Drocella Mugorewera
Drocella Mugorewera
Member, Board of Directors
Honorary Delegate (Tennessee)
Resettled Refugee from Rwanda
Drocella Mugorewera is a Refugee Congress Board Member and an Honorary Delegate for Tennessee. Born in Rwanda, she was forced to leave as a refugee and came to Tennessee in 2009.
Drocella is a public speaker and an America’s Family Coach, and she serves as Executive Director of Bridge Refugee Services, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting refugees to become self-sufficient and productive and contributing members of our communities. She is also a Board Member of the East Tennessee Foundation and an active member of the Knoxville Association of Women Executives (KAWE) and Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). She is a member of the Racial Equity Through Community (RETC) core group in her hometown.
In 2016, The Mercury newspaper listed Drocella as one of 10 women making a difference in Knoxville, and the May 2019 West Knoxville Lifestyle Magazine featured her as one of four “Go-Getters & Heavy Hitters You Should Know.” She has received champion for change and peacemaker awards from Church World Service and Oakridge Environmental Peace Alliance and is the 2020 honoree for the Danny Mayfield Champion of Change award by Community Shares.
In Africa, Drocella mworked as a parliamentarian, a development consultant and the Secretary of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water and Mines. She graduated from the University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine in 1991. She is also an alumna of Leadership Knoxville Class of 2018 and has a certificate from the Consortium for Social Enterprise for Effectiveness program from Haslam College of Business, as well as a certificate from Knox County Action Committee Community Leadership Class of 2014. In her free time, she enjoys mother nature, spending time with family and friends, reading books, traveling and being a grandmother. Singing and dancing also energize her.
"The refugee resettlement program is a life-saving program every human being should support. Refugees are a resilient population that brings social, economic, cultural and intellectual values to our communities. Investing in refugees is investing in our future.”
In the News:
Recent Events:
UNHCR ACTR/WGR 2021 Annual Tripartite Consultations and Working Group on Resettlement
Do you want to invite Drocella to speak at an upcoming event? Please fill out this contact form (reporters, please call 202-905-6238 for time-sensitive requests).