The Team
Meet our Founder
Felicia is the Founder and Director of The Black Economists Network (T-BEN).
As director, Felicia has overseen the meteoric growth in membership of T-BEN and formed strategic alliances with reputable private and public sector organisations both national and internationally, including The Royal Economic Society, Government Economic Service (UK), the Sadie Collective (USA) etc.
She is also an Economist at the Resolution Foundation and was previously a fast stream Economist in the UK Government’s accelerated leadership development programme for talented graduates.
Felicia is an accomplished public speaker who has sat on numerous panels and shared insights in discussions and debates. In 2019, Felicia was appointed by the UK Government Economic Services (GES) as Ambassador for its Civil Service fast stream recruitment scheme.
Felicia is passionate about using economics to drive investments and positively impact society and communities. She believes this will support equitable distribution of global resources to improve lives and living conditions of people in developing countries with emphasis on the continent of Africa.
Felicia Odamtten
There are four TBEN Teams staffed with volunteers passionate about improving diversity in economics.
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TBEN Collaborations
The Collaborations Team drives and manages TBEN’s relationships with key partners, carries out outreach and oversees sponsorships.
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TBEN Engage
The Engagement Team is the first point of contact with TBEN members, developing strategies and activities that align to what they want to get out of the network.
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TBEN Inspire
The Inspire Team plans and executes TBEN events, campaigns and workshops, supporting us to reach new audiences and members each time.
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TBEN Voice
This TBEN Voice Team creates content that expresses the TBEN values and goals via social media, including overseeing our all-important podcast.
Meet the COLLABORATIONS team
Our Collabs team is mainly responsible for managing all our relationships with key partners & collaborators of the network. They can be reached directly at: collabs@tben.co.uk
Bomi Okuyiga is the TBEN Collaborations joint co-ordinator.
She is currently a Master’s in Public Policy Candidate at Yale University, and also holds a BSc in Government & Economics from LSE. Prior to her Masters, Bomi was an economist in the Government Economics Service, and has produced economic advice across a range of high-profile departments and public policy issues, including the 2017 Lammy Review. She is passionate about using evidence and economics to improve public policies, particularly for marginalised groups in society.
As part of the Collaborations and Partnerships team, she has the goal of solving the challenge of representation of Black students and professionals in economics, through our relationships with external partners.
Bomi Okuyiga
Joseph Oyegoke is the TBEN Collaborations joint co-ordinator and Podcast lead.
He joined T-BEN in 2019 shortly before its launch and is passionate about increasing the representation of Black professionals within economics-related fields.
Joseph graduated with a BSc in Economics and MSc in Finance and Economics at the University of East Anglia. He currently works as an Economist at the Bank of England within Monetary Analysis.
He enjoys macroeconomic research and analysis and spent several years doing that prior to the Bank at the Office for Budget Responsibility and at Capital Economics.
Outside of work and TBEN activities, you'll probably find him playing football, bouldering (#Clmbxr) or on the athletics track.
Joseph Oyegoke
Tega is an analyst at Frontier Economics based in London. She holds a master’s degree in Economics from Tilburg University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about increasing the representation of Black professionals in the field of economics. Outside the work place, you’ll often catch her running, reading or cosying up with Netflix.
Tega Akati-Udi
Chikondi is a Principal Economist in the Government of Malawi’s Economic Common Service. She is currently studying a Master of Public Administration in Economic Policy Management at Columbia University. Her interests in the field of economics are macroeconomics and financial development. She is passionate about promoting the professional lives of black economists and believes TBEN is the best platform to share knowledge of economic issues within the black diaspora and African continent. Outside of work she enjoys reading and she is on a challenge to read a work of fiction and non-fiction across all 54 African countries by 2025.
Chikondi Phiri
Benjamin Njila Tchakounte Fields is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and an intern for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. His current projects are working on understanding the impact of counselors on high school educational outcomes in Oklahoma, and he is working on beginning his doctoral research that will look at the cultural and social institutions of diet in Cameroon. Benjamin's interests in the field of economics are in development.
Benjamin Fields
Immanuelle is a recent graduate of the University of Brighton where she studied BSc Economics. She has a particular interest in international development and focused her dissertation on the Impact of Foreign Aid on Development. Some extra-curricular activities included founding the Economics Society, competing with the choir and running a half marathon.
Immanuelle Agyare
Nyangala is a Policy Learning Designer at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL). She helps IGL partners and the wider policy community to share and learn from policy ideas. Nyangala is based in IGL's offices hosted at the Barcelona School of Economics. Here she designs and delivers learning experiences to guide policymakers and practitioners working on innovation and growth policies to become more experimental. A key area of interest for her is helping policymakers rethink how they support innovators from diverse communities.
Nyangala Zolho
Crystal Byrd Ogbadu is an economist with USAID, and serves as a thought leader on the use of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the impact of innovations. She provides research support to Dr. Michael Kremer’s Nobel Prize winning work surrounding social rates of return. Her research interests include capital market development and macroeconomic issues in developing economies.
Crystal Byrd Ogbadu
Meet the ENGAGEMENT team
Nedson is a graduate student of International Development at Maynooth University. He is also a holder of M.A. Economics and B.A ( Hons ) Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Delhi respectively. In the meantime, He also does part-time editorial work for the Exploring Economics group. He is interested in everything development related.
Nedson Ng’oma
Maphali Xinwelo is a BCom Economics graduate, currently carrying out her honors degree with Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa.
TBEN is her first professional organization to be part of, and she is looking forward to working, learning and connecting with the team. Maphali is excited to see the world economy advancing for the betterment of the future society and the economics field.
On a daily basis, her favourite thing to do is update herself with the latest reading in economics. Her interests are in Public Finance and Environmental Economics.
Maphali Xinwelo
Meet the INSPIRE team
Naledi is an Economics Honours graduate from Rhodes University, South Africa. She currently works as a customer experience specialist. While her professional career has never been in economics, her fascination with the subject remains. With a particular interest in heterodox disciplines, specifically Development and Feminist Economics, Naledi is passionate about neglected and under-resourced members of society.
Naledi Mordaunt
Nathaniel graduated from Brunel University London with a BSc(Hons) in Economics and Business Finance and works on various projects in the Government Economics Service as an Economist.
His interests include foreign aid, development and he is extremely passionate about inclusion.
Nathaniel Befekadu
Pamela Botsala Mpulubusi is a final year BSc Financial Economics student at Coventry University. During her time at Coventry University she was the Secretary of the economics society where she helped host events to educate students on different topics in Economics. She also undertook the role of Mentorship Director of WhatNext Coventry which focused on empowering young people from minority groups.
Pamela Mpulubusi
Meet the VOICE team
This TBEN Voice Team creates content that expresses the TBEN values and goals via social media, including overseeing our all-important podcast. They can be contacted at hello@tben.co.uk
Joseph Oyegoke is the TBEN Collaborations joint co-ordinator and Podcast lead.
He joined T-BEN in 2019 shortly before its launch and is passionate about increasing the representation of Black professionals within economics-related fields.
Joseph graduated with a BSc in Economics and MSc in Finance and Economics at the University of East Anglia. He currently works as an Economist at the Bank of England within Monetary Analysis.
He enjoys macroeconomic research and analysis and spent several years doing that prior to the Bank at the Office for Budget Responsibility and at Capital Economics.
Outside of work and TBEN activities, you'll probably find him playing football, bouldering (#Clmbxr) or on the athletics track.
Joseph Oyegoke
Beti works at a leading UK Think Tank, the New Economics Foundation. She specialises in policy analysis, qualitative research, evaluation and impact assessment.
Her work relates to inclusive local economic development, poverty and inequality, wellbeing economics, health inequalities, technological abuse and VAWG. She works with local government to develop economic strategies that address inequalities and the challenges of climate change.