The Wilson Foundation invites distinguished professionals to share their expertise with individuals and the community in alignment with the foundation’s mission and priorities. Wilson Foundation fellows transfer their superior knowledge and unique perspectives in a distinguished field of art purposed to inspire students, families, and the community. The ultimate goal of the Fellows Program is to transcend existing curriculum and teaching methodologies to create a pathway for ambitious projects that raise boundaries and challenge creativity. Towards this end, fellows support the foundation and its partnerships by identifying and addressing barriers to access and cultivating a fuller appreciation of different and underrecognized forms of art.

Dr. Boureima Diamitani, a native of Burkina Faso, is a museum professional with over 25 years of experience in West Africa. He is a former Executive Director of the West African Museums Programme (WAMP), a network comprising approximately 200 museums of varying significance in 16 West African countries. Under his leadership, the program mandated addressing and enhancing the state of museums, and fundamental issues such as the risk of collection deterioration, a shortage of trained staff, and deficiencies in research activity, collection management, and programming.

Before pursuing his doctoral studies in the United States, Dr. Diamitani served as the Director of Cultural Heritage and Museums in Burkina Faso. In this role, he redefined the cultural heritage policy in Burkina, designed and implemented new guidelines for museums, and curated numerous exhibitions.

He earned his Ph.D. in 1999 from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, under the supervision of the late Professor Christopher D. Roy. During his studies at the University of Iowa, with a Fulbright scholarship, he worked as a fellow at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as a Coleman fellow. Before obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. Diamitani studied urban planning and architecture in Lome, Togo, and received heritage training at the School of Architecture in Marseille, France. Dr. Diamitani is a published author and scholar and recognized contributor to emerging research and knowledge of West African art.

As a Fulbright Fellow in 2008, Amber Bennett Foote researched the impact of curriculum design on the economic growth of Ghana. This inspired her to author and trademark a curriculum called Youth Literary Forum (YLF), a dynamic curriculum designed to accelerate literacy skills by encouraging the voice and power of language in adolescents.

In 2018, Bennett Foote launched Amber Sky Publications LLC, a research, content development, and media productions company. Using the visual arts, Bennett Foote designs, innovative curricula for students and adults focused on learning and exploring history through objects for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Learning Lab and exercised her belied in what she refers to as the “revolutionary curation of marginalized history”

Bennett Foote has been an educator and community activist for over 20 years and is a member of the District of Columbia Area Educators for Social Justice, and Teaching for Change. In 2002, she graduated from Dillard University of New Orleans, Louisiana and earned a B.A. in Mass Communication/Broadcast Journalism with a minor in African World History. She joined Teach For America in 2003 where she was a part of the first corps to be assigned to The School District of Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, she attended Saint Joseph’s University and earned a Master of Science in Education in 2005.