The Craft & Career series connects with professional creatives from the arts, entertainment, and media industries, to discuss the nuances of their craft, the reality of their careers, and how, in often surprising ways, these two concerns can work together.
Our follow-up conversation with Lisa Kereszi MFA ’00, photographer, educator, and DUS for the Yale School of Art.
More on Lisa Kereszi: www.lisakereszi.com/
Yale Divinity School alumna Kerry Robinson discusses advocating for women in leadership positions in the Catholic Church, offers advice on best practices in the field of fundraising, and shares how a YDS professor gave her the best advice she ever received.
Miriam and Kristi just couldn’t stop talking, so in the second half of this series finale, they continue to discuss their time so far as deans of admissions at HLS and YLS.
Vera D. Kwakofi is a Senior News Editor, Commissioning with the BBC World Service and is responsible for the BBC’s International TV Operations in Africa. She leads teams of journalists based across Africa and in the UK who produce the multi-award-winning Africa Eye Investigations, Business, Health, Sport, Women, News Analysis and Factual and Youth content for Africa in English, French, and Swahili. Vera has more than 20 years of experience in international journalism and commissioning content across multiple platforms with a particular focus on telling African Stories to global audiences. She created the BBC Women of Africa Series, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She actively participates in various discussion panels promoting and providing a better understanding of the Africa region.
Vera holds an MSc in Consultant Management and Organisational Change from the University of London, Birkbeck College, and a BA Hons in Politics from the London Guildhall University. She also has a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Vera is a Trustee for the Serious Trust, a UK Arts charity that supports development and access to music and support for its creators.
Babatunde Omilola manages the African Development Bank’s multi-billion-dollar response to the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives and livelihoods throughout Africa and to help African countries strengthen their health systems, stabilize their economies, and alleviate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. A global development leader, Babatunde served as Head of Development Planning with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York and led the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally. He also co-chaired the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Task Force on Global Food and Nutrition Security Technical Team. Babatunde was UNDP’s Regional Practice Leader for poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa and UNDP’s Chief Economist and Head of Policy and Strategy in South Africa. He was also the Africa-wide Coordinator with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He handled the relationship of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the African Union Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He has visited and delivered development assistance in over 80 countries worldwide in Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Babatunde was selected as a Fellow of Comparative Research Program for preventing and eradicating poverty by the International Social Science Council in 2014. He won the prestigious Ford Foundation International Fellowship in 2001 and the Graduate Research Fellowship of the International Development Research Centre in 2004 for his MPhil and PhD degrees in International Development and Development Economics from the University of Sussex. He is a writer and regular speaker on global development for international news agencies.
Andrei Kureichik is a Belarusian playwright, director, publicist, and civil activist. As a writer and director prior to 2020, Andrei was especially beloved for his comedies and suspense thrillers. Following the contested presidential elections and brutal aftermath in Belarus in August 2020, Andrei gained an international following as a political playwright. Forced to flee the country as a member of the Coordination Council working with perceived winner Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s transition team, Andrei leveraged his creative energy to produce the documentary play “Insulted. Belarus(sia)” about the 2020 presidential elections, subsequent protests, and violent crackdown by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus. The play has been translated into 29 languages and received 200 readings and performances across the globe. Articles about the play have been published in Plays International and Europe, Contemporary Theatre Review, the Boston Globe, Dialog, and Theatre Journal.
As a member of the Coordination Council of Belarus, he was awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament. In 2020 Andrei founded the YouTube civil rights channel “Alternative Blogovision” which in one year became one of the leaders of the Belarusian segment of YouTube with more than two million of views per month.
Rufaro Mudimu is a social entrepreneur that is dedicated to youth development and socio-economic transformation in Africa. Rufaro’s commitment to youth development in Africa is driven by her belief that socio-economic transformation and leadership of the continent is in its young people. She currently leads enke: Make Your Mark (enke), a leadership development organization that generates and incubates youth-led social impact and enterprise in South Africa. enke, meaning ‘ink’ in SeTswana, was started in 2009 to bridge socioeconomic inequality by connecting, equipping, and inspiring young people with the skills and experiences to realize their value, thrive, and mobilize for a better future for themselves and others. Additionally, Rufaro is the founding chairperson of the Youth Development Collaboration Lab South Africa, an initiative by South African youth development enthusiasts to build stronger collaboration in the sector. She is also on the Board of Ikamva Youth, which enables disadvantaged youth to pull themselves and each other out of poverty through education.
Beyond South Africa, Rufaro has contributed and been selected to various leadership and development initiatives, such as the Global Youth Steering Committee of the 2019 Goalkeepers Youth Action Accelerator. She is also a One Young World Ambassador and alumna of the 2018 Obama Foundation Leaders Africa Program. Rufaro holds a Master’s in Public & Development Management from the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Governance, a Social Entrepreneurship Certificate from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and a B.A. Hons. Degree in International Development Studies and Communications Studies and Certificate in Non-Profit Management from York University (Canada).
Sahar Albazar is an Egyptian MP and the Deputy Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Egyptian House of Representatives. She is also the President of the forum of young Parliamentarians representing more than 179 countries. Before that, she was an advisor to the Minister of Social Solidarity and a social protection consultant at the World Bank on youth employability in Egypt.
In addition to her experience in the governmental sector and international organizations, she has worked at several Forbes top 500 companies including P&G, J&J, Abbott, and BP. Sahar was named a Young Global Leader in 2022. She holds an MPA from Harvard University.