NPO 006: Emily Richardson (Nanubhai Education Foundation)
Today's Guest: Emily Richardson, PhD
Emily Richardson is a Board Member of Nanubhai Education Foundation. She recently earned her Doctorate of Education in International Educational Development at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also completed her MA in International Education Policy & Planning. Her dissertation field research, conducted in Bangladesh, explores teacher and school quality in low-fee private schools in Dhaka. Emily has worked extensively on education-related projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She has likewise consulted and collaborated on a number of projects on inclusive education, girls' education and women's empowerment, refugee education, and organizational development, capacity building and scale-up, with a variety of organizations, including GPE, Save the Children, IIE, iEARN, Brookings, and DAI.
Nonprofit Spotlight: Nanubhai Education Foundation
The Nanubhai Education Foundation works to have a positive impact on financially vulnerable rural students in a scaleable and sustainable way. For the past decade they have worked closely with communities in Gujarat, India.
Story of Good: Ameeta
Emily shared the story of her co-teacher from her teaching fellowship year. Ameeta was eager to learn, collaborated well with Emily and soon was taking initiative to make the over-crowded classrooms engaged learning environments for her students.
Lessons Learned:
- Looking for a great organization to get involved in? Emily found Nanubhai originally by looking on Idealist.org.
- Recognized that their greater desire was to make an impact rather than just be in Gujarat for the sake of being there. This led their organization to take stock of their strengths and re-evaluate their best opportunity for intervention. To this end, Emily commented on the need to collect data (both quantitative and qualitative) so that the board has touch points for comparison.
- Emily reflected on the importance of having a diverse and engaged board. She sited examples of other board members who actively engaged the teaching fellows on a monthly basis and the importance of visits on the ground when possible. Emily noted the value of including former program members or people who are experts in the field as board members and finally, she noted the importance of including a diverse set of perspectives and opinions.
Next Interview: Jennifer Smith, Founder of Black Butterfly Chicago