Olivia Giddings is a senior program officer and the Leadership in Civic Engagement track lead for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.

In this role, she provides leadership for programmatic and curricular planning, budgetary and subaward oversight, and participant emergency management for the Leadership in Civic Engagement Institutes. She also oversees monitoring and evaluation efforts for the Leadership Institutes.

Prior to joining IREX, Olivia supported fundraising and development initiatives for Project 1808, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to providing quality education and leadership development to students in the Koinadugu District of Sierra Leone. Additionally, Olivia held a development internship with the Darfur Women Action Group in Washington, D.C., performing grant writing and organizing fundraising efforts for the development team.

Olivia holds a B.A. in political science and communication arts and certificates in African studies and gender and women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.