In 2016, a coalition of international educators and literacy advocates created the Global Book Alliance to address the global book gap. GBA membership comprises bilateral and multilateral agencies, international implementers, NGOs, independent thought leaders, and educators. The GBA is managed by a Secretariat, with technical guidance from its Steering Committee. The GBA is supported by the Partners of GBA—a not-for-profit organization that promotes the mission of the GBA.
Sakil Malik,
Steering Committee
Chair
Sakil has served as GBA Chair since February 2023. Sakil is a veteran of international education, is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Center for Innovation and Learning. He has served as Vice President of Asante Africa Foundation, Senior Global Practice Lead for Global Education at DAI, Vice President of Global Development at World Learning Inc., and Director/COP for the Reading within Reach (REACH) Project and Global Reading Network (GRN) funded by USAID recently. He has more than 27 years of experience in international education project management, focused on early literacy, youth and higher education, social and human development and human rights. His portfolio at Creative Associates as the Senior Associate/Director was reducing school dropout across five countries; Tanzania, Timor Leste, Cambodia, India and Tajikistan. Before arriving at Creative, he was the Director of Global Operations at the International Reading Association (now International Literacy Association) in Washington, DC, where he led program management of literacy projects in 75+ countries building capacity of national reading associations, and provided strategic leadership and direction to the executive team and regional committees. He has successfully won and administered funding from government and corporate funders, including USAID, UNESCO, UNICEF, FCDO, GAC and many foundations and corporations. He has a Master’s Degree in International Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from Aligarh University in India, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Dhaka University in Bangladesh. He is a certified project manager with CIPM, CMMP and MPM certifications. Sakil has numerous publications and books in many languages. Sakil is originally a native of Bangladesh and is fluent in 4 languages. Sakil is currently based in a Maryland suburb in the USA.
Sergio ramirez-Mena,
Steering Committee
deputy Chair and Managing director
Mr. Sergio Ramirez-Mena has served as GBA Deputy Chair since February 2023. He works as Senior Education Technical Advisor at IREX in Washington DC. Before this, he served for 10 years as Chief of Party for flagship education projects including the All Children Reading Grand Challenge for Development (www.allchildrenreading.org), as well as USAID early grade reading projects in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Honduras. As an education COP, he has gained first-hand experience on book supply chain issues from the development and production of local books to the effective distribution of TLMs in both digital and printed form. His technical background is in education management and information systems, instructional Edtech, digital literacy, education data analysis and visualization tools. Mr. Ramirez-Mena holds a master's degree in project management from the George Washington University, bachelor's degree in computer information science from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and a philosophy degree from the Catholic University of Louvain Belgium. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French, and is interested linguistics and instruction in local languages.
Megan Schleicher,
Director
Megan has been working with the GBA Secretariat since 2022. She was previously with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Education as a Program Specialist, with a focus on teaching and learning materials. She has nearly a decade of experience in international affairs, including peacebuilding, youth, policy advocacy, democracy and governance, and program management. Megan holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is conversational in French.
Shakhnoza Shamsuddinova
GCFIL RESEARCH and development associate
Shakhnoza has been working with GBA Secretariat since February 2024 as a Research and Development Associate. She is an Educator, Policy Specialist, Consultant and Researcher with strong academic and professional background in education policy, research and practice. She holds BA with Honors in International Relations and Foreign Policy from University of World Economy and Diplomacy and MSc in Education, Public Policy and Equity from University of Glasgow. She has an overall decade of experience in educational policy, quality assurance, teaching, public policy research and practice in the private education sector as well as government organizations and NGOs across Central Asia and Middle Eastern regions. She is a scholarship holder of prestigious programs by Harvard Business School, University of Cambridge, British Council and OSCE. Currently, she is a doctoral researcher at University of Glasgow specializing in educational technology, innovation, AI, policy, management and research.
Annie cruze
INTERN, GCFIL
Annie Cruze is a PhD researcher in Education and Librarianship at the University of the West of Scotland and a graduate of the University of Dhaka, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Information Science and Library Management. She began her professional journey as an intern at the United Nations Information Centre in Dhaka. With over 15 years of experience in library services, Annie is passionate about literacy, inclusive education, and the role of school librarians in curriculum development.