NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Shannon May is a co-founder of Bridge International Academies, the largest chain of private schools in Africa. The first Bridge International Academy opened in 2009. Today Bridge teaches more than 100,000 students every day at over 500 academies across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia and India. May serves as the chief strategy officer and chief development officer for Bridge, leading the development pipeline as well as international expansion. She also leads research, government relations and business development, and supervises marketing and brand strategy. Prior to founding Bridge, she published widely on ecological and economic development, and has served as an advisor to many international organizations, focusing on design, development and sustainable cities around the world. Her experience also extends to the classroom, having taught in primary, middle and secondary schools in both China and the U.S., as well as at the University of California, Berkeley. Shannon earned a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in social studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.