The Ivory Club of Tampa Bay will hold its Annual Lecture Series and Gala night to September 14, 2024.
Venue – USF Royal Palm Ballroom, 4103 USF Cedar Cir, Tampa, FL 33620
Time – 6pm (Silent Auction), 7pm (Dinner, Lecture, and entertainment)
Theme: “African Diaspora in a Multi-Polar 21st Century”.
Keynote Speaker – Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh, Senior Associate for Africa and Special Advisor to the President at the National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Please join us as we celebrate the 18th anniversary of our signature charity event.
The Ivory Club of Tampa Bay, a non-profit organization, has been a mainstay in the Tampa Bay area for more than 20 years. An “Evening in Africa” is a charity event that serves as a key fundraising vehicle the Ivory Club of Tampa Bay relies on to support its key programs such as:
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- ⇒ University of South Florida (USF) Endowed Scholarship. Since 1999, the Ivory Club has awarded need and merit based scholarships annually to deserving students.
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- ⇒ International Student Exchange Program where recipient USF Students are sent to an African university for a semester
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- ⇒ Disaster relief and social assistance – Donations to Haiti earthquake and West African Ebola relief efforts, Tampa Bay Boys & Girls Club, and more
This year’s fundraiser will be focused on funding the “Ivory Center“, our proposed African Cultural Center.
We invite you to come and experience the night with us.
About the Keynote Speaker
Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh is currently Senior Associate for Africa and Regional Director for Central and West Africa at National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Washington, DC. He has organized and advised international election observation missions to Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. He has also designed and supervised country specific democracy support programs with civic organizations, political parties and legislative bodies in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.
In the course of his work, Dr. Fomunyoh interacts regularly with heads of state and government, cabinet ministers, elected officials and political and civic leaders. He recently designed and helped launch the African Statesmen Initiative (ASI), a program aimed at facilitating political transitions in Africa by encouraging former democratic heads of state to stay engaged in humanitarian issues, conflict mediation, public health and other key sectors of political, economic and human development on the continent.
As an expert on democratization in Africa, Dr. Fomunyoh makes frequent guest appearances on major radio and television networks including CNN, BBC, NewsHour, National Public Radio, Voice of America, and Radio France Internationale, and provides interviews for major national and international newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Le Monde and The International Herald Tribune. He has published a number of articles in academic journals on African politics and democratization.
Dr. Fomunyoh has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe and North America, and is bilingual in English and French. He holds a Licence en Droit from Yaoundé University in Cameroon, a master’s degree (LL.M.) in international law from Harvard Law School; and a Ph.D. in political science from Boston University. Dr. Fomunyoh is an adjunct faculty at the African Center for Strategic Studies and a former adjunct professor of African politics and government at Georgetown University. He also is the founder of a nonprofit organization interested in supporting democracy and humanitarian causes in Cameroon. Additionally, he volunteers as a Goodwill Ambassador for Ukraine, on the
#GrainFromUkraineInitiative.