Maimuna Ahmad
Biography
Maimuna is a Bangladeshi-American educator and social entrepreneur. She founded Teach For Bangladesh in early 2012 with a vision to mobilize a generation of leaders working to end disparity in the Bangladeshi education system. She was inspired by her own experience witnessing disparity as a child growing up in Dhaka, and later as a mathematics teacher in a public high school in inner-city Washington, D.C., through Teach For America. Her work has directly impacted 40,000+ marginalized children and youth in Bangladesh to date. Maimuna holds a B.A. in international relations from Mount Holyoke College and an M.A. in teaching from American University. Maimuna's work has been recognized in Bangladesh and beyond. She was selected for the prestigious Ananya Shirsho Dosh award by Ananya magazine, naming her as one of ten exceptional women making an impact in Bangladesh, in the same year as Bangladeshi trailblazers like the first female Speaker of Parliament and the first female Deputy Governor of the Bangladesh Bank. Maimuna's alma mater Mount Holyoke College has also honored her with the Mary Lyon award which is bestowed upon young alumnae who demonstrate exceptional promise or sustained achievement in her life, profession, or community, and whose work embodies the humane values which Mount Holyoke founder Mary Lyon exemplified in her life.