Rumbidzai currently serves as the CEO of a pan-African leadership lab. Prior to her current role, she was the founding Director of Programs at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development where she led the Amujae Initiative from 2019-2023. The Amujae Initiative is the EJS Center’s flagship program that prepares African women to unapologetically take up roles in the highest echelons of public leadership.
Rumbidzai was selected as one of 12 global civic innovators in the inaugural class of the Obama Foundation Scholars Program (2018–2019), completing a leadership development residency at Columbia University in New York City. Before this, she held the position of Program Manager at the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), a pan-African think tank advocating for Afrocentric approaches to address the continent’s socioeconomic challenges. She played a key role in establishing the MINDS Scholarship Program for Leadership Development and led the MINDS Youth Program on Elections and Governance, coordinating alumni in 53 African countries.
In addition to her extensive experience as a cross-sectoral management consultant in the private sector, Rumbidzai has founded a social enterprise.
Rumbidzai holds a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where she was a Fellow of the Edward S. Mason Program in Public Policy and a recipient of the George W. Mallinckrodt Graduate Scholarship. She earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Rhodes University in South Africa and a master’s degree in management from the University of Witwatersrand, also in South Africa.
Ms. Chisenga also serves on the global advisory boards of Mountaintop International (Board Chair) and #ShePersisted. She provides leadership coaching to Global Heath Corps Africa fellows through Rootwise Leadership. Rumbidzai is a fellow of the Emerging African Leaders Programme (hosted by the University of Cape Town, South Africa) and the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program (hosted by the Policy Center for the New South, Morocco).
