Tendisai Chigwedere

Tendisai Chigwedere is a Program Officer in the Gender Equity and Governance Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She manages a portfolio of grants to ensure governments are responsive to their people’s needs and aspirations.

Tendisai has more than two decades of experience spanning community organizing and advocacy, public sector innovation, and philanthropy. Previously she served as the learning manager at TrustAfrica, where she played a pivotal role in supporting intersectional social movements across the African continent. She co-designed and hosted TrustAfrica’s African Social Movement Barazas, and directly managed the organization’s grantmaking in Zimbabwe. Prior to that, Tendisai served for four years as a diplomat with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she led the Ministry’s African Union portfolio. She has also worked as a community organizer in both Mexico and Honduras. In Mexico, as a coordinator with Transformación Urbana Internacional, she helped communities self-identify needs and launch multiple initiatives including a women’s empowerment and psycho-social support process, a community health initiative, and a youth program.

Tendisai has a master’s degree in international development from Eastern University in Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Sacramento.