This week on the podcast I’m back in Accra, back on the Continent, just in time to commemorate African Liberation Day--Africa Day 2026. Last year around this time, my guest and I were preparing for our respective sessions at AfroTalks 2025 @ University of Ghana-Legon where we shared stories and proposed solutions centering the theme "HOW?" aimed at fostering critical introspection, sustainable community impact, and the amplification of African stories by Africans. I shared insights taken from our Future of Work salon series and featured Glocal Citizens specifically engaged in impact-driven solutions for us by us. My guest, Dr. Ashley D. Milton was part of a duo presenting The Triangle Offensive Policy. She joins us a year later to share how her work has progressed and her consortium prepares to release the The State of the Africa Diaspora Report, a first-of-its-kind continental grounding document examining how Africa and its global diaspora connect across mobility, investment, culture, skills, governance, technology, and development systems. The report brings together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and community stakeholders across Africa and the diaspora to shape a more coordinated and regenerative future.

As a strategist, researcher, and systems builder working at the intersection of Africa, its global diaspora, and the future of regenerative economic development she is the Founder and Managing Director of She Grows It™ (SGI), a Pan-African consulting and investment migration advisory firm. Ashley leads work across green infrastructure, trade and industry, tourism and hospitality, diaspora engagement, governance strategy, and emerging technology systems designed to support long-term African growth and resilience. She has advised on projects ranging from IFC EDGE green building certification and sustainable development strategy to diaspora policy frameworks, investment positioning, and institutional ecosystem development. Her work consistently centers one core question: how do we build systems that allow African people, businesses, and communities to thrive across generations?

Where to find Dr. Ashley?
The Africa Diaspora Report
On LinkedIn
On Instagram

What’s Ashley watching?
The Eyes of Ghana
When Malcolm Smiled a film by Glocal Citizen Muhammida el Muhajir

Other topics of interest:
Africa Day
Accountability and the March 2026 UN Resolution
How the US justifies it’s denial of the gravest crime against humanity.
Kwame Nkrumah, books on Pan-Africanism
About the long history of smog in Los Angeles
About FAMU, a top ranked HBCU
About the book, White Malice by Susan Williams
Nautilus Diving - Dakar

Special Guest: Ashley D. Milton.

As former colleagues at www.ndi.org, he was introduced to me by my guest in Episode 93 [https://glocalcitizens.fireside.fm/93], Sefakor Ashiagbor and I am grateful, as always, for the introduction. Kehinde is currently the Senior Director for Policy and Government Relations at Humanity United where he leads the team responsible for engaging governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society in pursuit of policy change and regulatory action that cultivate the conditions for enduring peace and freedom. He has led global democracy and governance programs for 15 years which has included complex research advising on overseas investments; leading 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. He also serves on multiple boards including the Center for Racial Justice in Education [https://centerracialjustice.org/], an organization that trains and empowers educators to dismantle racism in the US education system. Born and partially raised in Nigeria, Kehinde started his glocal citizenship journey at the age of 11 when his family migrated to the US in search of healthcare solutions. Listen in, there's so much more to this talented diasporan.

Where to find Kehinde?
On LinkedIn
On Twitter

What's Kehinde listening to?
Up First on NPR
The Daily Punch
Hacks on Tap
Code Switch on NPR
Snap Judgement

Other topics of interest:
About Teach for America
The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan
Truman National Security Project
Council on Foreign Relations

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Special Guest: Kehinde Togun.