DiploFoundation announces VeriSign fellows to attend 7th IGF meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan

Published on 10 October 2012
Updated on 05 April 2024

Five fellows have been selected by DiploFoundation to attend the 7th Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan in November. The fellows’ participation is being sponsored by VeriSign as part of its continued support for DiploFoundation’s IG capacity building initiatives.

The fellows are among some of the best participants of DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme 2012. The fellowships will enable the participants to attend the meeting, participate in the debates, and make a positive contribution to their country or region.

The selected fellows are:

Trevor Phipps was born on St. Kitts-Nevis, an island in the Eastern Caribbean and has a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from The University of the West Indies (Jamaica). He previously worked as a database programmer for an online Internet casino/sports book (hosted on St. Kitts). He is currently employed as the IT Manager at Caribbean Credit Card Corporation based on St. Kitts.

Over the past 10 years Trevor has been involved with several initiatives geared at forming an ICT association on St. Kitts. As a result of involvement with DiploFoundation, he has developed an interest in building awareness amongst small island developing states as it relate to Internet governance issues and getting the Caribbean involved in the global policy discussions. He is also interested in Data Protection and Privacy issues.

Sarah Kiden is passionate about ICT, with a keen interest in Information Systems and ICTs for Development. She is a member of Internet Society (Global and Uganda Chapters) and a participant in the national (Uganda) and regional IGFs (East Africa) where she recently made a presentation about Youth and IGF. Sarah holds an MSc Information Systems from Uganda Martyrs University (Exchange student: Saint Mary’s University, Halifax – Canada) and a BSc Information Technology from Uganda Christian University and is a DiploFoundation alumnus with certificates in ICT Policy & Strategic Planning, Internet Governance and Infrastructure, and is currently participating in the Policy Research Methodology course. Sarah is currently working in Uganda Christian University as a Web & E-Learning Administrator and has been privileged to be one of the key persons that developed the university ICT Policy and ICT Strategy.

Inam Ali works as an information security auditor at Jordan’s National Information Technology Center (NITC). Her main mandate is to increase the level of security of government entities and the local community. She heads a campaign about cyber security issues to raise the awareness of government employees about the importance of these issues, and to impart the required knowledge so they can protect themselves when they are online. She is also involved in setting up measures required to secure the National Information Technology Center, and to comply with ISO 27001 requirements.

Grace Githaiga is an Associate of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet). She also is associated with the Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA) Research Programme. Prior to joining KITCANet, she was the Chair of African Chapter of the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) and an Executive Director at EcoNews Africa. Grace co-ordinated the Kenya IGF 2012 as well as the East Africa IGF 2012. She is currently co-researching on Intermediary Liability in Kenya.

Mayengo Tom Kizito is an ICT Practitioner working with Makerere University Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) as an ICT officer. Tom joined DiploFoundation in 2011 as a student in the IGCBP11 ICT Policy and Strategic Planning course. He has just completed the IGCBP12 Cybersecurity course and is preparing to attend the 7th IGF in Baku. Tom holds a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Kyambogo University, Uganda. All his previous work and employment opportunities have been in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). He is currently engaged in IG activities at a community stakeholder level, carrying out sensitisations, discussing topical issues on national advisory lists and blogging about IG issues. Tom is passionate about bridging the digital gap and in his capacity, he has joined hands with a few friends in teaching people (out of school) computer skills which are intended to ignite their use of computers.

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