Lorenzo Daughtry-Chambers
Founder & Lead Instructor, IHA AI Academy — and the founder of the Institute for Human Advancement, the nonprofit that built it.
Lorenzo Daughtry-Chambers is the founder and lead instructor of the IHA AI Academy, and the founder and CEO of its parent organization, the Institute for Human Advancement — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds institutional infrastructure for human advancement across healthcare, AI education, workforce development, and economic empowerment on three continents. What began in 2017 as the Global Development Initiative, working on the ground from Brooklyn to Grenada, Kenya, and South Africa, was elevated in 2026 into the Institute for Human Advancement — a platform institution built, in his words, to outlast the people who start it.
Under his leadership, IHA grew from a single development-focused organization into a three-entity ecosystem: the nonprofit institute itself, Uplift Communities as its community-delivery operating arm, and DeepFutures Capital, an impact investment fund built to scale healthcare, technology, and enterprise ventures in underserved markets. Uplift Communities is anchored by a government-funded healthcare workforce program run in partnership with New York City's Department of Youth and Community Development. That same combination of ministry, business, and technology leadership is what shaped the AI Academy's curriculum and platform, which he built and now teaches from directly.
In April and May of 2026, Lorenzo led IHA's first multi-sector international deployment: the Kenya 2026 Delegation, a coalition effort spanning Nairobi, Kakamega, and Mombasa that put healthcare, education, and enterprise programming into the field side by side. The delegation reached more than 1,000 people directly and partnered with 350-plus leaders across 50-plus organizations, leaving a free, AI-powered learning platform in-country for every partner to keep using long after the team left.
That field experience is the reason the Academy exists in its current form. Most AI education is built for engineers, or it sells hype — almost none of it is built for the business owner, the pastor, the parent, or the public servant who holds a community together without a technical background. The Academy's certification tracks and its Perpetual Engine funding model, where a share of every paid certification funds free access for the next cohort, both trace back to that conviction: the biggest technological shift of this generation should not be reserved for people who already have access to it.
He teaches from that premise inside the Academy today — not as a credential collector standing at a remove, but as the person who built the platform, wrote the curriculum, led the delegation, and is personally accountable for every learner who walks through the door.
What he's built
Founder & CEO
Institute for Human Advancement — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building institutional infrastructure for human advancement across three continents.
Founder
IHA AI Academy — built the curriculum and platform, and teaches the flagship tracks directly.
Led the Kenya 2026 Delegation
IHA's first multi-sector international deployment, reaching 1,000+ people and 350+ leaders across 50+ organizations in Nairobi, Kakamega, and Mombasa.
Architect of the Perpetual Engine
The funding model where paid certifications fund free access for the next cohort — designed into IHA and Uplift Communities from the start.
“AI is the biggest shift of our lifetime — and right now it’s leaving everyday people behind. I built this school to change that: not for engineers in Silicon Valley, but for the business owner, the pastor, the parent, the public servant — the people who hold our communities together. You don’t need to be technical. You need a door, and someone to walk you through it. That’s what this is.”