Clay Thomas Jr., P.E., is a passionate environmental engineer and community development advocate dedicated to expanding access to education and opportunity. As the founder of Beyond Borders Education Fund Inc., Clay brings his deep commitment to sustainable, community-led change to support youth education initiatives in underserved areas.

Currently based in Idaho as a licensed Professional Engineer, Clay previously served with the United States Peace Corps in Zambia, where he partnered with rural communities to promote climate resilience, sustainable agriculture, and economic empowerment. His experience working directly with students, families, and local leaders inspired the vision behind Beyond Borders Education Fund — to help remove financial barriers and create pathways to academic success for young people.

In addition to his professional career managing multimillion-dollar environmental projects and advancing regulatory compliance in the mining sector, Clay has over a decade of non-profit experience. He has volunteered with organizations like Engineers Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity, delivering practical, community-centered solutions across the globe.

Through Beyond Borders Education Fund Inc., Clay is committed to advancing educational access, empowering the next generation of leaders, and promoting grassroots development that builds stronger, more resilient communities.

Mwate Nampemba is a results-oriented and dedicated social scientist with over 14 years of experience in program management, business administration, consumer rights advocacy, and compliance management. She holds a bachelor’s degree of public administration and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Zambia.  She has proven ability to design, implement, and evaluate programs in rural communities, particularly in the areas of project management and adolescent programming. She is adept at data collection, analysis, and reporting, with a strong commitment to promoting the rights and well-being of vulnerable populations. Additionally, she is a collaborative team player with excellent communication skills and fluency in English, Bemba, and Nyanja. Mwate is currently work for the US Peace Corps as provincial program coordinator in Luapula.

Scott currently serves as a founding member and the Managing Director of Agripreneur Foundation, a Zambian registered NGO whose aim is to increase the wealth of small scale farmers.

Prior to founding Agripreneur, Scott served as the Chief Legal Counsel for Dubai Properties, one of the United Arab Emirates leading property development companies, responsible for several billion dollars worth of residential and commercial projects each year. Before joining Dubai Properties, Scott was the the Chief Legal Counsel for the Tourism Development and Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi Government’s tourism arm, which was then developing a multi-billion dollar portfolio of mega-tourist projects, including Saadiyat Island, a 27 sq. kilometer high-end resort development, the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, and numerous 5 star hotels, including the award winning Qasr Al Sarab.

During Scott’s 25 year legal career, he has served as the Chief Legal Officer of numerous other international companies, advising them on all legal matters and supervising their legal teams, including Arabtec, a publicly traded company and one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East and Loreto Bay Company, a private company which was then developing a 6,000 acre environmentally sustainable resort town in Baja California Sur in partnership with the Mexican government.

Scott started his career as a legal associate at Baker & McKenzie and was later a founding partner of the New York Law Firm of Membrado & Montell, LLP.

Cecilia “Cece” Lesho is a dedicated social worker and community leader with over eight years of experience empowering youth and promoting social justice across Zambia’s Northern Province. Currently serving as Programs Manager at Bakashana, she leads mentorship initiatives and scholarship coordination while fostering strong partnerships with local organizations. Cecilia has worked with BBC Media Action, Restless Development, and the U.S. Peace Corps, where she has delivered sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education and youth empowerment programs. A Mandela Washington Fellow and YALI RLC alumna, Cecilia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and is known for her compassionate leadership and commitment to community mobilization.

Currently based in Kasama, Northern Province, Zambia

Aidan Mahoney is an engineer that bridges the gap between technology knowledge and a community-driven change. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia, he served as an English teacher and led initiatives to improve children's literacy and reduce gender-based violence in schools.

Aidan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Vermont and is currently pursuing a Master of Development Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His graduate work focuses on global water, sanitation, and hygiene by designing passive water chlorination systems.

He is also a member of Roof Us Arts and Human Rights Advocacy Foundation, a community-based organization in Mansa, Zambia, where he supports programs that use art and education to combat gender-based violence and advocate for human rights.

Aidan brings hands-on experience, cross-cultural insight, and a systems-thinking approach to his work at the intersection of engineering, education, and social justice.

Grace Frideger is a community development professional and educator dedicated to expanding access to quality and accessible education. With a background in international development, experiential education, and grassroots advocacy, Grace brings a commitment to locally driven solutions that promote equity, opportunity, and agency.

Grace served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia, where she worked alongside rural communities, schools, and government agencies to strengthen literacy instruction and promote gender equity. She led the creation of a province-wide literacy task force, implemented grants to improve access to early education infrastructure and computer literacy,  and helped design and implement a gender-based violence prevention program that trained 150 local leaders and reached over 1,000 students. These experiences deepened her understanding of the structural challenges many rural students face, from financial constraints to systemic inequities, and inspired her commitment to expanding educational access in underserved communities.

Following her Peace Corps service, Grace continued to engage with educational initiatives across southern Africa as the Logistics Coordinator and Lead Teacher for The Traveling School. In this role, she managed complex, multi-country experiential education across Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, ensuring that students and staff had the resources and support for meaningful, place-based learning experiences. This experience enabled her to engage with educational leaders and institutions across southern Africa, further inspiring her commitment to supporting educational opportunities in the region. 

Grace’s experience in Zambia and the region has given her firsthand insight into the transformative power of education, as well as the importance of culturally informed, sustainable approaches to development. As a board member, she is excited to contribute her skills in project management, grant administration, and cross-cultural partnerships to help the Beyond Borders Education Fund achieve its vision of providing educational opportunities and fostering long-term community resilience.

As Senior Manager at the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), a hosted programme of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Britta oversees the delivery of GRSP’s part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Initiative for Global Road Safety in fifteen LMICs across Asia, Latin America and Africa, including a Road Policing Capacity Building Programme, a Road Safety Grants Programme supporting advocacy efforts for better road safety legislation, and the delivery of road safety leadership courses in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. Since the commencement of the programme in 2012, the Road Safety Grants Programme has awarded 245 grants to 147 civil society organisations or government agencies in 21 countries, with $24 million of funds awarded in total.

Britta’s background is in traffic psychology and she has over 20 years of experience in the mitigation of transport risk. Britta has worked with government agencies and the private sector in the Middle East, Europe and Far East towards improving the safety and efficiency of traffic through the development and delivery of evidence-led road safety strategies and programmes.

Britta worked for ten years out of the UAE, lasty as Chief Specialist responsible for technical leadership in driver training, testing and licensing at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority. In her 12 years with the British Transport Research Laboratory, she covered different management roles in the UK and the UAE. Britta began her professional career as an academic working on driver impairment studies and simulator-based training at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany. She obtained her PhD at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.