The Youth Advisory Council
Leaders committed to sustainable development representing youth voices at the global stage

Qatar
Dana Al Anzy
Dana Al-Anzy graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 2017. She also holds an Executive Certificate in Advocacy in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She is a multi-sector strategic partnership approach specialist with the Education Above All Foundation and has experience working with UNHCR on Refugee-led Organizations at the HQ in Geneva. A firm believer in the power of civil society and education, Dana has worked with numerous UN agencies and foundations on sustainability projects related to accessing education, refugee empowerment and youth advocacy.
During her yearlong nomination and training with WISE Learners Voice Program, Dana developed a local tutoring program for primary aged refugee children in the Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Dana advocated in several high level UN conferences on youth engagement policies highlighting the power of Qatari youth and the empowering effect of Qatar’s National vision 2030 on them. She has served as the Qatar Youth Ambassador to the Youth Assembly since 2018 and facilitated the nomination and training of over 60 Qatari Youth Delegates to date.

Peru
Larissa del Pilar Cevallos Pérez
Larissa holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from San Ignacio de Loyola University, a specialist in International Cooperation for Development at the Fundación Academia de Diplomáticos del Perú, in International Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Chile, and in Fundraising at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey. Currently studying a Msc. in International Security at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa and University of Trento. Larissa has published articles and completed her dissertation in International Security and Middle Eastern Affairs. Her research interests are oriented towards migration studies from a human security approach. She currently works as a National Grants Coordinator for Plan International.
She has participated as a speaker and delegate at various conferences such as the SDG Youth Summit, Rotary Club Ica, Red Interquorum La Libertad, Youth Assembly, Global Young Leaders, and ECOSOC Youth Forum. She is co-founder and executive director of the Peruvian Association United Peruvian Youth. She is the creator of Project Hub, a platform for young people to design and implement educational social projects. Her work within this platform allow her to win the AFS Award for Young Global Citizens.

Germany
Lukas Findeisen
Lukas got to know AFS through his student exchange to Costa Rica in 2008-2009 and volunteer service to Thailand in 2011/2012. He stayed connected to AFS as a volunteer: as a local hosting coordinator looking, trainer for new volunteers, and focused on global south north exchange. He launched the AFS Global Ideathon. A global 2-day digital event (a marathon for ideas – Ideathon) with AFSers (and other interested people) around the world bringing forward solutions for AFS, with more than 2000 sign ups the last two years.
He studied medical engineering and became a researcher about ethics, leadership and digitalisation after graduation. After working for the German Red Cross, he joined the Carl-Zeiss Stiftung, one of the wealthiest science funding German foundations, as a program manager for artificial intelligence and life science technologies. In this position, he is responsible to foresight technical developments, their impacts on society and designing programs to help researchers in the field. He also works as a lectuerer for various university on “ethical leadership theory” and co-founded “decentrale” in 2020 (www.decentrale.co), an organization providing feminist organizational competence. The goal is to help individuals and organisations to transform in a more just and peaceful direction – deconstructing systems of powers to create healthier mechanisms in co-creational processes.

Philippines
Mariana Reyes
Mariana Reyes is currently studying her PhD degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development at National Taiwan University (NTU). She is also the head of the scientific committee of the Philippine Association on Underwater Activities (PAUA) and a lieutenant of the Environmental Protection Unit of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Her project is called “Daluyong: A Coral Transplantation and Clean-up Project” which aims to aims to advance towards a coral restoration strategy and supply the tools and knowledge of proper marine protection and conservation to local government units, police officers, coast guard units, local residents, and concerned divers. Mariana won the second place AFS Award for Young Global Citizens for this project at the 2022 Youth Assembly.

Lebanon
Nadine Khawli
Nadine Khaouli is a community activist and global goals advocate who co-founded “Kafe be Kafak”, a humanitarian youth-led initiative back in April 2020 by targeting multi-dimensional poverty in Lebanon and support families in need all over Lebanon especially after the COVID19 pandemic, the economic and social crisis as well as the Beirut Blast, the most powerful explosion in modern history. Amid these hardships, Nadine was able to help and support thousands of people in her community by leading on many humanitarian-based campaigns and projects along with young volunteers to cover basic life necessities for families in need.
In addition, through her work with the United Nations, Nadine is leading on implementing and coordinating youth related programs and she became a source of inspiration to many of youth in Lebanon and the world. In addition to being selected as a Youth Development Delegate for 2 years in a row by UNDP and AYC and a “Generation17” young leader for Samsung and UNDP, Nadine recently won the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award at the Youth Assembly 27 in New York for her exceptional leadership capabilities and skills making her the first Lebanese to win this Award.

Nigeria
Noel Alumona
After meeting and having a conversation with Barack Obama in Johannesburg in 2018, Noel founded Boys Champions: a primary preventive youth-led nonprofit organization that is committed to providing safe place for boys and men by engaging young men, teaching them healthy masculinity and how to relate to females respectfully, with the mission to ending violence against women and girls in Nigeria. Noel Ifeanyi Alumona is an Obama Foundation Fellow, United States Institute of Peace Fellow, Generation Change Fellow, 2022 Youth Assembly Delegate and the 2022 AFS Award for Young Global Citizens winner.
He is passionate about youth development and education, and more specifically improving access to quality education in underserved communities. From over 5 years of practical classroom teaching, to monitoring and evaluation, research and observations into pupil outcomes, and now Special Education of kids with Learning Disabilities and Emotional Behavioral Disturbances, his experience as an education professional is multi-faceted. Noel is currently a graduate student at Vanderbilt University in the United States.

Bangladesh
Shah Rafayat Chowdhury
Shah is an award winning environmentalist and social entrepreneur from Bangladesh. In 2013, Shah founded a next generation organization called Footsteps which is currently empowering over 300,000 people across Bangladesh with safe water and sanitation access, disaster resilience, and improved public health services, especially for the marginalized communities. Shah received the internationally acclaimed Diana Award and AFS Prize for Young Global Citizens, and recently was enlisted on Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contribution to Bangladesh’s development sector through Footsteps. Shah has also served as Bangladesh’s Youth Representative to the United Nations and was mentored by former US Vice President Al Gore on Climate Leadership. Shah earned his undergraduate degree on Environmental Economics and Policy from Penn State in 2018.

USA / Liberia
Wantoe Teah Wantoe
Wantoe Teah Wantoe is an SDGs campaigner, Climate and human right activist and student leader. He is a Double Major of Public Policy and Sociology with concentration in Criminology at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.
Since the age of nine, Wantoe has championed the rights of women and children and has been one of Liberia’s prime faces for global sustainability and youth development. He is a passionate and dedicated young man driven by social causes. Wantoe is a consistent voice at articulating policy prescription for the plethora of crises in Liberia. Evidence of his impeccable leadership and commitment to solving societal issues, Wantoe was awarded as a 2020 Friend of humanity Distinguished alumni awardee for his contribution to systemic change. He is a certified 2019 Obama Foundation Leadership Asset and Dialogue Alumni. In addition, a 2019 Princess Diana Award Recipient, A 2018 Global Young Voices SDGs Champion Winner And a 2017 FAF Humanitarian Impact Winner Humanitarian Impact Winner among several recognitions.