ANSA Board of Advisors

What is the BoA?

Our Board of Advisors is defined in the wording of the Articles of Association under §6 (b) as follows:

“The Board of Advisors (BoA) is an association of advisory supporters of the association who are not members of the association themselves. The BoA serves the orientation and further development of the association’s activities and is available to the individual members as a contact person. Membership in the BoA is determined by the General Assembly. Members of the BoA are not members of the association and therefore exempt from contributions. They have no membership rights.”

In other words, in the BoA we would like to gather people who are well-disposed and connected to ANSA, who identify with the purposes of ANSA, and who want to actively support us even without being a formal member of the association.

Who is in the BoA?

Do you have any ideas as to which person would be suitable for our Board of Advisors (BoA)? We are very grateful to the current members for supporting us and we strive for a more diverse BoA, i.e. suggestions for female or non-binary persons are particularly welcome. The same applies to persons of African descent or other PoC. From 2020/2021, Cay Etzold, Michael Geiger, Ron Herrmann and Christoph Kohlmeyer, ANSA have recently been on hand with help and advice – as Board of Advisors. And since 2022 we happily welcomed Dr. Rahab Njeri on the Board. More information about the people here.

Dr. Rahab NJERI

Dr. Rahab Njeri is a historian and community activist. She studied at the University of Cologne and did her PhD at the University of Trier. Her research fields and academic interest are Postcolonial and Gender Studies, Intersectionality, Black Feminism, Africana Womanist, Critical Whiteness Studies, Black Diaspora, Migration Studies, and Black Canadian Studies. She is a mother of two children. She is a trainer and gives workshops on Critical whiteness, Anti- Black Racism, and critical diversity as well as a moderator.
Njeri is also politically engaged and interested in questions around Environmental racism, Climate change politics and social justice in relation to Black women. She is a board member of International African School (Netherlands), the health committee of Stadt Köln and a board member of Postkoloniales Erbe Stadt Köln. She is also involved with Restitution working closely with the RJM (Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum).
She is the founder of KEMET AWARDS FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN AFRICAN LANGUAGES (KAAAL) and Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Patron. Currently, she is a consultant for critique of racism and anti-discrimination policies and strategies development at the Referat Gender and Diversity Management at the University of Cologne.

▪ Contact details
rahab.njeri@web.de

Cay ETZOLD

Portrait Cay Etzold

▪ Current activity/institution
Cay Etzold is currently working in Tbilisi/Georgia for the European Union as Resident Twinning Advisor for a Twinning Project. In Autumn he will join the Headquarter at DAAD again.

▪ Area of research or work
Cay Etzold works since three decades at the German Academic Exchange Service in different sections mainly for developing countries. His entirely commitment was and is still to develop and promote the accessibility for young scholars to newest research & areas of needed fields to be developed further like for example renewable energies, infrastructure or regional planning and/or resources management only to mention few among more others interdisciplinary fields considering the SDGs.

▪ Regional experiences (Focus countries in Africa)
His regional expertise lies in Eastern Africa with main focus on Kenya and Ethiopia and in Western Africa with main focus on Ghana. He has visited many African countries and its universities.

▪ Most important professional stations (approx. 5)
Cay Etzold worked at the DAAD for postgraduate courses for developing countries in the nineties. He was Director of the Regional Office for Sub-Saharan Africa in Kenya from 2001 till 2005 and afterwards he became Head of Section Cooperation & Projects in HE and concentrated on higher education partnership projects, promoted the alumni work of the German universities and in the region through new developed alumni programmes and alumni projects. From 2011 till 2014 he was Head of the Section Eastern & Southern Africa and from 2015 till 2019 Head of Section Scholarship Programmes for Africa.

▪ Contact details
etzold@daad.de

Dr. Michael GEIGER

▪ Current activity/institution
Head of the Academic Office of the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences

▪ Area of research or work
studies: Romance Studies, Geography, French Literature
– Development and maintenance of cooperation programs with 80 partner universities in 35 countries worldwide. Special focus: Far East Asia, Mexico, EU.
– ERASMUS-Institutional Coordinator
– Project Manager at BWS plus programs of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation
– Project Manager at DAAD projects: INTEGRA and A New Passage to India, CEE
teaching intercultural competence at the HFT Stuttgart in the Master’s program Environmental Protection and Certificate Course as well as at the partner universities (e.B. Mexico, HongKong) in the form of workshops

▪ Most important professional stations (approx. 5)

– Institutsleiter/Inhaber des Hermann-Hesse-Kollegs
– Lehrer (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) von Stipendiaten der Deutschen Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung Spracheninstitut Tübingen
– Ausbildung zum Dozenten Deutsch als Fremdsprache Goethe-Institut, München
– Betreuer von Staatsgästen (Promotionsbegleitend) „Inter Nationes“, Stuttgart
– „Assistant“ – Unterricht von Deutsch als Fremdsprache am Lycée Mongrand, Marseille

▪ Regional experiences (Focus countries in Africa)
– jährlich bis zu 10 Dienstreisen in Europa, Kanada, USA, Fernost, Lateinamerika, Indien, Südafrika, Orient, Australien
– 1983 Forschungsaufenthalt in Kamerun

▪ Contact details
mbgeiger@arcor.de

Prof. Dr. Christoph KOHLMEYER

▪ Current activity/institution
Agricultural Economist/Rural Sociologist (retired)

▪ Area of research or work
Agricultural Policy, Land Policy, Social Systems, Location Theory
Development Economics, International Trade Relations, WTO, WTO-TRIPS, Regional Integration
Fragile States, Peace Policies, Mediation and Colonialism
Project Management, Organizational Development
Just energy transformation in Africa

▪ Regional experiences (Focus countries in Africa)
Pan-African Institutions and RECs
Ghana, Benin, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire
Cameroon, Congo Basin, Great Lakes Region
Sahel, G5
Lesotho, Namibia, SADC

▪ Most important professional stations (approx. 5)
Faculty of Agriculture (Univ. Bonn), UP Los Banos (Philippines), UST Kumasi (Ghana)
Govt. of Benin: Chief Agricultural Policy Advisor
Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ): Head of Division (HoD) Rural Development; Global Food Security, HoD Central Africa Region, HoD Sahel, West Africa I
African Development Bank: Executive Director
African Development Bank: Senior Advisor to the President

▪ Memberships
African Development Institute – Global Community of Practice (ADI-COP)
Deutsche Welthungerhilfe

▪ Contact details
Christoph.kohlmeyer@gmx.de