Solomé Lemma

Solomé Lemma is the Executive Director of Thousand Currents, a grantmaker that supports grassroots movements focused on food, climate, and economic justice in the Global South and shifting philanthropy towards justice and equity. She is the co-founder of Africans in the Diaspora (AiD), an initiative she led for four years before its merger with Thousand Currents. Previously, she served as Global Fund for Children’s Senior Program Officer for Africa, managing a portfolio of over 100 grassroots organizations in about 25 countries. Solomé has also worked with the U.N. Development Programme in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch in New York City, and International Rescue Committee in Liberia. Solomé currently serves on the advisory board of the Agroecology Fund.

Born in Ethiopia and moving to the U.S. at a young age, Solomé quickly learned of the skewed perspectives held of Africans. She is a White House Champion of Change for her work with diaspora communities. As co-founder of Africa Responds, Solomé also led a diaspora-led humanitarian effort to galvanize fundraising for grassroots organizations fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Solomé received a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from Stanford University. During to her 15+ years of experience in philanthropy, Solomé has become a strong voice against “inequitable and ineffective partnerships” and a fierce supporter of local leadership. Solomé’s work and writing has been featured in Forbes, the Washington Post, The Guardian, Inside Philanthropy, and Africa is a Country, among others, and she has appeared on NPR, BBC, and Al Jazeera discussing aid and philanthropy in Africa. She has been an invited guest speaker at community events, conferences, and universities such as the University of Vermont, Columbia, and NYU. Solomé was named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s “100 women to follow on Twitter” at @innovateafrica.