About
About Neni
Neni means “woman” in the language of the Kpelle people—one of Liberia's largest ethnic groups and part of my heritage.
The name grounds this work in heritage, but the question behind it reaches much further:
What determines how much power a woman has to shape the course of her own life?
I've spent my career helping organizations build capacity. Now I'm lending that lens to something bigger—how women build agency.
For me, the question isn't entirely academic.
I was a teen mom who was told, in ways both explicit and implied, what that would mean for the rest of my life. But my life was not already decided.
Education changed what was possible for me. Skills changed what was possible. Knowledge, opportunity, community, and the institutions I encountered all played a role.
Neni grew from wanting to understand that experience beyond my own story.
The inquiry
What shapes a woman's possibilities?
Neni explores the forces that expand or constrain women's agency: knowledge, education, health, work, culture, community, policy, and institutions.
We look backward to understand what women have inherited. We examine research and evidence to understand the present. We preserve stories and knowledge that might otherwise be lost. And we imagine—and eventually help build—better possibilities for the future.
That means Neni might take the form of an essay about women's work, a lesson on maternal health policy, an archival photograph from Liberia, an oral history, a conversation about girls' education, an analysis of the institutions surrounding motherhood, or research into women's economic mobility.
Different subjects. One question:
What helps a woman become more able to shape her own life?
The work
A living body of work
Neni is being built as more than a social media platform.
It is a growing body of research, public scholarship, storytelling, archival work, and new visions centered on women's lives and agency.
Over time, that work may live in many forms—digital collections, original research, books, films, educational resources, conversations, and programs. The medium can change. The inquiry remains the same.
Neni begins with women, but it does not study women in isolation. Women live within families, economies, cultures, workplaces, governments, health systems, schools, and communities. Understanding women's agency therefore requires understanding the systems around them.
Because a woman's life is her own. But the possibilities available to her are shaped by the world she inherits—and the one she helps build.
This is Neni.
Founder
Michele Slawon Tokpah, MPA
Michele is a global learning strategist and civic leader whose work focuses on how people and institutions build capability. She holds a Master of Public Administration from Wake Forest University, with a concentration in workforce development.
Her professional experience spans global learning, organizational development, public administration, and community relations. Her civic service includes an appointment to the Mecklenburg County Women's Advisory Board and elected service as Secretary of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party.