As a proven entrepreneurial leader with more than 40 years of experience, Sam Yehia demonstrated his knack for identifying and developing winning investment strategies in the hospitality industry and real estate developments in Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada. In 1990, he founded the Cambie Malone’s Group of Companies, establishing some of the most successful food, beverage, and liquor retail brands in the Pacific Northwest. By early 2019, the Cambie Malone’s Group boasted 250 staff members, generating more than $25 million in sales in a real estate portfolio of high-value assets, all of which were sold at the peak of the market in April 2019.
Sam launched Orato Media, in its first iteration, in the late 1990s based on his insights and experiences in the entertainment industry. He developed a keen interest in first-person, non-fiction stories from real people while serving as an impresario and inviting media personalities to interview the jazz superstars he was booking into entertainment venues in B.C. and Alberta. Nominated for a Webby Award, the original Orato website provided high-quality content, validated and fact-checked by traditional journalists who assisted with polishing citizen-told stories from around the world. Juggling the priorities of 13 core businesses concurrently with the growing demands of the Orato site became complicated, and the responsibilities of his “day job” took precedence. In early 2020 when the world was confronted by the Pandemic, he realized that for the first time in living history, every soul on the planet was confronted by the existential viral threat of COVID-19. Yet, those experiences differed, depending on where we resided. Coupled with the erosion of trust in media and the difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction, He re-launched Orato World Media, transitioning it to a non-profit entity. Orato unleashed a new generation of journalists to bring true stories from real people so every human could exercise their sovereign right to be heard.
Pamela H. Say, MBA, CFRE is a veteran administrator, nationally published author, speaker, and consultant. She served in higher education and non-profit leadership for two decades in the c-suite before joining Orato World Media.
Say has been featured in Advancing Philanthropy Magazine, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the national Wiley Journal Fundraising Success. She has raised millions of dollars for non-profit missions, inspired staff to smash through marketing metrics, and coached best-in-class teams. Pam completed her administrative career in higher education as a Vice President before moving into full-time consulting.
Say earned a B.A. in Journalism from St. Bonaventure University, an M.B.A. from SUNY Empire State College, and is completing a Certificate in Literary Representation at UCLA. She was named a Buffalo Business First 40 Under Forty in 2011, a Buffalo Niagara Partnership Athena Young Professional finalist in 2016, SUNY Empire State College Emerging Leader in 2019, and won the Leadership Allegany Founder’s Award in 2020. Say is a dual-coaster, residing in Springville, NY and Gold Canyon, AZ.
Daniella Mejia, a business administration graduate with dual specializations in international business and digital marketing, boasts over five years of experience in design, editing, and translation. Her time as an interpreter for Habitat for Humanity in El Salvador ignited a profound passion for social work and honed her expertise in cross-cultural communication.
In Canada, Daniella sharpened her design skills as a design specialist for a risk management and child safety consultancy while freelancing social media design for a Vancouver-based Latin American magazine. Ascending through the ranks at Orato, she journeyed from a marketing intern to an editorial lead to her present-day position as a senior editor.
As senior editor for Orato World Media, Daniella produces weekly compelling first-person news for global audiences. Her knack for storytelling and editing contributes to the continual elevation of the publication’s content quality.
Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo is a multi-media environmental journalist and international storyteller who has visited rugged terrain to share underrepresented stories. She has covered erosions, flooding and desertification in Nigeria; oil pollution in Ogoniland of the Niger Delta, depleting Africa’s last rain forests; and frozen Lapland in Finland. She created, produced and presented over 100 episodes of Nigeria’s most popular environmental TV show and worked with global organizations including BBC World Service, Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, Television Continental, Channels Television, Arise News Network, The New Internationalist, and Impacthub Basel. She served as a guest lecturer at the University of Parma where she taught environmental reporting and international broadcast journalism. Her well told stories have fetched her several local and international journalism awards including the United Nations Young Environmental Journalist Award; UNDP Nigeria recognition award; Green Accord, Italy, Environmental Journalism Award; and Covering Climate Change Now Awards
Md. Azmul Hosen Titu is a highly motivated and experienced Webmaster with System Administrator expertise, with over 12 years of experience in managing computer systems, servers, networks, and websites. Proficient in web development technologies and practices, with a strong understanding of website performance, security, and functionality.
Priyanka Chandani specializes in long-form narrative features and has reported from India, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Dubai. She writes across beats, from politics and crime to military and cross border conflict, gender issues, cinema, sports and lifestyle. Her works have been published in Indian and international outlets including The Tennessee Tribune, The Westside Gazette, Zenger News, and Orato World Media.
Mudassir Haider is a distinguished political analyst and journalist holding double majors in Political Science and International Relations from prestigious institutions in Cyprus and Turkey. His expertise lies in Turkish and European politics, with a keen focus on EU-Turkey, Turkey-US relations, and the complex Cyprus Issue. Through his impactful contributions, Mudassir has published thought-provoking analyses on various issues and conflicts. He actively engages with world leaders, demonstrating a commitment to addressing pressing international matters, particularly those related to refugee crises and the effective functioning of international institutions. Mudassir’s dedication to fostering a deeper understanding of critical subjects makes him a valuable and informed voice in the realm of global affairs.
Mahasen Hawary is an Egyptian journalist and writer currently based in London, England. Mahasen has contributed to prominent Egyptian newspapers and websites, conducting investigative reports on the lives of those who are suffering and reporting on significant political events such as the Arab Spring revolutions. She has a background in cinema journalism, interviewing Egyptian and Arab film stars, and covering film festivals in the Middle East and the U.K. Mahasen’s has a passion for literature and has written numerous short stories for specialized literary magazines. In 2005, she pursued media studies at the University of Alexandria and continued her education at the American University in Cairo, focusing on journalistic and literary translation. Mahasen adores storytelling and crafting human narratives.
Sofia Barquet serves as the Relationship Manager and Interpreter for Orato World Media, where she stewards many high-profile relationships for the organization, manages the initial research process for funding, translates all Spanish story pitches and published pieces, and more. Sofia is from Ecuador and currently resides in Argentina. She has taken college coursework in anthropology and information technology, such as website development. She has conducted research as an intern in Forensic Anthropology and Health Anthropology, focusing on rural public health systems. Sofia is currently enrolled in short courses on conflicts in the Middle East, including the Israel-Palestinian conflict. She loves learning languages and is self-taught in English. She is currently studying French. Sofia previously worked as a quality engineer.
Dr. Ebere Okereke is a public health physician with extensive experience in public health policy, strategy, and program development and implementation. She specializes in global health security, health system strengthening and leadership development with experience in the United Kingdom, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Trinidad & Tobago. Dr. Okereke has won awards for her work promoting women and under-represented groups in public health leadership, and has co-authored e-learning resources for the UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
She serves as the CEO of the Africa Public Health Foundation – a non-profit foundation committed to improving public health outcomes and promoting health equity in Africa through the provision of resources, knowledge, and support for health systems strengthening, health workforce development, and community-based health interventions.
She is an honorary senior public health adviser at Africa CDC, a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health, and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. Dr. Okereke graduated from the University of Nigeria College of Medicine.
Dave Levinthal leads Raw Story’s newsroom as editor-in-chief and oversees its investigations and enterprise reporting. Based in Washington, D.C., Dave previously worked as deputy editor and senior Washington correspondent for Insider. Dave has also worked as an editor or reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, Politico, OpenSecrets, the Dallas Morning News and the Eagle-Tribune.
Dave’s work as an editor and reporter won numerous honors, including the Goldsmith Prize, Edward R. Murrow Award, National Headliner Award, National Press Club’s Arthur E. Rowse Award for excellence in news media reporting, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine Award, EPPY Award, and Radio Television Digital News Association Kaleidoscope Award.
His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Atlantic, Time Magazine, the Daily Beast and Slate. Dave also regularly provides political analysis on news outlets such as NPR, MSNBC, the BBC, and CBC. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Dave graduated with degrees in newspaper journalism and political philosophy from Syracuse University, where he was editor-in-chief of The Daily Orange.
Aaron Chimbel serves as dean and professor at St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication, where he oversees curriculum, faculty, DEI initiatives, fundraising, budgeting and all other aspects of the school. Under his leadership, the Jandoli School received initial accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, launched five new undergraduate and three new master’s programs, has seen a significant increase in undergraduate applications and enrollment, and secured record fundraising. Prior to joining the St. Bonaventure faculty in 2018, Chimbel taught journalism full-time at Texas Christian University (TCU), his alma mater, for nine years. He has developed a wide variety of journalism classes and focused on the industry shift to digital delivery of news, as well as broadcast journalism. His academic writing has been featured in the Newspaper Research Journal, Convergence Newsletter, MediaShift, Journal of Social Media in Society, Electronic News, Journal of Media Education, Online Journalism Review and College Media Review. He has published two books: “Introduction to Journalism” and Why I’m a Journalist: Personal Stories from Those Who Cover the News. Before TCU, Chimbel worked at WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. He was hired as likely the first person at any local television station to produce original video content for the Web as the mobile journalist for wfaa.com. While at WFAA, Chimbel’s work was recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Radio-TV News Directors Association, National Press Photographers Association and the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. He earned five Advanced Media Emmy Awards and was part of the WFAA team that received a national Edward R. Murrow Award. Earlier, Chimbel was a reporter for KWTX-TV (Waco-Temple-Killeen, Texas) and a producer at Texas Cable News. He has produced two documentaries and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
As a proven entrepreneurial leader with more than 40 years of experience, Sam Yehia demonstrated his knack for identifying and developing winning investment strategies in the hospitality industry and real estate developments in Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada. In 1990, he founded the Cambie Malone’s Group of Companies, establishing some of the most successful food, beverage, and liquor retail brands in the Pacific Northwest. By early 2019, the Cambie Malone’s Group boasted 250 staff members, generating more than $25 million in sales in a real estate portfolio of high-value assets, all of which were sold at the peak of the market in April 2019.
Sam launched Orato Media, in its first iteration, in the late 1990s based on his insights and experiences in the entertainment industry. He developed a keen interest in first-person, non-fiction stories from real people while serving as an impresario and inviting media personalities to interview the jazz superstars he was booking into entertainment venues in B.C. and Alberta. Nominated for a Webby Award, the original Orato website provided high-quality content, validated and fact-checked by traditional journalists who assisted with polishing citizen-told stories from around the world. Juggling the priorities of 13 core businesses concurrently with the growing demands of the Orato site became complicated, and the responsibilities of his “day job” took precedence. In early 2020 when the world was confronted by the Pandemic, he realized that for the first time in living history, every soul on the planet was confronted by the existential viral threat of COVID-19. Yet, those experiences differed, depending on where we resided. Coupled with the erosion of trust in media and the difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction, He re-launched Orato World Media, transitioning it to a non-profit entity. Orato unleashed a new generation of journalists to bring true stories from real people so every human could exercise their sovereign right to be heard.
Pamela H. Say, MBA, CFRE is a veteran administrator, nationally published author, speaker, and consultant. She served in higher education and non-profit leadership for two decades in the c-suite before joining Orato World Media.
Say has been featured in Advancing Philanthropy Magazine, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the national Wiley Journal Fundraising Success. She has raised millions of dollars for non-profit missions, inspired staff to smash through marketing metrics, and coached best-in-class teams. Pam completed her administrative career in higher education as a Vice President before moving into full-time consulting.
Say earned a B.A. in Journalism from St. Bonaventure University, an M.B.A. from SUNY Empire State College, and is completing a Certificate in Literary Representation at UCLA. She was named a Buffalo Business First 40 Under Forty in 2011, a Buffalo Niagara Partnership Athena Young Professional finalist in 2016, SUNY Empire State College Emerging Leader in 2019, and won the Leadership Allegany Founder’s Award in 2020. Say is a dual-coaster, residing in Springville, NY and Gold Canyon, AZ.
Matthew Solomon is the director of the acclaimed documentary, “Reimagining Safety,” the author of the best-selling book: “Man School: Relating with Women in the #MeToo Era,” and helps organizations create inclusive cultures where everyone feels heard, understood, and valued.
Born and raised in the melting pot of Los Angeles and having spent 20+ years in the personal and professional development world, Matthew has led customized conflict resolution and partnership building programs to thousands of people looking to experience deep and profound connection in the workplace.
Matthew has studied communications and relationships for over 20 years and has been a guest on over 30 TV, radio and web shows, and podcasts. He served as a Board member for The Intersection for Mankind and a contributing writer for Be Kind and Co. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal studies and conflict resolution from Antioch University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Claremont Lincoln University.
Geraldina Guerra Garcés is a feminist and women’s rights advocate in Ecuador. With more than 17 years of experience advocating for survivors of violence, she now directs Fundación ALDEA, an organization dedicated to building an inclusive society focused on human rights, gender equality and interculturality. She is a key member of the Feminist Alliance for the Mapping of Femi(ni)cides from civil society. She collaborates with organizations in the 24 provinces of Ecuador to raise awareness and combat gender-based violence. In addition, she is the face of the National Network of Shelters. Geraldina has a degree in social communication and an advanced diploma in migration and development. She was named by British media BBC as one of the 100 most influential women in the world.
Dr. Tinashe Goronga is a medical doctor with a master’s degree in public health. He co-founded the Centre for Health Equity Zimbabwe (CHEZ). The core objective of CHEZ is to promote social justice and health equity through social medicine. Dr. Goronga also serves as an organizer for EqualHeath’s Global Campaign Against Racism. The Campaign Against Racism works to dismantle structural racism and its effects on health around the world.
Tinashe is a Mandela Washington Fellowship alumnus and he volunteers at various organizations working on inclusive systems and development. He is most passionate about social justice, climate justice, and health equity, and a major component of his life’s work is to contribute to equitable and inclusive health systems on the African continent.
