CJID appoints Chiedo Nwankwor to its Board of Trustees

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) is delighted to announce Chiedo Nwankwor as a new member of the Board of CJID. Ms Nwankwor is a distinguished academic, gender and governance scholar, and policy expert whose extensive work and global experience strongly align with CJID’s mission to strengthen media, democracy, and accountability across Africa.

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Ms Nwankwor currently serves as the Vice Dean for Education and Academic Affairs and Director of SAIS Women Lead at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington, DC, where she also lectures in the African Studies Programme. Her career spans more than two decades of academic research, teaching, and applied policy engagement, with a particular focus on gender, political representation, and governance across the African continent.

A respected voice in global discourse on women in politics, Ms Nwankwor holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Delaware, with a major in Comparative Politics and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Her doctoral research examined the substantive representation of women cabinet ministers in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has continued to produce influential scholarship, authoring and co-authoring numerous peer-reviewed articles, policy analyses, and book chapters published in reputable platforms, including Social Politics, The Routledge Handbook of Policy in Africa, and The Oxford Handbook of Politics in Nigeria. Her work explores themes centred on women’s political participation, legislative policymaking, gendered impacts of crises, and democratic inclusion.

Beyond academia, Ms Nwankwor has led or contributed to significant international research projects on gender, governance, and development with notable partners such as the World Bank, Women Deliver, the United States Department of State, the International Republican Institute (IRI), BRAC, and Women in International Security. Her research footprint spans Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and the United States of America, addressing critical issues including gender bias in financial services, climate change impacts on women, women’s economic empowerment, food security, and gender-based violence prevention.

Speaking on the appointment, Umaru Pate, chair of the Board of Trustees, extended a warm welcome to Ms Nwankwor as a new member of the CJID Board. He remarked that her appointment represents a significant addition to the growing influence and presence of the Centre on the African continent. “As we increasingly prioritise inclusive and sustainable innovation in journalism and development, I am confident that Dr Nwankwor will add considerable depth and value to the Centre’s initiatives, thereby contributing towards a stable democracy and media development,” Mr Pate, a professor, said.

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In his remarks regarding the appointment, CJID’s CEO, Dapo Olorunyomi, enthusiastically welcomed Ms Nwankwor, noting that her addition to the Board comes at a pivotal moment of the organisation’s growth, and in the era of deepening work at the intersection of knowledge, technology, and democratic accountability. He emphasised that Africa’s information and governance landscapes increasingly demand rigorous and principled leadership capable of building resilient frameworks that strengthen our democracies and enhance the continent’s ability to navigate the complexities of the digital age. “We are honoured to welcome her into this shared endeavour.”

Ms Nwankwor joins a distinguished board comprising leaders drawn from academia, media, policy, and development practice in Africa. Her appointment further reinforces CJID’s commitment to advancing gender-responsive perspectives in the media ecosystem, while expanding the breadth of its contributions to democracy and development across the continent.