Mamasa Dukureh is Victoria Foundation’s new Program Fellow. In this two-year role, she will bring a fresh perspective to the Foundation as it embarks on a new chapter in its history, support the Strategy Team as it deepens relationships with grassroots organizations, and be exposed to the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors in preparation for post-fellowship career goals. She will also identify and complete a capstone project.

A Newark resident, Mamasa has deep roots in the city. She founded Newark’s Shades of Blackness, a community-building organization that provided high school aged girls with tools to identify and deconstruct ways in which gendered anti-blackness manifests within their lives. In this role, she developed a six-part community-based intervention workshop series based on the organization’s mission; wrote a curriculum for this workshop series; and designed evaluation tools to collect and analyze data which was used to measure project outcomes.

Previously, Mamasa worked as a Program Associate for the Global Children’s Rights Program at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and as a Program Assistant and later Associate for the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program at the Social Science Research Council.

Mamasa holds a Bachelor of Art from Columbia University where she was named a Kennan Charitable Trust Fellow and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, among other honors.