakyewaa Amoah

Nana Yaa Boakyewaa Amoah is a Macro-Economist focusing on strategic planning and providing creative-problem solving approaches to start-up and organizational challenges; she advises a wide range of private and public sector clients on socio-economic and human capital investment for growth and impact in sub-Saharan Africa. She has built her expertise in strategic advisory and business coaching over 13 years leading regional & country portfolio management, policy analysis & implementation, private sector engagement, governance, strategic communications and marketing, resource mobilization and advocacy, capacity and systems building, trade and investment, business development, ESG compliance, corporate governance and leadership.

Nana has managed regional USAID programs and UN humanitarian field operations centered on crafting tailored leadership methods across Africa. She works with local and SMEs and MSE businesses, regional economic communities, governments, communities, and donors providing support in capabilities such as strategy and operations, leadership and management, agriculture, food and nutrition security, climate change, resilience-building, women and youth economic empowerment, regional integration and trade and investment.

Nana is actively involved in initiatives that promote human capital enhancement through investment, training, and coaching. Branching out on her own in the capacity as an Independent Consultant, Nana currently serves as the Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of CORAF – the West and Central Africa Council of Agriculture Research and Development – where she conceptualizes mechanisms to develop partnerships and attract private sector investment to collaborate in building the resilience of the regional food system and agri-science industry as well as improving the livelihoods of farmers and growth of agribusiness. She was instrumental in developing winning proposals and facilitating stakeholder engagements to secure over $500million for the implementation of a West Africa Regional Food Security Resilience Program funded by the World Bank as well as the Agricultural Technologies and Innovations Scaling Up Project for Increasing the Resilience of Production Systems and Family Farms in West and Central Africa (TARSPro) funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).

Nana is active in initiatives that contribute towards her mission of a transformed, better developed and more humanitarian-conscious society in Africa. She served as Head of Field Office with the United Nations’ World Food Program (UN-WFP) in Bertoua, Cameroon where she was responsible for managing field operations in the East of Cameroon and ensuring the effective and efficient delivery of food assistance programs to over 100,000 CAR refugees and local vulnerable populations. Nana led networking and partnership building initiatives to improve assistance packages for beneficiaries, developed and sustained liaison with local government authorities, other UN agencies, and other partners engaged in improving food security. Before joining the UN, Nana provided management and capacity building expertise when she served as the Regional Program Manager for the $69-million USAID-Feed the Future Building Capacity for African Agricultural Transformation (Africa Lead II Program). She was responsible for the design and implementation of the West Africa Institutional Capacity Strengthening and Leadership strategy and leveraged financial resources from USAID to enable West Africa’s public and private sector actors to increase agricultural productivity, improve agricultural and trade policies, regulations and standards, improve food and nutrition security, while positioning the region and its member states to become self-reliant.

Nana has an affinity for strategic communications and marketing which she further mastered while at a PR consulting firm in Europe. She is fascinated by the power of information and media communications to influence trends throughout the world, ultimately beginning with the consumer. As an Account Manager in Weber Shandwick Brussels, Nana advised C-suite clients and high-level executives to invest in emerging markets, establish a strong company brand to subsequently increase revenues and ROI. She not only gained solid insights in e-communications and crisis management, but developed capabilities across automobile, corporate finance, healthcare and lifestyle industries in Germany, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy. She executed Communications/PR programs on clean tech and auto issues for clients tackling second-generation biofuels and low global warming products challenge. Prior to this, Nana worked as an Executive officer at the Embassy of the Republic of Ghana in Washington DC, honing her diplomatic skills and voicing the concerns of citizens abroad to the attention of decision makers in Ghana. To enhance investor relations between Ghana and the United States, she developed a “Doing Business Guidebook” to attract potential investors to Ghana and supported the department to build key partnerships. Nana is a native English speaker and fluent in French with a working knowledge of Spanish. She holds a Masters’ in International Political Economy from the Brussels School of International Studies at the University of Kent and Bachelor’s degree in Economics and French from Mount Holyoke College, USA.

Geographic experience

North America, Africa, Continental Europe

Languages

English

Experience as a coach (formal/informal)

8 years

Experience as a facilitator

5 years

Sector(s)

Food and agriculture, Corporate Governance, Environmental sustainability, Skill development and employability, Gender equity, self-help groups, women-led businesses, International Trade and Business, Peace and conflict, Social Impact, Energy, Technology, Policy making, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Business Transformation, Corporate Finance and Strategy, Innovation Strategy and Delivery, Operations, Sustainable Economic Development

UFacilitate exists to coach leaders so they can create the conditions that are needed to drive inclusion and collaboration.

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Timor-Leste

Birgit Hermann

Guatemala

Regina Solares

Lebanon

Corinne Boulad

France

Camille Lemouchoux-Heffer

France

Alexandra (Alex) Gaspar Martins Teixeira

Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships

Alexandra (Alex) Gaspar Martins Teixeira (she/her) is a collective intelligence enthusiast, master facilitator and technical strategist with over 25 years of experience designing and facilitating participatory meetings and convenings for high-performing teams and organizational collaboratives including FHI 360, Ipas, MSI Reproductive Choices, the Urgent Action Fund, the World Health Organization and UNFPA among others.

Prior to consulting, Alex spent 11 years advancing access to safe abortion at Ipas where she partnered with global teams and led organization-wide initiatives as a Senior Advisor for Technical Innovation and Excellence, the Associate Director for Community
Engagement and Policy Advocacy and as the Senior Advisor for Organizational Learning. Alex has also served as the Philanthropic Partnerships Officer for the Astraea Foundation, as a Global Research & Policy Advisor for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now OutRight Action International) and as a Program Fellow with the Global Fund for Women. She has served on the board of directors of the Safe Abortion Action Fund (UK), The Stone House (NC), the Third Wave Foundation (NY) and Resource Generation (NY).

Alex has designed and led over 70 high-stakes participatory workshops, retreats and convenings for over 2000 stakeholders across Africa, Asia and North America. She is among the most seasoned facilitators, globally, of Abortion Values Clarification for Action & Transformation (VCAT) Workshops where she has led community members, activists, health care providers, ministry officials, multilateral donors and embassies—all with wide ranging positions on abortion—through a process that shifts their orientation from one of contentious debate to an opportunity for empathy and principled collaboration to advance bodily autonomy. She has trained and mentored over 150 emerging facilitators

and team leaders globally on designing and facilitating inclusive, liberatory and participatory meetings.

With two decades of experience advancing equity and justice through philanthropy and global health programming, Alex approaches facilitation as a strategic opportunity to practice high-impact, equity-based collaboration skills that live on beyond our convenings. Alex brings skillful attention to transforming personal, interpersonal and systemic barriers to meaningful participation. She is passionate about helping groups connect, navigate principled disagreement, prioritize, focus, and align towards powerful actions that advance justice, joy and wellbeing in the world.

Alex is a recipient of the Wildacres Leadership Initiative William C. Friday Fellowship (2014-2016), holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and French Literature from Connecticut College and a master’s degree in International Affairs with a focus on gender, sexuality and international human rights from Columbia University. As the first member of her family to attend university, she is humbled to stand on the shoulders of self-taught entrepreneurs, savvy dissidents, survivors of Portuguese dictatorship and lovers of learning. She currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, in the Southeastern United States, in a beloved cross-class, multi-racial intentional community of gorgeously imperfect humans trying to build deep interdependence.

Hi There! Subscribe now and get a free download of the PDF “The 8 Points of Effective Facilitation”.

Hi There! Subscribe now and get a free download of the PDF “Next-Level Meeting Prep Guide by UFacilitate”.

Venezuela

Nathalia Pérez Serrano

Amanda Beatriz Sánchez Cadenas

Pakistan

Muneeb ur Rehman

Netherlands

Liesbeth (Liz) Kieboom

Italy

Uri Noy Meir

Community Building

Sabrina Prioli

Canada

Zoë David-Delves

Natalie Moore

Spain

Mira Bangel

South Africa

Colin Skelton

Sylvia Wambui

Lesley Donna Williams

NELLIE CABANE

Barbados

Julie Turney

Shane Howell

Brazil

Sarah Forrester-Wilson

Systems change

Stephan Dohrn

Caribbean

Nathalia Pérez Serrano

Colombia

HECTOR ARISTIZÁBAL

Anamaria Aristizabal

Carlos Gaviria

Cote D’Ivoire

Astou Dia

Strategy, Culture change, Teambuilding

Nabou Fall

Angela Eni

Germany

Pragya Mishra

Teambuilding

Jessica Brockmann

Jordan Namerow

Ghana

Nana Yaa Boakyewaa Amoah

Emefa Modey

India

Anuj Kothari

Innovation, Product or Service design, Teambuilding

Sumangal Haldar

Teambuilding

SUHANI JAIN

Kenya

Mary Njenga Murimi

Culture change, Teambuilding, Change management

Pamela Yoga – Yieke

Culture change, Teambuilding, Change management

Uduak Amimo

Culture change, Teambuilding, Change management

Lara Konditi-Rabala

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, CHANGE MANAGEMENT, CULTURE CHANGE TEAMBUILDING

Ciku Kimeria

Mexico

Annabel Membrillo

Strategy, Systems change, Change management

Jesus Hernandez

Product or service design, Innovation, Systems change

Ana Lucia

Conflict resolution

Alejandra Ortiz Medrano

Lorena Tamayo

Nicaragua

Karla Bojorge Melendez

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Liesbeth (Liz) Kieboom

Nigeria

Harouna Abdolaye

Strategy Culture change, Teambuilding

Kingsley Atang

Panama

Fernando Carcache

Peru

Paola Pioltelli

Change management, Culture change Strategy

Senegal

Simon Lazarre-Badiane

Teambuilding, Culture change

Switzerland

Nadene Canning

Thailand

Jenn Weidmann

Strategy, Teambuilding, Conflict resolution, Product or service design

Uganda

Norah Bwaya

Culture change, Teambuilding Change management

Sam Bwaya

Change management, Culture change, Teambuilding

United Kingdom

Joey Leskin

Virginia Cinquemani

united States

Andres Marquez-Lara

Founder & CEO

Adam Schmidt

CEO & Principal Coach​​Smart Summit Coaching, LLC

Alex Handfinger

Culture change, Teambuilding, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Beth Kanter

Culture change

Brooking Gatewood

Systems change, Culture change, Product or service design

Judy Watts

Teambuilding

Mara D’Amico

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Teambuilding Culture change

Michael Brouri

Culture change, Teambuilding

Nate Stephens

Systems change, Culture change, Teambuilding, Product or service design

Paul Tevis

Product or service design, Innovation, Teambuilding, Culture change

Steve Brigham

Culture change, Teambuilding, Change management

Virginia Lacayo

Conflict resolution, Systems change Culture change, Change management

Yolonda Thomspon

Culture change, Teambuilding, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Malcolm Glover

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Conflict resolution

Matt Orr

Product or service design

Rachael Reichenbach

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Systems change, Change management, Culture change

Bridget Brown

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

James Gutierrez

Change management, Cultural change

Crystal White

Strategy Change management, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Teambuilding

Corita Brown

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Change management; Culture change; Strategy; Teambuilding

Deborah Bilek

Gloria Alvarez

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, STRATEGY SYSTEMS CHANGE, PRODUCT OR SERVICE DESIGN

Hillary Trudell

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, STRATEGY

Angela Carlberg

Chris Clark

Dave Chandrasekaran

Diana Pasquali

Kari Kwinn

Kim Sescoe

Michael Randel

Robin Sweet-Ransom

Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken

Ted Kniker

Jennifer Berman

Dr. Elizabeth Speck

Emeobong “Eme” Martin, MPH

Rizwaan Akhtar

Alejandra Ortiz Medrano

Rita Alma

Maz Bednarczyk

Diane Garza

Cari Caldwell

LaShauna Austria

Jeremy Blanchard

Jason Biehl

Darren Jones

Jessica Brockmann

Jomil Bell

Jessica Fan

Keesa V. Johnson

Beatriz Coningham

Cherice Hopkins

Cheryl Shah

Joseph McIntyre

Brian Zuluaga

Lorena Tamayo

Paul Kuhne

Alexandra (Alex) Gaspar Martins Teixeira

Jessi Bellama

Carlos Gaviria

Katy Mamen

Laura Ines Romero

Dr. Kerriann Peart

Mark Hecker

Carmen Franco

Gabe DeRita

Anaitée Mills

Alyssa Smaldino

Caterina Rodriguez

Guayana Páez-Acosta

Sailu Sethia

Angela Umoru-David

Dee Dee Mendez

Deirdre Maloney

Gabriel DeRita

Jenifer Gager

Loree Lipstein

Tes Cohen

Jake Wild Crea

Armando X. Orduña

Julian Johnson

Mara D’Amico

Mia Y. Anderson

Michelle Helman

Nina Bhatia

Nischa Pieris

Stefanie Singer

Steven Hart

Nischa Pieris

Stefanie Singer

Ángel Zambrano

COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
CARACAS, VENEZUELA

Ángel Zambrano Cobo is Communications Specialist at UFacilitate. As a communicator and cultural manager based in Caracas, Venezuela, he collaborates with groups and organizations that seek to build community and generate change through projects of social innovation, cultural action and human rights.

 

He is also a founding member of Ciudad Laboratorio (@ciudlab), a civil association that seeks to influence urban experience and transformation through observation, art and pedagogy. In 2017 he was part of the founding team of Labo Ciudadano, a social innovation lab focused on human rights, social fabric and nonviolent mobilization. Until mid-2022 he was co-general coordinator of this organization, and today he is part of its advisory board. 

Leigh Terenz Soltis

PROJECT COORDINATOR
ILOILO, PHILIPPINES

Leigh’s expertise in business process management has been shaped by her diverse professional journey. Starting as a customer care representative while still in college, she steadily progressed.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in business management from Central Philippine University, Leigh transitioned into roles with increasing responsibility. She began as a virtual assistant for US professionals, where she efficiently supported top-tier management with various tasks including managing company materials, workflows, training, and finance.

Leigh’s career path led her to management roles overseeing teams across industries like real estate, medical, construction, and cleaning. Her hands-on experience in these sectors provided her with a solid understanding of business operations and management practices.

Additionally, Leigh demonstrated her skills in sales and marketing as a successful sales executive, closing service deals. Her role as an events support generalist at a KPO company further broadened her skill set, contributing to delivering services to clients worldwide.

Leigh’s diverse background and proactive approach make her an asset in optimizing business processes and driving success.

Aparna Bhat

Chief Operations Officer

Aparna is Chief Facilitator Builder at UFacilitate, helping to select and onboard high-quality facilitators to the UFacilitate family. For the last 7 years, she has been working with early growth stage impact startups across India, South Africa, and Latin America, helping them identify the business models and value propositions, create a growth strategy, raise funds and measure their impact. During her time working with education nonprofits in India, she learned about the critical role that good facilitation plays in ensuring meaningful engagements and also got trained by the Facilitators Network Singapore. While working with an accelerator in Latin America, she created a facilitator’s handbook for online and offline engagements, equipping the reader with the basic tools and thinking steps.

Aparna’s aim through UFacilitate is to take the simple handbook many steps ahead and help leaders in the impact space innovate effectively, make decisions, and build projects that involve multiple stakeholders and have large-scale impact.

Andres Marquez-Lara

FOUNDER & CEO

Andres Marquez-Lara is the Founder and CEO of UFacilitate, a global facilitation company that makes cross-cultural collaboration work! They help high-performing teams deal with the “messy human stuff”—egos, cultural differences, miscommunication, conflict—that creates silos that put their mission at risk. They break down barriers to collaboration across people, departments, and organizations. They’ve worked with groups like the World Food Program, The Nature Conservancy, Easterseals, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.
 
He teaches leadership development in various executive programs at Georgetown University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (CEPL) at George Washington University. He is also an Advisor at the Emergence Project for Purposeful Entrepreneurship at Stanford University.
 
He has been recognized by Ashoka and the American Academy of Certified Public Managers. He earned a BA in psychology from Duke University, and a graduate degree in clinical community psychology from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela. He lives in the triangle area in North Carolina with his wife and two young children.

Hi There! Subscribe now and get a free download of the PDF “The 8 Points of Effective Facilitation”.