As our next guest, we are excited to meet with Ndunge Evelyn Pavao, who is the Associate HR Director of talent Acquisition at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and is also the founder of Kweli Noir, a review website created for anyone who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color.
Ndunge is Kenyan born, Butsuwana raised, and currently residing in Canada. “...I'm what you would call, you know, a third culture kid. I was fortunate enough to have an upbringing where we lived and traveled to multiple countries. So, you know, that's fueled my desire also to seek out living and working in different countries.”
Her academic background is in organizational psychology which she studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She then pursued a graduate degree in international business specializing in HR “...because I actually was very attracted to being part of a multinational organization, that whole upbringing coming into play here.”
In this podcast, we speak about her role in CHAI, and what they are looking for when recruiting: “... aligning with our mission, aligning with our values. So, I mean that we recognize that with the evolving nature of our work, it does require a diverse and versatile workforce, that can respond quickly to global health's biggest challenges. So we're looking to attract and develop as well as retain and empower staff who are mission-driven and passionate about growing the global health sector through positive and transformational impact, both inside and outside of CHAI. We're looking for people invested in developing and supporting those around them, including colleagues, direct reports, and other partners…”
We also dive into what it means to manage a diverse and inclusive workforce successfully.
Ndunge: “…I think people assume when it comes to diversity, it's just about the surface pieces, what you can see, whether it's… national, well not national, but like, you know, race and that kind of thing and gender. But it's also just about how people show up, you know, the age-old argument of extroverted versus introverted… And I think being a leader successfully managing within that type of, considering that level of diversity, is knowing, okay, I know not everyone will show up in the same way. How am I also catering to that level of difference? Am I allowing people to share their thoughts in a way so that they can share their thoughts?”
We discuss her review website and what it means to her: “I'm hoping to achieve two things, which was just like help people of color make informed decisions…”
and we speak about what drives her - her values and motivations, and how that inspires others!
Our host, Merlijn: “This was a very inspiring conversation, Ndunge has interesting viewpoints that made me reflect on things - hope the audience will enjoy it as much as I did!”