American University awards honorary degree to Nairobi governor’s wife
The wife of Nairobi City County governor, Dr Susan Mboya Kidero, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston for her work with women and girls.
Dr Susan Kidero expressed her joy after being feted at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston. Dr Evans Kidero accompanied his wife at the event.
“I feel most humbled and honoured to receive this Honorary Doctorate from a University that plays such a big part in developing the potential and talent of tens of thousands of students from all over the world. I share this honour with all of the wonderful women and girls whom I worked with in the past and whose courage and persistence have been key to the success of the programs for which I am being honored,” Dr Susan Kidero said.
This is Dr Susan Kideros’ third PhD. She earned her PhD in Industrial Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in 1995 and in 2009 received another honorary degree from Lakeland College in the US in 2009.
“Dr Mboya is an inspiration, who exemplifies the ideals and values that we hope our graduates will uphold and nurture,” said University Chancellor, J. Keith Motley.
The couple latter attended a luncheon given in her honor by the Dean of the McCormick school of Policy and Global studies, at the UMass Club in Boston, at which she addressed 35 prominent women leaders who had been invited.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Dr Kidero is currently the Group Director of Eurasia, Africa Group (EAG) for women’s economic empowerment at Coca-Cola, and the President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF).
She leads the deployment of TCCAF initiatives and the 5by20 initiative, a global effort to economically empower 5 million women by the year 2020.
Dr Mboya has forged public-private partnerships with the IFC, USAID, Plan UK, DFID, Technoserve, MercyCorps, and others to help resource, fund, and provide technical expertise for the 5by20 program, raising over $116 million.
To date, 5by20 has empowered more than 270,000 women in the more than 90 countries that make up the EAG.
Ms Kidero also founded the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund in 2002 in which to date the program has provided full scholarships to over 360 students at over 65 colleges and universities including but not limited to Yale University, Harvard, MIT, Smith, Duke, McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Cape Town and Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana to name but a few.