Wokie Weah

Wokie Weah has a deep understanding of youth development, education administration, and organizational development at the local, national, and international levels. In 2021 Wokie Weah retired as the Founding President of Youthprise, she provided executive leadership and vision, worked in partnership with the board of directors and for ten yeas brokered relationships to reduce disparities with and for Minnesota youth. She is often described as a disrupter due to her personal commitment to transformational systems change and intergenerational leadership. Wokie Weah is the winner of many awards, she received the 2021 Facing Race Award, the 2022 General Mills Martin Luther King (MLK) Recognition, and in 2016 was recognized as one of the “(Real) Power 50” by Minnesota Business Magazine and was recently awarded the Annual Community Leadership Award from the Charities Review Council.

Prior to Youthprise, Wokie worked for 18 years at the National Youth Leadership Council; serving as Senior Vice President. In that capacity, she helped shape the organization’s strategic direction, cultivated partnerships, grew the funding base, and managed NYLC’s youth and school programs, professional development, an annual conference, and special events.

For part of that time, she also worked for the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) as an the Education Project Officer in Liberia, where she coordinated the Support to War-Affected Youth Project, the Juvenile Justice Initiative, African Girl Education Initiative, and Child-Friendly Spaces for internally displaced children.

Wokie received her Master’s degree in Education Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her Bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University in New York. She is an author and widely traveled speaker; she has addressed audiences throughout the United States and Africa and written extensively on service-learning and diversity. She is a native of Liberia, is married, has five children and 12 grandchildren.