BIO

Rita Ezenwa-Okoro is the Founder and Lead Visionary of Street Project Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that uses creative and performing arts tools to facilitate opportunities for youth leadership development, social mobilization, and cross-cultural dialogue in Nigeria.

She is also the Principal Communications Consultant of ROC, a strategic communications company that provides business owners access to world-class communication solutions. She was also recently appointed the Executive Director of the Global Play Brigade, a movement of performance activists who use 'play' as a catalyst for softening the borders between us humans. 

 

Rita is a Mandela Washington Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program. She is a global fellow of the prestigious International Society of the Performing Arts (ISPA) New York, and the recipient of both the Lagos State Award of Excellence in youth and social development and the Lagos State Award of Excellence in entrepreneurship development. Additionally, she is a

recipient of the Extraordinary Women Award in France and Next Generation Leaders Award. 

 

She is a graduate of the International Class of the East Side Institute, New York, and has her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Arts from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and her masters degree in Media and Communications from the School of Media and Communications, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria, and a Certificate in Civic Leadership from Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.

 

Under her leadership, Street Project Foundation most recently received the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) and BMW GROUP's Intercultural Innovation Award in Dubai. Rita is the author of Doing. Being. Becoming. For the love of the creative arts, a book about her performance journey as a grassroots creative youth organizer in Nigeria and published by the New Degree Press, Washington DC, USA.