Elizabeth is a Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, and she was the Associate Department Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies from 2007-2009. She is the former President of the African Finance Economic Association (AFEA) and the President and founder of the Association for the Advancement of African Women Economists (AAAWE). Professor Asiedu received her B.S. (Hons) from the University of Ghana, M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and PhD in Economics also from UIUC. Professor Asiedu teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in Development and International Economics. She has received several teaching/mentoring awards at the University of Kansas, including The Outstanding Woman Educator Award, the Kemper Teaching Award, the Byron Shutz Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Woman of Distinction Award. . Her work has been published in leading scholarly journals, including The American Economic Review, The Journal of International Economics, and The Review of Economics and Statistics and she has consulted for several International Organizations.

Abena D. Oduro is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. She teaches courses in gender and social diversity, macroeconomics and international economics. She has published articles in professional journals such as Feminist Economics, World Development and the Journal of African Development as well as chapters in books. She has co-authored a monograph on gender and asset ownership in Ghana and is one of the guest editors of a special issue of Feminist Economics on engendering economic policy in Africa. Abena has an M.Litt in Economics from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics.

Una O. Osili is a Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis and the Director of Research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. She is also a member of the graduate school faculty at Indiana University. In 2007, she was a Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at Yale University. Dr. Osili is a consultant with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, has worked for the World Bank and also serves on the Research Committee of the Association for Research in Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (ARNOVA) and the Board of the African Finance and Economics Association (AFEA). She has served as a past or current board member for several nonprofit organizations, including the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis, the Immigrant Welcome Center, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Richard’s School. Dr. Osili is a prolific researcher with an extensive body of published research. She earned her B.A. in Economics at Harvard University, and her M.A., and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

Dr. Elizabeth Lwanga Nanziri is a Newton International Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is the Director of Communications of AAAWE, and a Director of AAAWE-South Africa. Dr. Nanziri’s research focuses on financial literacy, financial inclusion and Welfare for households, and access to finance for small and medium enterprises. Prior to the Newton International Fellowship Award, she received several academic awards/honors including: The Journal of African Economies Fellow at the University of Oxford; The Rockefeller-AAAWE Visiting Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Visiting Scholar at the University of Kansas, The Carnegie Foundation Doctoral Scholarship and The National Research Foundation of South Africa Doctoral Fellowship. She was the Executive Director of the South African Savings Institute for the period 2008 – 2016, and she was the recipient of the 2009 South African Industrial Development Corporation’s Women in Leadership Training Award.

Thouraya Triki is Principal Economist within the Development Research Department of the African Development Bank (AfDB). At AfDB, she performs ex-ante evaluations of expected development effects and additionality in private sector operations, with a particular focus on financial sector operations (private equity funds, lines of credit, trade finance operations). She also leads and contributes to AfDB flagship publications, policy documents and other knowledge products. Prior to joining the Bank, she worked as an associate Dean at the Mediterranean School of Business and held an assistant professor of finance position at IESEG School of Management (France). Previously, she lectured in the finance department of HEC Montreal for 4 years (Canada). She also consulted for European financial institutions, including Dexia Asset Management and Banque Populaire du Nord. She holds a Ph.D. and a master degree in finance from HEC Montreal (Canada). Her research work and publications focus on financial sector topics including, Financial Inclusion, Corporate Governance, Islamic and Socially Responsible Investments, Private equity, and Mergers and Acquisitions. Her research work has been published in peer reviewed journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, the European Journal of Finance, the Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting and the International Finance Review.

Linguère Mously Mbaye is consultant at the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. She is also a research affiliate at IZA, Bonn, Germany, where she worked as a Research Associate in September 2012 and served as Deputy Program Director for the Employment and Development Area from September 2013 until September 2015. She completed her PhD from the Center for Studies and Research in International Development (CERDI)-University of Auvergne (France) in April 2013. Her main research interest areas are Development Economics, International Migration and Applied Microeconometrics.

Eme Dada is a Principal Economist at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Prior to joining the CBN, she worked at the Presidency-Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President (OCEAP) as Special Assistant and Senior Economist. While at OCEAP, she led a number of initiatives including designing a Template for assessing Federal Government funded projects. Eme is an AERC/JAE fellow of the Centre for the study of African Economies, Oxford University. In October 2011 she was a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and worked as a Consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2009. Eme also has extensive lecturing and research experience in the academia. She is a member of the African Finance Economic Association (AFEA), Nigerian Economic Society (NES) and Association for the Advancement of African Women Economists (AAAWE), which she currently serves as one of the Nigerian representatives. Eme Dada has a doctorate degree in economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria with specialisation in monetary economics. She has published extensively in reputable international journals with research interests spanning public policy analysis, resource management and development issues. During her leisure, she loves travelling, playing chess and lawn tennis. She is happily married to Tunde Dada.