
TEPHINET, as a program of The Task Force for Global Health, is pleased to announce that it has been selected to host Zayithwa Fabiano, a Fellow from Malawi in the Professional Development Experience (PDE) component of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders from August 5 to August 30, 2019.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). The program fosters closer relations between the United States and Africa, and empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. Selected from a pool of more than 38,000 applicants, the 700 highly accomplished 2019 Mandela Washington Fellows are leaders in public service, business, civil society, education, agriculture, and other fields. These young leaders, between the ages of 25 and 35, are playing a role in strengthening democratic institutions, spurring economic growth, and enhancing peace and security across Africa.
The 2019 Mandela Washington Fellows are participating in Leadership Institutes at 27 U.S. campuses around the United States through the end of July, followed by the Fellowship’s culminating Summit in Washington, D.C. After the Summit, 70 competitively-selected Fellows remain in the United States to take part in Professional Development Experiences (PDE) – four-week professional placements with U.S. non-governmental organizations, private companies, and government agencies. The PDE component allows Fellows to learn and grow as young professionals while providing enriching opportunities for American organizations and local communities to participate in collaborative exchanges across the United States.
About Zayithwa
Zayithwa Fabiano is a medical doctor with more than three years’ working experience in clinical medicine and public health research. Zayithwa holds a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery degree from the College of Medicine of the University of Malawi. Currently, she is working as a Research Scientist for the College of Medicine of the University of Malawi focusing on innovative ways of improving health service delivery, particularly to marginalized populations in rural areas of Malawi. Zayithwa is committed to achieving universal health coverage using research and technology to improve health systems, access to health services and knowledge about health among the populace, particularly for marginalized populations. She is a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders under the civic leadership track and underwent her leadership training at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
As part of her Professional Development Experience (PDE) Fellowship at The Task Force for Global Health, Zayithwa will focus on supporting the technical aspects of TEPHINET in relation to one of the program’s strategic work areas: knowledge exchange. Specifically, she will support the development of an orientation module for scientific abstract reviewers for TEPHINET conferences; create a database for TEPHINET conference scientific content; support the development of a set of tools to assess the quality of the 10th TEPHINET Global Scientific Conference agenda, and support the development of Terms of Reference for the recently formed TEPHINET Advisory Scientific Committee.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by IREX. For more information about the Mandela Washington Fellowship, visit YALI.state.gov/MWF and join the conversation with #YALI2019.
Press inquiries should be directed to ECA-Press@state.gov.