Meet Our Fellows
Brandon Cheong is a project consultant specializing in international development and migration research and a member of the 2023 UG Diaspora Planning Conference Team. His work has included various International Organization for Migration (UN Migration Agency) projects for member states in Eastern and the Horn of Africa around diaspora engagement and labour mobility. He holds a graduate degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and International Development Studies from the University of Guelph and spent two decades as an active member of the Guyanese Canadian diaspora in Toronto. During that time, he was involved in many diaspora organizations including the Guyanese Canadian Young Professionals Association, the Guyanese Consulate General’s 50th Republic Anniversary Celebration Committee and the Alliance of Guyanese Canadian Organizations. Brandon was also a member of the UG Diaspora Conference Planning Committee for the 2019 postponed conference. Having re-migrated back to Guyana in 2022, his professional interests also lie within the country’s medium-scale gold mining sector.
Dr. Teboho Moja is a Professor of Higher Education at New York University, an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape – South Africa, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She previously served as an Executive Director and Commissioner of the National Commission on Higher Education in South Africa (1995), appointed by President Mandela. She was recognized and awarded Lifetime Achiever Award by the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and an Honorary doctorate by the University of Pretoria. She has published extensively on higher education policy, presented numerous keynote addresses at international conferences on higher education issues. Before joining NYU, Teboho Moja served as a Special Advisor to the Minister of Education. She has served on numerous bodies including the UNESCO- Institute of International Education Planning and the Advisory board of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program. She is a board member of the National Research Foundation and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. Her current research focuses on the governance and funding of Science Granting Councils, Philanthropy in Education and Higher Education in Africa.
Dr. Liesl Riddle is the Dean of the College of Professional Studies and an Associate Professor of International Business and International Affairs at The George Washington University (GW). She holds a BA and MA in Middle Eastern Studies, a MBA in Marketing/International Business, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Riddle has written extensively about diasporas and development, international entrepreneurship, and trade and investment promotion. In 1999, Dr. Riddle co-authored the first diaspora-focused article to appear in the top international business journal, The Journal of International Business. Since then, Dr. Riddle has conducted action research on developing diaspora investment ecosystems over 30 countries and six continents around the world as a consultant for international organizations, government agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, and the International Organization for Migration as well as several national governments and private-sector organizations.
In 2006, she was a founding member of the GW Diaspora Research Program (GW-DRP) and later served as director for several years. GW-DRP not only offers an array of curricular and co-curricular programs related to diaspora roles in development and diplomacy but it also hosts numerous convenings of academics, policy makers, practitioners and students to progress global conversations about diaspora roles in the global economy and society. Under Dr. Riddle’s leadership GW-DRP partnered with the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development to launch the Global Diaspora Forum and the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance (IDEA).
In her over 20 years of experience as a teacher, Dr. Riddle received numerous teaching awards, including the prestigious university George Washington Award and the School of Business Teaching Excellence Award.
Dr. Mark Tumbridge read English at Brunel University, Uxbridge, graduating in 2005 with a first class honours degree. He spent two years teaching in London and Poland, before returning to Brunel to complete his MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture. In July 2008, he won the David Nicholls Memorial Trust Scholarship, and by July 2012 he had successfully defended his PhD thesis in Comparative Cultural Studies at the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Warwick. His research interests include Caribbean literature and culture, world literature, literary representations of indentureship and slavery, the presence of tropical products such as opium and sugar in literature, and critical theory. He is currently lecturing at the University of Guyana.
Gillian is an international consultant working with various international organizations and has conducted action research on various Diasporas, developed Diaspora Engagement policies, strategies, mappings and implementation programs including projects on the Congolese Diaspora, Djibouti Diaspora, Ethiopian Diaspora, Haitian Diaspora, Kenyan Diaspora, Somalian and the Ugandan Diaspora among others. She was the Project Manager for several Diaspora Conferences including the University of Guyana’s 2nd Diaspora Conference and was a committee member for the University of Guyana’s 1st Diaspora Conference. Gillian has also worked on Social Impact, Sustainable Development and Migration Studies projects globally.
Additionally, Gillian has spent several years in international business development, including several years on Wall Street as Director of Global Business Development with a multinational Information technology, consulting and systems integration company. She has worked with Fortune 500 multinational clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
Gillian was presented with the Chairman’s Circle Award for outstanding achievement in International Business Development.
Gillian is the G100 Guyana Country Chair for Migration and Diaspora Engagement.