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Parent
Mother, Wife
Anita became a homemaker while raising her two children and volunteering in the community. During this time, her work in local schools helped inspire the creation of her international educational nonprofit. She homeschooled, served on PTAs, and was a room mother in each of her children’s classrooms. As a tennis, dance, swim, and theatre mom, she coordinated schedules, volunteered constantly, and proudly embraced her role as the family’s “Embarrasser-in-Chief” – loudest cheerleader.
A self-trained decorator, Anita enjoys sewing with her daughter creating seasonal specialty hair bows for girls. She is also a longtime tutor who has worked with children across the learning spectrum, from gifted students to those with learning disabilities. She especially is moved by her work tutoring hospitalized children, supporting students across all K–12 subjects.
Background
Anita comes from a long line of administrators in pre-independence Uganda. Both sets of grandparents headed their tribal clans and led regional chiefdoms under colonial rule.
Following Uganda’s independence in 1962, her father, considered one of Uganda’s founding fathers, was among a small group of men sent by the British government to the United Kingdom to train in public administration and on return were charged with overseeing the country’s transition to self-governance. He stood on the podium as Uganda’s flag was raised for the first time and the Union Jack lowered. Her mother, known for her candor, imagination, and boundless energy, was the proprietor of a well-known restaurant in Kampala and managed the family farm.
Raised between Kenya, Tanzania, and later the United Kingdom, Anita attended British-run missionary schools – Kabale Preparatory School and Namasagali College – in Uganda before continuing her education in London and Wales. She arrived in the U.K. as a teen, the daughter of a political asylee after Amnesty International intervened to free her father held a political prisoner during the second regime of President Milton Obote. She later earned degrees in economics and international strategic studies from the University of Wales.
In the early 1990s, she met and married her American husband in London and later lived and worked overseas in several embassies becoming a “trailing spouse” while raising a family and gaining multi-lingual abilities within the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic corps. While on assignment in Egypt she enrolled in Cairo University and gained a Joint International MBA in entrepreneurship and international business awarded jointly with Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Education remains one of Anita’s top priorities. As founder of her international educational nonprofit, she has worked to provide approximately 1,000 school meals per day to rural children in Uganda for over 18 years, alongside literacy-focused programming that impacts multiple households. Her family first campaign reflects decades of leadership, education, philanthropy and community partnership — and a commitment to delivering real change for working families.
Philanthropist
Mpambara Cox Foundation
Anita grew up watching her father create opportunities for others and carried that spirit of giving into her own work. Wanting to give back to the community that shaped her, she founded an education-focused nonprofit connecting U.S. schools and Ugandan school children through cultural exchange and learning while she was a homemaker.
What began as a pen-pal program between American students and children in rural Uganda grew into a long-running initiative that has helped provide nearly four million school meals to children in her hometown, alongside literacy and educational support programs serving thousands of families.
Although she remains a volunteer she steered the foundation’s program to growth that includes women’s microfinance, clean water initiatives in schools, school gardens, an in-country Peace Corps literacy partnership prior to COVID-19, and a the only public library in her native Kabale.
Diplomacy
U.S. State Department & Global Women’s Health Policy
Through her work with the U.S. State Department, Anita lived and worked in Argentina, Egypt, Sierra Leone, The Bahamas, Ivory Coast, Morocco, and India, while also spending time in Jordan and Ghana. Her overseas assignments included economic, consular, and administrative affairs, including leading the VIP office in Cairo in the late 90’s then the largest US mission in the world.
She trained at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Virginia, qualifying as a Consular Adjudicator. As a naturalized citizen Anita brings a firsthand understanding of both the opportunities and complexities of the broken immigration system.
Today, she serves as Chief Diplomatic Officer for a global women’s health institute, coordinating international engagement and diplomatic outreach for a 41-nation coalition working across multiple regions of the world. Her work includes engagement with presidents, ministers, ambassadors, members of Congress, and international policy leaders on issues affecting women and families globally.
Education Advocate For School Choice
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
A longtime bespoke tutor, homeschool educator, and English-as-a-Second-Language instructor for adults, Anita has worked with both gifted students and children that fall several grade levels behind. She has stood with Montgomery County parents advocating for parental rights in education, including opt-out concerns connected to Mahmoud v. Taylor, against indoctrination in school, advocating also for safer schools. Especially irked by the men in women’s sports, she is working towards the codification of Mahmoud’s narrow outcomes. Through her nonprofit work and community engagement, she believes education should empower families, expand opportunity, and respect the values and voices of parents. Listen to her podcast on Montgomery County Schools shooting at Magruder High School.
Community Service
@Home, Montgomery County
Anita was appointed by former County Executive Isiah Leggett to serve on Montgomery County’s Community Action Board, helping support low-income communities through financial literacy initiatives.
The County Council appointed her as the Republican representative Commissioner on County’s Charter Review Commission responsible for reviewing the County Charter.
For six years she has served as the Mayor-appointed Chair of the City of Gaithersburg’s Multicultural Affairs Committee, which serves as a bridge between the community and the Mayor’s office. She is passionate about its mission to “enrich the City through the promotion of understanding, respect, and appreciation of the many cultures of Gaithersburg.”
Anita is also active in several local community groups and is a member of several women’s organizations.
Former Podcaster and News Publisher
From the Blue Kitchen to the Newsroom
Politics at the kitchen table was the idea behind her now closed podcast. Recorded in her actual blue kitchen in Maryland, it was conversations over tea and a bite to eat with neighbors and talking to strangers about the things that matter to Marylanders.
“Kitchen table issues are the issues you and your family discuss and confront at your kitchen table — bills, vacations, tuition, healthcare and so on.” Listen to her episode on elder care — a topic she has championed long before it became a campaign issue. [Listen here]
Anita also published Mother’s Daily Report — an online news platform created during COVID to support parents navigating remote learning. With curated links, articles and resources covering health, education and family life, it became a go-to destination for parents seeking practical help during an unprecedented time. The publication closed at the end of COVID when kids returned to the classroom.