Chime Asonye

Chime Asonye is the Founder of Nigerian Mental Health, the country’s largest multidisciplinary community of practitioners, comprising over 50 organizations advancing policy, research, wellness, and disability inclusion. His thought leadership on psychosocial issues has been featured in the Harvard Africa Policy Review, CNBC Africa, and the World Economic Forum. 

He's worked on US campaigns as the regional get-out-the-vote director for the Kamala Harris presidential campaign and as the campaign manager for a congressional race in Illinois’ 7th District. Previously, he served as innovation manager at COVIDaction, a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office-led consortium supporting pandemic response in Africa and South Asia. Before that, he was advocacy manager for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), a Chevron-established foundation focused on reducing poverty and instability in Nigeria’s oil-producing region. 

Earlier, Asonye advanced the United Nations Global Goals, serving at both the federal and sub-national levels of government in Nigeria. A regular contributor to BBC News, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and philosophy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.