Atti is a leader and advocate with over 10 years of experience as a nonprofit CEO. Throughout her career, Atti experienced the biased and unjust challenges of raising philanthropic dollars in the U.S. for a locally-led, community-centered African organization. As the AVFund’s Africa-based co-CEO, she is focused on supporting the personal and organizational growth of African visionaries and their innovative impact ideas.
Prior to joining the AVFund, Atti founded and led Seeds of Africa, a nonprofit developing the educational foundation for the next generation of Ethiopia’s leaders. Since 2008, Seeds has impacted over 2,000 people, transforming the livelihoods and trajectories of students, their mothers, and their families in the community of Adama, Ethiopia. With Atti at the helm, Seeds grew from an afterschool program serving 15 kids to a full-time, multi-dimensional school educating 250 students from pre-K to middle school and providing them free universal healthcare and nutrition. Seeds also became a micro-finance institution that provided over 150 mothers small business micro-loans, entrepreneurship skills development, and literacy resources.
Atti writes about power dynamics and racial injustice in philanthropy, and her essay on girls education as a global climate change solution was published in the book Why Women Will Save the Planet. She was named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) class of 2019, and is a Women’s Forum Rising Talents Initiative 2020 nominee. Atti won Miss Ethiopia in 2005, and graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Sustainable Development from Columbia University.
Atti currently resides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She’s a passionate amateur cook, baker, florist and tennis player. In her free time, you can find her posting recipes and flower arrangements on Instagram, or hitting the courts with her husband.