Andrew Cunningham

Andrew (Andy) Cunningham is a global Education Officer for the Aga Khan Foundation, based at its headquarters in Geneva. Working in partnership with governments, school faculties, parents and communities, it aims to develop affordable, innovative solutions that raise the quality and accessibility of public school systems for approximately 1 million students per year via 29,000 teachers across 16 countries. In particular, he is overseeing AKF’s global school improvement program for children in primary and secondary education alongside identifying meaningful uses of ICT.

 Before joining AKF, Andy served as an education consultant for UNICEF Kenya, the World Bank, World Learning, and the Education Above All Foundation, among other organisations. In 2006, he co-founded the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. He was its Executive Director for its first two years, living out of a mud-hut. WISER was the first girls’ secondary boarding school in the region offering full scholarships to all students. Over the last decade, WISER has emerged as one of Kenya's top-performing girls' secondary schools in the country, especially in STEM education and global health. 

 Andy graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a double major in International Comparative Studies and Chinese and received a Masters in Comparative International Education at Oxford University with distinction. He is currently finishing his PhD at Oxford University, focusing on understanding local realities of effective school leadership strategies through mobile and cloud-based technologies in Kenya. Andy is the recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, Truman Scholarship, Robertson Scholarship, Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award, Oxford University’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Social Impact and Duke's President's Young Alumni Award for global leadership

Learn more about WISER at: www.wisergirls.org

 For more information on the Aga Khan Foundation:  www.adkn.org