Leadership

Management

Bebe Sylla-Kourouma – Executive Director/Program Director/Co-Founder

Diaraye Bebe Sylla is from Guinea, West Africa. She served as volunteer president of American Friends of Guinea from 2006 to 2010. She is fluent in six languages: French, German, English, Sousou, Mandingo and Fulani. After completing high school in Guinea, she moved to Germany where she studied business administration for three years. In 1995, she relocated to the United States and pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing at Prairie View A&M University near Houston, Texas. She has worked as a registered nurse at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for over 10 years. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. In 2009, she received the Nurseweek Excellence Award for community service and the Cherokee Inspired Confort Award for Exceptional Service, Sacrifice and Innovation in Healthcare. Mrs. Sylla-Kourouma is a certified development professional Project Manager.

Board of Directors

Kent Watts – Chairman of the Board

Chairman, Director, and CEO for Hydrocarb Corporation (Private Company)
Chairman, Director, and CEO for Star of Texas Asset Corporation (Private Company)

Kent Watts is a Houston, Texas area native.  He graduated cum laude with a BBA from the University of Houston in 1983, became a licensed Texas CPA in 1985. In the late 1980’s, after leaving the employment of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Company (now KPMG), he has since had many successful entrepreneurial business ventures.

Since November 2009, Kent Watts has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Hydrocarb Corporation, a company established as a privately held exploration and production company.  Hydrocarb has offices and operations in Houston, Texas, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Windhoek, Namibia and growing. In the July of 2011, Hydrocarb acquired its first upstream asset, a 21,000 square kilometer oil and gas concession onshore Namibia.

He established AFG as a non-profit providing medical relief and aid in Guinea.  In October 2009, together with members of his family he committed significant charitable donations that provide AFG’s initial financial foundation.

Abdoulaye Bah – Director

Professor of Sociology and Director of the Suicide Prevention Institute at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.

For the last six years, Dr. Bah, a native of Guinea, has been the principal investigator for the development of training tools geared towards addressing issues of behavioral health within the Army (Life Preservation Training Courses and Peer Advising System). Dr. Bah has worked in collaboration with the Army Research Laboratory, US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM), and the Army Office of the G-1 to address issues of suicidal ideation and behavior amongst troops. As a result of his work, a unique tool for raising awareness and strengthening self-efficacy, Beyond the Front, was created and adopted for an Army-wide stand down in March 2009. Dr. Bah is also instrumental in the development of the Life Preservation Index, a risk assessment tool that can be used to identify and compute the prevalence rate of at-risk individuals for suicidal behavior in a group. In his capacity as a Director of the Center, he has conducted many projects providing research and services to the military and has received over $5,000,000.00 in funding from the US Army during the last three years. Dr. Bah speaks fluent English and French, as well as Fulani and Susu.