Distinguished Fellow Award

Miatta Gbanya of Liberia and the late Nuru Mugambi of Kenya have been selected as co-recipients of the 2025 Eisenhower Fellowships Distinguished Fellow Award, marking the first time this honor has been bestowed upon African Fellows. 

The award celebrates their remarkable professional achievements, exemplary engagement with EF and exceptional leadership in their respective countries. Eisenhower Fellowships Chairman Dr. Robert M. Gates will present the award at EF’s Annual Awards Dinner at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on May 14, 2025.

Members of the inaugural 2016 Africa regional program, Miatta and Nuru have contributed greatly to the growth and influence of the EF Network in Africa and inspired the EF global network with their selflessness, their courage and their dedication to giving back and helping others.

Nuru Mugambi

In East Africa, Nuru was the dynamic chapter head of the Eisenhower Fellows in Kenya and a finalist for the EF Impact Award in 2023 and again in 2024. 

As director of the Kenya Bankers Association, Nuru successfully led the nation’s 46 member banks to adopt progressive standards and practices that promote public engagement, sustainable finance and environmentally conscious growth agendas.

From her fellowship, Nuru designed and implemented the Kenya Green Bond and Small and Medium-sized Enterprise programs as part of the Kenya Bankers Association’s strategic plan. The Kenya Green Bond Program instituted a regulatory framework for green bond issuance in Kenya and the first green bond issuance in east and central Africa. 

Because of her role, Nuru was invited to join a presidential delegation to London, where Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta officiated the listing of the Acorn Green Bond on the London Stock Exchange. The green bond was the first time a Kenyan bond was listed on the LSE.

Nuru modeled her Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise program after the Small Business Administration program by Fellow Jack Bienko (USA 2016). Her initiative now has been replicated by three banks in Kenya. 

For her work as a prominent Kenyan financier, Nuru was named one of the top 25 global influencers in green finance and is a founder of the Kenya Chapter of Graça Machel’s New Faces/New Voices Pan African network, which advocates for women’s economic empowerment.

In the years after her fellowship, Nuru actively collaborated with Eisenhower Fellows on projects of impact in Kenya. She started the Angaza Awards to showcase the important role women in finance play on the continent. Each year the Angaza Awards profile ten outstanding women financial leaders. Nuru enlisted Eisenhower Fellows Yawa Hansen Quao (Ghana 2016) to serve as a judge and African Union Ambassador to the United Nations Fatima Mohammed (Nigeria 2017) to deliver a keynote speech in 2022.

The Executive Committee of the EF Board of Trustees noted that Nuru’s dedication to the organization and her impact on her nation were underscored over the last two years, when she was named a James and Carol Hovey EF Impact Award finalist in 2023 and 2024. The awards committee recognized the power of her work and her engagement with Eisenhower Fellows as illustrative of her strong commitment to EF’s work and mission.

Upon returning home from her fellowship, Nuru was elected head of the Eisenhower Fellows chapter in Kenya. During her four-year tenure, the Kenya chapter saw the most growth in its history through active participation of Fellows. She introduced the “Adopt a Fellow” campaign in 2018, elevating the chapter’s activity from six Fellows to 24 actively engaged Fellows. Nuru reported a 97% increase in contributions within three years. 

She renewed social media on behalf of the Kenya chapter to elevate the EF brand. Between 2019 and 2022, the EF Nominating Committee in Kenya saw applications increase 255% in 2020 and 123% in 2022. As a member of the Kenya Nominating Committee, Nuru set high standards for the selection process, focusing on transparency and criteria-based standards.

As chapter head, Nuru established a strong culture of community and engagement among the Kenya Fellows, regularly welcoming visiting Fellows and Trustees. To nourish and sustain this, she introduced paid subscriptions to ensure financial sustainability of EF activities in the country, including an Eisenhower Day of Fellowship every October. 

Nuru was instrumental in organizing the 2019 EF Africa regional conference in Kigali, attended the 2022 EF Annual Meeting events in Philadelphia and participated in several EF virtual gatherings during COVID.

After a long battle with an autoimmune disease, Nuru passed away last fall, devastating her family, Fellows around the world and all who knew her. Her award will be posthumous.

Miatta Gbanya

On the other side of the continent, Nuru’s dear friend Miatta has been a bright, shining beacon of light in a world of too much darkness. From her extraordinary work helping eradicate Ebola in Liberia to her tireless efforts to combat infectious diseases in East Africa to her most recent years of selfless service for the United Nations in Afghanistan, she is the embodiment of what it means to be an Eisenhower Fellow.

The Executive Committee of the EF Board noted that as an active, engaged Fellow, she has attended many EF events around the world and participated in several EF virtual family chats during the COVID epidemic.

Despite the personal hardship involved, Miatta traveled on her own to join Fellows at the 2017 Malaga global conference on the Future of Work, at the 2018 Annual Meeting Day in Philadelphia, at the first Africa regional conference in Kigali, Rwanda the following year and at last year’s EF 70th Anniversary World Forum in San Francisco.

There have been only nine Liberian Fellows in EF history, the first in 1955 and the most recent this past spring. With only three living Liberian Fellows, there is no formal Liberia Chapter. Yet thanks to Miatta, they remain a small but robust group, engaged with EF headquarters and in constant communication with other Fellows across the region and around the world.

Her presence at the head of this proud group was instrumental in EF receiving a $1.25 million capital gift from the Hess Foundation in 2022 to fund an annual Walter T. Gwenigale Fellow in health care from Liberia. The first Fellow from his nation, the late Dr. Gwenigale went on to become Liberia’s minister of health and Miatta’s mentor, and later personally recommended her for the Eisenhower Fellowship. He would be very proud today.

For their outstanding professional achievements, their exemplary engagement with Eisenhower Fellowships and their exceptional leadership of the Eisenhower Fellows chapters in Liberia and Kenya, we are proud to name Miatta Gbanya and Nuru Mugambi the co-recipients of the 2025 Distinguished Fellow Award.

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