Ami Agbabli, DDS
February 5, 2020Komi Afetse
February 20, 2020Dr. Natalie Hahn
Founder and President of the Malaika Foundation
A woman of adventure and always serving with purpose. Dr. Hahn worked with United Nations programs for 38 years, primarily in Africa, as well as assignments in Rome and New York City.
At the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, she organized “The African Farmer and Her Husband” initiative. As a new crop, soybeans were introduced to thousands of Nigerian women. For this success, she was awarded an honorary chieftaincy by the Yoruba Tribe and titled, the Balogun Iyalaje, “the person who empowers”.
UN assignments included UNICEF Representative to Malawi, Women’s Program Officer-International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, Deputy Director of the UNICEF Program Funding Office and liaison to the World Bank and Senior Private Sector Advisor in the UN Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP).
To “give back” to her native Nebraska, she founded the Malaika Foundation to enhance global education in Nebraska schools and universities, malaikafoundation.org Her African art donations to MCC can be viewed at the Career and Academic Skills Center.
She is the mother of six African children and grandmother for 11. Her degrees are from the University of Nebraska, the Ohio State University and Harvard University. Her doctoral research in Ethiopia was on women and agrarian reform.