Mary Rusimbi holds a bachelor’s degree in education from University of Dar es Salaam- and a Masters in Community Education from University of New Zealand. She also holds several qualifications, including a certificate award on Gender and Development from University of Sussex-UK. Mary has rich working experience as a Community Organiser, Trainer and Gender Specialist who has worked in this portfolio for Governments, Bilateral and Multilateral Institution, Private Sector and NGOs/Women Rights Organizations within the country, in the SADC and other regions in Africa and beyond. She also possesses long working experience with civil society organizations in particularly in running women’s rights organizations in Tanzania, where she has been a Founder Member of several such organizations[1], including becoming the Executive Director of a strong Gender policy advocacy organization, known as Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP). In more recent experiences in this area, in 2008 she became a co-founder of Women Fund Tanzania Trust  (WFT-T), and since 2011- March 2022 she was the Executive Director of this Fund which is geared at providing grants and capacity strengthening to women and girl’s rights organizations/women rights movement actors, with a focus for those based at the local level, in promoting their gender equality and human rights agenda in the country.

Thus, apart from being a women’s rights promoter, Mary Rusimbi has also been working as a Gender Expert/Consultant who provides services in various gender thematical areas. She is currently a founder member of a growing Feminist Wellness ad Coaching Centre in Dar es Salaam which she has been leading since she has transited from her executive leadership role in the Women Fund Tanzania in April 2022. She is also the current co-chair of African Women Leaders Network in Tanzania (AWLN) the Tanzanian Chapter. As part of this role, she represents AWLN Tanzanian Chapter in the East African AWLN platform.

[1] Mary Rusimbi is a Founder and member of several Civil Society and Women’s rights Organizations/Community Based organizations: including Foundation for Civil Society (FCS); Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP), HAKIELIMU, Women Fund Tanzania Trust (WFT-T); UZIKWASA-Pangani and Tabata Development Fund (TDF), and others. She has been/is Chairpersons and Board of Directors for several national, regional, and international organizations.