Yvonne E. Mwende is a Development Communication Specialist with 12 years of experience designing and implementing communications and advocacy strategies and storytelling with a nose for impact stories. She has extensive experience with multi-stakeholder communication initiatives, supporting non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and the private sector in Kenya and internationally. A thought leader, she has authored publications on women’s rights, social justice, human rights, and inequality, among other social development issues.

She has actively engaged in influencing women’s socio-political gains in Kenya by profiling women political aspirants, aggravating policy implementation around the two-thirds gender principle, and advocating for women’s economic empowerment programs. She is an alumna of the African Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Initiative (AWLMI) by Urgent Action Fund-Africa in collaboration with Coady International Institute and holds a B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies, Development Communication option at the University of Nairobi.

Her mission is to create enabling environments that sustain transformative leadership and equitable development. She serves as a Board Director with Siasa Place, an NGO which promotes the people’s participation in democratic processes through research, training, civic education, networking, and strategic partnerships.

She dreams of having a chestnut brown Norwich Terrier called Tamu.