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When Unoma Okorafor started working on her master's degree in computer science at the African University of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria, in the mid-'90s, she had no idea she'd end up in Silicon Valley.
"I didn't know there was such a thing as entrepreneurship in Nigeria," she tells the New York Times.
"I didn't know there was such a thing as women in tech."
But after working at Intel, HP, and IBM, Okorafor founded the nonprofit WAAW Foundation in 2017 to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for African women, and to ensure that talent is engaged in technology innovation on the African continent, the Times reports.
Now she's working to change that.
Okorafor is the president and founder of WAAW, as well as the founder and CEO of Herbal Goodness, a health and wellness company; she's also the co-founder and principal at Fairview Data Technologies, a data science company operating in manufacturing and supply chain; and she's a grad of INSEAD's social entrepreneurship program and Stanford University Business School's executive program in social entrepreneurship.
She's also worked at Intel, HP
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology calls it the "holy grail" of cancer treatment: the use of genetic testing to personalize care. But integrating such testing results into an electronic...more
Patients in the Portland, Ore., area will soon have a new health system to choose from. Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Health have agreed to a merger that will create OHSU Health,...more
"There is no better way to offer experiential learning than to immerse students in an environment that challenges their thinking and enhances their nursing skills." That's the vision of Thomas...more
Nursing students at the University of Texas at San Antonio are getting a taste of what it's like to work in a real-life hospitaland they're not happy about it. The school's Center for Simulation...more
Two Canadian hospitals are teaming up with the University of Waterloo to try to "transform the health-care system locally," in the words of a press release. Grand River Hospital, St. Mary's...more
"These prestigious awards celebrate the efforts of Pennsylvania high school students to register their eligible classmates to vote and to hopefully launch them on a lifelong habit of voting,"...more
Tom Swaninger is the superintendent of Arizona's Sedona-Creek School District, a post he's held since 2009. Jill Swaninger is an English teacher in the district and his wife, Jill Sharer, is also...more
Wetzell Wetzell was an architect in New York City until she "met some friends of friends" who "worked as creatives and was blown away that that was a job." She moved back home to Sydney,...more
When New Jersey resident Samantha Pearlman Mazuz lost her mother in a car accident when she was 19, she didn't think much of what would happen to her for the rest of her life. "I didn't know what...more
Foundation: Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Gates Foundation
"For too long, a lack of money has forced organizations fighting for women's rights into a defensive posture while the enemies of progress play offense," writes Melinda French Gates in a New York...more
Health News from...
Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
Gates Foundation
Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation
Logan Healthcare Foundation
Mackinac Island Community Foundation
Northern New York Community Foundation
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Berrien Community Foundation
Greater Manhattan Community Foundation
Bohemian Foundation
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Philanthropy as Key Enabler to Work on ‘Wicked Problems’
Australia’s Melbourne City Mission Chief Executive Officer Ric Holland writes how philanthropy can act as an enabler on many levels.
