Announcing the Fall 2022 Alumni Impact Award Winners

The U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce the Fall 2022 Professional Fellows Program Alumni Impact Award (AIA) winners: Ms. Mary James Gill (Pakistan), Mr. Tawanda Collins Muzamwese (Zimbabwe), Ms. Cindy Giselle Regidor Rodriguez (Nicaragua), and Dr. Macdonald M. Metzger (USA).

With backgrounds in education and interdisciplinary training, law and public policy, media and journalism, and sustainability and environmental protections, these four AIA winners will join the Fall 2022 Professional Fellows Congress to accept their awards and share their experiences and achievements with current Fellows.

The Professional Fellows Congress is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by World Learning, an international nonprofit organization.

The Professional Fellows Congress will take place in Washington, DC, October 31 - November 4, 2022. To learn more about the AIA winners, read their bios below.

(INTERNATIONAL AWARDEE, Pakistan) Ms. Mary James Gill, hosted by World Learning in Fall 2017, is a human rights lawyer, an activist, a former legislator, and a policy researcher. She is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Law and Justice, a minority-led policy research, advocacy, and development organization, working for disadvantaged communities and groups. She is also the founder of Pakistan's first advocacy campaign, Sweepers are Superheroes, which outlined the horrific attitudes toward and working conditions of sanitation workers in Pakistan and raised awareness regarding the dignity, safety, and social protection of these heroic workers. In recognition of providing a new paradigm for sanitation workers, she received the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Prize in 2020 and the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic in 2021.

Ms. Gill’s career began when, after passing a bachelor’s in political science with a role of honor, she chose to become a lawyer and a politician, despite the challenges of entering a profession in which most are male, Muslim, and of higher caste in Pakistan. As a legislative member, Ms. Gill contributed to enacting laws related to women, children, and religious minorities. From 2013 to 2018, she was a member of the legislative Punjab Assembly, and from 2015 to 2018, she was the convener of the Punjab Minority Advisory Council. She became a Professional Fellow in 2017 and has been an Executive Member of the Pak-US Alumni Network since 2021.

Ms. Gill completed her master's degree in public policy in 2021 and was invited to be a member of the Global Advisory Committee under the Initiative for Sanitation Workers. She later became a core committee member. The Initiative is a joint global advocacy project for the health, safety and dignity of sanitation workers of ILO, WHO, World Bank, WaterAid, and SNV, partially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also a founding member of the Minority Women’s Forum, established in 2020. She is the co-author of Pakistan's pioneer research Shame and Stigma in Sanitation: Competing Faiths and Compromised Dignity, Safety and Employment Security of Sanitation Workers (2019) and the lead author of Stories of Resilience and Resolve: An Intersectional Study on the Plight of Non-Muslim Women and Girls in Pakistan (2022).

During the Professional Fellows Program in 2017, Ms. Gill completed a fellowship with Social Innovations Partners and Citizen Diplomacy International of Philadelphia, in partnership with World Learning.

(INTERNATIONAL AWARDEE, Zimbabwe) Mr. Tawanda Collins Muzamwese, hosted by Meridian International Center in Fall 2014, is an international consultant with a keen interest in empowering organizations in developing sustainability strategies, programs, and awareness, with a focus on environment, quality, health, and safety. He has undertaken consultancy, training, and capacity building in more than 30 countries across the world and has trained more than 1000 people in sustainability. Mr. Muzamwese is the founder of Toxiconsol Consultancy African Sustainability Consultants, a leading think tank in issues of environmental protection. His consultancy assignments have included the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), Hivos, and the African Development Bank (AfDB). From 2016 to 2021, Mr. Muzamwese was the executive director of the Business Council for Sustainable Development Zimbabwe (BCSDZ), galvanizing and coordinating over 100 companies in an industry association to scale up environmental management at the corporate level. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Environmental and Energy Management (cum laude) from the University of Twente, Netherlands, and also holds a Bachelor of Science Honours in applied environmental science with First Class/Distinction from the University of Zimbabwe. Tawanda is a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Green Business Gazette and a leading promoter of sustainability approaches.

(INTERNATIONAL AWARDEE, Nicaragua) Ms. Cindy Giselle Regidor Rodriguez, hosted by the International Center for Journalists in Spring 2019, is a Nicaraguan journalist with fifteen years of experience in print, television, and digital media. She holds a master's degree in Media, Peace and Conflict Studies from the United Nations University for Peace. She is currently part of the Nicaraguan news outlet Confidencial, the TV programs Esta Noche and Esta Semana, and the founder and editor of the Nicas Migrantes (Nicaraguan migrants) section at confidencial.com.ni. Ms. Regidor credits her experience in the Professional Fellows Program for her creation of Nicas Migrantes, a successful Nicaraguan media entrepreneurship that benefits the Nicaragua society, building bridges between the Nicaraguans who live in Nicaragua and Nicaraguan migrants who also deserve to be acknowledged and taken into account. Ms. Regidor is also a freelance correspondent for France 24 Spanish based in San Jose, Costa Rica, and has reported from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

(U.S. CITIZEN AWARDEE) Dr. Macdonald M. Metzger, M.S., DPA, is being honored for his exemplary mentorship and hosting of Professional Fellows in partnership with the Institute on Community Integration. Dr. Metzger is the Director of Outreach, Education, and Interdisciplinary Training at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI), University of Minnesota. In this role, Metzger provides strategic direction and leadership for ICI's outreach, education, and interdisciplinary training programs. He coordinates the direction and growth of education, interdisciplinary training, and outreach programs to meet ICI's strategic initiatives. He supports the implementation of interdisciplinary training programs such as the MNLEND Fellowship and the Disability Policy Certificate programs, including community outreach and engagement activities. He leads strategic action plans that promote the MNLEND fellowships and the selection of learners from diverse racial and ethnic communities. He also leads as a creative resource throughout ICI for diversity-related initiatives, activities, materials, advice, and counsel.

Metzger is also an alumnus of the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD) Leadership Academy and a member of AUCD's Emerging Leader Community. Metzger is the founding President of the African Association of Disability and Self Advocacy Organizations (AADISAO). Prior to taking on a leadership role at ICI, Metzger served as a DirectCourse Quality Coordinator. In this role, he provided quality assurance for the DirectCourse curriculum from ICI's Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC-CL). He was charged with overseeing the timely and quality production of online training materials, primarily for DirectCourse (the College of Direct Support; College of Frontline Supervision and Management, Person-Centered Counselling Curriculum; College of Recovery and Community Inclusion). He has extensive experience in supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health needs in a person-centered environment. He is a trained person-centered planner. Metzger's international work includes support for the implementation of the RTC-CL DirectCourse and Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) training of volunteers and CBR facilitators in Zambia and Liberia. He is a MNLEND faculty mentor and leadership team member. Dr. Metzger was recently selected by the U.S. Department of State to participate in its Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP-IDE) in Nairobi, Kenya and continues to serve as a virtual coach for PFP-IDE Fellows from East Africa. Metzger currently serves on the State of Minnesota’s HCBS Community Advisory Board and is Vice President of the National Association for Persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Needs (NADD) membership committee.