Ezekwesili, others join Yale University as Senior Fellows

The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria in the 2019 general election, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, and five other global figures have joined the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs as senior fellows.

While welcoming the new fellows, in a statement on Sunday, the President of Yale University, Peter Salovey, used the opportunity to welcome its 19 returning fellows.

This year’s senior fellows include Obiageli Ezekwesili (Nigeria), Staffan de Mistura(Italy & Sweden), Jessica Faieta(Ecuador), Anne W. Patterson, David Brooks, and Jessica Seddon (United States), the institute stated.

Jackson’s senior fellows are leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs, and will spend a year or semester at Yale teaching post-graduate courses and mentoring students.

Ezekwesili will teach two post-graduate courses on Democracy and Africa’s Political Distortions, and Resolving Africa’s Economic Philosophy Dilemma, respectively, during the 2021 fall semester.

Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs applies evidence-based scholarship to challenges of maximum global importance, such as climate change, war and peace, ethnic conflict, inequality, and migration.

According to Salovey, the world needs creative ideas and leadership to help end global conflicts and solve intractable problems.

“By establishing the Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, we will create an intimate community of outstanding faculty, practitioners and students to conduct research of great relevance to the development and adoption of international policy.

“Yale will continue to fulfil its longstanding mission to educate passionate public servants, who confront the day’s most daunting challenges with wisdom, facts, insight and courage,” Salovey said.

The new fellows include economic experts, astute commentators, publishers, bestselling authors, ambassadors, and academics.

An economic policy expert, Ezekwesili is Senior Economic Adviser to the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative. She is a co-founder and pioneer director of Transparency International.

She is also the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Human Capital Africa, which is working in the education sector across Africa; Chairperson, School of Politics, Policy and Governance; and Chairperson of research-based citizens-led #FixPolitics Initiative.

Other notable positions she had occupied include Vice President of the World Bank; Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, and of Education. She previously worked as Director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy Project with Prof Jeffery Sachs at the Center for International Development, Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts.

Obiageli and her colleagues will join a cast of global leaders who are returning as senior Jackson fellows.

Senior Jackson fellow have included global leaders like former US’ Secretary of State and current envoy on Climate Change to the President, John Kerry; former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; former United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development, Rory Stewart; former Minister of Finance for Canada, Bill Morneau; and six-term Governor of Massachusetts, Howard Dean.

Others are the founding Director of Yale’s International Leadership Center, Emma Sky; US Ambassador to Syria(2011-2014), Robert Ford; Senior Advisor at Coursera and former President of Yale University, Rick Levin; Chair of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign and Senior Counsellor to President Barack Obama, John Podesta; lead climate lawyer and climate negotiator for the US, Susan Biniaz; Director and Co-founder of the Institute for State Effectiveness, Clare Lockhart; and former Commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Commander of United States Forces Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal (retd.).

The rest are former US Deputy Secretary of State, Amb. David Negroponte; Senior Lecturer at Yale’s School of Management and former Chairman of Morgan Stanley, Asia, Stephen Roach; and the former Chief Executive Officer of Sub-Saharan Africa for Goldman Sachs, Colin Coleman.

Ezekwesili expressed appreciation and delight to accept the globally prestigious fellowship from Yale University and the opportunity to teach its distinguished post-graduate students.