Veronique is the Founder and Director of Misongi, where she recruits, trains and places Africa’s most exceptional, motivated youth in leading institutions of higher education and further opportunities. By working with these students, Misongi aims to increase the percentage of talented Africans students attending the world’s best universities and to support them to achieve success in their careers and communities.
Before Misongi, Veronique was Regional Manager for Africa at Minerva, an elite American university that prepares students to solve the 21st century’s complex global challenges. In that capacity, she oversaw operations in West and Central Africa, including leading talent acquisitions initiatives and securing professional development partnerships with public and private organizations. Veronique also served as country director for Open Dreams in Cameroon, a college preparation non-profit that supports high achieving, low income students in their search of quality university education abroad and on the continent.
Formerly EducationUSA country coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon, she helped >100 students secure admissions into top universities across the world and over $20 millions USD in scholarships. Veronique is also the founding curator of the Global Shapers Yaoundé Hub of the World Economic Forum, which led to three selections and participations (of the Yaoundé Hub) to the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.
Gabriela Pereira is an author, speaker, and self-proclaimed word nerd who wants to challenge the status quo of higher education. Her mission is to empower writers to apply an entrepreneurial mindset to their professional growth. Gabriela earned her MFA from The New School, in New York. While undercover as a graduate student, she learned the inside scoop on MFA programs, invented a slew of writing tools all her own, and developed a new, more effective way for writers to learn their craft.
Her favorite thing to do is come up with dastardly plans for new writing courses, and create innovative resources to share with her word nerds. When she’s not building cool stuff, Gabriela loves to write middle grade and teen fiction, with some “nerdy fiction for grown-ups” thrown in for good measure. At Misongi, Gabriela is helping scholars improve their writing skills, find their writing voice and own their personal stories through storytelling.
Brandon Abasolo is the Sr. Director, Proposal Team at Distributed Solar Development in New York, Schenectady. Previously Senior proposal write at Tesla, where he received project awards from customers including Electrify America, Pacific Gas & Electric, the United Nations Development Programme, National Grid, and the Government of South Australia. Brandon is passionate about renewable energy, track and field, and mentoring teens. He is also an enthusiastic advocate for college access for first generation students. At Misongi, Brandon has worked with scholars to help them review their essays and ensure their applications are of the highest quality.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Andersen brings decades of leadership at the intersection of law, governance, and international development to Misongi’s board. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Basel Institute on Governance, a position she assumed in March 2025, where she leads the Institute’s strategic direction and its global work countering corruption and strengthening governance and integrity in the public and private sectors.
Prior to this role, Betsy served as Executive Director of the World Justice Project, an international non-profit advancing the rule of law. Her earlier career spans the American Bar Association, where she served as Associate Executive Director and directed its Rule of Law Initiative, as well as executive leadership roles at the American Society of International Law and Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division.
Beyond Misongi, she serves on the advisory boards of the International Law Institute, the CEELI Institute, and the ASIL Women in International Law Interest Group, and is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations. She currently chairs the Board of Trustees of Williams College.
Her contributions to international justice have earned her a Williams College Bicentennial Medal, the American Society of International Law’s Prominent Woman in International Law Award, and the American Bar Association’s World Order Under Law Award.
Betsy holds a BA in History and Russian Studies from Williams College, an MPA from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and a JD from Yale Law School.
