Karen Exel (left), former Executive Director Harun Hassan of Kenya’s National Council for
 Persons with Disabilities (center), and Mitchell Oguna (right)

We’ve earned national recognition—including an Outstanding Partnership Award from Kenya’s National Council for Persons with Disabilities—because we do more than consult. We collaborate, we commit, and we deliver.

Our Team

Our team combines technical and operational expertise in inclusive development with decades of hands-on experience. Our collective background includes former USAID and implementing partner specialists in:
1. Procurement & Financial Management
2. Local & National Governance
3. Strategic Communications & Research
4. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)
5. Disability InclusionWomen’s and Girls’ Empowerment
6. Organisational Capacity Building

We collaborate with local partners to adapt global frameworks into locally grounded, lasting solutions.

  • Co-designed programs with persons with disabilities, women and girls, and ethnic minorities in both rural and urban settings. 
  • Partnered with government institutions at national and county levels to improve service delivery, accessibility, and inclusive policymaking. 
  • Worked with the private sector to advance equitable hiring, workplace inclusion, and social impact initiatives. 
  • Led research and published findings that have shaped national policies, donor strategies, and local action. 
  • Managed more than 20 development programs from start-up through scale-up and close-out—with a focus on sustainability and long-term results. 
  • Built the capacity of local organizations through mentorship, strategic planning, and support for localization.
  • Elevated community voices through storytelling, participatory outreach, and advocacy that drives change.

Meet the Team

Karen Exel
Co-Founder and Executive Director

Karen Stone Exel is an accomplished global development strategist with over 20 years of experience advancing equity, rights, and resilience in some of the world’s most complex environments. Her work spans Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Western Balkans, and the Middle East, with a focus on gender equality, disability rights, youth empowerment, governance, and humanitarian response.

Karen’s leadership has shaped transformative programs across government and civil society. In Kenya, she spearheaded USAID’s efforts on disability inclusion, securing $12 million to support organizations led by persons with disabilities and forging the agency’s first formal partnership with Kenya’s National Council for Persons with Disabilities. She also led a nationwide assessment that reshaped government and donor strategies on disability rights and institutionalized trainings on accessibility, allyship, and inclusive leadership.

As USAID’s Division Chief for Humanitarian Assistance in Southern Africa, Karen directed a $300 million emergency portfolio, delivering critical relief across Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Zambia. She also played key roles in humanitarian responses in Venezuela and Haiti, scaling operations and addressing urgent needs in public health, education, and gender-based violence prevention.

In her role as Director of USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Office, Karen managed a $40 million annual portfolio and led flagship girls’ education programs in Malawi and Tanzania under the Let Girls Learn initiative. She developed the office’s first five-year strategy, expanded global gender training, and coordinated directly with the White House, National Security Council, and U.S. Department of State to align inter-agency action on gender equality.

Karen also led the Family Care First initiative in Cambodia, a groundbreaking effort to strengthen child protection systems and shift national care practices from institutionalization to family-based support. In the West Bank and Gaza, she drove education reform and youth development through public-private partnerships that expanded internet access, digital learning, and decentralized school governance.

Earlier in her career, she led post-conflict development in Bosnia and Herzegovina, managing a $26 million portfolio and launching national anti-trafficking and youth stability programs—mobilizing an additional $6 million in funding to scale impact.

Across all her roles, Karen is known for building diverse, high-performing teams and driving long-term, inclusive change. Her ability to connect grassroots needs with high-level strategy has made her a trusted leader in complex development settings.

She holds a master’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s in Third World Studies from the University of California, San Diego.

Mitchell Oguna
Co-Founder and Board Member

Mitchell Nyakoa Oguna is a seasoned public policy strategist and inclusion advocate with over 15 years of experience advancing equity, rights, and access for marginalized populations across Kenya and East Africa. As the Co-Founder of Inclusion Unfolding Africa, she is committed to reshaping systems, strengthening community voice, and embedding inclusive values across policy, service delivery, and development practice.

Her leadership has influenced national legislation, digital infrastructure, and community programming. Mitchell played a pivotal role in Kenya’s Disability Act 2025 and led the National Disability Landscape Analysis, positioning disability inclusion as a national development priority. She has developed policy tools such as the National Guidelines for Schools to Procure Sanitation Services and supported the design of Kenya’s WASH and Menstrual Hygiene policies.

Mitchell has advised USAID/Kenya and East Africa (KEA) in mainstreaming inclusive development across the Country Development Cooperation Strategy and East Africa Regional Development Cooperation Strategy, supporting alignment with gender, youth, and disability priorities. She has also supported performance planning, strategic communications, and co-creation events across Kenya's 47 counties.

As a champion of inclusive digital transformation, she led a national study on the impact of emerging technologies and digital public infrastructure on service access for persons with disabilities and senior citizens, and provided technical guidance to enhance the accessibility of the Kenyan government's National Council for Persons with Disabilities Career Portal.

Mitchell has built coalitions across government, civil society, and private sector actors, representing organizations such as Synergy, Penda Health, and regional networks like AMCOW and ESAWAS. She has driven systems-level advocacy, enabling inclusive sanitation strategies in Kenya, Rwanda, and the DRC, and advancing urban equity through tools like Shit Flow Diagrams.

At the community level, she has mobilized residents of informal settlements to advocate for housing rights, access to services, and anti-corruption reforms, implementing programs on HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, and governance in Kenya's informal settlements such as Kibera, Mathare, and Kisumu. Her work has consistently bridged grassroots empowerment with policy innovation.

Mitchell holds a Master of Research and Public Policy from Maseno University and a BSc in Family and Consumer Science from Kenyatta University. She continues to lead with the vision of “inclusion that transforms lives—one community, one person at a time.”