La June Montgomery Tabron is the president and CEO of The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. The first African American to head the foundation in its 83 year history, Tabron 54, is a native of Detroit, United States. She was raised in a family of ten children in inner-city Detroit, and studied at the University of Michigan graduating with a business degree in business administration. She also has a Master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University Tabron has a long history with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), having started her career there at the age of 24. She began as a financial controller and rose in the ranks of the company within a time span of 26 years, into her current role as the president and CEO in January 01, 2014. It is…

By: Miracle Nwankwo Vasantha Kumari hails from Kanyakumari; the Southern-most tip of India. She lost her mother at a very early stage of her life. At the age of nineteen, her father married her off to a widower who had four daughters, in Chennai. She gave birth to two daughters and so she had six children to cater for. Her husband worked as a construction labourer but is salary was not enough to cater for the family. At the time Vasantha was the secretary at the Mahalir Mandram; a socio-economic empowerment programme for women implemented by Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women Ltd. Mahalir Thittam is based on Self Help Group (SHG) approach and is implemented in partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community based organizations. Finding it hard to survive, Vasantha took a driving job since she had always loved driving. When she approached the transport ministry in…

Ajaita Shah became the black sheep of the family when she diverted her interest from corporate law to micro finance. Her parent had left India for New York in search of a better life for their children. But Shah chose to find joy in responding to the need of people in rural India. She loved travelling and she has had many experiences being in different places. One of those places is India her place of origin. Lost in her passion, she relocated to India and started working with some microfinance organization. While working in India, she discovered that the basic need of the people in most rural India revolved around access to electricity. In India, one-fourth of people suffer electricity access deficit. Shah’s purpose was to help reduce the increased use of kerosene lamps in rural areas of India by introducing solar lanterns, street lights, and home lighting kits. Driven…

Latifa Nabizada is the daughter of an Afghanistan Islamist from Uzbeks who spent six years in jail after being accused of being a member of the Mujahedeen (Mujahedeen is the term for one engaged in Jihad). Uzbeks is Turkic largest ethnic group in Central Asia. Nabizada and her sister were the first female graduates of the Afghan Air Force Academy. They both wanted to become pilots but many times they were denied admission into the Afghan military school based on medical grounds. But eventually a civilian doctor certified them fit. Prior to that time, when they mentioned their desires of becoming professional pilots to their parent, they were amazed at the big dreams the ladies had. The impossibilities were so high but Nabizada and her sister chose to ignore all of it and they convinced their parent to believe in their dreams. Their father, on seeing their determinations gave them…