Hello
Semhar Araia
About Me
Semhar Araia is the CEO and Founder of The Diaspora Academy, an online diaspora leadership institute, designed to support and strengthen diaspora changemakers around the world.
Semhar is a technical advisor to IOM, African Union, USAID, and various governments and non-profits around the world. Semhar previously led Diaspora Policy at Meta and Diaspora Partnerships UNICEF USA.
A lawyer by training, Semhar began her career as an attorney for the implementation of the 2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia peace agreement and served as a public policy advisor for Oxfam International, the US House of Representatives and Nelson Mandela’s organization, The Elders.
Semhar is a White House Champion of Change, an African Union Diaspora Awardee of the Year, and a former UN Delegate for Civil Society.
She is recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent, as well as The Root’s Top 100 and OkayAfrica's Top 100 Women awardees. Semhar was most recently profiled as one of the five individuals in the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture's Next-Generation Voices exhibit.
She is a former Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and previously served on USAID's Advisory Committee on Foreign Voluntary Aid (ACFVA) and has been featured in The Africa Report, Financial Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Ventures Africa, AfroElle, and other media outlets.
Semhar was born in New York City to Eritrean immigrant parents and resides in Washington, D.C.
Semhar is a technical advisor to IOM, African Union, USAID, and various governments and non-profits around the world. Semhar previously led Diaspora Policy at Meta and Diaspora Partnerships UNICEF USA.
A lawyer by training, Semhar began her career as an attorney for the implementation of the 2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia peace agreement and served as a public policy advisor for Oxfam International, the US House of Representatives and Nelson Mandela’s organization, The Elders.
Semhar is a White House Champion of Change, an African Union Diaspora Awardee of the Year, and a former UN Delegate for Civil Society.
She is recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent, as well as The Root’s Top 100 and OkayAfrica's Top 100 Women awardees. Semhar was most recently profiled as one of the five individuals in the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture's Next-Generation Voices exhibit.
She is a former Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and previously served on USAID's Advisory Committee on Foreign Voluntary Aid (ACFVA) and has been featured in The Africa Report, Financial Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Ventures Africa, AfroElle, and other media outlets.
Semhar was born in New York City to Eritrean immigrant parents and resides in Washington, D.C.