Cofounder & CEOResonate
Ayla is Co-founder and CEO of Resonate, an organization that unlocks leadership potential for women and girls in East Africa, and is pioneering a new approach to capacity building worldwide. She is responsible for leading strategy, partnerships, program expansion, and curriculum innovation. She has a background in communications, community organizing, and leadership development. Along with her co-founder, she adapted proven community organizing tools to build capacity and leadership among underserved women in East Africa.
Prior to starting Resonate she was a Field Organizer and Program Manager at Groundswell in Washington, DC, where she led and managed the launch of a city-wide energy efficiency and financing program for low-income residents. She has also worked as a strategic communications consultant and specialized in stakeholder engagement and facilitation. She brings these skills to her work at Resonate, leveraging the influential power of storytelling for positive change.
Ayla was a Mary Maples Dunn scholar at Smith College, where she graduated with honors with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Spanish Language. Ayla was awarded the 2014 Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling for her work with Resonate and was named one of Conscious Company Magazine’s 17 Rising Social Entrepreneurs. She is a 2015 Unreasonable Institute Global Fellow, a 2016 recipient of the Cordes Fellowship, and represents Resonate as part of the 2017 GSBI Accelerator Program and the 2017 cohort of the SPRING Accelerator. Ayla serves as an International Grant Advisor for The Pollination Project, and as a member of the Global Advisory Board for the Women’s Global Leadership Initiative.