Shmona is an enabler of global and equitable access to technology products. In 2020, she founded Paritii- a social enterprise aiming to make technology better for everyone. Today she leads a team of strategists and developers who help their clients reach all users (regardless of geography, gender, or race) with their strategies, products, and services. Prior to Paritii, she was a strategist at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an infectious disease specialist serving low-and middle-income countries, and a research scientist. Her research is published in Lancet and Nature, and she is a frequent advocate for equity-aligned technologies at international conferences and events. Shmona holds a DPhil from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
Amy Peterson is an access-focused educational technology leader with more than 20 years of experience leading learning design, student and teacher coaching, and academic consulting teams to provide holistic and innovative strategies and support for learners in and out of the classroom. Prior to joining Paritii, Amy oversaw the curriculum and instruction functions for Elevate K-12, which live-streams certified teachers into schools. In her work at Pearson, Embanet-Compass, and Career Education Corporation, she has collaborated with dozens of colleges and universities to develop and implement program strategies, online and hybrid courses, education technology strategies, and student retention initiatives. She teaches in the Master of Science in Designing Instructional and Educational Technology program at National University. Amy holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology and M.A. in Education from Michigan State University, an M.A. in Public History from Loyola University Chicago, and a B.A. in History from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Humbulani Dombo is a seasoned strategy and operations leader, bringing 15+ years of experience at industry-leading companies in tech, financial services, consulting, and commodities. She most recently led a go-to-market strategy and operations team at Google, partnering across global teams and functions to drive commercialization of a $100B+ portfolio of ads products. She was also previously a director at Capital One,a project leader at BCG, and held various roles at Anglo American plc.
Humbulani holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and Bachelorsdegrees in Information Systems and Economics from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She is currently based in Washington DC.
Griselle Colon-Wright serves as Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives at Paritii, where she leads the launch of the AI Innovation Lab, a social impact initiative expanding equitable access to AI literacy and workforce training. The Lab prepares emerging talent and working professionals to understand, evaluate, and responsibly apply AI through hands-on learning focused on ethical decision-making, human-centered design, and real-world application.
A veteran growth strategist and ecosystem builder, Griselle brings more than 30 years of experience driving innovation, partnerships, and commercialization initiatives across corporate, startup, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Previously, as Senior Strategy Advisor at Black Innovation Alliance, she launched the Ecosystem Builder-in-Residence (EIR) program and helped advance partnerships and fundraising efforts that generated more than $20 million in support for underserved founders nationwide.
Sudeshna Basu is a product leader with two decades of experience building and scaling software products across enterprise SaaS, EdTech, data platforms, and gaming. At Paritii, she leads product strategy and execution for the company’s portfolio of AI-powered products for the social impact sector. Prior to Paritii, Sudeshna was Director of Product at Zendesk, where she led a global product management team responsible for AI-powered workflows and analytics across the company’s flagship customer experience solutions. Earlier in her career, she held product and technology leadership roles at Electronic Arts and Intuit. She also founded Shrooble, an EdTech SaaS company, and advised early-stage AI and education startups. She holds an MBA from Yale University and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Andrew J. Magda, Ed.D., has been tracking and forecasting trends in education for nearly twenty years. During this time, he has worked with hundreds of institutions regarding their unique place in the higher education marketplace. As Associate Director of research at Paritii, he provides market research expertise and insights to clients looking to bring greater equity to higher education and EdTech products.
Before Paritii, Andrew was the Director of Market Research at Net Natives, a full-service advertising firm focused on higher education, after having served as the manager of market research at Learning House/Wiley University Services for more than ten years. At Learning House/Wiley, Andrew led custom and large-scale market research studies on the online higher education market, including the comprehensive “Online College Student” and “Voice of the Online Learner” annual reports.
Andrew earned a Doctoral degree in education leadership from Concordia University - St. Paul, a Master’s degree in survey research from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Marist College.
Margo Wright is an education equity strategist and field builder with more than 20 years of experience across EdTech, nonprofit leadership, and postsecondary education. At Paritii, she leads institutional adoption of Swyft, the company's AI-powered student advising platform. She is the founder of FAIR AID Initiative, a multi-organization policy collaborative working to eliminate financial aid eligibility loss as a barrier to college completion, and founder and former CEO of Yenko, an EdTech social enterprise whose financial aid risk indicators have been adopted into a major urban university system's advising platform. Previously, Margo directed a multi-site college access and success portfolio at Harlem Children's Zone and managed the Gates Foundation-funded Proximate Social Entrepreneurs program at EdSolutions. Margo holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University.
Sruthi is a seasoned product leader with over a decade of experience building user-centered AI and productivity tools. She spent eight years at Microsoft in both software engineering and product management roles before moving into AI research and innovation. Sruthi has led 0-to-1 development of agentic AI systems and driven growth strategy for a scientific literature platform serving academic researchers. With deep user empathy and a commitment to impactful, data-informed design, she bridges technical depth with a mission-driven product vision. At Paritii, Sruthi leads the Product Roadmap and Development efforts on Swyft.
Pingdewinde “PSam” Sam is a Strategy leader with experience spanning consulting, science, and social impact. He manages client engagements at Paritii, bringing expertise in growth strategy, transformation, and data-driven decision making, shaped by his time as a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group.
PSam combines scientific rigor with on-the-ground execution. He is the Founder of Teêbo, a nonprofit advancing education and economic opportunity in Burkina Faso, and previously contributed to U.S. COVID-19 response efforts as a fellow at the National Academies.
He holds a Ph.D. and MPH from Johns Hopkins and is a certified PMP.
Emily specializes in scaling and designing digital products that solve social issues within non-profit, federal, pharmaceutical, public health, education, and healthcare verticals. She is a skilled supervisor with 5+ years of experience managing teams of 3 to 75 direct reports, and 250+ indirect reports.
Emily also has 7+ years of combined experience managing $100M+ worth of nonprofit, federal and state grant programs. Her recent work includes: leading a portfolio aimed to modernize the way public health agencies report data, led research and end-to-end design for a product to combat vaccine misinformation via artificial intelligence, leading user interface design for an application to expand minimally invasive surgery in East Africa, designed open-source software to improve learning experiences, and more. Furthermore, Emily has facilitated design-thinking workshops for clients within different industry verticals and is passionate about elevating the voices of vulnerable populations in the co-design process. Emily has a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a UX/UI Design Certificate from UC Berkeley-Extension.
Kang Chang is a strategic consulting leader with over a decade of experience driving high-impact engagements, building corporate strategy, and developing consulting practices. With a foundation in academic rigor, Kang bridges the gap between analytical research and business acumen. Previously, as a Consulting Manager at Deloitte, Kang helped companies build their AI and sustainability strategies, led a product team and researched the impact of virtual relationships on Deloitte’s GTM strategy.
Driven by a passion for social impact and mission-oriented work, Kang is dedicated to leveraging his skills to foster sustainable, purpose-driven growth. Throughout his career, he has consistently integrated human-centered design principles to create meaningful, user-centric solutions by transforming user insights into action.
Jonathan Nukpezah is a seasoned Data Scientist with over 15 years of experience in data science and machine learning. Before joining Paritii, he worked with various companies in the EdTech and Pharma consulting sectors, where he played a key role in driving and developing data science and machine learning projects from inception to implementation. This included Kumon North America using predictive analytics and deep learning to improve student math outcomes, and Viora Health and Axtria predicting risk and personalizing interventions for at-risk patients. At Paritii, Jonathan helps to drive the company's data science and generative AI initiatives as a technical lead. He holds an M.Phil in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Ghana.
Hanwen is an active explorer in educational development with a focus on global equity. She has served at multiple NGOs and INGOs worldwide to support their program development and strategy research. She has been leading research and analysis at Paritii since its inception. Prior to joining Paritii, she conducted research at UNESCO, tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the higher education systems of the member states.
Moreover, she contributed to system analysis and policy intervention development at the International Rescue Committee to rehabilitate the education system for emerging countries. Holding a Master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, Hanwen specializes in conducting quantitative and qualitative research, and delivering data-driven strategies while engaging stakeholders across sectors in her research.
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Maryann is a versatile researcher with a strong commitment to public scholarship and data-driven insights. She brings a nuanced understanding of sociopolitical dynamics to her work, aiming to bridge the gap between academic inquiry and real-world application. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, Maryann assists organizations in the public and private sectors in generating actionable, equity-centered findings.
Her work has been featured in P.S.: Political Science & Politics, Politics, Groups, and Identities, the Reno Gazette Journal, and The Washington Post. She is passionate about making research more accessible and impactful across diverse audiences.
Maryann earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame.
Ania has expertise supporting multidisciplinary and multicultural teams in multiple jurisdictions. Prior to joining Paritii, Ania supported Legal Administration at Linklaters, one of the top London-headquartered law firms.
She is also a Sworn Translator and Interpreter for legal, business, and family matters in the English-Polish pair. She has supported Paritii as an Executive Assistant since the beginning of 2022.
Bruce is a strategy consultant based in the United States but has extensive background working globally with public and private organizations in the social impact, technology, and education sectors. His business acumen is derived from 15+ years of leadership roles with Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, Fila USA, and Pearson Education where he led product development and project management efforts for the U.S. K-12 blended learning team. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Northcentral University, an MBA in Strategy from DeVry University, a Master Certification of Project Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology from Coppin State University.
He has also launched an EdTech business skills development platform for entrepreneurs and founders. And finally, the author of Making Dough: A Young Entrepreneurs Tale, spends time providing free courses to underrepresented high school students on financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.
Dr. Raaghav Pandya is a scholar, scientist, and strategy expert with a background in climate research, STEM education, wisdom traditions, and creative direction. He is a Professor at the City University of New York and Research Fellow at Columbia University Teachers College. Through his research and teaching, he works at the intersection of wisdom traditions, education, and emerging science and technology. As Resident Scholar at the STEAM IdeaLab, he designs the learning space of tomorrow by including contemplative traditions, relevant STEM, and wellbeing practices.
At the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he led teams, whose work concerned the geometrical optimization of solar panels on satellites and combating the urban heat island with green infrastructure. He is also the co-founder of The Roots Movement, a non-profit that seeks to emphasize wisdom philosophies through educational workshops and media content.
Candace is a Computer Scientist and Software Maker with 15+ years of industry experience. She enjoys creatively solving problems using technology. Candace was most recently a Software Developer at No Moss Co - a humanist, socially responsible, anarchist collective of executives, directors, engineers, coaches, learners and problem solvers who have an aligned purpose toward cooperatively progressing human endeavor.
Prior to her role at No Moss Co, she spent 6+ years at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer where she worked on several web-based projects for EC2 and Amazon.com. She has also held positions at CGI and ThoughtWorks.
Candace holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Sydney. She is committed to furthering fairness in our world. She redesigned the Urban Rest Stop and Low Income Housing Institute websites for greater accessibility during her time in Seattle working with the houseless population. Her other interests include film, civil rights legislation, Indigenous sovereignty & health policy.
