Description

Join us for an immersive workshop aimed at deepening your understanding of poverty and equipping you with the tools to address its persistent challenges. Poverty is a complex issue with far-reaching implications, and it requires a nuanced approach to effectively tackle its root causes.

Throughout this workshop, participants will engage in thought-provoking discussions, interactive activities, and reflective exercises.

This workshop is designed for poverty alleviation practitioners, strategists and decision makers.

Learning Objectives:

• Expand your toolbox to reduce persistent instability caused by poverty.
• Provide new/different insights about knowledge/language/awareness of poverty.
• Identify blind spots to poverty/those in poverty.
• Understand the unintended consequences of organizational policies and practices.
• Expand our context for poverty in the USA.

Cost: $204 Members, $408 Non-Members

*If you are part of either the in-person or virtual 2025 Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership cohort, this workshop may be used to fulfill your Mission Delivery elective requirement. To receive elective credit for attending a workshop, participants must be present for at least 80% of each workshop meeting date with time spent in attendance measured consecutively.

Instructor: Mariam Mengistie

Mariam Mengistie is the founder of Culturally Aligned Leadership, a training and consulting firm that equips nonprofits to carry out sustainable poverty alleviation work. She integrates cognitive, emotional, and cultural intelligence frameworks to explore the root causes of poverty and design strategies that are both effective and contextually grounded. Through customized workshops, Mariam prepares nonprofit practitioners, leaders, and funders to engage cross-culturally with greater sensitivity and impact.

Mariam brings extensive experience in international poverty alleviation and advocacy. She has served as a Program and Communications Manager for various regional and international organizations in Ethiopia, where she played a key role in building networks among local NGOs, UN agencies, and government institutions involved in relief, rehabilitation, and development initiatives. Her passion lies in bridging the gap between policy, community action, and long-term sustainable outcomes.

With over 30 years of hands-on experience, Mariam has dedicated her career to advancing sustainable development policies, amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, and fostering strategic partnerships for systems-level change. Her work spans grassroots efforts in Ethiopia to high-level advocacy in venues such as the European Parliament in Brussels and Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Across all her endeavors, she remains focused on creating meaningful, community-led solutions.

Mariam holds a Master of Arts in Politics of Alternative Development Strategies from the Erasmus Institute of Social Studies in The Netherlands. She has worked as a Development Aid Policy Adviser and Advocate to members of the European Parliament. Today, she continues to shape local and national policy through her service on various committees and boards, including the Orlando Mayor’s Committee for Food Security and Bread for the World—a Christian voice urging elected officials to end hunger both locally and globally.