Yelognisse Vitalien Raoul Adoukonou

Yelognisse Vitalien Adoukonou is from Benin Republic, West Africa, he holds a master in Communication and he is focused on Health promotion. Before coming in Missoula, Vitalien was in Cotonou, economic capital of Benin where he has worked for a French NGO called Agence de Medecine Preventive (AMP) as Communication officer from June 2011 to March 2015. He is also a movie script-writer. At least 10 of his scripts have been produced and he won the award of Best script-writer in his country in 2011 and 2013. 

Nidson Augustin

Anwone Biraguitcha

Anwone Biraguitcha is from the Republic of Togo, West Africa. He is as Agricultural Engineer and studied agriculture crops management at the University of Sydney in Australia and Agri-business in Japan. In addition, he studied food safety in Israel and food security in Morocco. He has worked for the National Food Security Agency of Togo as Head of Production for the training and farmer's organization division. He is in Montana to study English and American culture. His future goal is to study rural development in order to share new skills to his community.

Mawouena Komlan Bohm

Mawouena Komlan Bohm is a Clinical Psychologist and Deputy Coordinator at National Anti-Drug Committee in Togo. As a health care professional, he is working in the field of drug demand reduction in Togo. He will develop and implement training programs for drug abuse prevention and psychosocial support of drug users, which do not exist in his country. His project is to act in accordance with Togo’s national development policy to fight against drugs, such as the prevention, treatment and reintegration of abuse and drug addition in the Republic of Togo, West Africa. 

Oscar Diaz

Oscar Eduardo Diaz Forero is from Bogota, the capital city of Colombia, He is an Agricultural Engineer and works with the Government of Colombia, specifically in the Ministry of Agriculture. He helps people in vulnerable conditions, specifically with victims of the armed conflict. His greatest area of interest is in Rural Development with a territorial focus; this is where design and formulation of productive project tools have been developed, as well as the application of knowledge based in strategic planning, which focuses on Colombian rural population schemes and methodologies. His aim is the improvement of conditions for a better quality of life through diagnosis, formulation, evaluation, and implementation of productive projects that adjust to the needs of the population from the viewpoint of incoming generations. He is in the U.S. to improve his English at the University of Montana, and then will learn more skills related to Rural and Agricultural Development at Cornell University; his most important goal is to apply these skills in Colombia.   

Serge Engelbert Ekani

Serge Engelbert Ekani is from the Republic of Cameroon, West Africa. He is the Senior State Auditor at the Presidency of the Republic Field of Studies in Economics. Since 1990, Cameroon has engaged in a broad restructuring of the financial sector after the bankruptcy of many financial institutions. The restructuring has put emphasis on the banking system through new regulations, such as the emergence of a unique stock exchange market, and strengthening long-term bank loans and savings to better boost investment. Serge’s wish is to study the mechanisms of the functioning of financial and capital markets to make concrete policy proposals to his government on how to restructure the stock exchange market, and encourage trading in long term securities. His objective is to set up and auditing firm with a specialization in project management in the next five years.

Claude Fanohiza

Claude Fanohiza is from the Republic of Madagascar. He has a double Master’s degree in Economics and Management. During the past ten years, he was an individual consultant and worked on behalf of a national development project, which was funded by the World Bank. He strongly believes in the heart of sustainable development; therefore his mission mainly consists in strengthening regional and local authorities and developing the private sector in different regions of Madagascar. His special interests are for a link between the ‘private sector and the public sector with good local governance’; these focus on strengthening the capacity of Public Institutions and Civil Society Organization. He promotes good governance and decentralization.

Yuzin Le

Yuxin Le is from Shanghai, China and she holds a Master’s degree in Law.  She became a judge of Juvenile Court and has worked at the High People’s Court in Fujian Province, then changing to District People’s Court and the High People’s Court in Shanghai. Acting as a Juvenile Judge, she had the opportunity to witness massive law reforms in Minor’s Rights Protection of China. After eleven years’ working in courts, she gained a much broader and deeper understanding of the Chinese judicial system. Her ultimate goal is to learn more and dedicate herself to furthering the cause of human rights.

Amadou H. Maiga

Amadou H. Maiga is from Mali, West Africa. He received his Bachelor Degree in Sociology and Anthropology in 2004 from the University of Bamako. He has over 10 years experience in the field of international development, poverty reduction projects, HIV/AIDS prevention, inclusion and psychosocial support to displaced population, victims assistance as well as United Nations Peace keeping operations (Civils Affairs). In addition, he has six years experience with Handicap International, which inspired him to shape knowledge and skills in USA.  His interest is Governance in Public Health HIV/AIDS Policy and Prevention, Leadership, Peace Keeping Civil Affairs and Research.

Alla Nikolaevna Nadezhkina

Alla Nadezhkina is from Moscow, Russia. She currently supervises external relations of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency. In addition, she maintains contacts with many state-run and commercial institutions and mass media. In 2011, she started a Facebook community of press secretaries and public relations professionals, which has been joined by over 250 heads of press services to be able to meet online without a fee to share information and tips on many professional issues. Her Facebook community offers a solution by supporting communication and shared experiences so members can meet online; however it still lacks contacts with colleagues from foreign press services. Therefore, by developing community, it will help many government agencies to become more open with Russian and foreign counterparts.

Halima Ramazani

Halima Abdul Hossain is from Afghanistan.  She has a Master’s degree in Agriculture from Tehran University, Iran. Presently, she is a teacher in the Afghanistan Agriculture National College, and the founder of the Afghanistan Women Empowerment Association. She has over eight years of work experience in various sectors of agriculture covering topics such as the impact of biological fertilizer on herbs, compost production and technology, agricultural research. She is a board member of 10,000 Women Business Alumni in Afghanistan, and these work on improving women economic situation in Afghanistan. In additions, she is the advisor of her own agriculture product company. Halima is here to improve her English and to share her opinion with people of US in different subjects, to learn from them and research on role of Afghan women in sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Kouakou Bruno Tano

Kouakou Bruno is an Economist at the Cabinet of the Minister of Economy and Finance of Côte d’Ivoire. He manages Macroeconomic issues for structural reform, such as the shortcomings of the retirement system. He has been assigned as the Secretary of a government issued committee to design a funded pension scheme within the current retirement system to improve and strengthen social security in the Republic of the Ivory Coast.