Nyeleti Honwana is Program Officer at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. In this role, she serves as lead organizer of the Foundation’s African Fellows Program, a two-year mentorship program targeting Ph.D.-level researchers working on issues of violence and conflict in Africa. Ms. Honwana is also part of the team that evaluates the Foundation’s Distinguished Scholars and Emerging Scholars applications.

Ms. Honwana is Co-Founder of Global Black Youth, an organization that convenes innovative, disruptive, and entrepreneurial young Black leaders to generate knowledge and solutions to global challenges. She serves on the steering committee of the Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group, a network of international philanthropic organizations funding projects on the African continent. She co-leads the Africa, Peace, and Security Network, a group that convenes professionals in the private, public, and third sector working at the intersections of peace and security on the continent to promote collaboration. In 2020, she was among the inaugural cohort of professionals awarded the Equity in Philanthropy Fellowship by the Rockwood Leadership Institute and recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent Under 40.

Ms. Honwana came to the Foundation from Boston University, where she completed an M.A. in international affairs with a certificate in African studies. Her graduate thesis, “Social Movements in Africa: Mozambique and Civil Disorder,” received the Hermann Eilts Thesis Award for best graduate thesis. She holds a B.A. in contemporary history from the University of Sussex.