The Founder

Dr. Racheal Kalaba

Dr. Racheal Kalaba is a Bemba and Lunda scholar-practitioner from Zambia and the scholar who coined Ubuntu Womanism. With over fifteen years of professional experience across international development, education, youth leadership, and health sectors, she brings to every engagement a depth of practice that is rare among scholars of her generation. She has not only theorised transformation: she has coordinated it, governed it, evaluated it, and been accountable for it across some of the most complex institutional and community environments in the world.

Her fieldwork spans more than forty adolescent girls across four schools in Kitwe District, Zambia; research produced for the Brookings Institution and academic journals; internationally benchmarked curriculum for girls' leadership programs; and sustained partnerships with governments, multilateral agencies, foundations, academic institutions, and communities across more than twenty countries. Her scholarly collaborators include Professor Njoki Wane (OISE, University of Toronto) and Professor Mariem Lo.