About Advance African Development
Advance African Development (AAD), is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization formed in 2012. Its mission is to respond to issues of health disparities, social justice, and human rights, both locally and internationally by partnering, collaborating, and supporting the development of culturally relevant intervention programs using a multidisciplinary approach. AAD strives to improve the quality of people’s lives and empower individuals by offering community-based participatory and evidence-driven programs through leadership development, community capacity building, research, education, training, advocacy, services, and outreach to eliminate disparities, inequalities, and promote social justice and human dignity. It’s actively involved in interdisciplinary minority health disparities research and programs.
Driven by the African phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child,” AAD engages community members and academic institutions as it articulates its holistic and interdisciplinary vision, i.e., educating, empowering, and shaping a sustainable future for individuals, families, communities, and society-at-large. AAD is grounded in the Ubuntu philosophy that reminds us of our membership in an ecosystem. In that ecosystem, we thrive because of our grounding in communal efforts, and we embrace the belief that you cannot exist as a human being without the support of others. AAD promotes a spirit of kinship across both race and creed by uniting mankind to a common purpose. AAD’s efforts are inspired by Nelson Mandela’s words that: “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.”AAD works with underserved, marginalized, and hard-to-reach, vulnerable minority populations, the homeless, school children, immigrants, and refugees. In addition, AAD trains community health workers as collaborative and transformational leaders equipped with skills and competencies needed for grassroots mobilization and advocacy to effect sustainable community changes. AAD provides professional event/conference planning services, technical support for community health workers, and consultant services to several agencies. AAD is an affiliate member of the NN/LM MAR and has benefited and been supported immensely by MAR, especially the administrators and consumer outreach staff. In addition, AAD is an Official Approved Pittsburgh Public School District’s Out-of-School Time Partner from 2016 to present. To learn more about support for AAD’s initiatives and recognitions it has received, click here.
Board Members
Illa Jean Boggs
Mika Yamachita-Yoder
Annamore Matambanadzo
Edson Kamuruko
Tawanda Matambanadzo
Angela Ford (Former Board Member)
Our Story
Watch this space for the history of Advance African Development and its timeline.
Staffing
AAD consists of Board Members, paid nursing-student interns as consultants, hourly paid part-time staff, student volunteers recruited from local universities, and also engages with community providers with diverse expertise through volunteers. AAD also partners with college students looking for Course credit hours as part of their required/mandatory service-learning credit hours (ranges between 25-30 hours per semester) for fulfil their required community engagement. In addition, AAD has been able to engage consultants for its study design, evaluation, statistical analysis and for compiling both the interim and final reports submitted to funders.
Dr. Matambanadzo, as the Founder, Consultant, Executive Director and Principal Investigator, provides overall administrative and supervisory roles and is compensated through grants as part of budget item line. AAD has also maintained sustainable partnerships and collaborations with local universities, community service providers, and successfully secured university student volunteers through service-learning programs. Despite setbacks due to COVID-19, AAD is continuously growing and has budgeted for two part-time, hourly staff to help implement programs and manage technology and program coordination.
Student Interns
Check back here to see our student interns!
Partners
Community Partners through PPS District Out-of-School Time Provider Partnerships
Meet Our Founder, Dr. Annamore Matambanadzo
Annamore Matambanadzo, PhD is the Founder, Executive Director, and Consultant of Advance African Development (AAD). As a Visiting Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine for the past seven years, she was actively involved in interdisciplinary minority health disparities research. When she joined the department, her initial responsibility was to direct a large, federally funded, community-based study to assess risk factors contributing to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in African American women. Previously, she was a Research Associate for the Center for Minority Health (CMH) where she made significant contributions to the development and implementation of a baseline assessment for The Healthy Class of 2010 (HC2010): A School-Based Health Promotion Demonstration Research Project, implemented as a partnership between University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health and Pittsburgh Public Schools. This scholarly research allowed the CMH to transition their school-based program into a cohort research study.
In addition, Dr. Matambanadzo is a Fulbright Scholar & Delta Kappa Gamma Fellow; a 2015 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Global Fellow. She is a Certified Women’s Health Leadership Institute (WHLI) Region III (covers 6 States) Master Trainer for Community Health Workers; an Alternate WHLI Master Trainer for 2014 Special Populations in Hagatna, Guam -(Pacific Islanders CHWs); a 2013 NIH/NIMHD Translational Health Disparities Scholar. Dr Matambanadzo is Certified in Social and Behavioral Research, Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI); Certified Youth Mental Health First Aid; a Trained Preceptor, University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing’s Community Health; and an Affiliate Faculty, University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Health Equity.
Therefore, she brings into this position a background that is a combination of decades of experience in southern Africa and the United States. Her contributions as an academic and professional, and her health disparities work in the Center for Minority Health (CMH), now known as the Center for Health Equity, Graduate School of Public Health and the Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She continues to engage in lifelong learning to re-skill herself and keep abreast of her evolving career roles and positions.