A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Amini Kajunju serves as Chief Operating Officer for the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development. Kajunju is the first African ever to serve at the helm of the oldest non-profit organization of its kind in the United States. Indeed, she was the president and CEO of the Africa-America Institute (AAI), a U.S. based NGO dedicated to strengthening human capacity in Africa through education, training and dialogue. Kajunju’s professional background also includes various positions such as Executive Director of the International University of Grand Bassam Foundation and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Africa Integras, a New York-based firm that invests in the development of education infrastructure at African universities.
Amini was honored as “Advocate of the Year” at Applause Africa’s African Diaspora Awards 2013 and was named Forbes’ 20 Young Power Women in Africa 2013. She was also featured on CNN’s African Voices in 2013. Amini was on the Economics of Innovation Council of the World Economic Forum between 2015 to 2016. She sits on the board of Education Congo, Junior Achievement (JA) Africa and serves as an advisory member of University of South Africa and The African Center for the Study of the US (ACSUS) at Wits University. She was featured on BBC World Service Radio, Focus on Africa, 2021 analysis on US-Africa foreign policy. In 2020, she was awarded World Remit Top 10 Influential Migrant Africans in the USA.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University and a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University.
We honor Amini Kajunju as our Person of the Month for August 2022 for her ongoing advocacy and empowerment of Africa’s education and entrepreneurship.
