Kehinde is the Managing Director for Public Engagement at Humanity United.
HU’s Public Engagement Portfolio—comprised of the Independent Journalism & Media, Policy & Government Relations, and Strategic Communications programs—enables Humanity United to advance its mission of cultivating conditions for peace and freedom. The Public Engagement team seeks to build understanding, promote accountability, and marshal action among key stakeholders; it also supports a broad ecosystem of organizations working for peace and freedom around the world. Kehinde previously led HU’s Policy & Government Relations team, which is responsible for engaging governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society in pursuit of policy change and regulatory action.
Kehinde has led global democracy and governance programs for 15 years. He was a Senior Director at The Arkin Group (TAG) where he led complex research projects to help U.S. corporations collect and analyze information to make smarter decisions and investments overseas. Prior to TAG, he managed programs and donor engagements at PartnersGlobal and the National Democratic Institute. At both organizations, he led diverse development initiatives, including training senior staff of the Tanzanian government to improve service delivery to citizens; supporting members of the Iraqi and Kurdistan Parliaments to increase outreach to constituents; working with citizens in Nigeria and Kenya to improve electoral integrity; and enhancing the ability of NGOs in Iraq, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Turkey to demand greater accountability from their governments. Kehinde also advised the State Department and USAID on President Obama’s Security Governance Initiative and worked closely with civil society leaders and policy experts to implement the Open Government Partnership in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
He is on the steering committee of the Peace and Security Funders Group as well as on the boards of The Gem Project, Partners West Africa – Nigeria, and the Center for Racial Justice in Education, an organization that trains and empowers educators to dismantle racism in the US education system.
Kehinde’s writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, New York Daily News, and Just Security. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University – Newark and a master of public policy degree from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.