Dr Mary Joy Pigozzi is executive director of Educate A Child (EAC), leading the programme since 2012. Before joining EAC, she served as senior vice president at FHI 360, where she oversaw work on international exchanges, the application of technologies, civil society and governance, social marketing, gender, knowledge management, energy, the environment, and economic development. Previously, Dr Pigozzi directed the Global Learning Group of the Academy for Educational Development, and served as director of the Division for the Promotion of Quality Education at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Prior to UNESCO, she was senior education advisor for primary education at UNICEF, where she was responsible for the development of both the UN system-wide Girls’ Education Initiative and UNICEF’s global Girls’ Education Programme.

Dr Pigozzi’s expertise ranges from early childhood interventions to junior secondary school and higher education, and includes both formal and non-formal approaches. She has extensive field experience in more than 70 countries.

She was born and raised in Botswana and educated in Botswana and Zimbabwe through secondary school. She earned her doctoral degree in education in the US. Dr Pigozzi has been on the faculties of Indiana University and Michigan State University and has experience in the public and private (both profit and non-profit) education sectors. She works professionally in English and French.