Katra Sambili

Katra Sambili is an international development expert with sixteen years multi-sectoral  experience in public policy, leadership development, institution building and strategic  communications. She currently serves as the Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer  of the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD). In 2021 she founded  My Early Bird Africa- a Parent Partner organization that advocates for the integration of  Family-Centered Care as a critical intervention in the advancement of neonatal health in  Africa. For this work Ms. Sambili was recognized among Kenya’s Top 40 under 40 Women.  For two and a half years, Ms. Sambili held the position of Senior Director in the Executive  Office of His Excellency President Kenyatta and contributed to the successful delivery of  strategic national projects in collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams in Government,  Private and Development sectors. Prior to this, her immediate assignment was as an Adaptive  Leadership Coach for Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education on its Transforming  Leadership for 21st Century Africa. 

Over the past one and a half decades she has worked with various funds and programs of the  United Nations including UN Women, UNDP and UNICEF. In 2008 she worked with the  Kofi-Annan led African Union- Panel of Eminent African Personalities (AU-PEAP) which  mediated the 2007-2008 Post Election Crisis and restored peace in Kenya. In 2009 Ms.  Sambili was one of two Africans selected to join the inaugural International Youth Corps of  the prestigious “Realizing The Dream” Foundation established by Martin Luther King III in  honour of his father’s vision- “I Have A Dream”. The following year, while serving at the UN  Millennium Campaign, Ms. Sambili effectively designed and implemented communication  strategies for 17 Sub-Saharan African Countries leveraging the 2010 FIFA World Cup being  held in Africa for the first time. In 2016 Ms. Sambili served as a Legacy and Communications  Consultant in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the United  Nations headquarters in New York.  

Ms. Sambili has extensive public sector experience having served as the founding Head of  Secretariat of Kenya’s National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) and worked  to transform Kenya’s justice sector in other capacities between 2011 and 2015. She is an  Edward S. Mason Fellow and Master of Public Administration graduate of Harvard Kennedy  School of Government and also holds a Master of Science in International Development from  the School of Public Policy in University of Birmingham, UK and a Bachelor of Arts Degree  in International Relations from United States International University-Africa. 

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