Our Advisory Board
The Luminos Fund Advisory Board features some of the brightest minds in international education, including former African Ministers of Education and the former Executive Director of UNICEF.
Carol Bellamy
Former Executive Director, UNICEFCarol Bellamy is the Chair of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) Board of Directors. GCERF is the first global effort to support local, community-level initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience against violent extremist agendas. Prior to this, Ms. Bellamy served as Chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Previously, Ms. Bellamy served as President and CEO of World Learning. She also served for ten years as Executive Director of UNICEF and was the first former volunteer to become Director of the United States Peace Corps.
Ms. Bellamy has worked in the private sector at Bear, Stearns & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. She spent thirteen years as an elected public official, including becoming the first woman to be elected to citywide office in New York City. Ms. Bellamy is a Trustee Emeritus of the American University of Beirut.
Alex Eble, PhD
Assistant Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityDr. Alex Eble is Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Columbia University’s graduate school of education, Teachers College. He works in the fields of development and applied microeconomics. Most of his research focuses on the economics of education in the developing world. Dr. Eble is affiliated with Columbia University’s Center for Development Economics and Policy, Committee on the Economics of Education, and Population Research Center. He is also a fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics and a part of Effective Intervention, a group of researchers based at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance working on how to raise education levels and reduce child mortality in pockets of extreme poverty in the developing world.
Dr. Eble completed a PhD and master’s at Brown University, a master’s at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a B.A. in economics at Indiana University Bloomington.
Susannah Hares
Co-Director of Education Policy and Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Global DevelopmentSusannah Hares is a Senior Policy Fellow and the Co-Director of the Center for Global Development (CGD) global education program. Her work focuses on broad welfare goals and the role education can play in reducing inequality in society.
Prior to joining CGD, she spent seven years as Ark’s International Director and Executive Director, where she was responsible for strategy, operations, and programs in India, sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe, and for Ark’s international ventures including the Education Partnerships Group, Global Schools Forum, and Peepul. Susannah started her career in Kenya, working for African health NGO, AMREF. She has served on the boards and advisory groups of various international education organizations and ventures.
She holds a MA from the University of Manchester.
Dzingai Mutumbuka, PhD
Former Minister of Education, ZimbabweDr. Dzingai Mutumbuka served as the first Minister of Education and Culture for Zimbabwe upon its Independence from 1980 to 1988, and as Minister of Higher Education from 1988 to 1989. He currently serves on the Governing Board of UNESCO’s Institute for Educational Planning, Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, Big Win Philanthropy, Vitol Foundation, Teach for All, Educate!, and Results for Development.
He is the former Chair of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), which brings together all African Education Ministers and donors supporting education in Africa. From 1990 to 2007, he held various senior management positions at the World Bank in the education sector.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Mutumbuka held other major political appointments in Zimbabwe, including as an elected member of parliament. Before Zimbabwe’s independence, he served as Secretary for Education and Culture in the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU (PF)) from 1975 to 1980 and was responsible for manpower development and the education of all Zimbabweans in refugee camps in Mozambique.
He has a B.Sc (Hons) from the University of London and a PhD from the University of Sussex.
George Werner
Former Minister of Education, LiberiaGeorge Werner served as Liberia’s Minister of Education from 2015 to 2018. As Minister, despite inheriting an education system devastated by years of civil war and the Ebola outbreak, he led bold reforms such as the “Getting to Best” program, which aimed at overhauling the education system to give all Liberian children access to free, quality education. He also launched the Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL) initiative, now called LEAP, leveraging the experience of local and international education providers to deliver rapid gains in education quality for Liberia’s children. Mr. Werner also led an initiative to remove “ghost” teachers from the Ministry’s payroll, vetting the 18,000-teacher workforce and freeing up $2.4 million per year for reinvestment in the education system. Following the election of President George Weah in late 2017, Mr. Werner was selected by outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to lead the Human Development aspect of her transition team, where he played a pivotal role facilitating the first peaceful transfer of power in Liberia in more than seventy years.
Prior to becoming Minister of Education, Mr. Werner served as Director General and Head of the Civil Service Agency. He holds a master’s from University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and a BA from Marist College, now the Catholic University of East Africa in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rebecca Winthrop, PhD
Co-Director of the Center for Universal Education, Senior Fellow of Global Economy and Development, Brookings InstitutionDr. Rebecca Winthrop is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on education globally, with special attention to the skills young people need to thrive in work, life, and as constructive citizens. Dr. Winthrop works to promote quality and relevant education, including exploring how education innovations can leapfrog progress, particularly for the most marginalized children and youth. She advises governments, international institutions, foundations, civil society organizations, and corporations on education issues. She currently serves as a board member and advisor for a number of global education organizations and lectures at Georgetown University.
Dr. Winthrop has served as the chair of the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative’s Technical Advisory Group, co-led the UNESCO Institute of Statistics Learning Metrics Task Force, and been a member of numerous education initiatives including the G-20 Education Task Force, the Mastercard Foundation’s Youth Learning Advisory Committee, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on education.
Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Winthrop spent 15 years working on education for displaced and migrant communities, including as head of education for the International Rescue Committee. She holds a PhD from Columbia University, Teachers College; an MA from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs; and a BA from Swarthmore College.
The Luminos Fund is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt charitable organization registered in the United States (EIN 36-4817073).