Naomi Amaha is an award-winning public affairs leader with over a decade of experience in advocacy, nonprofit leadership, and civic engagement. Previously, Naomi worked for The American Heart Association in various leadership roles, where she was recognized for building strong stakeholder relationships and advancing policy change at the local, regional, and state levels in multiple states.
Advice for future applicants: Be fully present! From the in-person convening to your meetings with classmates on projects, and when there are virtual meetups. The program goes by quicker than you anticipate. Connect with your classmates – they will be the most amazing people you will meet in your life. Create systems for yourself to manage the classwork, and also be honest with your instructors and the amazing team at CSIS when you need more time. If there are readings you can’t get to, just save them for future reference. Lastly, keep an open mind, especially when you are being pushed to think differently, as it will help you broaden your approach to problem-solving.
Benefits from her experience in the Executive Program in Social Innovation (XSD): Honestly, the biggest takeaway was learning to approach complex issues through community-driven policy change using the tools and methods learned throughout the course. But if I’m picking the single most significant benefit, it’s my classmates. Having people to think out loud with — on ideation, prototyping, and stakeholder engagement — pushed me in ways that working solo or with people solely in my ecosystem never does. And the in-person convening made those relationships real in a way that solely online coursework couldn’t.
Why XSD? I enrolled in the course when I was feeling burned out and defeated by the political climate. I needed a reset and space to get back to believing that social impact through systems change was still possible, and this program gave me that. It’s also given me exposure outside of my sector to see how social impact is possible.
Thank you Naomi If you are interested in learning more about the XSD program check out our website .Applications are open for our next XSD cohort and we are offering partial scholarships! We will have our XSD Alumni Panel August 4th, tune in if you want to learn more about this awesome program.
Also, SIS & XSD graduates are eligible to apply to the Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership (NPL) in an accelerated, on-campus, or online format. The NPL program is a ten-credit master’s program; SIS Alumni must complete six credits to graduate.