Kole A. Shettima
Director, Africa Office, and Co-Chair, Higher Education Initiative in Africa

Kole Shettima is the Director of the Foundation's Africa Office in Abuja, Nigeria. He is responsible for grant making in the Population & Reproductive Health area, Human Rights and International Justice, and the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 1999, Shettima taught at the University of Maiduguri (Nigeria), the University of Toronto, and at Ohio University. He was State Coordinator, and National Education Coordinator of Women in Nigeria; Coordinator of the Working Group on Nigeria, Toronto; and Co-chair of the Economic Justice Working Group of the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, Toronto. Shettima is on the board of several organizations including the Center for Democracy and Development. He has published in several academic journals including Africa Development, Review of African Political Economy, African Studies Review and Journal of Asian and African Studies.

Shettima has a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, a Masters Degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and his undergraduate degree is from the University of Maiduguri where he has also been a faculty member.

Godwin Odo
Program Officer

Email: godyodo at yahoo dot com

Godwin Odo is a Program Officer in the Foundation's Africa Office in Abuja, Nigeria. He is responsible for grantmaking in the Global Challenges area and assists the Country Director in the Population and Reproductive Health area.

Prior to joining the Foundation in February 2005, Odo worked as a Staff Counsel with the Constitutional Rights Project, and as a Program Associate with the Global Rights: Partners for Justice - both in Nigeria. He also was Secretary of the Electoral Reform Network, a coalition of 72 Nigerian NGOs working for a credible and transparent electoral process in the country. Previously, Odo was a researcher with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, and has interned with the Equality Programme of INTERIGHTS in London. He has written widely on the African human rights system, right to health, elections and constitutional reforms.

Odo holds an LL.M in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex; a Barrister at Law degree from the Nigerian Law School; and an undergraduate law degree from the University of Nigeria, where he was President of the Law Society. He is qualified as a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Raoul J. Davion
Program Officer and Co-Chair, Higher Education Initiative in Africa

Email: RDavion at macfound dot org

Raoul Davion is the Co-chair of the Africa Higher Education Initiative in the Program on Global Security and Sustainability. He represents the Foundation within the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, a collaboration of the MacArthur, Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Mellon, Kresge and Hewlett Foundations, and also has responsibilities for human rights programming in Mexico, Nigeria, and internationally.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 2001, Davion was based in South Africa with the Institute of Natural Resources, a non-governmental organization in Pietermaritzburg. Within the Institute’s focus on the nexus between people and environment, he worked with nature conservation agencies and local government in South Africa to build community engagement with conservation and promote sustainable access to natural resources. There, Davion also worked on monitoring and evaluation, involving social and environmental impact assessments of proposed large scale development projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Before this Davion worked at the African Development Bank, where he interned with the Bank’s Social and Environmental Policy division, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago.

Davion obtained his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where he received the Henry Richardson Labouisse fellowship. His masters degree focused on rural development and was awarded by the University of KwaZulu Natal. He is currently completing his doctorate.