CEO, AidChild Leadership Institute, Uganda
In 2000, at the age of 26, Nathaniel Dunigan moved to Uganda, East Africa. Together with Ugandan volunteers, he founded AidChild. The now largely self-sustained organization was the first in Uganda to provide free antiretroviral therapy for children living with HIV (thanks to an early partnership with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation). The organization has now cared for more than 3,000 children living with HIV/AIDS in East Africa.
He lived in rural Uganda for nine years before attending Harvard University where he completed a Master’s Degree in Education, specializing in Human Development and Psychology. He was also a Reynolds Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and winner of the 2010 Harvard HDP Marshal Award. He also holds a PhD in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego where he was the Dammeyer Fellow in Global Education Leadership.
Nathaniel has testified before the United States Congress as an expert witness in the identification of best practices of care for orphans and vulnerable children in Africa.
Before moving to Uganda, he served as Deputy Director of the Office of the Governor of Arizona, and Director of Education at Leadership, Inc. He is the author of “We Are Not Mahogany: Three stories about the male African life.”
Nathaniel is now CEO at A.L.I., the AidChild Leadership Institute in Entebbe (see www.aliuganda.com). He lives at his residence near the institute–with his kids and their dogs Kitty, Lady, Foxy, Togi and Samson. He tweets @NDunigan, and blogs at www.nathanieldunigan.com. You can find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nathaniel.dunigan.