Dipak Naker

Dipak Naker is one of the co-founders and the current Executive Director of the Coalition for Good Schools that works with practitioners in the Global South to prevent violence against children in and through schools. Growing up in Tanzania, Dipak saw the power of a good school in elevating life outcomes for children who grow up in under-resourced environments. He saw how violence against children undermines the very foundation of a secure childhood.

Previously, Dipak cofounded (with Lori Michau) and worked at Raising Voices, a non-profit organization based in Uganda that has been working for 25 years to prevent violence against women (VAW) and children (VAC). He designed interventions for preventing VAC at home, in the community, and at school. He steered the creation, evaluation and scale-up of the Good Schools Toolkit, which has now reached thousands of schools.

Dipak has designed an award-winning communication campaign and has served as a collaborator on several large-scale research projects, and co-authored more than 25 peer reviewed articles. Dipak went to University in The UK and lived there for 9 years. He has fostered many frontline organizations and has served on the Boards of leading civil society organizations.

Dipak has lived in East Africa for most of his life. Currently he lives in Boston with his partner and daughter, and in his free time is busy writing a historical novel inspired by his family’s experience of migrating from India to Tanzania in the early part of the twentieth century.

Preferred gender pronouns: he/him/his