Verity Norman-Tichawangana is the Executive Director of Jitegemee Children's Program in Machakos, Kenya. "Jitegemee" means "to sustain yourself" in Kiswahili, and the program provides formal and non-formal educational support and other social services to vulnerable children in the community. Recently, fellow CIE graduate, Martina Ochiel Amoth, joined the Jitegemee Board in Kenya.

Verity and her family returned to Amherst in Fall 2018 to start her doctoral program in international education at UMass. They'll be splitting their time between Amherst and Machakos. To find out more about what Verity is up to, check out her blog African Drift  [5-18]

After graduation, Verity Norman worked as the Program Development Manager at Boston University's African Presidential Center. The Center was founded by former U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania, Charles R. Stith, and is a research and archive hub that tracks, documents, and supports democracy and development in 16 African countries, including Verity's home of South Africa. Amongst the various Center programs, most notable are (i) annual publication of the African Leaders State of Africa Report, which includes submissions from all current Presidents of the 16 countries tracked by the Center, and (ii) the annual African Presidential Roundtable, a policy meeting of 200+ former heads of state, students, faculty, and public- and private-sector leaders.

Another major program at the Center is the BU President-in-Residence. President Rupiah Banda, former president of Zambia, recently accepted this position for 2012 and will lecture at universities across the U.S. and Africa. On the left is a photo of Verity with President Banda on his first day in the U.S. Verity brought President Banda to UMass in early May where he made a public presentation and visited Jacqi Mosselson's Cultural Studies class at CIE. Please check out the African Presidential Center's Facebook page.[2012]

Email: veritynorman@gmail.com