MEET Joel
New Leadership Delivering Results for Our World
Joel Odota holds a master’s degree (with a thesis) in Politics and International Relations from the Yenching Academy of Peking University, Beijing where he was recognized as one the Academy’s best Teaching Assistants of the 2018-2019 academic year. Joel is also the Yenching Academy Alumni Secretary for Africa. He is very passionate about China-Africa relations in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative and attended numerous conferences in that area including at the Stanford University FACES Center, The European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, Young Belt and Road Forum, Chengdu Youth Federation, BAI XIAN Asia Institute, Yenching Global Symposium, and Yenching Social Innovation Forum, among others.
He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of The Kectil Program Youth Leadership Training program of the Malmar Knowles Family Foundation in the U.S. and an Organisational Development Advisor with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in Uganda.
In 2021, Joel teamed up with his colleague Lema Abdou Rahim from Benin to conduct research on Uganda’s Kampala-Entebbe Expressway and the Entebbe International Airport Expansion projects both funded and implemented by China through Exim Bank and China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) respectively. This project was supported by The United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
Joel would like to conduct more research on China-Uganda relations and broad international relations, youth leadership development, and civil society.
