Facilitators
Our trainers include Minority Africa journalists but also media professionals who work/have worked with the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, RFI, CNN, The Guardian, Time, and began legacy media companies including one praised by former US President Barack Obama.
Faculty Directory
Deepshikha is an Operations and Fellowship manager at Minority Africa. Based in South Africa, she is a Mauritian Researcher and Entrepreneur who graduated from Bucknell University USA with a BA in International Relations. She is also an alumnus of the African Leadership Academy in South Africa and in 2019, she was appointed as the first-ever female Prime Minister of the Mauritius National Youth Parliament. She is a 2014 Bezos scholar, has been a member of the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in India, and was a delegate to the SADC youth parliament in 2020.
Contacts:
Deepshikha Parmessur
Fellowship Manager
Caleb Okereke is a Nigerian journalist based in Kampala, Uganda. He’s the Managing Editor at Minority Africa and has written for CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, The Guardian UK, VICE News, and AFP. Caleb is also a correspondent with Heidi News. He is involved with designing the experience of the fellowship and working with fellows directly on their reporting assignments.
Contacts:
Caleb Okereke
Managing Editor – Minority Africa.
Patricia Kisesi is a Duty Editor at Minority Africa based in Kampala, Uganda. She’s a journalist who’s reported for Foreign Policy and The Guardian UK and with extensive experience covering the rights of rural women in Uganda and the East African region. She’s also a features editor at Bird, a story agency by Africa No Filter. At Minority Africa, she leads the production of newsletters and will work with fellows to grow their newsletter and overall reporting strategies.
Contacts:
Patricia Kisesi
Duty Editor – Minority Africa
Mpindi Abaas is the CEO and co-founder of the Media Challenge Initiative, a youth-driven non-profit building the next generation of journalists in Uganda. He believes that good journalism can make the world a better place through the stories journalists tell. His story has been published in the Huffington post and CNN African Voices and highlighted by President Barack Obama in his #Mandela 100 lecture in South Africa. Mpindi is a 2018 Obama Leader, a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur and a Young Emerging Leaders Program Fellow. He was also selected by the Government of Uganda to be on the National Taskforce for the adoption of 4th Industrial Revolution.
Abaas Mpindi
Founder – Media Challenge Initiative
JulietGrace has experience across policymaking, media, events, and community engagement, and she has a strong interest in advocating for policies that conserve natural resources and promote sustainable practices. She is a para-social worker passionate about tourism, youth, and talent development in Africa, with a particular focus on Uganda.
JulietGrace Luwedde
Fellowship Manager
Annika McGinnis is a multimedia journalist and media development specialist from the United States. With Africa Water Journalists, she is the cofounder of InfoNile.org, a geojournalism platform that visualizes and maps data on water issues in the Nile Basin with journalism stories. She also works as the Director of Programs and Strategy with the Media Challenge Initiative, a media development nonprofit in Kampala. As a journalist, she reported for Reuters in the White House and on Capitol Hill, USA TODAY, and McClatchy Newspapers. She also worked with The Advocacy Project NGO in Washington D.C., Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, Amnesty International, and Soluciones Comunitarias, a Nicaraguan social enterprise.
Annika McGinnis
Co-Founder & Director – InfoNile