Board & Staff

BFA Board President Mike Essien is an intellectual property and business attorney and a Principal at Essien Law Office PLLC. In addition to supporting clients with patents, trademarks and counseling needs, he does consulting work supporting research institutions in Africa. His many achievements include being admitted to practice in the State of Minnesota, before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and being a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, the Ramsey County Bar Association and the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers, among others. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he worked as a product development engineer at 3M, and is named inventor on two U.S. patents. In his free time, he volunteers and serves as a board member with several organizations, including Books For Africa, and also serves as board president for the Association of Nigerian Engineers in Minnesota.

Bio coming soon!

BFA’s Board Secretary, Fatima Lawson, Ph.D. is a school principal with Saint Paul Public Schools.  She is very passionate about education, and is deeply concerned about the state of public education in Nigeria in particular and Africa as a whole.  She believes that no proper education can take place without adequate materials, such as books, which is why she dedicates her time and resources to support an organization like BFA that goes above and beyond expectations to put books in the hands of children, especially the most disenfranchised.  She also a heightened sense of social justice, access and opportunities in educational pursuits for especially women and girls. More importantly, she is a very active member of various community organizations in Minnesota and beyond, which include serving two terms on the board of the Governor’s Council on Minnesotans of African Heritage (CMAH), during which she held offices of vice-chair and treasurer respectively. She is the newly elected board chair for the Minnesota Africans United (MAU), a thriving organization that supports career and economic growth for African Immigrants in Minnesota.  She is an avid reader, debater, public speaker, and has presented in several national and international conferences.

In 1988, British expatriate Tom Warth visited his friend Loy Zabasajja in Jinja, Uganda. Loy brought Tom to the local library, where books were nearly nonexistent; the few books that remained on the shelf were tattered and decades old. Coming from the publishing industry, Tom was aware of the great surplus of books in America and set about finding a way to put those books in the hands of African learners. Tom’s vision became Books For Africa, which has since grown to be the world’s largest shipper of donated books to the African continent.

Patrick Plonski has served since 2003 as Executive Director of Books For Africa. Plonski holds a PhD in International Education (2009), and previously served as Executive Director of the Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council at the University of Minnesota (1998-2003), and Committee Administrator for the Minnesota House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture (1987-1998).