Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg
Founder and Executive Director, Akili Dada; Assistant Professor, USF
Dr.
Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is Founder and Executive Director of Akili Dada, an
award-winning leadership incubator that is nurturing the next generation of
African women leaders. Akili Dada's innovative and holistic approach
includes rigorous leadership training, personalized mentoring, and
comprehensive scholarships to brilliant, high-potential young women from some
of Africa's most impoverished families.
Wanjiru is also an Assistant Professor in the Politics department at the
University of San Francisco, where her research and teaching interests center
on the politics of philanthropy, gender, Africa, ethnicity, and
democratization, and on the role of technology in social activism. Originally from Kenya, she earned a B.A. in
Politics from Whitman College and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Political
Science with concentrations in African Studies and Gender Studies from the University
of Minnesota.
In her dual roles, Wanjiru divides her time between the U.S. and Kenya, where
Akili Dada is based. Working at the
intersection of academia and social entrepreneurship, Wanjiru is passionate
about the synergy between rigorous academic analysis and committed social
activism.
