Kusasa

People

TEAM

Kusasa’s dedicated management team is based in the Lowveld region of South Africa and coordinates support for both current students enrolled at our partner school, Uplands College, as well as our alumni:

Bridget Gibson

Bridget brings more than two decades of experience in education, counselling, and community development to her role at Kusasa Scholars. Her career has taken her across several African countries, always in service of young people and the communities around them. For the past 20 years, she has served as School Counsellor at Uplands College, where she has also held roles as Head of Community Service and Head of Academic and Behavioural Support. It was through this work — sitting alongside students navigating the distance between where they came from and where they were going — that she found her way to Kusasa. Bridget believes deeply in the transformative power of education, particularly for young women, and brings that conviction to everything she does as Programme Manager.

Ivy Mpangane

Ivy is a seasoned educator with a distinguished 35-year career in both public and independent schools. Since 2002, she has been an integral part of the Uplands College community. Her academic expertise lies in second languages, specifically IsiZulu and SiSwati. She holds a BA and B Ed degree from the University of South Africa and a Diploma in Career Guidance from the University of Johannesburg. Beyond her classroom role, Ivy has dedicated herself to mentoring students and teachers. She has been instrumental in transitioning students from secondary to tertiary education and guiding them towards diverse career paths through her work at Protec Colleges. Ivy has actively participated in Uplands outreach initiatives, serving as an assistant project coordinator and mentor for students and teachers from underprivileged communities. She also served as head of Service at Uplands. Since the inception of Kusasa Scholars at Uplands over 20 years ago, Ivy has played a pivotal role in the organization’s mission, operations, and growth.

Jesse Steyn

Jesse brings a background in psychology to her work at Kusasa Scholars, where she mentors students, coordinates workshops, and supports their academic, social, and emotional development. She has experience in academic support and student development within the education sector, with a particular interest in building inclusive systems that help learners thrive. Jesse is currently completing her master's degree, with research focused on the experiences of low-income students in private education. Drawing on both her professional training and lived experience, she is committed to advancing educational equity and empowering young people to reach their full potential.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kusasa Scholars is established as a public benefit charity in South Africa and as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the United States. We are grateful to the following individuals who generously serve on the Boards of Directors:

Anne Harris

Anne Harris is a finance professional with 15+ years of experience across industries including education, investment banking, retail, and non-profit healthcare. Currently, Anne serves as Talent Solutions Director at Brillect Talent Solutions. She was previously on the board of the Urban Teaching Corp, a non-profit which trained aspiring teachers of color in New York City. After many years of supporting Kusasa Scholars, she proudly joined the board in 2023. Anne holds degrees in Math and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Maryland-College Park. 

Inal Henry

Inal has over 18 years of investment banking experience across sub-Saharan Africa in infrastructure, energy, oil and gas, extractives, and asset finance. She is an independent advisor focusing on project finance, agency, and export finance transactions. She has worked at leading investment bank and a development finance institution. Inal hold an LLB (summa cum laude)(UND), LLM (Cantab), and a Certificate of ESG investing (CFA Institute). She is Credit Committee Member of the Old Mutual Alternative Assets-Infrastructure Debt Fun. Inal was nominated by Trade Finance Global (TFG) for 2023’s 100 Women in Trade, Treasury and Payments – Export Finance Category and is a sought-after speaker at Global Trade Review and ECA Conferences.

Allison Howard-Berry

Allison is a social sector leader with 20+ years of experience in international health and development, organizational growth and strategy, and fundraising for social change. She currently serves as Chief Advancement Officer for Touch Health, an organization strengthening health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Allison is the co-Founder and Senior Advisor of Care 2 Communities (C2C), a pioneering community health model in rural Haiti serving over 100,000 patients annually. Allison has worked for the Clinton Foundation in Ethiopia and Planned Parenthood. She holds a M.A. in International Development from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire. She served as Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa from 2003-2005.

Bowen Hsu

Bowen is a Managing Principal of Proteus MHP. Prior to founding Proteus MHP, Mr. Hsu was a Managing Director at Saban Capital Group, where he co-led the real estate group from its inception in 2011. In his time at Saban, Mr. Hsu led their acquisitions and grew the portfolio from roughly $20M to over $2B. Prior to Saban, he worked at real estate private equity firm O'Connor Capital Partners and started his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa. In addition to Kusasa Scholars, he also serves on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. He holds an A.B. Cum Laude in Social Studies from Harvard College and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sizwe Lekhuleni

Sizwe is an Attorney specializing in Public Administrative Law and Procurement, Medical Malpractice, Labor Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution and General Civil Litigation. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Economics and Law at the North-West University. He also completed a Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has been involved in affiliated societies at university level, notably serving as the Treasurer and the President of the Law Student Council. Sizwe is the 2007 recipient of the Kusasa scholarship.

Joy Lehlogonolo Mashego

Joy is a finance professional currently employed as a senior accountant at Global Grinders. She previously worked as a senior audit clerk at MGI Bass Gordon, where she also completed her SAICA articles. She has experience in industries such as financial services, agriculture, manufacturing, NPOs and real estate. She specializes in taxation, cash flow management, auditing and financial accounting. Joy holds a Bachelor of Accounting from Stellenbosch University and a postgraduate qualification in Applied Accounting Science from the University of South Africa. Joy is the 2007 recipient of the Kusasa scholarship.

Gill Morris

Gill is a life-long educator with over 35 years of experience in across the education sector in South Africa. Her academic specialization was mathematics and geography but moved into the outreach arena in 1990 at St. Andrew’s School in Senderwood, Johannesburg. As a volunteer, Gill read at Tape Aids for the Blind in the education department for 25 years, for blind and sight impaired students. Gill has a passion for young people and has spent much time mentoring students to transition into different school systems and from secondary to tertiary education. Gill graduated cum laude, from the University of Witswatersrand and has served on the Boards of St. Andrew’s School, Alexandra Education Trust, Uplands College in White River & Kusasa Scholars.

Dale Mosier

Dale graduated from Penn State with a degree in Engineering Science.  His career went from project engineering to sales and marketing to running companies for the last 25 years of his business career.  His industries were primarily the computer industry or plastics with an international focus. Taking early retirement, Dale and his wife joined the Peace Corps, first as Volunteers in South Africa, where he became involved with the formation of Kusasa Scholars. He later became Country Director in Malawi.  He now lives in Vail Colorado, where he is very active with multiple non-profits and corporate boards.

Sarah Oltmans

As Chief of Grant Strategy at the Robin Hood Foundation in New York, Sarah manages the strategic vision behind the distribution of $130 million in grants annually to help New Yorkers find permanent pathways out of poverty. Prior to her current role, Sarah managed the foundation’s investment in health disparities and housing solutions. She earned a B.A. in history from Seattle Pacific University and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Washington. As part of her master’s program, Sarah spent two years in the Venda region of South Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer focused on reducing the impact of the H.I.V./AIDS epidemic.

Alan Toth

Alan Toth is a filmmaker and writer based in San Francisco. His short film Mining Phosphorus screened at film festivals, and a version of the film was broadcast on PBS Newshour. His short film on human-lion conflict appeared in The Atlantic Selects, a series of short films curated by The Atlantic Magazine. His feature documentary Posh Corps was screened at universities throughout the United States and at USAID headquarters in Washington D.C. Alan’s non-fiction writing has been published by KQED, Mission Local, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and Stanford University. His fiction has appeared in literary journals. Alan holds a Masters in Journalism from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.S in Multimedia from the Art Institute of Portland. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa.

Our History

Kusasa Scholars was founded in 2004 by two Peace Corps Volunteers serving in South Africa, Bowen Hsu and Allison Howard Berry. Over the course of their two-year Peace Corps service, Bowen and Allison worked in rural villages and townships and met extraordinary young people who possessed great intelligence and talent, but no opportunities for a high-quality education. The conditions in rural government schools were lamentable – teachers were ill-trained and poorly compensated, learning resources were non-existent, and even the brightest students didn’t have meaningful opportunities to learn. Moreover, without adult role models to introduce options for professional careers, children often couldn’t even envision a life beyond rural poverty. Together with a group of education champions, expert advisors, and local stakeholders, Kusasa Scholars was founded to help these rural children reach their full potential.