Meet the team dedicated to community-led and sustainable change.

Julie-Anne Savarit-Cosenza
Co-Founder & Executive Director

Julie-Anne is a dynamic and vulnerable leader with a deep commitment to community-led transformation. As the Executive Director of the African Education Program (AEP), she spearheads efforts to unlock the potential of African youth and adults by building and growing community-led organizations focused on quality education, health, and community development.

Her journey with the AEP began in 2004 as a 10th grader.  Julie-Anne and three friends created the organization to provide books and computers to disadvantaged youth in Kafue, Zambia. Two years later, she worked with Kafue community leaders and youth members to open AEP’s flagship Learning & Leadership Center. During this time, she earned a magna cum laude degree in international relations with a focus on African development from American University.

In 2014, Julie-Anne transitioned to lead AEP full-time focusing on capacity strengthening and leadership development within the local Zambian team to drive systemic and community-rooted change. Today, she is driven by her love for catalyzing change makers and fostering new initiatives and partnerships in Zambia and Rwanda.

  • Pamela O'Brien

    Pamela O'Brien

    Development Director

    Pamela has dedicated her career to creating community development initiatives that empower the underserved. She has substantial strategic, program, and operational management experience, and has led communication efforts to connect nonprofits to essential resources in 32 countries. She joined the AEP Team in 2019, and enjoys finding opportunities to expand the organization’s scope through strategic networking, grants, investment, and foundation funding.

  • Paul Chisunka

    Paul Chisunka

    Country Director, Zambia

    Paul is a multi-sectoral capacity builder and one of Zambia’s influential private sector business reform advocates and thought leaders contributing to public-private sector dialogue. He is a consultant to local and international investors, as well as development and international cooperating partners working to build the capacity of local organizations in Zambia. He joined the AEP team in 2022 and believes that doing good is good for business and thus cultivates corporate linkages for AEP.

  • Lumuno Mweemba

    Lumuno Mweemba

    Programs Advisor

    Co-Founder & Director of Programs, Amos Youth Centre

    Lumuno works for AEP because it has always been her dream and passion to serve her community and its children. Her favorite part of her job is seeing lives change for the better through the different programs and scholarships. Being a part of that change is an honor. Lumuno is passionate about mental health and she focuses on trauma-informed care. She has been with AEP since 2014 starting as a counselor and social worker.

  • Febby Choombe

    Febby Choombe

    Special Education Advisor

    Director of Special Education, Amos Youth Centre

    Febby completed high school and earned a BA in Education from the University of Zambia thanks to scholarships by the African Education Program and Amos Youth Centre. Febby has always dreamed of changing the special education landscape in Zambia. In 2019, she launched the Read for Rose Special Education Program. It brings Febby great joy knowing that the students she works with learn because she teaches them in a way they understand.

  • Ceasar Samwaka

    Ceasar Samwaka

    Academics & Scholarships Advisor

    Director of Academics & Scholarships, Amos Youth Centre

    Ceasar completed high school and earned a BA in Education from the University of Zambia thanks to scholarships by the African Education Program and Amos Youth Centre. He joined the team in 2020, and his favorite part of his job is being a role model and source of motivation to the youth. Ceasar is passionate about helping others by problem solving. He believes that if we all help one another to solve each other’s problems, the world can be a better place.

The African Education Program is proud that the majority of the full-time team members of its flagship Learning & Leadership Center, the Amos Youth Centre, in Kafue, Zambia, are alumni.

Meet the Board.

Bradford Machila, Advocate, Former Minister of Lands, Former Minister of Livestock and Fisheries (Zambia)

Cecilia Milambo, Diplomat, Entrepreneur, and President of the United Nations African Ambassadors Spouses Group

Heather Neufeld, Immigration & Refugee Lawyer, Ottawa, Canada

Marcia Small, Deputy Project Director of the Mandela Washington Fellowship at IREX

Marie-Odile Savarit, PhD, Director of Development, North America, American Business School of Paris

Sombo Muzata, Assistant Professor of Political Science at James Madison University