2015 USAID/ASHA ANNUAL PARTNERS CONFERENCE
SPEAKERS AND WORKSHOP PRESENTERS
DAY ONE: MARCH 30
Bob Leavitt serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Bureau
for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance. From 2012 until
joining the Bureau in September 2014, Mr. Leavitt served as the USAID
Executive Secretary and Senior Advisor for National Security Affairs.
While on detail from USAID, Mr. Leavitt served as the Director of African
Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House from 2009 to
2012. Mr. Leavitt joined USAID in 2001 as a Conflict Resolution specialist
in the Bureau for Africa. Mr. Leavitt also served for a year and a half as the
Agency’s lead representative to the Department of Defense for the planning
and establishment of U.S. Africa Command. Based in sub-Saharan Africa,
Mr. Leavitt worked with Catholic Relief Services from 1994 through 2000 where he managed
humanitarian and development programs, often during complex emergencies, in Angola,
southern Sudan, northern Uganda, Ethiopia, and Liberia. Mr. Leavitt attended the U.S. War
College at the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and earned a
Master of Advanced Military Arts and Sciences degree. He holds a Master of International
Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of
Arts in International Affairs and English from the University of New Hampshire.
Rachel Gutter leads a global movement to put every student in a green
school within this generation. She is widely regarded as one of the foremost
experts on healthy, safe, and resource efficient schools. After launching
LEED for Schools and spearheading the National Green Schools Campaign,
Rachel founded the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building
Council. To advance this ambitious mission through innovative, scalable
solutions, the Center collaborates relentlessly with partners including
teachers unions, the National PTA, the Department of Education, the
Princeton Review, executives from Fortune 100 companies, and green
building councils around the world. Under her dynamic leadership, the
center has published more than 1,000 pages of technical guides and original research and
deployed more than half a million volunteers who have contributed over $46 million in donated
time to transform schools across the world
Colleen Murphy-Dunning is the Director of the Urban Resources Initiative
(URI). Colleen received her B.S. in Public and Environmental Affairs from
Indiana University, and a M.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University.
In addition to leading URI, Ms. Murphy-Dunning partners with faculty at
the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies to instruct courses in
environmental justice, monitoring and evaluation methods, and urban
ecology. Prior to coming to Yale University in 1995, she taught agroforestry
at the Kenya Forestry College as a Peace Corps volunteer. She also led the
New Guinea campaign for Rainforest Action Network from 1988 - 90.
Erika Clesceri is a federal civil servant and senior director of
environmental safeguards for USAID, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and
Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA). As DCHA Bureau Environmental
Officer or “BEO”, she is the Agency lead in providing intellectual
leadership and policy recommendations targeting the poorest of the poor at
the politically-sensitive interface of environmental safeguarding and the
crisis context in the developing world. She leads environmental policy
implementation for the ~$2+ billion portfolio of crisis prevention, response,
transition and recovery for food security, natural disaster, political
transitions, vertical-build infrastructure in over 40 crisis-prone and strategic
countries globally. She holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Sciences and
Engineering from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (New York) and the University of Edinburgh (UK).
Cecilia Brady is a Partnerships Advisor on the Lab’s Global Partnerships
Team at USAID. Since joining the team in 2010, she has focused on
building internal Agency capacity for engaging the private sector, and on
facilitating the partnership-building process at the Mission level. Ms. Brady
manages the relationship between USAID and Microsoft, and in 2014
worked closely with USAID/India to design and produce the first Agency
STIP Conference. Her current focus is on how and where USAID engages
in partnerships with local private sector actors. Prior to joining the Agency,
Ms. Brady spent more than four years as a consultant for the World Bank,
where she worked on private sector development, health, and
competitiveness. She holds a B.A. in Government from Oberlin College and an M.A. from Johns
Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Becky Chacko is the Senior Climate Change Integration Specialist at
USAID. Becky has been spearheading USAID’s efforts to integrate climate
change considerations across agency programming since 2013. Previously,
Becky worked as the Senior Director for Climate Policy at Conservation
International, where she led a global team to leverage CI’s field experience
and scientific expertise to inform international, regional and national
climate and development policies. Becky formerly worked as an
International Relations Specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). She represented NOAA and the US government in
international policy fora and bilateral meetings on issues including disaster
management, climate change and oceans and helped establish a new partnership to share remote
sensing resources in the Western Hemisphere. Becky was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon
and holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from the
University of Iowa.
Nancy Martin joined the Office of Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment at USAID in
September 2014 as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow. Her work with the GenDev
Office focuses on the USAID implementation of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to
Gender-based Violence Globally. Nancy is a sociologist with a management and engineering
background. She is currently on leave from the Sociology Department at California State
University, Long Beach where she teaches statistics, research methods, the sociology of gender,
and a seminar on religion and social change. Her most recent research examines the role of
religious identity and behavior in college students’ reproductive and sexual health decisions.
Other projects include the role of religion in social protest events in the U.S., and the
organization and culture of American megachurches. In an earlier career, Nancy worked as an
engineer and manager for the U.S. Air Force and two large corporations after completing her
B.S. in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. She returned to
graduate school in part out of a recognition of the pervasiveness of gender issues in all kinds of
organizations. She earned her M.A. in Sociology with an emphasis in feminist theories from the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Ph.D. in Sociology with specialization in religion and
gender from the University of Arizona.
Dr. Felicia R. Wilson Young is a Foreign Service Officer currently
assigned to the USAID Office of Gender Equality & Women’s
Empowerment. Her work with the GenDev Office focuses on the
development of the Education Gender Based Violence and Child, Early,
Forced Marriage toolkits. Felicia has also served in USAID/Bangladesh, as
Senior Education Advisor and Acting Deputy Director of the Office of
Population, Health and Education. During her tenure with USAID she has
also served as an Education Officer and the Youth and Gender Advisor in
Guatemala. Before joining USAID Felicia was a UNESCO Fellow at the
International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris, France, and spent a
year in South Africa as a Fulbright Scholar. In an earlier career, Felicia was the Executive
Director of VSA arts Maryland at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the Maryland State
Department of Education. Felicia also worked as a Special Education Specialist for the District
of Columbia Public School System. She has a B.A. in Special Education/Music Education from
Trinity College, a M.A. in Vocal Music Performance (Opera) and minor in Educational
Theatre/Music Business from New York University, and an Ed.S degree in Special Education
Leadership and Administration from George Washington University.
Alexis Bonnell is the director of the Office of Engagement and
Communications in the U.S. Global Development Lab. Over her career,
Bonnell has developed and delivered over a billion dollars of humanitarian
and development programming in over 25 conflict, post-conflict and
emergency countries, in almost every sector from education to stabilization,
for more than 30 international bilateral donors, 10 U.N. agencies, the
military and the private sector. After years of working overseas, Bonnell
returned to the United States with USAID as the senior adviser on business
transformation and knowledge management. She then served as the chief of
engagement for the Office of Education, where she helped shape the USAID
education strategy. Prior to her career in development, Bonnell worked as director of marketing
for the Internet Trade Association, where she helped Wall Street and the corporate world
understand the impact that the Internet, innovation and technology would have on business,
customers and society. She is co­author of the book “Get your Dream Job.”
Hannah Marsh currently manages the Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) Registration and
Limited Excess Property Program (LEPP) portfolios within the Office of Local Sustainability of
USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment (E3/LS).The PVO
Registration program connects USAID with new and capable NGO partners that provide lasting
solutions to development, humanitarian and health challenges. The LEPP gives approved PVOs
access to excess property and equipment for use in their overseas development projects.
Anthony Timpanaro graduated from The George Washing ton University
in December 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy. Originally
from New Jersey, He is currently enrolled in a Masters of Accountancy at
the same university which I will be finishing in the spring semester of 2015.
After completing the program I plan to sit for the CPA exam. He started
working at USAID as an accounting intern in the summer of 2010, and
became a permanent accountant after I graduated. Anthony has worked in
LOC since he started at USAID, so this will be his 5th year doing so.
Anthony currently works under the Office of the CFO in the Cash
Managements and Payment Division for the Letter of Credit team. On top
of this, I am the lead on OMB’s Do Not Pay Initiative for the agency and our 1099 team.
Anthony is also a part of the CFO Finance Fellowship Program.
DAY TWO: MARCH 31
Acting USAID Administrator Alfonso E. Lenhardt most recently served
as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania, a position he
held from 2009 to 2013. From 2004 to 2009, Ambassador Lenhardt was the
President and CEO of the nonprofit National Crime Prevention Council
(NCPC). He was the Senior Vice President of Government Relations for
The Shaw Group from 2003 to 2004. In 2001, Ambassador Lenhardt was
appointed the 36th Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the United States
Senate and became the first African American to serve as an officer of the
Congress. He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer of the Council on Foundations from 1997 to 2001. With more than
30 years of service in the U.S. Army, Ambassador Lenhardt retired in 1997 as Major General.
Ambassador Lenhardt received a B.S. from the University of Nebraska, an M.P.A. from Central
Michigan University, an M.S. from Wichita State University, and post-graduate studies at the
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and University of Michigan School of
Business. He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy.
Mark Toner is currently a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of
European and Eurasian Affairs. He had served most recently as the State
Department’s Deputy Spokesperson. He is a career Foreign Service Officer
who has served overseas in West Africa and Europe. Mark was the
Information Officer in Dakar, Senegal; the Public Affairs Officer in
Krakow, Poland; and the Spokesman for the US Mission to NATO, in
Brussels, Belgium. In Washington, Mark has worked as a senior advisor for
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; as a Senior Watch Officer in the
Department’s Operations Center; and as the Director of the European
Bureau’s Press and Public Outreach Division. Mark has an undergraduate
degree from the University of Notre Dame and a graduate degree from National Defense
University’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Prior to joining the State Department, Mark
was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, and carried out graduate work in
Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.
Stephanie Bluma is the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs
at USAID. Ms. Bluma specializes in the creation of issue advocacy and
public education campaigns. Prior to her work at USAID she worked as
Creative Director at Powell Tate, Weber Shandwick Company and the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has previously used her creative,
strategic and media skills to develop education campaigns for
the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, Save Darfur Coalition Lumina
Foundation, American Council on Education, and America's Promise. Prior
to her work with NGOs, Stephanie served as deputy press secretary to
former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, developing message
strategy, implementing outreach initiatives and serving as a spokeswoman. She received her MA
in public communication at American University and her BA in communications at Augustana
College.
Dr. Michael Schneider is the director of Syracuse University’s
Washington Public Diplomacy Program and president of the public
diplomacy alumni association. Dr. Schneider directs the Washington Public
Diplomacy Program, which is a spring semester requirement for students
enrolled in their second year of the dual MA in International Relations and
MS in Public Relations Program, a joint initiative of Syracuse University's
Maxwell School and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
In the 1980s, Dr. Schneider was Deputy Associate and Acting Associate
Director of the United States Information Agency for policy and programs
and served as USIA Liaison with the National Security Council. He was
Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State in the mid-1990s. He served as executive
secretary of a panel of U.S. and international leaders who examined the Fulbright Exchange
Program, and authored the report, Fulbright at Fifty, and a subsequent report to the State
Department, Others' Open Doors. Dr. Schneider served as the Director of Maxwell-inWashington until 2009. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Rochester, a
master’s degree from Columbia University, and a PhD in Political Science from American
University.
Aaron Miles is a Higher Education Specialist/Program Manager in
USAID's Office of Education in the Bureau for Economic Growth,
Education and the Environment (E3). In this capacity, he leads engagement
and partnership opportunities with higher education institutions, including
through the new Higher Education Partnerships for Innovation and Impact
(HEPII) annual program statement. He is also activity manager for the
Advancing MOOCs for Development Initiative (AMDI), a USAID
partnership with CourseTalk to conduct research on massive open online
course (MOOC) usage in developing countries. Prior to his position in E3,
Aaron supported university partnerships with USAID's Global
Development Lab, and advised the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
(BIFAD) in the Bureau for Food Security (BFS), a Presidentially-appointed advisory board to the
USAID Administrator. In 2010, he helped to establish the Haiti Task Team, USAID's
independent response unit created to coordinate U.S. government humanitarian efforts following
the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Miles holds a BA in Spanish and International Relations
from Wake Forest University.
Van Crowder is the Practice Lead/Senior Director, Human and
Community Development (HCD), at the Millennium Challenge
Corporation. He joined MCC in 2008. Van has a Master in Communication
Arts and a PhD in Education, both from Cornell University. His PhD
research was conducted in Ecuador and funded by USAID. Previously, he
worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) in Rome, Italy, as Education Officer and Senior Officer
(Communication for Development) and in Nicaragua as the FAO Country
Director. He worked in Bolivia on a USAID‐University of Florida project
and then later held a tenured faculty position at UF in the Department of
Communication and Education, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. He has consulted
for the World Bank, USAID, DANIDA, IICA, and Winrock International, among other
organizations, in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Jennifer Bowser Gerst joined MCC in 2010 as Associate Director,
Human and Community Development. Jennifer has over 20 years’
experience in education. Early on, Jennifer taught in Ghana and Eritrea,
and coordinated adult literacy and high school equivalency programs in the
U.S. Following graduate school, she worked as a resident advisor for
GROW Lesotho’s primary English and Math teacher training and adult
basic literacy programs. Jennifer then served as Africa Regional Officer at
International Reading Association, where she supervised World Bank,
UNESCO, Ford and Banyan Tree Foundation‐funded assistance to teacher
training colleges in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, and launched the
Pan‐African Reading for All Conference. At MCC, Jennifer has provided oversight for over
$300 million in MCC grants to support school quality improvement, adult basic literacy, and
technical/vocational education in Morocco, Namibia, Mongolia and Georgia. She earned an
M.S. in Continuing and Vocational Education at University of Wisconsin‐Madison.
Carolyn Wetzel Chen is the Senior Program Officer, Human and
Community Development, at Millennium Challenge Corporation. Carolyn
brings over 18 years of international, public health focused community
development expertise in over 20 countries. She earned her BS in Nursing
from Biola University and Master’s in Public Health & Tropical Medicine
from Tulane University. Carolyn lived in Peru, Belize, and Mozambique
for seven years, developing and overseeing nutrition, child survival and
HIV prevention and care programming. She supported a five year, USAID
funded Mozambique Child Survival program focused on malnutrition in
children <2 yrs. Carolyn spent the last 8 years in Washington providing
leadership to Food for the Hungry’s eighteen Africa, Asia and Latin America fields to develop
new public and private business and providing technical support in the sectors of social and
behavior change, maternal child health and nutrition, WASH, infectious disease prevention and
monitoring and evaluation.
Winnie Tay is Senior Program Advisor at PLAN International USA. He
has over 30 years of experience in international development ranging from
working for the Ministry of Planning and Development in the Togolese
Government to 25 years working for Plan International in various
management capacities. During his time with Plan International, Winnie
served as Field Director in Haiti (1990 ‐1992), Country Manager in Sierra
Leone (1992‐1996), Country Director in Senegal (1996 ‐2003), Sr. Program
Development Officer for Africa (2003 ‐ 2010) and Sr. Program Advisor
(2010 ‐ to date) in the US. As Sr. Program Development Officer for Africa,
Winnie backstopped Plan USA’s granted funded projects in Africa
including MCC funded projects in Burkina Faso (BRIGHT) and Niger (IMAGINE). Winnie
holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics and Rural Development and a Master of
Science in National Resource Economics and Project Appraisal from Oregon State University.
Mike Stein is a Senior Institutional Review Specialist at the U.S. Department of Education in the
office of Federal Student Aid. He has over 14 years of experience in U.S. Federal Financial Aid.
He began his career working in the financial aid office of a small school in California before
moving on to work for a FFLEP Guarantor in the areas of loan default prevention and financial
literacy. Mike has been an Institutional Review Specialist with the Foreign Schools Participation
Division for the past four and a half years.
Christie Vilsack joined the U.S. Agency for International Development as
the Senior Advisor for International Education in March 2013. Christie
supports USAID’s Education Strategy goals to improve children’s reading
skills, strengthen workforce development, and provide equitable access to
education in crisis and conflict settings. Christie has committed her life to
education and public service. For 25 years, she taught secondary and
college English and journalism. Her experience inside the classroom led to
a focus on education as Iowa’s First Lady, as a candidate for Congress and
now as the spokesperson for USAID Education. In her current role at
USAID, Christie works with education sector partners and education leaders worldwide to build
understanding of and support for international education solutions. She travels the world visiting
and learning about USAID programs so she can tell the story of USAID Education to anyone she
meets from Main Street to the halls of Congress. Born and raised in Mount Pleasant, Iowa,
Christie is a graduate of Kirkland College in Clinton, New York. She earned a master’s degree in
journalism from The University of Iowa. She and husband Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
have two married sons and two grandchildren. They have enjoyed a lifetime of public service
together.
Jane Meyers is a professional librarian with nearly 35 years of experience
working with and living in Africa. She lived in Malawi for nearly four years
in the mid-1980’s on a World Bank project, developing a network of
research libraries for the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and pioneering
CD-ROM applications for Africa. Ten years later she returned to
neighboring Zambia, where she became increasingly involved with services
to street children offered by the Fountain of Hope, a drop-in shelter in
Lusaka. She established a reading program, served on the Board, raised
funds, and created a library for the children, among her many contributions
to the center. On her return to the U.S. in 2001, she developed the concept,
approach and organization of Lubuto Library Partners. Most of Jane’s professional career has
been involved with libraries in international development, particularly in the agricultural sector.
She worked in that capacity at the World Bank and the U.S. National Agricultural Library, for
USAID, and as a consultant to a number of international organizations. Jane has a B.A. from the
University of Arizona with highest distinction and a M.L.S. from the University of Maryland.
Kathy Kwan has over twenty five years of experience in developing and
managing information technology related to scientific communication and
libraries, including projects with national and international impact. Her
professional interest is in promoting health globally through dissemination
of information. For the past 13 years, Ms. Kwan has been a staff scientist of
the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the US National
Library of Medicine, a part of US National Institutes of Health
(NCBI|NLM|NIH). She leads the LinkOut project, which connects PubMed,
a major index for biomedical and life sciences journal literature, to a variety
of resources including the full text and library holdings worldwide. She also
coordinates the PMC International effort which supports the implementation of the public access
policies in other countries. Ms. Kwan received her Bachelor of Social Sciences from the
University of Hong Kong, and the Master of Library Science from State University of New York
at Buffalo. She also received a second Master degree in Computer Science from the City
University of New York – Queens College. Before joining the US National Library of Medicine
in 2002, Ms. Kwan worked in a wide range of organizations in various capacities, including as
the Electronic Journal Archiving Project Manager at the Harvard University Library, the Head of
the Information Technology Unit at the City University of Hong Kong Library, and the Library
System Analyst in the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. Ms. Kwan has
served in committees and groups in many professional organizations, including being the chair of
the Medical Library Association International Cooperation Section and a member of the NISO
Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working group.
Anne Linton first joined the Himmelfarb Library and GW in 1984, making
her one of the longest serving employees. She started on the front lines as a
reference librarian which acquainted her with many of the faculty and staff
she continues to work closely with today as Director. Her focus has always
been on education, outreach, and making vital resources available and
accessible to the library's users. Outside of Himmelfarb, Anne is active in
many professional activities, including serving as a lecturer in the School
of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University of America,
and in many leadership positions with the Medical Library Association
(MLA), Mid-Atlantic Chapter of MLA, and the Special Library
Association. In addition to a very busy professional life, Anne is also a wife and mother of two.
Her daughter Elizabeth recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and son, Michael
just began his freshman year at GW. Anne says the push to exercise comes from her "exercise
fanatic" husband who does cardio exercise daily and is an avid cyclist. Exercise is part of the
family culture. Her son plays soccer and her daughter dances. They often make trips to the gym
together and hiking is a favorite activity for family vacations. "Recently, we hiked a beautiful
tropical rainforest trail just north of Key West."
Leigh Moran is a Senior Officer on the Strategic Initiatives team at Calvert
Foundation, focused on the design and implementation of investment
initiatives based on key social impact areas. She is currently leading Calvert
Foundation’s work to develop a new initiative to engage diaspora
communities to invest in the economic development of their country of
heritage. Leigh also serves as the Program Manager for IdEA, the
International diaspora Engagement Alliance, a public-private partnership
between the Calvert Foundation, the State Department and USAID. IdEA
harnesses the resources of diaspora communities to promote sustainable
development and diplomacy in their countries of heritage. By supporting
entrepreneurship and investment, volunteerism, philanthropy, and innovation, IdEA provides a
platform to leverage diaspora resources and collaborate across sectors. Prior to Calvert
Foundation, Leigh spent time at the NEC, worked with a microinsurance NGO in New Delhi and
served as a consultant to Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey. Leigh completed a
Princeton-in-Asia fellowship in Hangzhou, China and received her degree in Economics from
Boston College.
DAY THREE: APRIL 1
Elizabeth Warfield currently serves as USAID’s first Local Solutions
Coordinator. Initiated under the USAID Forward reforms, Local Solutions
is designed to use, strengthen, and partner with local actors – government,
private sector, civil society and academia – strategically, purposefully, and
cost-effectively to achieve sustainable development outcomes. USAID has
doubled its engagement with local actors since 2010. In July 2013, Ms.
Warfield completed four years as USAID/India’s Deputy Mission Director
where she guided a $400 million program addressing key constraints in
health, climate change, and food security. During her tenure, USAID/India
reframed its role in India from a donor-recipient relationship to a strategic
partnership where India shares globally its proven innovations in addressing key development
challenges. After launching USAID/India’s first innovation platform, the Millennium Alliance,
Ms. Warfield helped forge alliances to reduce child deaths to 20 per 1000 by 2035, stave off the
threat of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, ensure five million more children are reading, and
help light up the lives of the 400 million energy poor in India. A member of the Senior Foreign
Service with over 28 years’ experience working in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America
and the Caribbean, Ms. Warfield is a graduate of Middlebury College and the Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Laurie de Freese arrived in DCHA Office of Program, Policy, and
Management in August, 2013. After joining USAID in 1994 as an
institutional contractor in the Office of Housing and Urban Programs, she
went on to work with a USAID-funded debt market development project in
India and locally-funded housing and community development initiatives in
South Africa and Lesotho. She joined the Foreign Service as an
Environment Officer in 2000, with a focus on urban environmental issues
and a passion for water and finance. As an Environment Officer in the
Philippines, she oversaw a portfolio that ranged from community-based
forestry to vehicle emissions reduction, including establishment of the
Philippines Water Revolving Fund in collaboration with the Japanese Bank for International
Cooperation, and establishment of the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation
through a bilateral debt treatment agreement. As a Program Officer in the Asia/Near East Bureau
(subsequently the Asia Bureau), she served as Division Chief for Strategic Planning and Program
Management covering Morocco to Manila. In USAID/Cambodia she served as Program Office
Director and Assistant Mission Director. She has an AB in Political Science and Certificate in
Women’s Studies from Duke University and an M.A. in International Development from The
American University.