Join the Reach Alliance for its first conference in Asia hosted by the Singapore Management University!
Connect with global stakeholders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors in Singapore as we exchange actionable insights to catalyse impact towards the full achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
18 – 21 November 2025
This event is invite-only. To request an invitation contact: reachalliance.munk@utoronto.ca .
Learn more about Reach Alliance:
The Singapore Management University welcomes global changemakers to the first Reach Conference in Asia
“Asia’s duality of opportunity and challenge demands a new breed of changemakers who can leverage the region’s potential to bring positive change to society, especially for the communities who need it most.“
– Professor Lily Kong, President, Singapore Management University
Asia’s influence on international affairs and the global economy is clear. The region – home to 60% of the world’s population – is a hotbed of innovation and opportunity, but also one that faces myriad challenges to its sustainable development and growth. This duality requires a new breed of changemakers who can leverage Asia’s potential to bring positive change to society, especially for the communities who need it the most.
For the past 10 years, the Reach Alliance’s consortium of nine leading global universities has carried the mantle of empowering the next generation of global leaders to reach the hardest to reach. By spotlighting problems, solving them through research and innovation, and inspiring action through awareness and discourse, the Alliance has shown that universities can deliver meaningful impact towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
On the occasion of our Silver Jubilee this year, SMU is honoured to host and co-organise the 2025 Reach Conference alongside the University of Toronto. This Conference, which will convene leading partners from the Alliance, Asia and around the world, will extend the Alliance’s reach and impact into Asia from SMU’s city campus in downtown Singapore.
As a global city university at the nexus of management, social sciences, and technology, SMU is committed to working with fellow Alliance members to “drive innovations, transcend boundaries, and transform lives”, true to our university’s newly unveiled Vision. At the heart of this vision is our dedication to a mission of nurturing lifelong learners and changemakers, empowering researchers to address complex societal challenges, and fostering impactful partnerships that bridge Asia and the world.
On behalf of the SMU community, I warmly welcome you to Singapore and look forward to the enriching exchanges of knowledge and ideas that will drive positive change for the communities we serve.
Professor Lily Kong,
President, Singapore Management University
Conference Agenda
Explore the dynamic agenda for the 2025 Reach Conference in Singapore, featuring engaging sessions led by industry experts. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, panel discussions, and networking events designed to foster collaboration and innovation in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Meet the 2025 Reach Conference Speakers
Rumee Singh
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
Rumee Singh
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
Bio
Rumee Singh is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rumsan, a digital innovation firm dedicated to empowering businesses that create meaningful solutions for society. With a passion for leveraging frontier technologies to drive social change, Rumee focuses on bridging opportunity gaps and uplifting communities through innovation. Backed by over 20 years of experience leading production teams and developing transformative digital solutions, she brings a unique blend of technical expertise and social entrepreneurship to her work. An engineer by training, Rumee’s diverse background spans corporate communications, journalism, education, and impact-driven ventures. Her commitment to social innovation has earned her international recognition, including being featured among 25 changemakers in the Women for Change 2024 global campaign in Paris, and celebrated as one of ten women making a difference with technology in Nepal.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Sun Sun Lim
Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at Singapore Management University
Sun Sun Lim
Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at Singapore Management University
Bio
Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at Singapore Management University. She has extensively researched the social impact of technology, focusing on technology domestication by families, future of work and AI ethics. She has over 100 academic publications including Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and articles in top journals like Nature, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and Big Data & Society. From 2018-2020, she was Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore, raising issues such as governance of big data, priorities in digital literacy education, and digital rights for children. She is an honoree of the inaugural Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders Award 2024 and Singapore 100 Women in Tech 2020 list and is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and the Singapore Computer Society. She frequently offers her expert commentary in international outlets including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Guardian, Scientific American, South China Morning Post and writes a monthly technology column in Singapore’s largest circulation broadsheet The Straits Times. She has won eight awards for excellent teaching. See www.sunsunlim.com.
Patrick Gyimah Awuah Jr
Founder and President, Ashesi University
Patrick Gyimah Awuah Jr
Founder and President, Ashesi University
Bio
Patrick Gyimah Awuah Jr is the Founder and President of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit institution in Ghana. He was educated at Swarthmore in 1985, and in 2001, Patrick, a Program Manager at Microsoft, returned to Ghana to found Ashesi University. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College, an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, the University of Waterloo, Connecticut College, the University of Toronto, and South Korea’s Sun Moon University. Patrick has won many awards, including the Order of the Volta by His Excellency President J.A. Kufuor, the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, an Elon Medal for Entrepreneurial Leadership, the McNulty Prize, and the MacArthur Fellowship, and was named one of the 50 greatest leaders in the world by Fortune Magazine. Patrick was recognized by Africa Leadership Initiative – West Africa (ALIWA) as a “Genius Fellow”, an honour reserved for only 20 people worldwide. The Qatar Foundation named Patrick the 2017 WISE Prize for Education Laureate. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Patrick to a new 16-member International Commission as part of UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative. He is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering. He received the Africa Genius Awards Outstanding African Achiever 2024 for his transformative contributions to education and leadership development. In 2025, the Sunhak Peace Prize Foundation named Patrick a 2025 Laureate for his impact in Education.
Lily Kong
President, Singapore Management University
Lily Kong
President, Singapore Management University
Bio
Professor Lily Kong has been President of Singapore Management University since 2019, the first Singaporean to lead the institution and the first woman to head any university in Singapore. She also holds the Lee Kong Chian Chair Professorship of Social Sciences, with a courtesy appointment at the College of Integrative Studies. She is an interdisciplinary scholar, with disciplinary roots in Geography. She is widely known for her research on urban transformations, and social and cultural change in Asian cities. In particular, she has published a large body of work on inter-communal relations (including religious and racial relations), social cohesion, national identity, cultural policy and cultural industries, creative cities and creative economy, urban heritage and conservation, smart cities, migration and education. She has sat on multiple editorial boards of major international journals and is well-sought after as keynote speaker.
An award-winning academic, Professor Kong has received multiple international awards and fellowships, including the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, the Robert Stoddard Award from the Association of American Geographers, the Commonwealth Fellowship, the Fulbright Fellowship, the Geographical Society of China Fellowship (Foreign), the SR Nathan Fellowship, and the British Academy Fellowship. She is consistently ranked in the top 1-2% in her field in studies by Stanford. She has also been conferred an Honorary Degree by Loughborough University.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
President, Singapore Management University
Geraint Rees
Vice Provost, Research, Innovation & Global Engagement, University College London
Geraint Rees
Vice Provost, Research, Innovation & Global Engagement, University College London
Bio
Professor Geraint Rees is Vice Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement) at UCL, a global top ten university with 43,900 students and over 300,000 alumni in 190 countries worldwide. He is accountable for a research portfolio of £2.8bn in grants; a rapidly growing innovation community attracting £2bn of external investment in spinouts in the last five years; and international relationships with major corporate, education and government partners in education, research and innovation across the world. He founded the Academic Careers Office at UCL and the Experimental Medicine Academy at the UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, which jointly deliver highly creative nationally recognised training to some of the UK’s largest academic and clinical academic training programmes. He is a non-executive Director of UCL Business, one of the UK’s most successful technology transfer companies, and was a Senior Scientific Advisor at DeepMind from 2018-2020. A neurologist and neuroscientist, his personal research seeks to understand human cognition and to apply AI to real-world problems. He has published over 400 research papers that have been cited over 48,000 times, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010.
Sarah Cragg
Head of Asia Pacific, The Earthshot Prize
Sarah Cragg
Head of Asia Pacific, The Earthshot Prize
Bio
Sarah is a sustainability leader and impact strategist dedicated to scaling solutions that regenerate our planet. As Head of Asia Pacific for The Earthshot Prize, Sarah accelerates groundbreaking innovations tackling climate and environmental challenges. With a background spanning Conservation International, Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever, and Virgin Unite, she has mobilized multi-million-dollar partnerships, shaped industry-leading ESG initiatives, and driven systemic change. Originally a qualified lawyer, Sarah brings a strategic lens to sustainability—bridging policy, finance, and innovation. Passionate about unlocking capital for climate solutions, she champions bold action for a thriving future.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Head of Asia Pacific, The Earthshot Prize
Sydney Piggott
Director, Strategic Partnerships & Initiatives, Mentor Canada
Sydney Piggott
Director, Strategic Partnerships & Initiatives, Mentor Canada
Bio
Sydney Piggott (she/her) is a social impact leader, researcher, and advocate for gender equity on a global scale. She is currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships & Initiatives at Mentor Canada, a national organization with a mission to accelerate world-class mentoring for youth. Before joining Mentor Canada, she led social impact at Shopify and held leadership positions at Elevate and YWCA Canada. She is also a member of the Reach Alliance Advisory Council and WomanACT Board of Directors.
Sydney has been a subject matter expert in several international forums including the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Women Deliver, Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference for Young Parliamentarians and RightsCon. She was a Fulbright Canada fellow and an emerging policy leader in the British Council’s Future Leaders Connect program. She holds a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto where she founded the Intersectional Feminist Collective and was a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Scholar. Sydney was a member of the Reach research team that investigated Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme in 2017.
Ellie Moriearty
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
Ellie Moriearty
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
Bio
Ellie Moriearty is the Program Lead of MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar, where she leads open innovation challenges with a mission to bridge opportunity gaps and empower communities to thrive. Driven by a belief that ingenuity and innovation exists everywhere, Ellie works alongside supporters and experts to identify exceptional changemakers and scale their impactful solutions. Previously, she served as Senior Officer for Solve’s Learning Pillar, where she helped run eight innovation challenges aimed at improving outcomes for learners worldwide.
Before joining Solve, Ellie was Vice President of Program Development at Mindr, a social enterprise that runs programming and a SaaS platform to foster a sense of belonging at leading global organizations across finance, technology, and law. She has also consulted for organizations such as Innovations for Poverty Action and development consulting firm Kantar Public, advising on projects related to the economy, education, health, gender, and governance.
Ellie holds an MPA in Development Practice from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in Economics and Human Rights from Barnard College.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Dilip Soman
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Dilip Soman
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Bio
Dilip Soman is a Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He has degrees in behavioral science, marketing, and engineering, and is interested in the applications of behavioral science organizations more generally, and for welfare and policy in particular. He is the co-author of Managing Customer Value (2022), author of The Last Mile (2015) and co-editor of The Behaviorally Informed Organization (2021) Behavioral Science in the Wild (2022), Cash Transfers for Inclusive Societies (2023), and What Works, What Doesn’t (and When) (2024). Dilip serves as the director of the Behaviourally Informed Organizations partnership (see https://www.biorgpartnership.com/). He has taught in the U.S.A, Hong Kong and Canada, and has worked with several corporations, governments, international organizations and start-ups. His non-academic interests include procrastination, cricket, travel, and taking weekends seriously.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Joseph Wong
Vice-President, International, University of Toronto
Joseph Wong
Vice-President, International, University of Toronto
Bio
Joseph Wong is Vice-President, International, University of Toronto, where he is also a Professor of Political Science. He held the Canada Research Chair in Health, Democracy, and Development for two terms from 2006 to 2016, and the Roz and Ralph Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy from 2013 to 2023. Prior to being appointed Vice-President in 2021, Professor Wong was the U of T’s inaugural Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, International Student Experience, and before that, the Director of the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He is the author of many academic articles and several books, including the latest From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia in 2022, published by Princeton University Press. His academic articles have been published in The Lancet, Perspectives on Politics, the Annual Review of Political Science, the Bulletin of the WHO, Comparative Political Studies, Governance, among others. Professor Wong has had affiliations with Harvard, Oxford, Fudan University in Shanghai, Seoul National University and the Institute for Policy Research in Taiwan. He has advised governments on matters of public policy in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, as well as the UN and the WHO. Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals, in collaboration with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Professor Wong founded the Reach Alliance. The Alliance comprises eight university partners, including Tecnológico de Monterrey, University of Oxford, University College London, University of Melbourne, Ashesi University, the University of Cape Town and Singapore Management University.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Vice-President, International, University of Toronto
Marin MacLeod
Executive Director, The Reach Alliance
Marin MacLeod
Executive Director, The Reach Alliance
Bio
As the Executive Director, Marin leads strategic development and scale up of the Reach Alliance, including managing relationships with Reach’s global partners and broader insights community. Marin was a member of the Reach team that investigated the world’s first iris-scanning cash-assistance program for refugees in Jordan. Prior to joining the Reach Alliance, Marin led Grand Challenges Canada’s approach to impact measurement across their maternal, newborn and child health innovation portfolio. Her focus was on the systems and processes used to capture results, and to share knowledge generated by grantees through the organization’s unique innovation platform. Marin has experience with program design, delivery and evaluation, having worked across a range of public health issues in several countries. Marin holds a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University as a Loran Scholar, and a Master in Public Health degree from the University of Toronto.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Executive Director, The Reach Alliance
Amy Yeboah Quarkume
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environment, and Equity, Howard University
Amy Yeboah Quarkume
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environment, and Equity, Howard University
Bio
Amy Yeboah Quarkume, Ph.D., affectionately known as Dr. A, is a daughter of Africa, a scholar, filmmaker, data scientist, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Earth, Environment and Equity at Howard University. She holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies, two master’s degrees in Sociology and African American Studies, and certificates of Data Analytics from Harvard Extension School and the University of Massachusetts. Quarkume is an Andrew Mellon New Direction Fellow, a National Center for Atmospheric Research Innovator Fellow, and a White House Initiative HBCU All-Star Campus Mentor.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environment, and Equity, Howard University
Fellow, Africa Leadership in Health Research
Mariana Mota Prado
Associate Vice-President & Vice Provost, International Student Experience, University of Toronto
Mariana Mota Prado
Associate Vice-President & Vice Provost, International Student Experience, University of Toronto
Bio
Mariana obtained her law degree (LLB) from the University of Sao Paulo, and her master’s (LLM) and Doctorate from Yale Law School. She is currently a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. She has published extensively on law and development, including three co-authored books with Michael J. Trebilcock: Institutional Bypasses: A Strategy to Promote Reforms for Development (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Advanced Introduction to Law and Development (Edward Elgar, 2014), and What Makes Poor Countries Poor (Edward Elgar, 2011). A Brazilian national, she has taught courses at Centre for Transnational Legal Studies in London, Direito Rio – Getulio Vargas Foundation Law School in Brazil, ITAM Law School in Mexico, Los Andes Law School in Colombia, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina and University of Puerto Rico School of Law in the United States. Her scholarship focuses on law and development, corruption and comparative law.
Shristi Piya
Chief Development and Impact Officer, Rumsan
Shristi Piya
Chief Development and Impact Officer, Rumsan
Bio
Shristi has over 7 years of experience driving digital transformation in diverse sectors like health, humanitarian aid, and agriculture. She has led impactful projects such as Hamro LifeBank, AgriClear, and Rahat, leveraging frontier technologies like blockchain. As Chief Development and Impact Officer at Rumsan, she develops and implements strategic initiatives to enhance organizational efficiency and achieve company goals. Her dedication extends to using Rahat (a flagship product of Rumsan) to address several real-world challenges in access to finance for vulnerable communities through innovative initiatives like anticipatory action.
Omnath Dhakal
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Omnath Dhakal
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Bio
Om Nath Dhakal is the DRR Focal Person at Punarbas Municipality, Sudurpaschim Province, Nepal, where he plays a vital role in coordinating disaster risk reduction efforts by connecting local government, communities, and stakeholders for effective preparedness and response. His key contributions include leading the implementation of local disaster management plans, capacity-building trainings, awareness initiatives, and strengthening early warning systems. During disasters, he serves as the primary contact for mobilizing relief and rescue operations, and for ensuring smooth communication with higher-level authorities.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Program Lead, MIT Solve’s Economic Prosperity Pillar
CEO and Co-Founder, Rumsan
DRR Focal Person, Punarbas Municipality, Nepal & Community Collaborator, Rumsan
Elizabeth Lubinda
Fellow, Africa Leadership in Health Research
Elizabeth Lubinda
Fellow, Africa Leadership in Health Research
Elizabeth Lubinda
Bio
Elizabeth Lubinda is a maternal and newborn health epidemiologist and demographer committed to advancing evidence-based interventions that improve pregnancy outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa and inform global maternal health strategies. She holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Cape Town and a BA in Demography from the University of Zambia.
A fellow of the Africa Leadership in Health Research, the Health Literacy Leadership Programme at the West African Institute of Public Health, and the USAID Youth Lead Programme, Elizabeth has contributed to strengthening maternal and newborn health research, promoting health literacy, and driving community-focused advocacy across the continent.
Her research spans infectious disease management and noncommunicable disease prevention, including investigations into the impact of antiretroviral therapy among pregnant women living with HIV, which have generated robust evidence on maternal health, stillbirth reduction, and neonatal survival in the era of universal ART. In collaboration with the South African Medical Research Council, she leads a multi-country study assessing community-based maternal care interventions to prevent the progression from gestational diabetes to type 2 diabetes among women in resource-limited African settings.
As a Maternal Research Consultant, Elizabeth examines maternal aflatoxin exposure in rural Zambia, linking agricultural practices and community awareness to neonatal outcomes. Her earlier work with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture under the Aflasafe programme, combined with monitoring and evaluation experience on the USAID Stop GBV Project, has further strengthened her ability to design policy-relevant, evidence-driven strategies that safeguard maternal and newborn health across Africa.
Speaking Engagements
Featuring
Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environment, and Equity, Howard University
Fellow, Africa Leadership in Health Research
2025 Reach Hackathon:
Innovating at the Intersection of Financial Inclusion and Climate Resilience
Building on a successful Reach research project, the Reach Alliance will continue its partnership with Rumsan, a Nepal-based tech company pioneering blockchain-driven humanitarian aid through their platform Rahat to deliver the hackathon program. By issuing early warnings and providing financial aid before or during a disaster, Rumsan helps hard-to-reach communities take proactive steps to mitigate climate impacts.
New Reach Alliance Research
2024-25
We’re looking forward to welcoming you all to the 2025 Reach Conference in Singapore, where we’ll inspire each other, share new insights, and create lasting change together.
