The 2023-2024 Board

Poonam Sikka
Chair

Poonam is an Indian National and her spouse works at the World Bank Group (IFC). She relocated to Kenya in August 2021 from India for their very first overseas assignment.

Poonam is a Chartered Accountant and working as a Finance Professional for more than 18 years with multinational organizations. Currently she is working for a Non Profit Organization based in India. She has been a very active member since joining UNKLESA in March 2022. She was part of the Audit team and presented the very first Financial Audit of UNKLESA. She has also assisted various working groups with different tasks.

As UNKLESA Chairperson, she aims to increase visibility of the association with increased collaboration with various UN agencies and other related organizations with her strong networking skills. These collaborations will focus on benefiting both the organizations at large. She also aspires to achieve the goal of employment for members along with other priorities of UNKLESA with the support of Working Groups and Volunteers.

Regina Akise
Secretary

Regina Akise is a Ugandan National who has been in Kenya for past three years. She is a UNHCR spouse, and a proud mother of four children.

Regina is a medical doctor who trained and worked in Uganda, both in public and private sectors. While in clinical practice she was passionate about community health and ensuring the essential health care reaches those in rural areas of southwestern Uganda. She also worked in the field of fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda.  Regina is passionate about women, she is a member of the Girls for Girls foundation (G4G) and the Godly women for Africa foundation (GWA), both foundations are involved in mentorship of women. Regina’s key passions are her family, close friends, cooking, travelling, and volunteering. She is also passionate about mental health and wellbeing and hopes it will be made a priority for UNKLESA members. 

With her experience in the medical field in working with people and in teams, she has developed good interpersonal skills which are very important for her responsibilities as the Secretary to the board of UNKLESA.

Sarah Gimsey
Treasurer

Sarah is a Nigerian national and a certified accountant. She has lived in Kenya for the past eight years with her husband, a UNSOS staff member. Sarah has volunteered with WFP as an Assets Verification consultant.

Gulraze Shafiq
Family & Peer Support

Gulraze joined UNKLESA in 2015. She is a Pakistani National and a UNOPS spouse. Prior to arriving in Nairobi she worked with a non-governmental organisation for education and women empowerment in Pakistan. She was engaged in promoting skill-development programs for women, as she personally believes that economic empowerment is the key to the overall wellbeing of a woman.

Gulraze was also part of fundraising for girls’ education through government departments and non-profits while teaching in a high school for over 4 years. Those funds were used to get school supplies for underprivileged students. In addition to that, Gulraze has received a Bachelor’s in Education and a Masters in Political Science from Pakistan, a Masters in International Relations from United States International University-Africa.

Furthermore, Gulraze is a family-oriented woman and a mother of two wonderful young kids, a son and a daughter. She has volunteered for the UNKLESA election committee 2021-2022 to encourage members to participate in the election process. She also leads a crochet class for UNKLESA members, to assist in the association’s annual goal of providing baby hats to premature babies in Nairobi Hospitals. She has volunteered in cooking classes organised by UNKLESA. She has also worked as a volunteer at UNKLESA office in UNON.

Shreyasi Som
Training & Development

Shreyasi is an Indian National and has been living in Nairobi since September 2022 upon relocation from Delhi. She has a daughter aged 10 years and her spouse works for the World Bank Group.

Shreyasi is an electronics and telecommunications engineer with more than 10 years of experience in the information technology sector in India. Her expertise is in web technologies and she has worked on numerous multimedia content and tools. She has managed teams and handled international clients in her work role. Shreyasi is proficient in five languages. She is passionate about learning new cultures and has an eye for nature, especially observing birds.

Since she arrived in Nairobi, she has been actively associated with the UNKLESA, first as a volunteer in office administration and now as the training and development coordinator. She is enthusiastic and passionate about UNKLESA and its mission. By working closely with all coordinating groups, she aims to provide members with quality need-based training and professional development opportunities to further their personal and professional aspirations within and outside the UN sphere.

Dominic Cover
Networking & Advocacy

Dominic possesses over a decade of experience in engineering and management roles. He has also honed strong project management skills, leading interdisciplinary teams on intricate projects that encompass construction, utility design, structural renovation, equipment restoration and product development; and fervour for crafting innovative engineering solutions underscores his unwavering commitment to effective issue resolution. Moreover, his adaptability and forward-looking professional drive are evident in his versatile, transferable expertise and his ambition to work across various sectors. He readily embraces fresh challenges and collaborations. In sum, he is a a highly skilled and ambitious individual dedicated to contributing his expertise to a wide array of projects and sectors.

Through his various management experiences within the private sector, he has gained the ability to assess an organization's latent or hidden resources. In many cases, this involves interacting with the full spectr’s full spectrum of individuals. He also possesses a background in project management and budgeting. His primary objective alongside set responsibilities is to provide a data-driven approach for linking UNKLESA members with UN skill set demands, with the goal to provide additional weight behind advocacy for the utilization of UNKLESA members by the UN.

Christina Christoforou
Communications & Outreach

Christina is a Greek national, and she arrived in Nairobi in 2018, with her spouse who works for the Office of Staff Legal Assistance (OSLA).

Christina has a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, and a Master’s degree in Illustration, from the University of the Arts London. She has a decade long career as an art-director in Greece, and she also worked for 8 years as an independent illustrator in London, during which she published her own book, and worked for major publishing houses and international clients. Apart from art and design, Christina’s other loves include animals, urban culture and cooking.

Christina has worked as a Communications & Outreach coordinator from 2020-2022. During that time she redesigned the UNKLESA visual identity and communication approach, and reignited the association’s social media. She believes that consistency is the key to a powerful brand, and hopes to keep assisting in the team effort of raising the visibility of UNKLESA, both locally and internationally.

Sharon Ongadi
Office Manager

Sharon is a Kenyan/American citizen and a certified dietician. Her spouse works for UNEP.

Previous Boards