Empowering Student Voices

Empowering Student Voices
 

Ashinaga UK is delighted to announce the appointment of Suzan Nimrod Kilamile to its board of trustees.  

Ashinaga is committed to empowering those without voice, to lift them up rather than speaking on their behalf. To this end, we are delighted to announce that Suzan Nimrod Kilamile, an Ashinaga Africa Initiative (AAI) alumnus from Tanzania, has joined Ashinaga UK’s board of trustees.  

Suzan completed her undergraduate in Medical Therapeutics and Physiology at the University of Nottingham in the UK. After graduating Suzan returned to Tanzania, where she is working as a tutorial assistant in physiology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University while completing her Masters in Physiology at Muhimbili University of Allied Sciences, Tanzania. Suzan is passionate about healthcare in Tanzania, with a specific focus on scientific and clinical research that will contribute to reducing human morbidity due to diseases. Suzan has a specific interest on child, youth, and maternal health. 

Suzan’s passion for healthcare led her to do an independent research project on the role of foreign university outreach programs in health education in Africa, which included supporting one organization in Tanzania to diversify their fundraising activities. Suzan also excelled in both Ashinaga’s leadership program and in the University of Nottingham’s leadership award and has always gone above and beyond to support others, including through extensive volunteering. 

Suzan Kilamile joins President Tamai, Sir Eric Thomas, Yukie Seki, Noriko Tominaga-Carpentier, Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin, and Dr Michael Rivera King as trustees of Ashinaga UK. The board is now composed of four women and three men, and five of the seven trustees are from ethnic minority groups. 

As the first alumnus to graduate from the Ashinaga Africa Initiative, Suzan is uniquely positioned to inform the strategic direction of Ashinaga UK and increase the voice of Scholars and Alumni in our work. Suzan is the first AAI graduate to join a board of trustees in Ashinaga but joins many Japanese Ashinaga graduates, who serve on the board of the Ashinaga Foundation, in giving her time and experience to improve our work.  

Suzan said on her new role: I have attended my very first meeting as a new trustee and it was remarkable. It is a great opportunity to join the board and I am very excited to contribute and ‘pay it forward’. The board’s communication and ideas are consistent towards sustaining Ashinaga’s dream and the dreams of the students. I believe the performance of the trustees from different countries will bring a positive impact for Ashinaga scholars.  On a personal level, I hope to hone my skills and my professional growth from the experienced, intelligent and influential trustees. More broadly, I am looking forward to supporting Ashinaga’s initiatives, which resonate with me, and being a voice of Ashinaga scholars and alumni in the governance of Ashinaga UK. 

President Tamai said: We are pleased to welcome Susan, an AAI alumni to the Ashinaga UK Board of Directors. I am very pleased to see that graduates from our overseas work, as well as in Japan, are taking an active role in the support activities for orphans. The AAI is a program that selects outstanding orphans every year from countries in sub-Saharan Africa and provides them with the opportunity to study at universities around the world in order to nurture future leaders who will play an active role in contributing to the development of their home countries. Susan has already started to contribute to her country. She will continue to work hard and take on challenges as a role model for younger students, aiming for even greater heights. I look forward to Susan helping us to further develop the AAI by sharing advice and ideas from her own experiences through this program.