Marine Adamyan is World Vision International’s Director of New Business and Partnerships, championing multi-stakeholder partnerships and catalyzing core-business collaborations between private and public players. During her 23-year career Marine’s progressive technical advisory, operational, new business development and strategic leadership roles spanned multiple domains, institutional industries, and geographies. Her recent focus on nutrition value chain with emphasis on nutrition- agriculture-livelihood nexus, involves market solutions at the Base of the Pyramid in Africa and Asia. Marine has an Executive MBA in innovation management and MPH in health policy and management. She is an Accredited Partnership Broker and is currently working on her Certified Professional Impact Analyst (CPIA) credential from Queens University.
Laura Addati is a Gender Equality Policy Specialist at the ILO Office for the United Nations in New York and for the Gender, Equality and Diversity & ILO AIDS Branch (GED/ILOAIDS) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). She studied political sciences and international law at LUISS University of Rome (Italy) and holds an MSc in Development Studies at the University of Grenoble (France), with a specialization in labour and social policies. She joined the ILO in 2004, working on gender equality and working conditions issues in Geneva. Previously, she worked as Programme Officer at the ILO Office for Central America and the Caribbean in Costa Rica and at the United Nations Development Programme in the Comoros Union.
At the ILO, she has lead global research on care work, maternity protection and work-family policies, coordinating and co-authoring a number of ILO reports ad publications, including the recently published Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work, Women at Work Trends 2016, and Maternity and Paternity at Work. She also provides technical assistance on these topics to governments, trade unions and employers’ organizations in countries in Asia, Africa, Latina America and Eastern Europe.
As the Lean Data Manager at Acumen, Venu Aggarwal leads the organization’s Lead Data work in Agriculture. She was also a part of the founding team at Acumen that developed Lean Data as a customized approach to measurement for development practitioners. Venu started her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she worked on strategic challenges faced by clients across the private, public, and development sectors. She transitioned to Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), a grassroots non-profit organization based in India that focuses on livelihood generation. Venu holds a Master’s in Public Affairs, International Development from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
Jenna Ahn is a Master of Global Affairs student concentrating in sustainable development at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. During her studies, she and her team have been working on a yearlong project in partnership with Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter to design and test a pre-crisis market analysis toolkit adapted for the shelter sector. On campus, she also works as a research assistant supporting impact evaluations of USAID programs in Honduras related to workforce development. Before beginning graduate studies, she worked as a program manager for community-based learning and research at Santa Clara University, consulted on a startup initiative to provide sustainable and affordable housing options in Indonesia, and spent a year volunteering at a children’s home in Trujillo, Honduras. She holds a B.A. in theology and pre-health studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Jason Andrews, NRC Jordan’s Livelihood Specialist, has 8 years of experience working in both the Humanitarian and Development sector. He has an extensive background working in MENA and Asia designing and managing market centric livelihoods programming in complex environments. Countries of work include Liberia, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal and Jordan. He earned his MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts) focused on FSL programming.
Tilahun Asmare has been serving as the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Manager / IR 4 Leader for USAID’s PRIME project since October 2016. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Learning and Knowledge Management Advisor and Learning coordinator for the project under Mercy Corps Ethiopia and as Learning, Design and Measurement Manager including the PRIME project for CARE Ethiopia. Tilahun holds Masters of Science degree in Economics – specialized in Development Policy Analysis from Mekelle University and a BA degree in Economics from Debub/Hawassa University. With 11 years of experience in the international development field in Ethiopia, he has worked closely in coordinating large quantitative and qualitative evaluation surveys and other assessments. He also has experience in the design and implementation of M&E for development projects and emergency response projects. Prior to this he worked for World Vision Ethiopia for six years managing the M&E for economic and social development projects, and emergency response projects at both the field and national office levels. In addition, he has gained work experience in government district offices and Federal ministry offices related to budgeting, planning, and M&E.
Aaron Ausland is Senior Technical Advisor for Youth Empowerment and Workforce Development at World Vision, and creator of their signature PYD project model Youth Ready, which is empowering thousands of the most vulnerable young people across Africa and Latin America. His career began 20 years ago when invited to turn his research on effective MFI design into reality in rural Bolivia. He has since worked for a world beyond poverty in nearly 50 countries in wide-ranging roles, including regional director of small enterprise development, global director of independent research and evaluation, CRS consultant to a global mining company, and associate professor for a Master program in international community development. He’s also served on several nonprofit boards and advisory councils, founded “The Global Citizen” publication, and writes about development at www.stayingfortea.org and Huffington Post. He has an MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two bi-cultural children, his dog Kennedy and three comical chickens.
Yvonne Bakken is a Public Private Partnerships and Business Development Manager at Royal DSM. She manages DSM’s global nutrition improvement-related partnerships with World Vision, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. Yvonne manages cross-functional teams and cross-organisational processes as part of her public-private core business collaborations portfolio. She engages and leads at various levels –from local to global ranging from implementing teams to steering the committee to executive sponsors. In addition, she coordinates DSM’s internal partnership teams including the work done in partnering workstreams related to products and market development. Yvonne also focuses on business development through market analysis and business case development, provides strategic thought leadership regarding Nutrition in Emerging Markets, primarily focused on Africa and Asia. Yvonne has a background in MSc International Business with a focus on strategy.
Anne Bitga, Manager, Technical Services at Making Cents International, has over six years’ experience in youth and women’s livelihoods, entrepreneurship, positive youth development, and financial inclusion programming throughout 15 countries in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. She currently provides technical assistance on youth capacity building and financial inclusion on the East African Youth Inclusion Program in Tanzania and Uganda, gender and youth economic and financial inclusion on the USAID Agribusiness Competitiveness Activity in Tajikistan, and refugee financial inclusion on the blockchain-based Digital Economic Identify pilot project in Jordan. Prior to Making Cents, Ms. Bitga served as a small enterprise volunteer with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso.
Meghan Bolden specializes in monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating learning for market-based interventions with a focus on marginalized populations. Currently, she is the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Practice Lead at MarketShare Associates (MSA). In this role, Meghan is leading MSA’s work on the USAID Feed the Future Mozambique Agricultural Innovations Activity’s (FTF Inova) innovative impact measurement system tracking shifts in business and social norms and attitudes. Meghan has also served as the Director for Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning at Save the Children, where she directly supported the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) of programs promoting livelihood diversification, financial inclusion, asset protection, and women's economic empowerment in Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Yemen, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Nepal. Prior to this, Meghan worked for Chemonics International on forestry, water, governance, land titling, business enabling environment, and agricultural value chain development programs. Meghan holds a Master's from Georgetown University and la Universidad Nacional de San Martín. She speaks English and Spanish.
For more than twenty-five years, Kristin Brady has specialized in international development as a youth and education expert, project manager and policy maker. She serves as Project Director for YouthPower Action and as Director of FHI 360’s Youth and Learning Practice where she developed a positive youth development curriculum and oversees a wide range of activities relating to youth development. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the SID Working Group on Youth and was Co-Chair of the Advocacy working group of the Alliance for International Youth Development. She has worked in Latin America and Africa, speaks Spanish and Portuguese and published studies on public private partnerships in Latin America. Earlier in her career, she served as senior staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.
Margie is Founder and Director of EcoVentures International. Margie has worked in value chain and market development contexts across multiple countries, with a focus on creating learning tools and capacity building opportunities for donors and practitioners working in this area. Margie chaired the recent global Market Systems Symposium. She played a leading role in the development of learning tools under the USAID/Leveraging Economic Opportunity (LEO) project, providing thought leadership and research for USAID on inclusive market systems approaches. Margie has developed curricula and tools that have been translated into over 15 languages and used in over 35 countries. Margie has worked in over 20 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe, with a focus on her home continent of Africa. Margie is South African, but is currently based in Washington, D.C.
As a member of CRS’ Humanitarian Response Department, Ms. Brick heads CRS’ Market-Based Rapid Response and Recovery team. Over the past five years, this global team has supported cash and market-based programming in pre-crisis, emergency, and early recovery contexts in almost 50 countries. Ms. Brick supports cash-based programs for basic needs, and in multiple sectors such as food security, shelter and settlements, and WASH. Ms. Brick has 15 years of experience in international agriculture, food security, and cash and markets programs, based both overseas and in the U.S., and holds a Masters’ degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
William J. Burke who was a former PCV in Gambia is an Agricultural Economist. Bill acquired a MS and PhD from Michigan State University, and worked on the Food Policy Research Project in Zambia. He joined Stanford University’s Center on Food Security and the Environment in 2012 and, in 2016, he incorporated Agricultural and Food Policy Consulting. He was also elected to the Food Tank Board of Directors in 2017.
Julia Cardoni is a project manager at MUVA, a female economic empowerment program in urban areas of Mozambique. Julia is working to level the playing field for young disadvantaged women to get into decent work using methodologies of gender transformative education, soft skills and technical training. She is currently designing a new project to stronger engage the private sector with female economic empowerment. Julia is a social anthropologist with a master's degree in Economic Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).
Jessan Catre leads the Philippines market systems program for Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter and brings a unique blend of more than two decades of rural development, private sector, humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction and management experience. Previously, he co-led in developing Catholic Relief Services Cluster Approach to Agroenterprise Development in the Philippines, which eventually became its global model. He led in introducing cash transfer programming for Oxfam in conflict-affected areas in the country; headed the local Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Team in Oxfam’s Haiyan Response and more recently advised Save the Children’s biggest Disaster Risk Reduction and Management program in the country. Previous to Habitat for Humanity, Jessan worked for the Humanitarian Leadership Academy and was seconded to Save the Children. Prior to this he worked at the United Nations, Oxfam and Catholic Relief Services.
Felix has lived and worked across six developing countries, experiencing diverse cultures and seeing the difference the access to good nutrition has on families. Surveying hundreds of mills in at-risk communities across South Asia, East and Southern Africa, Felix has refined fortification technologies and developed economic models for sustaining rural fortification. Felix leads the overall organizational development, mission, and trajectory of Sanku. He also led all aspects of product development and engineering for the Sanku Dosifier technology, winner of the 2013 Grand Prize in the Ashoka Changemaker’s competition. Last year, the Mulago Foundation selected Felix as a Rainer Arnhold Fellow.
Anthony Connor is the director of partnerships for Dimagi, based in Washington DC. He has over ten years of experience in technology and ICT4d, public health, agriculture, and post conflict reconciliation and infrastructure. He's previously served as a power and fertilizer adviser to the Nigerian government (infrastructure finance and technology selection), and agtech adviser to the Papua New Guinean government. He has extensive field and partnership experience in South America, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. His work at Dimagi has included country-level ICT interventions for Nepal, Madagascar, Malawi, Benin and Senegal in both the agriculture and health sectors.
Kate is an Economist in the Economic Development Directorate in the Department for International Development. As lead on Women’s Economic Empowerment she is responsible for the delivery of two flagship programmes: the Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) programme, which partners directly with the private sector to identify constraints to women entering supply chains or moving into higher value jobs within a supply chain, and SPRING (funded by DFID, DFAT and USAid), a business accelerator that identifies ventures with products and services that can improve the lives of girls and provides support to these businesses to enable them to reach girls at scale. Kate has six years’ experience worked across DFID headquarters and country offices. Before joining DFID, Kate undertook the Overseas Development Institute Fellowship scheme, working as technical assistance to the Zambian government on foreign trade and tax. Kate holds a Bsc in Economics from Bristol University and an Msc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford.
Luca Crudeli is the Chief of Party of the USAID Feed the Future Agricultural Innovations Activity in Mozambique (FTF Inova). On FTF Inova, Luca currently leads a team of 30 purpose-driven staff members who strive to build successful partnerships with companies that operate in and serve the Mozambican agricultural market. Luca has over 15 years of experience providing analysis and policy advice, as well as designing and managing market system and private sector development projects in Africa, South East Asia, the Pacific, and Europe. He has experience working for USAID, the World Bank, DFID, DFAT, UNDP, the private sector, and government – previously, he has served as an Economic Advisor to the President of Tanzania. Luca holds a Ph.D. in Law and Economics, an MSc. in Economics, and a Master’s in Development, Innovation, and Change.
Narayan Das is currently working on two research projects on Bangladesh: (1) Unlocking the door to migrants: An evaluation of BRAC’s Migrant Loan program, and (2) Reducing the risk of migration: An evaluation of BRAC Safe migration program. International labor migration from Bangladesh is one of the key driving forces of the economy of Bangladesh. Yet, evidence from a recent study co-authored with Narayan (titled “Migration as a risky enterprise: a diagnostic for Bangladesh”) shows that poor people’s attempts at migrating often result in failure with significant financial losses to them. Hence an impact evaluation study of these two BRAC programs, in which Narayan is involved as a BRAC employee, can have important implications for Bangladesh’s development through more pro-poor and safer migration. Narayan has extensive research experience in the fields of poverty, microfinance, labor market, agriculture, and other emerging issues related to Bangladesh.
Lucia Diaz-Martin is a Senior Policy Associate at J-PAL Global where she manages J-PAL's Gender sector. In this role, she conducts policy analysis and outreach focused on evidence from J-PAL evaluations related to gender equality and women's and girls' empowerment. Prior to joining J-PAL, Lucia worked for Pro Mujer, a Latin American microfinance and women's development organization, and at Habitat for Humanity's Guatemala headquarters. As a graduate student, Lucia worked on short-term projects for UN Women's Europe and Central Asia regional office and also completed a program evaluation to support LGBT service delivery in a network of youth homeless shelters in Central America. Lucia has an MPA from Columbia University focusing on economic and political development along with gender and public policy. She also holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Yale University.
Anastasia de Santos is an economist with USAID’s Trade & Regulatory Reform Office in Washington, DC. She has worked in USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Education & Environment since 2008 and currently works on employment, private sector development, and women's economic empowerment. She has an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. from Yale University in Sociology.
Jeanne Downing is a market systems expert. Between 2001 and 2014, she worked for USAID’s E3 Bureau as a Senior Enterprise Development Advisor in charge of a centrally funded research and learning project that developed USAID’s approach to value chain development, including identified “good practices” based on rigorous evidence, and designed an approach to evaluating value chain and market system activities. At the same time, Jeanne was involved—and since retirement in 2014—remains involved in the design of Feed the Future activities across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She has a PhD in Geography from the University of Washington and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.
Dr. Elizabeth Dunn recently joined Heifer International as Director for Research and Learning. She has conducted research and mixed methods evaluations in more than 20 countries, focusing on market-based solutions to poverty, inclusive market systems and value chains that benefit micro- and small enterprises, smallholder farmers and low-income households. Under the USAID-funded LEO project, she led research to improve monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches for market systems projects, providing input into USAID’s evolving systems approaches and global collaboration on evaluating results in complex systems. Dr. Dunn played an influential role in shaping practice in value chain evaluation and programming as a technical leader for the USAID-funded AMAP BDS I&II projects. She earned a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a faculty member at the University of Missouri for 10 years prior to founding Impact LLC in 2000.
Michael Field has over 25 years of designing, assessing, implementing and training on systems based approaches to market, educational, health and enabling environment challenges. Through his work, Mr. Field has played a key role in setting learning and research agendas in the field of systems approaches. He is currently a Senior Technical Advisor at EcoVentures International. Previously, Mr. Field led USAID’s Agricultural Value Chain project in Bangladesh. Other recent experience includes advising and training donor and project staff in Mozambique, Kenya, Thailand, Nigeria, Stockholm and Zimbabwe on applying systems concepts to private sector, resilience, and enabling environment challenges. Mr. Field continues to provide guidance on improved practice on systems approaches via various learning platforms.
Until recently, Gigi Gatti was Grameen Foundation’s Director for Asia and concurrently the Country Director for the Philippines. She led Grameen’s FarmerLink project which combines satellite data and farm data collected by mobile-equipped field agents to help coconut farmers increase productivity, deal with crop pests and diseases, and increase the sustainability of their farms. Additionally, Gigi led Grameen’s Digital Financial Services initiatives in Asia, facilitated strategic partnerships for program implementation and provided oversight on program deliverables. Ms Gatti has over 20 years experience in the IT, banking, insurance and microfinance industries. Previous positions include Vice President at BPI Globe BanKO, Technical Program Officer at Grameen Foundation USA, National Officer at the Asian Development Bank, and Professor at the Graduate School of Business of De La Salle University in Manila. She holds an MBA and a BS in Computer Science from the De La Salle University, and a Certified Microfinance Expert certificate from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany. She is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor with ISACA, Illinois, USA.
Allie Glinski is a Senior Gender and Evaluation Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). She has more than eight years of research, program, and advocacy experience focused on women’s economic empowerment, gender and clean energy, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), social enterprise development, and value chain gender integration. She conducts research and tests solutions to explore how organizations and enterprises can integrate gender throughout their value chains to enhance both social and business outcomes, and specifically works to develop measurement systems to track these social impacts. She examines how interventions can engage men to enhance gender equity and achieve program objectives. She has also conducted research on women’s time poverty and unpaid care work, child marriage, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. Ms. Glinski holds an MA in international development with a concentration in global health from the George Washington University and a BA in English and psychology from the University of Michigan.
Markus Goldstein is a development economist with experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. He is currently the Gender Practice Leader in the Africa Region and a Lead Economist in the Research Group of the World Bank. His current research centers on issues of gender and economic activity, focusing on agriculture and small scale enterprises. He is currently involved in a number of impact evaluations on these topics across Africa. Markus has taught at the London School of Economics, the University of Ghana, Legon, and Georgetown University. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Bobbi Gray is Research Director at Grameen Foundation. She has more than 14 years of experience in designing, implementing, and coordinating research and evaluation on financial, health and agricultural programs for underserved communities across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Much of her recent research has focused on integrated programs combining health and nutrition with financial services and agricultural programs as well as supporting financial institutions in the development of client outcome performance management systems. She is a co-author on the USAID Feed the Future publication Data-driven Agriculture: The Future of Smallholder Farmer Data Management and Use which outlines the future of digital farmer profile data. Bobbi holds a Master of Public Administration degree in International Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a B.A. in French and Spanish from Texas Tech University.
Hannah Guedenet has more than 10 years of experience in health, nutrition, and strategic communications. At Tanager, an affiliate of ACDI/VOCA, Hannah leads their nutrition-sensitive agriculture portfolio, providing technical leadership and project management to translate agricultural gains into better nutrition for households and communities. Previously, she worked with a range of organizations and projects to drive their strategic communications, partnering with local and international stakeholders to develop communications strategies, tailor messages, and raise their visibility. Hannah holds a master’s in public health with a focus in nutrition and behavior change communications from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a bachelor’s in international studies and French from Hope College.
Mr. Gumbiri has 16 years of experience in community development and peace building programs in his native South Sudan. He has expertise in conflict mitigation, particularly in relation to natural resource management (NRM) and inter-communal conflict, as well as in community-driven development programming. Mr. Gumbiri has built the technical and institutional capacity of South Sudanese civil society in successfully supporting communities to advocate for their interests in community and government decision-making, including vulnerable populations such as women and youth. Mr. Gumbiri actively promotes collaboration and learning with other development practitioners, both international and local, and is skilled at building relationships with the public and private sectors. Mr. Gumbiri earned a BA in Development Studies from Fairland University in Uganda. He is a native speaker of Bari, and is also fluent in English and Arabic, and has basic knowledge of French.
Nandi is a Project Director and Head of the Economic Growth Team for DAI Europe. Nandi has over 15 years experience of managing development projects in complex environments both in country programmes and in head offices and has expertise in private sector development, market systems and women’s economic empowerment. Nandi is currently the project director for two programmes funded by DFID: the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) and the DaNa Facility. AWEF is implemented in Jordan and Egypt to achieve Women’s Economic Empowerment through a market systems approach and the DaNa Facility focuses on supporting inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Myanmar, principally through improved private sector investment and trade. Nandi holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS.
Brian Heilman is a Senior Research Officer at Promundo, where his work focuses on eliminating harmful masculine norms, preventing all forms of gender-based violence, and achieving broader gender equality and social justice in the United States and around the world. Brian is a co-author of the 2017 State of the World’s Fathers and 2016 State of America's Fathers reports, the lead author of The Man Box study on harmful effects of rigid masculine norms in the U.S., U.K., and Mexico, and a co-author of multiple reports using International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) data. Brian has extensive program and research experience in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, and is deeply engaged as a sexual violence prevention educator in Minnesota. He holds a BA in English from Saint John’s University and an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
As a Technical Lead and Senior Advisor, Alison directs Mercy Corps’ global efforts to integrate market systems approaches in crisis response. In prior roles within the agency, Alison served as an advisor on Market Systems Development (MSD) and adaptive management and as Liberia’s Director of Results Management. Before joining Mercy Corps, Alison worked with a range of organizations on systems-based approaches to development, such as Skoll Foundation, USAID, IADB, Technoserve, CARE, and Innovations for Poverty Action. Alison holds an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Ji Hongbo is the country representative for The Asia Foundation in China, a position she has held since January 2016. An experienced and skilled international development specialist, she has successfully managed a range of programs with the Foundation, including disaster management, women’s empowerment, charitable sector development, regional cooperation and China-U.S. relations. Prior to joining The Asia Foundation, Ji Hongbo spent three years as Assistant Manager of the Sustainable Agriculture Development Project within the China-Canada Agriculture Development program, a CDN $20 million project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. Previously, she was a consultant to the World Bank on poverty reduction and rural development projects in China. Additionally, Hongbo has five years of diplomatic experience with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her service included an assignment at the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations in New York and as an interpreter in the Ministry’s prestigious Translation and Interpretation Department. Ji Hongbo holds a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as a master’s degree in International Relations with a specialization in Development Studies from Yale University where she was a Henry H.L. Fan Fellow.
Don Humpal, former PCV Senegal, is DAIs senior agriculturist and a Senior Principal Development Specialist. He holds an MS from UC Davis. He currently supports DAI Global’s Agriculture, Agribusiness, and Food Security Practice transferring technology in the production, postharvest handling, and marketing of staple food crops, fruits and vegetables, and livestock and animal products.
Sawsan Issa, IRC Economic Recovery and Development Coordinator, responsible of the livelihood programing for Syrian Refugees and Vulnerable Jordanians inside Jordan. Sawsan has 8 years’ experience in the humanitarian and development sector. Main experiences are in enterprise, employment and business development and services for Syrian refugees, youth development and communication engagement in the development sector. Countries of work are Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Tunisia.
Keith B. Ives is a poverty economist focused on creating cultures of evidence and impact within organizations working for social change. His background managing development interventions and humanitarian response motivate his econometric work in practical-implementor focused-research. Before founding Causal Design, he consulted for The World Bank Group and worked for Georgetown University’s Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (gui2de), designing mobile phone-based surveys and managing randomized trials in Kenya and Nigeria. Keith has designed evaluations for the Ministries of Agriculture in Rwanda and Liberia, executed a growth diagnostic for the Kurdistan Regional Government, coordinated humanitarian responses in Haiti, Nigeria, and the United States, managed economic development projects in Kenya and Burkina Faso, and led Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Emily Janoch is the Director for Knowledge Management and Learning for CARE USA focusing on ways to better learn from and share implementation experiences on eradicating poverty through empowering women and girls in order to improve impact. She is an expert in designing systems to capture and share information across many sources. With four-years of on-the-ground experience in West Africa and academic publications on community engagement and the human element in food security in Africa, she is especially interested in community-lead development. Her work focuses on making sure that communities can engage in their own development for sustainable, appropriate results. She is fluent in French and Dogon, and has experience in food security, nutrition, health, governance, and gender programming. Her work on holding NGOs accountable to community needs and creating local capacity has been presented at Harvard, Imperial College London, and USAID seminars on USAID Forward. She has a BA in International Studies from the University of Chicago, and a Masters' in Public Policy in Internationals and Global Affairs from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Sashi Jayatileke brings 17 years of experience in the design, development, and implementation of projects focused on private sector development, market systems and financial inclusion. Currently, she provides technical and strategic advice on private sector engagement and market systems with USAID/Feed the Future countries in Asia. Prior to USAID, Sashi worked with MEDA, leading advisory services to financial institutions and managed field programs with local and international partners in complex political environments. She has designed and implemented programs to improve women’s economic empowerment, support digital finance and savings mobilization, and promote sector-wide and institutional capacity building in impact investment. Sashi holds a MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Economic Development from Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Neetu John is a Population and Health Scientist with the International Center for Research on Women, where she designs and executes research studies and impact evaluations, as well as conducts quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Her research interests relate to contraception, fertility and sexual and reproductive health behaviors in low-income settings and how they intersect with gender and other structural barriers as well as broader developmental processes. She takes an interdisciplinary approach informed by sociology, psychology, economics and health sciences to understand these barriers and processes. She has published on the gender socialization process during adolescence, the role of couple processes and male partners on contraceptive uptake, the impact of health commutation programs on changing behaviors, and the social and economic cost of child marriage. She is a member of the Society for Family planning, the Population Association of America and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Populations.
Amalia Johnsson is a financial sector development expert, specializing primarily in rural and agricultural finance, MSME finance and capital markets. She has extensive experience designing, implementing and assessing large-scale development projects, as well as structuring M&E frameworks, undertaking evaluations and executing wider research. Amalia has worked within the financial sector since 2003 and has an established track record with both institutional and corporate clients such as DFID, SIDA, FSDA, FSD Moz, Mastercard Foundation, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank. She oversees all of Nathan’s financial sector work while advising several large financial sector programmes, including Mastercard Foundation’s $50 million Fund for Rural Prosperity. Before joining Nathan Associates, Amalia worked at Plan International UK, overseeing a portfolio of private-sector-funded projects including Banking on Change, a £20m partnership extending informal and formal financial services to unbanked populations across 11 countries worldwide.
Danielle is a Senior Resilience Advisor in West, Central and North Africa, leading one of Mercy Corps’ three Regional Resilience Hubs. She works closely with country teams and technical partners to integrate resilience across development and humanitarian portfolios, supporting them to conduct Strategic Resilience Assessments—including in Niger, eastern DRC, North East Nigeria and Lagos; incorporate resilience measurement, and develop comprehensive adaptive management and capacity building strategies for resilience operationalization. Her previous experience includes managing rural livelihoods and market development programming in Niger and working in youth education and girls’ empowerment in Honduras.
Muhammad Junaid is a private sector development expert with experience in designing and implementing financial and private sector development programs in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Currently, he is the Chief of Party for USAID/Punjab Enabling Environment Project in Pakistan, which promotes private-sector investment and employment creation in the agriculture and livestock sectors in Punjab. Previously, he led the USAID-funded SME Support through Financial Sector Development Project in Azerbaijan, the Provincial Economic Development Project in Iraq, and the Access to Rural and Agricultural Finance Program in Kyrgyzstan. He served as UNDP’s regional technical advisor on financial inclusion for Asia, led the team that developed the DFID-funded Business Finance for the Poor Project in Bangladesh, and was a senior advisor on the World Bank-funded Malawi Rural Financial Services Project. He has an MBA from the University of Toronto and a Master of Public Administration from the Quaid-e-Azam University.
Asad has been a Project Management Specialist (agriculture) at the USAID Lahore Office for seven years. He played a lead role in designing and planning large USAID agriculture programs entailing $163 million in agriculture investments. He manages the $15 million Punjab Enabling Environment Project, and conceptualizes and articulates new agricultural growth and private sector engagement strategies. He advises on Pakistan’s economic development priorities related to agriculture, and develops and maintains contacts with the private sector, Government of Pakistan, NGOs and donor community. He has 25 years of experience in the corporate sector, starting and scaling businesses, executing new growth strategies and developing water management social enterprise programs. He served in key corporate executive positions, nine of those years as Chief Executive Officer. Organizations worked for include Pepsi International, Monsanto Pakistan, ICI Pakistan, Berger Paints Pakistan and MicroDrip Limited. Asad holds a B.S. in Business Administration from San Jose State University.
Dr. Klaus Kraemer is the Managing Director of Sight and Life, a humanitarian nutrition think tank headquartered in Switzerland. Sight and Life develops and implements sustainable nutrition solutions, grounded in solid scientific evidence, to improve the lives of those most in need. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of International Health of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Kraemer is Sight and Life’s key spokesperson, with a vision of a world free from malnutrition and knowledge of supporting a nutrition-sensitive food system across the food value chain. He provides leadership, vision, and direction to a global team, that collaborates with distinguished academia, UN, private and public players, and funders. He edits Sight and Life magazine, serves several professional societies, reviews journals, has published more than 130 scientific articles, reviews, and chapters, has coordinated four special supplements and has co-edited 12 books. Dr. Kraemer was awarded a diploma and PhD in Nutritional Science, at Justus Liebig University Giessen.
Ladd currently serves as senior technical director for nutrition at ACDI/VOCA and has more than 28 years of international nutrition experience in developing countries, including in-depth field experience in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Darfur, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Iraq, Liberia, the Philippines, and Somalia. Ladd also has over 10 years of active participation in the Ag2nut global form, Global Nutrition Network, with knowledge of systems, partnerships, and connections with key donors including USAID, OFDA, Food for Peace, DFID, UNICEF, WFP, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hilton Foundation. Ladd holds a master’s in public health and nutrition from James Madison University and a bachelor’s in human nutrition from Oklahoma State University. She is also a registered dietitian/nutritionist.
Through her leadership at Save the Children, International Youth Foundation, Making Cents International, Unity Productions Foundation, and her own consulting practice, Patricia has led strategy, management and fundraising for global and local non-profits, foundations, governments and corporations in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Europe and the former Soviet Union. For two decades, her work has focused on global youth development. She currently is Program Director for Save the Children’s Skills to Succeed program, which has prepared more than 125,000 deprived youth to get decent jobs and build businesses in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Latin America. At the World Bank, she pioneered the integration of citizen voice into public sector reforms and anti-corruption work. She started her career in project finance on Wall Street at The Fuji Bank and National Westminster Bank. She earned an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Julia is a Managing Consultant with MarketShare Associates, a global firm of creative facilitators, strategists, economists and experienced research and data nerds who believe that both public and private institutions should contribute to social transformation. She is currently serving as the Learning Hub Lead for the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund, which aims to bring together promising practice and learning emerging from AWEF as well as the wider MSD and WEE practitioner community. Julia is a PSD and gender expert with 7 years experience in the areas of economic development, trade, and women’s economic empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has provided technical assistance and strategic advice in the areas of economic growth, gender and trade to clients such as DFID, TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), Danida, Sida, ITC, Habitat for Humanity, WTO, WIPO, ICTSD, USAID and the World Bank. Her experience spans policy development, programme design, management and evaluation, and research. She has experience working in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique and Nigeria. She has published a number of articles on the topics of gender, trade, services and regulatory reform and co-founded an award winning social enterprise that disseminates trade and market information to SMEs engaged in trade in the EAC using mobile technology. Julia holds and MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.
Rachel Marcus has more than 20 years’ experience as a social development researcher and practitioner including five years as a Research Associate with ODI. She has particular expertise in conducting rigorous evidence reviews, with a strong focus on gender, childhood, youth and adolescence and social inclusion more broadly and is co-leading the evidence synthesis workstream for the Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence programme. In recent years she has led evidence reviews on gender and youth livelihoods development; gender equality in education; communication strategies to promote gender equality; youth civic and political participation; and effective integration of anti-poverty and child protection programmes. Before becoming a consultant with ODI, Rachel worked for DFID as a Social Development Advisor, and for Save the Children as a Research and Policy Advisor, where she served as Director of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. Rachel has worked in the following countries: Belize, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, India, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan and Tanzania.
Collins brings more than ten years of experience in research and project management, and, in addition to a specialty in agricultural sector-related research projects, he has also worked in the health and ICT sectors. His expertise spans over ten countries in Africa and Asia in both qualitative and quantitative research, including designing and implementing studies, as well as program monitoring and evaluation. Prior to joining AFA, Collins managed the Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) research program for Kenya, with an additional focus on the agricultural value chain in all eight FII countries in Intermedia Survey Institute. The FII program, conducted on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to fill knowledge gaps for financial inclusion stakeholders by providing fundamental data about trends in access and use of digital financial services through rigorous, nationally representative surveys and targeted qualitative research studies. While there he was also part of the team coordinating research on smallholder farmer households’ use of digital financial services supported by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).
Scott MacMillan works as a senior advisor for BRAC USA with a focus on learning and knowledge. He manages BRAC USA’s portfolio of research grants along with other special projects. As a writer and former journalist, his work has taken him to over 50 countries. He covered the transition from communism as a business journalist in central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, then worked as an editor and freelance writer in the Middle East in the 2000s. His stint as a travel writer took him to Southeast Asia, China, India, and Africa. He joined BRAC USA in 2011. Scott earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Amherst College. His work has been published in Slate, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Tribune.
Dr. Drew Marticorena is an accomplished agricultural researcher versed in the use of modern technologies, advanced statistics, and biological/ecological/agricultural science. He has a proven track record of developing and leading research projects that aim to inform stake holders in the agricultural value chain. These research projects have ranged in their intended audience from farmers and others working in the field to multinational national organizations looking to better hedge their agricultural risk. As the lead of aWhere’s research program, he has developed best in class predictive algorithms for a variety of germane agronomic issues, been active in shaping the technological adoption of the company, and overseen the quality of all statistical process conducted across the company. Furthermore, he regularly engages with customers to understand the current issues they are facing and engage with them in developing solutions. Dr. Marticorena has extensive experience providing comprehensive management and guidance to nascent research programs, overseeing the work of fellow researchers, and strategically planning the research program to consistently achieve results. Dr. Marticorena holds a PhD in Horticultural Science from North Carolina State University and a BA in Economics from Yale University.
Gerald Makau Masila, a Kenyan citizen, is Executive Director and CEO of the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) since 2011. He holds an MS in Agricultural Economics Egerton University and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Nairobi. Gerald has over 20 years of experience in general management, sales, marketing, distribution, commodity trading, fast-moving consumer goods management, and management of trade associations.
Laura McAdams is the Desk Officer for Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula for the Bureau for the Middle East at the United States Agency for International Development. On the Yemen Desk, Laura works closely with key offices within USAID and the wider interagency on humanitarian and development programmatic and policy tasks, including making determinations of USAID/Yemen program priorities and budget requests and representing USAID’s equities at briefings with Congress and in interagency meetings. Prior to USAID, Laura served as the North Africa and Middle East programs coordinator for Islamic Relief USA, where she directed $26 million in annual assistance to 10 countries. Laura has spent time in Morocco as a Fulbright student researcher and in Jordan as a member of the UNESCO Education Sector team designing an Education Management Information System.
Based in Washington, DC, Hillary is the Director of Business Development for Souktel, managing client outreach and engagement for Souktel's programs in 45+ countries, worldwide. Prior to joining Souktel, she focused on business development initiatives with private sector partners at Chemonics International, to globally expand corporate client development. She brings a technical background in ICT4D, enterprise development, and public-private partnerships. She holds a B.A. in Communications Studies from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.
Esther McIntosh is a governance and development specialist and has been the Country Director of World University Service of Canada (WUSC) office in Sri Lanka since July 2015. WUSC has been delivering development programming in Sri Lanka since 1989 helping disadvantaged groups, particularly women and youth, to develop the skills necessary for accessing employment and business opportunities. WUSC has developed a robust model for vocational training that builds on decades of experience yet remains flexible enough to adapt to local demand, changing economic realities and diverse contexts. We focus on multi-stakeholder collaboration; market responsiveness; strengthening the capacity of our local partners to provide high-quality services; delivering technical and soft skills, and integrating gender equality and social inclusion.
Bonnie has more than twenty years’ experience working in agricultural research and development within the institutes that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) under the World Bank. Bonnie joined GAIN from HarvestPlus, where for twelve years she headed up their office on Development and Communications. Bonnie was also a founding leader of HarvestPlus. Bonnie holds a BSc, degree in agronomy from Cornell University and Master’s degrees in public policy and public administration from the University of Virginia.
Esther McIntosh is a governance and development specialist and has been the Country Director of World University Service of Canada (WUSC) office in Sri Lanka since July 2015. WUSC has been delivering development programming in Sri Lanka since 1989 helping disadvantaged groups, particularly women and youth, to develop the skills necessary for accessing employment and business opportunities. WUSC has developed a robust model for vocational training that builds on decades of experience yet remains flexible enough to adapt to local demand, changing economic realities and diverse contexts. We focus on multi-stakeholder collaboration; market responsiveness; strengthening the capacity of our local partners to provide high-quality services; delivering technical and soft skills, and integrating gender equality and social inclusion.
Laura Meissner is an Economic Recovery and Markets Advisor for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) through a contract with the University of Arizona. Ms. Meissner provides guidance to USAID/OFDA and partners on assessing, mitigating, and repairing the effects of disasters on local markets and vulnerable populations’ livelihoods; as well as on cash-based interventions. In her work she has contributed to disaster response and recovery in Syria, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Yemen, the Sahel, and Haiti, among others. Prior to joining USAID/OFDA in 2010, Laura managed the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards initiative for the SEEP Network.
Olga M. Merchán is an Education Youth and Workforce Development Advisor at USAID Office of Education. Olga has over 20 years of experience as a practitioner in the development field. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Merchán was the Director of Workforce Strategies at YouthBuild where she was responsible for designing programs and innovative opportunities that prepare out of school youth for training and viable and sustained work. From 2008-2010, she served as the Workforce Development Advisor for Boston Medical Center where she developed expertise in designing demand-driven workforce development programs in the healthcare sector. Olga has also experience in designing workforce skills and technology training for at-risk youth and job skills and entrepreneurship training for women. A native of Cali, Colombia, Olga holds a Master's in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in Business Administration from ICESI University. Ms. Merchán lives in Salem, MA and Washington DC.
Ms. Meyers is a Managing Associate at Nathan Associates, where she leads gender and women’s economic empowerment programing across Nathan’s portfolio of international projects. She recently undertook research for USAID on legal and regulatory barriers that affect women’s wage employment. The report includes analysis to understand how policies and regulations limit or enable women to enter, remain, and advance in the workforce, including restricting employment of women, requiring occupational licenses, addressing employment discrimination, prohibiting and addressing sexual harassment, and enabling parents to work. With over a decade of expertise in gender integration work across sectors, Ms. Meyers has led research on women’s role in cross border trade, addressing social norms in women’s financial inclusion, child, early, and forced marriage, and the potential of impact sourcing to generate employment opportunities for vulnerable populations. Ms. Meyers facilitates the SEEP Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group and chaired the Technical Advisory Committee for the 2017 Women’s Economic Empowerment Global Learning Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. She is also an experienced trainer and has facilitated gender integration trainings in the U.K. and across Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Persuasive Communication workshops for women entrepreneurs and workers. She has a BA from Brown University and an MSc with Distinction from The London School of Economics.
Zahra Mir is Program Officer - Gender for the USAID Punjab Enabling Environment Project (PEEP). She provides programmatic support on the project’s gender focused initiatives. She is also involved in strategic implementation of project activities in the institutional capacity building component of the program. She previously provided coordination and support to PEEP in investment mobilization strategies and its Transaction Advisory Service program. Ms. Mir has worked as a business advisor with the Market Development Facility program in the past and brokered strong partnerships with the private sector under Making Markets Work for the Poor. Ms. Mir is a holder of the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew scholarship and has a master’s degree in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore. She is also a recipient of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change award for undertaking the Human Rights and Religious Minorities course at the McGill University.
Dr. Maureen Miruka is Director of Agriculture and Market Systems CARE USA and is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her research and advisory activities have focused on agriculture-based livelihood systems and their intersections with gender and women’s empowerment at the intra-household, community, institutional and policy levels. She previously worked as Senior Technical Advisor and later Team Leader of CARE’s Flagship Women in Agriculture Program-Pathways; and Principal Researcher (Socio-Economics) at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. She holds a PhD in Natural Resources from University of Greenwich, London UK.
Majid Mirza has been working in development and impact investing since he completed his Masters from the University of Waterloo in 2009. As Senior Project Manager, Global Programs, Majid’s primary responsibility has been leading MEDA’s blended finance initiatives INFRONT (Impact Investing in Frontier Markets) and Trading Up. Majid is also a Director of the Board for the Canadian Forum for Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID) and part of the GIIN’s Blended Finance Working Group. Majid has a Bachelor in Arts & Business (English Rhetoric) from the University of Waterloo along with a Masters in Business Entrepreneurship & Technology. His work with various impact investing and international development organizations has given him exposure to investment and economic development projects in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and MENA.
Jean de Bonheur Munyandamutsa is World Vision Rwanda’s National Resilience and Livelihood Technical Program Manager. He currently leads the innovative public-private partnership between World Vision and Africa Improved Foods (AIF) in Rwanda with a focus on shortened post-harvest value chain benefiting small/medium holder farmers. Bonheur specializes in local value chain development, facilitating the integration of the poor and other vulnerable producers into the value chain, climate-smart agriculture, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, market linkages for smallholder farmers and efficient food systems. Bonheur brings more than 20 years of hands-on experience in Rwanda’s agriculture and livelihoods sector. He started as a Field Agronomist and went on to leading multi-sectoral program portfolio as World Vision Rwanda’s Area Development Programme Manager. Bonheur currently oversees and boosts the organization’s National Agriculture and Livelihood portfolio. Bonheur has a Master's Degree in Development Studies from Kigali Independent University.
Meaghan Murphy is a Knowledge Management Advisor at Fintrac with the Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security project. In this position she leads knowledge management and knowledge exchange activities to promote the uptake and use of lessons learned and evidence for improved programmatic decision making. Ms. Murphy has worked for over 15 years in international development and domestic community development contexts using a range of analytical tools and approaches related to food security, knowledge management, agricultural and rural livelihoods, and applied nutrition. She has experience working in countries across Central Asia, Africa and Latin America and with number of institutions including FHI 360, QED Group, the Congressional Hunger Center and Mercy Corps. Meaghan has an MS in Nutrition from the Friedman School of Nutrition and Food Policy at Tufts University and a BS from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont.
Elvis Mushi is a leading applied researcher in East Africa, with vast experience across the region. Elvis is an innovative and multi-talented researcher with over 10 years experience and expertise in market, social and political research applying a wide range of data collection methodologies. Mr. Mushi is highly efficient and methodical with a good eye for detail and a proactive approach to performance and data accuracy.
Elvis currently works with FSDT as the head of research, where he leads in the design and implementation of studies related to the financial sector. With the desire to encourage evidence based decision making in the financial sector, Elvis has pioneered an ambitious data to solution initiative dubbed FinDisrupt which brings together different players in market to use data and insights in developing consumer centered products.
Yomna is a Programme Director with extensive experience working on donor funded initiatives across the MENA region and has served as Country Director for the AWEF Egypt Programme since November 2015. Prior to this, Yomna served as the Senior Advisor and Country Director to the Financial Services Volunteers Corps (FSVC) overseeing business development opportunities for major donor funded projects. As Country Director for FSVC across Egypt, Yemen and Libya she was responsible for the design and implementation of programmes working with a number of banks and key market actors in the region since 2004. Her core areas of work included risk management and SME lending and a core focus of this work was targeted at women. Yomna has excellent operational management skills gained through a decade of senior management roles. Yomna is passionate about supporting the women’s economic empowerment movement in Egypt and across the region and bring a solid understanding of the context and issues surrounding this area. Yomna began her career in development in 1996, and since then has been heavily engaged in business enabling environment activities through her roles with Chemonics in the US, Jordan and Egypt, and at FSVC. Yomna has a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in International Relations from the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Enrico Neumann is an economist and senior monitoring and evaluation (M&E) expert with experience in designing and implementing M&E frameworks for market systems development programmes. Currently, Enrico is the M&E lead for DFID’s Financial Sector Deepening Mozambique (FSDMoc) programme and DFID’s Private Enterprise programme Zambia (PEPZ), where he works closely with the local programme M&E teams to implement DCED-compliant results measurement frameworks. Enrico also provides M&E backstopping to the M4P component of DFID’s Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) Ethiopia programme, where he quality assures both quantitative and qualitative monitoring processes and develops approaches to measure behaviour change. As a previous member of the evaluation team on DFID’s £500 million Girls Education Challenge (GEC), Enrico has advised grantees on the implementation of large household surveys that follow robust methodologies to establish attributable impact such as randomised control trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs (QED). Enrico is also involved in data analytics of financial inclusion data with a focus on smallholder farmers, where he has led a team of data analysts to research for clients such as CGAP, FSD-Tanzania, and Mastercard Foundation.
Chris Nicoletti leads iDE’s global measurement efforts, including rigorous impact evaluations, designing and implementing effective management information systems, and effectively communicating data and results. Chris has extensive experience carrying out both randomized and quasi-experimental impact evaluations, as well as model-based impact estimation, working on USAID, DFAT, World Bank, GAC, Sida, SDC, NZAid, Stone Family Foundation, World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and MCC-funded programs in Central America, Africa, and Asia – among others. He honed his expertise on the socioeconomic impacts of water on household welfare and crop production while working on impact evaluations for NORC at the University of Chicago. In addition to his M.S. degree, Chris has a B.S. degree from Linfield College in Economics and Psychology. He enjoys skiing, climbing, cycling and traveling while residing in Boulder, Colorado.
Apollo M. Nkwake is International Technical Advisor, Monitoring and Evaluation at EDC (Education Development Center). He previously served as associate research professor for M&E at The George Washington University and at Tulane University. He has worked for international agencies across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town and is a designated Credentialed Evaluator. Dr. Nkwake is a recipient of American Evaluation Association’s 2017 Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award. He has authored three books, several journal papers/book chapters and has guest edited two special journal volumes. He is the author of: Credibility, Validity, and Assumptions in Program Evaluation Methodology (2015, Springer), and Working with Assumptions in International Development Program Evaluation (2013, Springer); His edited journal volumes include: Working with assumptions. Existing and emerging approaches for improved program design, monitoring and evaluation and Catalyzing and measuring women’s leadership and empowerment in African agricultural research and development.
Shauna Olney is Chief of the Gender, Equality and Diversity & ILO AIDS Branch (GED/ILOAIDS) of the International Labour Organization. GED/ILOAIDS coordinates the ILO’s Women at Work Centenary Initiative, launched with the aim of identifying innovative action to give a new impetus to the ILO’s work to promote full and lasting gender equality and non-discrimination. Ms Olney studied law at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and as a postgraduate at the University of Oxford, with a focus on industrial relations and human rights. She has been with the ILO since 1991, working in the areas of equality and non-discrimination, industrial relations, international labor standards, labor law and freedom of association. Previously she worked as a barrister and solicitor in Canada, specializing in industrial relations, labor law, and human rights, and also worked at the Supreme Court of Canada. She was a Deputy member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, and has also authored and co-authored a number of publications on gender, equality and non-discrimination.
Kristin O'Planick is a Market Systems Specialist in USAID's Bureau for Food Security where she seeks to advance market systems facilitation throughout the Feed the Future portfolio. Previously, in USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, & Environment, she assisted market systems, enterprise development, and youth employment programs. She also managed Marketlinks.org, the Trade & Competitiveness Activity, and the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project. With nearly two decades of international development experience across all geographic regions, Ms. O'Planick has worked in a variety of technical areas including market systems, enterprise and livelihoods development, workforce, food security, agribusiness, rural finance, and sustainable tourism. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea. Ms. O'Planick earned an MBA with distinction from the Johnson School at Cornell University.
Dr. Silvia Paruzzolo is the Deputy Director of the Child Poverty Global Theme at Save the Children. She provides thought leadership in the area of Adolescent Skills for Successful Transitions across the global organization. Silvia previously worked at the International Labour Organization (ILO) where she led the Evidence-Based Advocacy component of the Youth Entrepreneurship Facility in East Africa focusing on producing evidence of what works and ensuring impact at the policy level. She also worked as an Economist at the International Center for Research on Women providing technical support to projects on girls’ and women’s economic empowerment, especially around evidence creation and dissemination. While at the World Bank she managed a centralized knowledge platform, promoted strategic and rigorous evaluations of youth employment programs, identified knowledge gaps and disseminated lessons learned. Silvia holds a PhD in Public Administration and a Master of Science in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Melissa Persaud is Director of Partnerships at Viamo, a global mobile engagement social enterprise and US Small Business. In her role, she builds and maintains partnerships with impact-oriented organizations in order to provide better choices for more voices around the globe. Personally, Melissa has a passion for program design and implementation, mobile for development (M4D), and financial inclusion. She holds an MPA in development practice from the SIPA at Columbia University and a BA from Lafayette College. Melissa is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Cameroon ’11-’13) and is currently based in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Petryniak is the Senior Director for Resilience with Mercy Corps, working across her organization, and with peer agencie and donors in advancing technical excellence, innovation, learning and impact in resilience programming. Prior to her current role, Ms. Petryniak was the Regional Resilience Director for South and Southeast Asia with Mercy Corps, overseeing a $60 million portfolio of multi-country resilience programs; fostering technical excellence, research and learning initiatives; and leading advocacy, fundraising and representation for the region. Prior to her work in Asia, Ms. Petryniak spent eight years in Ethiopia managing progressively large and complex USAID-funded programs for Mercy Corps, CARE and Pact, including as Chief of Party for the $14 million Strengthening Institutions for Peace and Development Program and Deputy Chief of Party for the $63 million USAID-funded Pastoralist Resilience Improvement through Market Expansion (PRIME) initiative. Ms. Petryniak has 16 years of work experience in international development, and excels at connecting strategy with strong systems and operational models, and nurturing partnerships across government, civil society, donor and private sector stakeholders to achieve influence and impact.
Maryam Piracha has over seven years of technical and managerial experience in international development and the private sector. She is the Deputy Country Director for Market Development Facility Pakistan, a multi-country private sector development programme funded by the Australian Government which operates in Fiji, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea. Her core expertise includes strategy design, evidence-based program management, leveraging private sector under the umbrella of agriculture and non-agriculture sectors, integrating gender in challenging contexts and applying principles of market systems development to a diverse portfolio in a large developing economy. She is managing of over 50 business partnerships with overall program and team management responsibilities. Maryam has co-authored two papers on how to apply a Women’s Economic Framework in different contexts and on agency measurement in economic programming. Prior to the development sector, Maryam worked as a Commercial Finance Specialist for a leading multi-national company. Her academic background is in business and finance.
Tatiana Pulido is the market systems measurement lead at USAID's Bureau for Food Security. She developed the guidance on applying system measurement tools to the US Government’s Feed the Future initiative and co-authored guidelines for monitoring, evaluation and learning in market systems development. Ms. Pulido also serves as the unit lead for the monitoring, evaluation and learning field support team, which provides technical assistance to over 35 Feed the Future USAID missions in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. From 2014-2017, she managed the implementation of U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative surveys in 7 countries in Africa and Asia. She also designed and executed impact evaluations on water and land productivity in Tajikistan and input adoption in Uganda. Ms. Pulido has a B.A. with honors from Brown University, and a M.Sc. from Georgetown University.
Tasmia Rahman graduated from McCourt School of Public Policy, where she worked as a research assistant for Gui2de. She was also a Global Futures Fellow. Prior to coming to Georgetown, she worked with BRAC in Bangladesh for two years. At BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab, she led the BRAC Innovation Fund for Mobile Money initiative and led several learning initiatives, including the annual Frugal Innovation Forum. During her undergraduate years, she worked with the Microinsurance Centre and EA Consultants on projects focused on developing affordable microinsurance products for the bottom-of-the-pyramid market. Originally from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Rahman holds a bachelor of arts in economics, government, and international relations from Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Anthropology, and a PhD in Medical Anthropology and Public Health from The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. She has been working since 1993 in national and international organizations including BRAC, Grameen Trust, and UNICEF Bangladesh. She joined the BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University in 2004 and was appointed as Dean in 2013. In addition to the overall leadership and management of the School, Dr. Rashid has been integral to the founding and growth of the international Master of Public Health program. She has been awarded research and capacity building grants from the World Bank, WHO, USAID, NUFFIC, NWOTRO, EU, WHO, IDRC, DFID, and IWHC. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, USA in 2011 and was awarded a Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2006.
Ms. Ramona Ridolfi is Regional Gender Advisor at the Asia-Pacific Regional Office for Helen Keller International (HKI). She is responsible for leading gender integration across the regional program portfolio, which includes nutrition, eye health and neglected tropical diseases. Previously she was Gender Manager for HKI in Bangladesh, where she led a team of Gender Specialists, strengthening gender integration across projects. In Bangladesh, she also co-founded the (I)NGOs Gender Working Group, a network of local and international organizations collaborating on gender-focused initiatives in the country, which is still running. Ramona has over seven years' experience in promoting gender inclusion and women’s rights. This includes research and advocacy in Australia and implementation in development programs in multiple countries across Africa and Asia, particularly Pakistan, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Senegal. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Monash University, Melbourne (Australia).
Ted is a program associate at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), where he works in the Global Health, Youth and Development portfolio as well as on the ICRW Advisors team. At ICRW, Ted has supported work on sex-based harassment in the workplace, men and positive masculinities in the workplace, child marriage and sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining ICRW, Ted was a middle school history teacher at Success Academy Charter School’s Harlem Central campus and a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. In Morocco, Ted served in Tighssaline, a small community in the Middle Atlas Mountains, where he worked on projects focused on girls’ education, sexual harassment, environmental education and asset based positive youth development. Ted holds a Masters in Social Science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from New York University.
Diana Rutherford is a Technical Advisor in the Research and Evaluation with over 25 years of experience in developing countries addressing issues such as economic development, livelihoods, enabling environment, rule of law, and anti-corruption. She is responsible for research design and leading teams from study design and implementation, through analysis, results interpretation and dissemination. She focuses on using research and evaluation to facilitate programming that intentionally seeks to improve the wellbeing of children and youth whether the program targets them directly or indirectly. Ms. Rutherford leads a study on Integrated Workforce Development and Sexual & Reproductive Health and is co-investigator on a study to examine how positive youth development interventions affect youth resilience. She is co-investigator on two studies about how savings group participation affects people living with HIV and vulnerable children.
Dr. Samuel Schueth is the Director of Research at InterMedia and leads the Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) program. He specializes in using scientifically rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods to generate strategic insights for expanding financial inclusion globally. Samuel has 15 years of experience managing monitoring, evaluation, and learning projects, leading evaluation teams, designing research methodologies, fielding quantitative and qualitative studies, analyzing data, and preparing high-quality analytical articles and reports to inform programming strategy. The nationally representative population surveys that he manages through the FII program cover India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire and Myanmar, spanning a large portion of the world’s financially excluded population.
Louisa Seferis has over 12 years of humanitarian experience with international NGOs in livelihoods, cash and reconciliation programming, beginning her career in Uganda, Darfur and D.R. Congo. She has worked with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) since 2011 on cash, livelihoods and emergency programming in the Middle East, and as DRC’s Global Technical Advisor for Economic Recovery, focusing on markets, cash and livelihoods, since January 2015. She holds a master’s degree in humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a bachelor’s degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Leonita Agustina Setyawati, is Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) Economic and Agriculture Development Specialist for Sulawesi and North Mollucas. She collaborates with Government, private sector and NGOs, focusing on increase production of farmers, linkage to the markets, financial inclusion and youth development.
Leonita is a local value chain development expert, savvy in making markets work for the poor (M4P) approach. In her day to day job, she facilitates poor farmers linkage to the market, helps transform the markets for inclusion of the poor and the most vulnerable, contributes to tackling market failure and strengthening the local small and medium enterprises for economic development through at-scale lasting benefit to the poor.
Leonita started her career as a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator for Economic Development Project focusing on maize and organic horticulture. She is now assisting 9 Economic Development Projects in 13 districts, through several agriculture commodities, including moringa, nutmeg, coconut, cocoa, maize, organic horticulture, layer birds’ production.
Tania Sharmin is currently working as Coordinator for Financial Inclusion with CARE Bangladesh with a responsibility of ensuring access in the formal financial sector for different project’s participants of CARE. She has around 20 years of experience in development arena with focus on Food security and livelihood programming where gender and nutrition was key. Within her long career in the development sector she has proven experience in agricultural programming including designing of nutrition sensitive program, gender mainstreaming, value chains, climate smart agriculture, financial inclusion, market analysis etc consecutively, in Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), Plan International and CARE Bangladesh. She presented paper in number of seminars and symposium including Kellogg Conference Center at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C; FtF Innovation Lab at Nepal, agricultural to nutrition scientific symposium by TOPS and was winner of CARE’s scale X design challenge program through pithing competition at USA. She has published refereed papers in reputed journals, papers in conference proceedings, delivered Consultancy Reports, designed programs for development organizations. She is an Agriculture Engineer and completed masters in development studies and also in Food Security which helps her to understand development issues from both the practical and theoretical perspectives.
David J. Spielman is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He joined IFPRI in 2004 and is currently based in Washington, DC with the Environment and Production Technology Division. He leads the institute’s program on science, technology, and innovation policy. David’s research agenda covers a range of topics including agricultural R&D; plant genetic resource policy and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development. Prior to this, David was based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with IFPRI’s Knowledge, Innovation, and Capacity Division and its International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) division. Earlier in his career, David worked on agriculture and rural development issues for the World Bank (Washington, D.C.), the Aga Khan Development Network (Pakistan), and several other organizations. David received a Ph.D. in Economics from American University in 2003, an M.Sc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics in 1993, and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University in 1992.
Ms. Springer is a monitoring, evaluation, research and learning professional specializing in governance reform and community resilience programming. She developed and implemented a rigorous learning agenda to provide an evidence base for a Community Driven Development (CDD) methodology for USAID in South Sudan. Her experience includes piloting and adapting a social capital index across multiple countries, conducting baseline and end-line assessments, developing Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) plans for programming in conflict-affected countries, and M&E system start-up and management. From 2012-2014, Ms. Springer was a researcher for a rule of law advancement project in the Arab Gulf, and previously worked in project development and grant-writing in the West Bank and U.S., and has published multiple articles on Palestinian state-building.
Dr. Revi Sterling’s work in technology for development spans 20+ years across industry, academia, and non-profits. A technologist with a background in women’s and development studies, she founded the first ICT for Development graduate program in the United States at the University of Colorado, and developed gender equity programs at Microsoft Research. In her current role, Sterling ensures that the digital development and technology policy projects in her portfolio undergo significant scrutiny to ensure gender equity is a goal at every level. She has worked extensively with congressional sub-committees, UN working groups and leading gender and technology organizations to create sustainable, appropriate, and progressive on-ramps for women and girls to use technology to achieve their development goals.
Ms. Sydorkina is the Deputy Chief of Party of the Agriculture and Rural Development project in Ukraine. Prior to her current assignment, she worked on projects related to local economic development, business competitiveness, and foreign investment attraction. Ms. Sydorkina has a broad range of experience from supporting implementation of local systems development strategies to establishing and managing reform teams embedded within national governments. She has 15 years of professional experience in consulting and project management within the public and private sectors in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans, where she has managed diverse international teams in multi-cultural environments. Ms. Sydorkina holds a B.A. in Computer Science and an M.A. in Intellectual Property.
Dinee Tamang is a data enthusiast focusing on resilience monitoring, evaluation and research, and its implications on program interventions. Tamang is the the Resilience MERL & Technology Advisor supporting Mercy Corps’ resilience flagship programs in Nepal and Timor-Leste, and has been responsible for post-flood monitoring studies and their use in adaptive management. Previously Tamang was the Senior Disaster Risk Reduction Officer focused on field-level implementation.
Tamang has received a gold medal for his M.Sc in Natural Resource Management and completed another M.Sc Engineering in Disaster Risk Management. He is a firm believer that disaster risk management requires sound natural resource management. He has a keen interest in innovation and application of technology through research to support rural communities leading to sustainable efforts that are replicable by communities themselves. He has been working with early warning system technologies, drone, ODK for land mapping and GIS tools.
Jake Thomsen is a Technical Manager for the Education in Conflict Practice Area at Creative Associates International. He provides technical and operational support to Creative’s portfolio of education in emergency projects in Northern Nigeria, and he contributes to Creative’s project design in the areas of adaptive management, teacher professional development, systems strengthening and curriculum development. A former middle school and high school teacher, he is committed to increasing access to safe, equitable education for marginalized children and youth, and strengthening the capacity of civil society to support education for all. Jake served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Gambia 2003-2005.
Alejandra Vargas Garcia has worked in women's empowerment, human trafficking, immigration and international development for over a decade. She currently serves as a Senior Program Officer with the Governance and Justice at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). In this role, she works with researchers to strengthen technical capacities and promote evidence use by decision-makers in developing countries on critical issues like women's empowerment, violence, and access to justice. She was the Program Officer for the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women´s Program at IDRC, a multi-million dollar partnership with DFID and Hewlett Foundation to support evidence in 50 countries on the barriers to women´s economic empowerment and their impact on economic growth. Alejandra has previously worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations, and the Mexican public service. She holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. from ITAM in Mexico City.
Jennifer Weatherall has more than seven years of experience as a humanitarian practitioner deployed in response to protracted crises, natural disasters and conflicts. She has worked in a range of settings including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Greece, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mongolia, Syria, Turkey, and Ukraine. She currently works as a Cash and Markets Technical Advisor in the humanitarian team of CRS, where she supports country programs to implement quality cash and market interventions. One of her focuses is also on the integration of cash and market-based approaches in the Shelter and WASH sectors, and she has been providing surge support to the Global Shelter Cluster as part of the Cash Champion initiative. Jennifer holds a Masters’ degree from the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU) at University of York, UK and is based in the Middle East.
Jo Anne Yeager Sallah is a senior food security and agriculture specialist with RTI International’s Food Security and Agriculture Division. She is currently the project manager for the Feed the Future Senegal Naatal Mbay project and was Chief of Party on the USDA-funded SeneGambia Cashew Value Chain Enhancement Project for 7 years prior to joining Naatal Mbay. She has lived and worked in West Africa for more than 20 years and has practical experience working with smallholder farmer organizations, and has promoted sustainable solutions that promote the use of data to improve agricultural decision-making.
Sheldon Yoder is the global market systems and entrepreneurship manager for Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter and serves as a market systems technical advisor on a portfolio of housing market development programs. In this role he provides support for housing market assessments, program design, monitoring and results management and related training. He has worked for Habitat for more than five years, specializing in housing finance and market systems approaches and has more than ten years’ experience as an international development program manager and researcher. Prior to Habitat for Humanity, he worked with the economic development unit of CARE USA, consulted on monitoring and evaluation for the Hunger Project, and served as a water and sanitation program manager and disaster response logistician for Samaritan’s Purse in Bolivia and Haiti. He has a master’s degree in international development studies from The George Washington University.
Elise Young has served as an international development analyst, advocate and technical advisor for 17+ years, specializing in economic development, food security, gender integration, social inclusion, female empowerment, evaluation and aid effectiveness. As a Senior Technical Advisor at FHI 360, she is helping to integrate an organization-wide Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Framework and guidelines. She also supported USAID in drafting a Women's Economic Empowerment and Equality Framework. As Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs at Women Thrive Worldwide, she advocated for U.S. and global policies that enable women, men, youth and people of diverse gender identities to share equally in economic prosperity, voice and freedom from violence. As Senior Policy Analyst for ActionAid USA, she coordinated the Haiti land and housing rights campaign, partnering with Haitian grassroots leaders to advocate for a more inclusive and transparent redevelopment process. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin.
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