Ongoing program part of Democracy around the Globe focus area

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation today announced the appointments of five Kettering Foundation Global Fellows. The Global Fellowship for Advancing Inclusive Democracies, which began in early May, is a six-month program designed to promote leadership in global civil society and to nurture and support those working to build inclusive democracies around the world. These appointments are in service to Democracy around the Globe, one of the foundation’s five focus areas, and part of the foundation’s ongoing steps to implement its new strategic plan, which launched in January 2024. The 2024 Global Fellows represent five different countries and draw on a wide array of backgrounds, including civic tech, youth engagement, gender and racial justice movements, community organizing, and the nonprofit sector.

For more than 30 years, the Kettering Foundation has invited civil society practitioners to participate in a fellowship designed to help strengthen democracy. Today, this fellowship engages a cohort of mentors from around the world and provides experiences to nurture the fellows’ skills and leadership potential in order to develop a robust pipeline of committed civil society leaders who will champion and safeguard the principles of inclusive democracies. Fellowships are based in each fellow’s home country and include participation in weeklong programs in Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, DC. Each fellow develops and implements a project that enhances the democracy work that they are doing in their home country.

The 2024 Kettering Foundation Global Fellows are as follows:

Courteney Mukoyi (Zimbabwe), founder and current director, Justice Code Foundation

Anne Rose Osamba (Kenya), executive director, Uzalendo Afrika Initiative, and regional collaborator and organizer, Africans Rising

Kerry Reed (Australia), facilitator, DemocracyCo

Jessica Tavares Cerqueira (Brazil), researcher, Center for Racial Justice and Law, Getúlio Vargas Foundation; column coordinator, “Weaving Democracies and Territories,” Brazilian Institute of Urban Law; and parliamentary advisor, Feminist Bloc

Tudor-Matei Vrabie (Romania), project manager, Funky Citizens

The foundation’s Democracy around the Globe team, comprised of Lisa Boone-Berry, Paloma Dallas, Phillip Lurie, and Ileana Marin, have worked to reconceptualize the Global Fellowship. Dallas, senior program officer for Democracy around the Globe stated, “We’ve put together an exciting program that will support and mentor young leaders as they engage in projects aimed at advancing inclusive democracies around the globe.”

Sharon L. Davies, president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation, said, “The Kettering Foundation has a long-standing commitment to fostering a network of community partners around the world, and this class of Global Fellows represents the continued promise of nurturing and growing future leaders who are committed to inclusive democracies.”