SPEAKER CATALOG
Marion Adeney
Alice M. Agogino
Environmental Science Advisor, USAID Peru/South America Regional Program
Professor, UC Berkeley
Development Engineering at UC Berkeley
@agogino
Marion Adeney has spent one year as an Overseas AAAS
Fellow at USAID Peru where she works with both the
bilateral and South America Regional Environment teams.
She focuses on incorporating use of geospatial and other
scientific data, and on engaging the scientific and academic
communities in USAID’s Amazon Conservation work.
Marion spent two years at USAID Washington in the Office
of Science and Technology (now the Global Development
Lab). She has a PhD from the Nicholas School of the
Environment at Duke University, where she studied impacts
of climate and human interventions (such as roads and
protected areas) on geospatial patterns of fire across the
Brazilian Amazon.
Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at
the Haas School of Business at the University of California at
Berkeley. She serves as Chair of the Development
Engineering Graduate Group and co-teaches the core course
titled Design, Evaluate and Scale Development Technologies.
Agogino received a B.S. degree from the University of New
Mexico (1975), M.S. degree from UC Berkeley (1978) and
Ph.D. from Stanford University (1984). Prior to joining the
faculty at UC Berkeley, Agogino worked in industry for Dow
Chemical, General Electric and SRI International and
continues to consult in product design.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Sandeep Ahuja
Dr. Syed Imran Ali
CEO, Operation ASHA
Case Studies on Successful Scaling - Global Health
@sandeepahuja12
Postdoctoral Fellow, Blum Center for Developing Economies, UC Berkeley
@imranono
Sandeep has led Operation ASHA as CEO since 2006. His
sharp business acumen has earned praise and created a costeffective method of treating tuberculosis. He was member of
the Board of the Stop TB Partnership from 2009-12 where
he represented NGOs of developing countries. Before
founding Operation ASHA, Sandeep served for many years
as additional commissioner for the Government of India. He
then travelled to the U.S., where he earned a masters
degree in public policy at the University of Chicago and a
certificate in health policy & administration. During his
tenure at the University of Chicago, he was awarded the
Harris Fellowship. He was also selected as a McCormick
Tribune Community Leadership Fellow.
Dr. Ali is an aid worker and academic focused on
humanitarian challenges at the intersection of environment
and public health. He is a water and sanitation specialist with
Médecins Sans Frontières and has been part of emergency
responses in South Sudan and Pakistan. Dr. Ali holds a
doctorate in environmental engineering from the University
of Guelph and received his bachelor’s degree in engineering
from Queen’s University. Dr. Ali’s current research focuses
on emergency safe water supply in refugee/IDP camps. In
response to major knowledge gaps in humanitarian
operations, his research aims to develop evidence-based
guidelines for emergency safe water supply.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Susan Amrose
John Anner
Assistant Project Scientist & Lecturer, UC Berkeley
Design for Sustainable Communities
CEO, Thrive Networks
@johnanner
Dr. Susan Amrose is a Project Scientist and Lecturer in Civil
and Environmental Engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley, and a Program Director at the LBNL
Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies (LIGTT).
At UC Berkeley, Susan heads the water program at the
Gadgil Lab for Energy and Water Research and played a key
role in the development of ECAR technology to affordably
remove arsenic from drinking water in rural South Asia. She
continues to work on the ECAR scale-up effort in West
Bengal, India and manages ongoing projects in fluoride and
brackish water treatment in East Africa and North India.
Susan is co-founder and CSO at SimpleWater.
John Anner has been the CEO of Thrive Networks, formerly
the East Meets West Foundation, for 12 years. During that
time, Thrive Networks has grown from one small country
office in Vietnam engaged in small-scale grassroots
development to having programs or projects in numerous
countries in Asia and Africa, including India, Myanmar, Laos,
East Timor, Benin, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda. Thrive
Networks was launched in September 2014, and represents
a major transformation of the underlying business model.
Prior to Thrive Networks, John was the founding Executive
Director of the Independent Press Association, which
operated a number of private companies supporting the
social justice press in America.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Iana Aranda
Dr. Peter Arimi
Sr. Program Manager, Engineering for Change
Trends in Engineering for Global Development
@iana_aranda
Senior Regional Health Specialist, USAID
Perspective from USAID/East Africa's Buy-in to the SEAD Award
Iana Aranda is a Senior Program Manager and serial
intrapreneur in the Engineering for Global Development
sector at ASME, a not-for-profit professional organization
that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill
development across all engineering disciplines, while
promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. Her
primary focus at ASME is on the design, development and
implementation of a portfolio of products and programs in
emerging markets, social innovation and sustainable design.
Iana has over 10 years of experience in academic, research
and nonprofit sectors focusing on the intersection of
engineering design, business development and social
responsibility.
Dr. Peter Arimi is a Senior Regional Health Specialist with
USAID since 2008 and is based in Nairobi - Kenya. Prior to
joining USAID, Dr Arimi held various international positions,
including Senior Technical Advisor with Jhpiego Kenya
program; Clinical Director with Clinton Health Access
Initiative in Papua New Guinea; Clinical Research
Coordinating Physician with Harvard School of Public Health
in Botswana and Senior Medical Office with Ministry of
Health in Botswana. Dr Arimi did his Internship at Kenyatta
National Medical Training Hospital in Kenya. Dr. Arimi holds
a Masters of Science degree in Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, and a Post Graduate Diploma in HIV and AIDS
Management.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Greg Austic
Banny Banerjee
Project Coordinator, Kramer Lab (Michigan State)
@gregaustic
Director, Stanford ChangeLabs
Human Centered Design at Scale- Designing with and for Communities
@BannyBanerjee
Before co-founding the PhotosynQ project, Greg designed
games, made biodiesel and biodiesel technologies, and was
involved in various open education and open technology
activities in Ann Arbor, MI. His goal is to increase the
amount of publicly available information in the world by
developing technology with a naturally ‘open’ market path
and directing existing technology towards open licenses and
business models.
Banny Banerjee is Director of Stanford ChangeLabs, a
platform that is generating new theories and processes to
drive transformations where scale, complexity, and urgency
are all critical. ChangeLabs is a global network of institutions,
innovation experts, behavioral scientists, and technology
strategists all working towards new paradigms for scaled
interventions towards sustainable and resilient solutions to
global challenges such as climate change, energy, water, and
financial inclusion. Banny teaches design and innovation
strategy at the Stanford d.School and the Stanford Design
Program.
SPEAKER CATALOG
John Beed
Kathleen (Kate) Bergeron
Mission Director, USAID/India
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Vice President, Hardware Engineering, Apple, Inc.
Design for Scale
@gulleron
John Beed is the USAID Mission Director to India where he
leads a bilateral partnership program directed at finding
innovative solutions to key global challenges and shared India
-U.S. goals in health, climate change, education, and food
security. Mr. Beed previously served as Deputy Mission
Director in Egypt, and in Tokyo as the U.S. Embassy
Development Counselor responsible for promoting U.S.Japan global aid coordination. Mr. Beed also served as
USAID’s Mission Director in Paraguay and as USAID’s
Deputy Mission Director in Mexico. He directed USAID’s
regional economic growth programs for Latin America and
the Caribbean and also served in the Russian Federation.
Kate Bergeron is a twenty year veteran of the technology
industry. She has spent the majority of her career working in
the consumer electronics and medical device fields. Kate is
currently a Vice President at Apple, Inc., in the Ecosystem
Products and Technologies Group. The team is responsible
for the hardware engineering of Apple’s Input Devices, Soft
Goods, Apple TV, iOS and Macintosh Accessories, Apple
Packaging and Retail Display Engineering. Kate began her
Apple career in 2002 as a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the
first 17” Powerbook computer. After the 17” Powerbook,
she moved to the iBook team, where the 12” and 14”
notebook products set new volume, quality, and price points
for Apple.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Alexis Bonnell
Carol Bothwell
Director, USAID Office of Engagement & Communications
@GlobalDevLab
Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Catholic Relief Services
Innovation Marketplace Judge
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.
She has held positions with every side of development
including: implementers, donors, policy makers and
beneficiaries. Bonnell has more than 20 years of experience
in management and communications.
Carol Bothwell is the Chief Information Officer of Catholic
Relief Services (CRS). She leads the agency's federated IT
organization, works with the agency's CEO and Executive
Leadership team to align IT and business strategy, and
manages the agency's global knowledge environment. She
have been a leader in the effort to improve CRS
programming through the use of technology in the field.
Prior to joining CRS in October 2007, Carol was a Vice
President and Chief Knowledge Officer with CSC, a global
information technology services company with over 79,000
employees and operations spanning 59 countries worldwide.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Yael Braha
Eric Brewer
Creative Director, Obscura Digital
@yaelbraha
Professor, UC Berkeley
VP of Infrastructure at Google
@eric_brewer
Originally from Rome, Italy, Yael is a Creative Director at
Obscura Digital in San Francisco. She has worked in design,
filmmaking, fine arts, and arts education for the past 20
years. Her understanding of art as narrative and dialog has
shaped many national and international projects, including
interactive installations, interactive media walls, and liveprojection mapping shows. Her interests push the
boundaries of art, science and technology; her explorations
involve computer vision, parametric, generative design, and
interactivity utilizing electronics, visual processing, creative
coding, and kinetic sculpture. Yael has received a Kodak
Eastman Award, two Webby Awards, and two Muse
Awards.
Prof. Brewer leads the Technology and Infrastructure for
Emerging Regions (TIER) at Berkeley, whose projects have
included long-distance WiFi for telemedicine in India,
community cellular networks in Indonesia, and energy access
projects in Kenya and India. He is also VP of Infrastructure at
Google, and a member of the National Academy of
Engineering for his work on scalable servers (now called
Cloud computing).
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Shashi Buluswar
Lynelle Cameron
CEO, LIGTT: Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies
The 50 Most Important Technology Breakthroughs Required to Fight Global
Poverty
President & CEO, The Autodesk Foundation
@lynellecameron
Dr. Shashi Buluswar is the CEO of LIGTT, the Institute for
Globally Transformative Technologies, at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. LIGTT was launched in 2012,
to develop technological breakthroughs for combating global
poverty and related problems. Before creating LIGTT, he
was a Partner at Dalberg Global Development Advisors,
where he served as a strategic adviser to a range of
institutions in international development—NGOs,
corporations, foundations, governments, social
entrepreneurs, the UN, and the World Bank—on topics
including health, agriculture, economic development, human
rights, and climate change. He was previously an Associate
Partner at McKinsey & Company.
With dual roles as President & CEO of the Autodesk
Foundation and Senior Director of Sustainability at
Autodesk, Lynelle Cameron is helping designers use
technology to solve today’s most epic challenges. Under
Cameron’s leadership, Autodesk created the Sustainability
Workshop, an online learning platform teaching sustainable
design that has reached over one million students
worldwide, and launched two software donation programs,
the Technology Impact program for nonprofit organizations,
and the Clean Tech Partner Program for early-stage clean
tech companies. Since Lynelle joined six years ago, Autodesk
has received numerous awards for Autodesk as a
sustainability innovator.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Shauna Carey
Corinne Carland
Communications Specialist, IDEO.org
Crowd Sourcing Innovation: Designing Better, Together
@shauna_ryann
Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation - Household Water Filter
Evaluation - Ahmedabad, India
As Communications Specialist for IDEO.org, Shauna leads
storytelling and strategic communications for the Amplify
program, a five-year effort funded by the UK Department
for International Development to make international aid
more collaborative and human-centered. Shauna joined
IDEO.org from Room to Read, a global organization
dedicated to improving literacy and gender equality in
education. Over the past decade, Shauna's work has focused
on helping nonprofit organizations and start-up businesses
tell their stories, with a breadth of experience in media
relations, community management, cause marketing, and
editorial writing. She also serves as an advisor for
EMERGENCY USA.
Corinne is a graduate student at MIT in the Technology and
Policy Program (TPP). Her broad research interests are in
scaling up health technologies and products in the developing
world. She lived in India this summer studying the water
filter market with CITE. Corinne graduated undergrad also
from MIT in chemical engineering and biology.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Ann Mei Chang
Karina Chavarria
Chief Innovation Officer, Mercy Corps
@annmei
Ph.D. Student, UC Berkeley
Ann Mei Chang is the Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy
Corps, where she builds highly scalable social ventures and
leverages mobile/internet to improve the lives of the poor.
Previously, she served as the Senior Advisor for Women and
Technology in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's
Issues at the U.S. Department of State. At State she
developed partnerships, influenced policy, and became a
public voice on bridging the gender gap in access to mobile
phones and the Internet, leveraging technology in improving
the lives of women and girls in developing countries, and
increasing the representation of women in the technology
sector. She conceived and launched the Alliance for
Affordable Internet.
Karina's research interests include water quality in
intermittent piped water supply in Mexico and Central
America, the sustainability of small community water
supplies, real-time water quality measurements, and the use
of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to
improve water and sanitation services. She is also interested
in the social factors that influence the sustainability of water
infrastructure, and the health and environmental impacts of
WASH interventions in rural communities. She recently
worked on an evaluation of a large-scale water and
sanitation program in Mexico (PROSSAPYS) by the InterAmerican Development Bank.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Cathy Clark
Karen Clune
Director, CASE i3 and Co-Lead, SEAD, Duke University
Impact Investing
@cathyhc
Innovation Advisor, USAID
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Cathy has been an active pioneer, educator and consultant
for 25 years in the fields of impact investing and for-profit
and nonprofit social entrepreneurship. A professor at the
Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
(CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, she
founded the CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing and coleads the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke
(SEAD), a USAID-funded global health accelerator. She also
coordinates global research for $4.5 billion of impact assets
under management and from over 11,000 impact
entrepreneurs in 29 countries. She holds an MBA from
Columbia Business School, a BA from the University of
Virginia.
Karen is dedicated to providing quality care to women and
children in underserved communities using innovative
approaches. As the Global Health Bureau’s Innovation
Advisor at USAID, Karen helps identify and develop
initiatives, partnerships, and/or activities that support
innovations in global health. More specifically, she manages
the Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge partnership and
projects, which aim to dramatically reduce maternal and
neonatal mortality and stillbirths. To accelerate the impact of
these and other global health innovations, she manages two
acceleration programs: the Xcelerator, and the Social
Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke University (SEAD).
SPEAKER CATALOG
Beth Collins
Eric Crawford
Senior Advisor, Catholic Relief Services
Director, Global Center for Food Systems Innovation
Implications of Climate Change for Food Security and Nutrition
@gcfsi
Beth has a 25-year executive leadership career with global
experience in corporate, non-profit and NGO sectors
throughout Africa, South East Asia and other emerging
market regions. After many years in the private sector, she
started and ran one of the Clinton Foundation’s first (of
three) country offices in Africa where she designed and
implemented comprehensive health and agriculture
programs. In that role, Beth worked very closely with the
Rwandan Ministry of Health, Dr. Paul Farmer and his
Partners In Health team to create and implement a model
for comprehensive health care solutions that has since been
adopted as the Rwandan government’s rural standard of
care. She holds an MBA in Finance from NYU.
Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Eric Crawford
worked on rural and agricultural development programs in
Kenya for five years, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer. He
joined the department at Michigan State in 1979 as an
assistant professor focusing on international agricultural
development. He has been a core faculty member of the
department’s USAID-funded rural development and food
security projects in Africa since 1980. Currently, he serves
as Director of the Global Center for Food Systems
Innovation, Co-Director of the Food Security Group within
the department and is a co-PI on the Borlaug Higher
Education Agricultural Research and Development
(BHEARD) program.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Genevieve Croft
Dr. Carol Dahl
AAAS Fellow with HESN, USAID
Town Hall: Student Engagement in International Development
Executive Director, The Lemelson Foundation
Inventing for Impact in Developing Countries
Genevieve is a AAAS Science Policy Fellow on the USAID/
HESN team. She came to HESN following fellowships at the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
(OSTP) and the National Academy of Sciences, both of
which focused on STEM Education policy. Genevieve earned
her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from Washington University
in St. Louis, and a B.S. in Biology from Georgetown
University. As part of the HESN team, she focuses on
promoting Student Engagement and Innovation across the
Network. She also joins the award management teams for
Texas A&M's Conflict and Development Lab and UC
Berkeley's Development Impact Lab.
Dr. Carol Dahl is the Executive Director of The Lemelson
Foundation. With a background in both discovery sciences
and global health and development, Dr. Dahl leads the
foundation’s work to use the power of invention to improve
lives. The Foundation believes that invention can solve many
of the biggest economic and social challenges of our time.
The Foundation’s programs help the next generation of
inventors in the US and developing countries acquire the
education and support needed to turn their ideas into viable
products and invention-based businesses that will take their
ideas to impact. The Foundation works to strengthen the
ecosystem that supports inspiring and educating inventors.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Michele Davenport
Dr. Emmanuella Delva
Higher Education Specialist, USAID
Higher Education Advisor/Science, Technology, and Innovation Development
Objective Team Leader, USAID/Indonesia
Michele Davenport is currently the Senior Technical Advisor
to the USAID/El Salvador Mission on Higher Education,
Workforce and Youth Employment. She has over 20 years
of international experience with US and Latin American
education systems, with public and private institutions.
Michele has positions such as National Director for
Education Development in El Salvador and Regional Director
in Central America for San Jose State University. Her
professional Business and Education background combines
extensive experience in higher education and international
development, including international relations, public-private
partnerships, senior level academic positions, and regional
administrative positions.
Emmanuella Delva, Ph.D., is the Higher Education Advisor
and Mission’s Science, Technology and Innovation
Development Objective Team Leader, for the U.S. Agency
for International Development in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dr.
Delva's focus lies on university partnerships and areas of
synergy between science and technology and higher
education in Indonesia. Dr. Delva also leads efforts in
ensuring that all technical offices and development objective
teams utilize scientific/innovative approaches in implementing
activities, whenever possible, as well as developing activities
to strengthened Indonesia’s science and technology
ecosystem. Dr. Delva holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical and
Biological Sciences from Emory University.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Samir K. Doshi
Dr. Rajiv Doshi
AAAS S&T Policy Fellow, USAID
ICT4D Principles
@samirkdoshi
Executive Director (US) Stanford-India Biodesign
Dr. Samir K. Doshi is an American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology
Policy Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International
Development’s U.S. Global Development Lab. His work for
the Digital Development Team and the Higher Education
Solutions Network leverages academic-public-private
partnerships and ICT4D applications to build inclusive,
resilient and sustainable solutions to global grand challenges.
Samir integrates his background in the fields of development
economics, systems ecology, engineering, anthropology and
governance to develop more sustainable and resilient
societies. Samir was a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar and
Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Institute.
Dr. Rajiv Doshi serves as the Executive Director (US) of
Stanford-India Biodesign and is also a Consulting Associate
Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. The goal of
Stanford-India Biodesign is to train the next generation of
medical technology innovators in India. Funded by the
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, the
program is a first of its kind collaboration between Stanford
University, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Dr. Doshi
has served as an advisor to the Department of
Biotechnology, Government of India since the Stanford-India
Biodesign program began in 2007.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Nicole Etchart
Asim Fayaz
Co-CEO, NESsT
Graduate Student, UC Berkeley
@asim_fayaz
Nicole founded NESsT on the belief that social enterprise is
a powerful tool that provides marginalized communities the
skills, accessibility and technology needed to overcome
social barriers and break the cycle of poverty. She currently
leads NESsT´s strategy, growth and impact worldwide
including entrance to eleven countries and investment in a
diverse portfolio of high impact enterprises that have
improved the quality of life of over 350,000 marginalized
people. Nicole manages key donor relations and oversees a
senior team to carry out NESsT´s goals while maximizing the
organization´s resources and impact.
Asim Fayaz is a development-minded entrepreneur
passionate about solving problems in emerging markets using
technology. He has worked with donors, governments,
academia, private firms, nonprofits and launched start-ups,
both for-profit and nonprofit. In the past, Asim co-founded
the Technology for the People Initiative (www.tpilums.org),
a public sector-focused applied research and design
nonprofit in Pakistan that, in his leadership, raised over
$300K to design innovative tech-driven solutions for the
public sector and won the Making All Voices Count Global
Innovation Competition. He also co-founded SMSAll.pk,
Pakistan's first group SMS network that grew to over a
million users.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Cauam Cardoso Ferreira
Heather Fleming
PhD Student & International Development Consultant, MIT
@cauamcardoso
CEO, Catapult Design
@catapult_design
Cauam Cardoso is a Consultant and a PhD student in
International Economic Development at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). Since the start of his career in
2002, he has lived on 6 different continents, and worked
professionally on 5. After developing several socioenvironmental and sanitation projects in Brazil, he spent two
years in Angola, where he worked with large-scale sanitation
and solid waste management projects. Between 2010 and
2012, he worked for the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), initially serving in
Cambodia, and later at FAO’s headquarters in Italy, where
he supported the development of food security projects
worldwide.
Heather Fleming is the CEO of Catapult Design, a product
and service design firm partnering with international
organizations to develop sustainable, market-based solutions
to poverty. Heather has over a decade of experience in
product design consulting and was formerly an Adjunct
Lecturer at Stanford University and Senior Lecturer at
California College of the Arts. In 2010 the World Economic
Forum included Heather in their class of Young Global
Leaders, a prestigious community for leaders under the age
of 40. She is a prominent speaker and advocate for the role
of design in international and economic development
initiatives. She is also a Board member for the Navajo
Chamber of Commerce.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Christine Geith
Michael Hahn
Assistant Provost, Michigan State University
@christinegeith
Product Development Manager, Sanergy
Supporting in-country product creation and delivery through small and growing
businesses
Dr. Christine Geith is Assistant Provost and Executive
Director, MSUglobal Knowledge and Learning Innovations,
Michigan State University. She leads the development of new
entrepreneurial approaches in higher education using
technology, online learning and open models. Recently, she
has worked with faculty to open up critical knowledge to
help transform global food systems and agriculture. She leads
teams using a comprehensive approach to planning,
instructional development, and program evaluation and
administration. Dr. Geith has experience in research,
teaching, small business, internet startups, online and adult
education, peer learning and open educational resources.
Mike is the product development manager at Sanergy
(Nairobi, Kenya) where he is developing the next generation
of Fresh Life Toilet system and other products to enhance
the Fresh Life brand. He is also a founding consortium
member of Gearbox, Kenya’s first open space for design and
rapid prototyping. He is especially hands-on, spending most
of his time in the workshop producing prototypes and
tooling for Sanergy’s needs. Hahn has a long history of
fabrication experience in a wide range of manufacturing
processes. Before Sanergy, he led sanitation product
development processes for iDE, WSP, and UNICEF. He was
a recent Fulbright Fellow in Cambodia.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Kifle Woldemichael Hajito
Jeff Hamaoui
Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Jimma University
The Eightfold Path
@hambear
Kifle Woldemichael Hajito is a Professor in the Department
of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Medical
Sciences, Jimma University, Ethiopia, where he teaches
Epidemiology and research methods for both graduate and
undergraduate students. He also serves as a Principal
Investigator for Monitoring and Evaluation Training Program
of the University and focal person for One Health Central
and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) representing the College of
Public Health and Medical Sciences. Moreover he is a
Director of ResilientAfrica Innovation Lab (RI-Lab) for Horn
of Africa. Professor Kifle has served as the chairperson of
Council of Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative (EPHTI)
(2006 – 2010).
Jeff designs and builds innovation programs in partnership
with government and industry and has been one of the
principle partners collaborative innovation efforts such as
LAUNCH, Invest Early, Conservation X Labs and NASA's
Grand Challenges. Jeff has worked as an impact investor,
foundation officer and consultant in the sustainability and
green business field for over 20 years and is the founder and
CEO of FURTHER by Design.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dan Hammer
R. David Harden
Presidential Innovation Fellow, NASA
@econohammer
Mission Director, USAID/West Bank and Gaza
Dan Hammer is a Presidential Innovation Fellow working on
Data Innovation initiatives at NASA headquarters in the
CTO’s office. Dan is an economist and data scientist. He was
the Chief Data Scientist at the World Resources Institute,
where he launched Global Forest Watch in partnership with
Google, USAID, and many others. Dan is on leave from a
PhD program at UC Berkeley, advised by Max Auffhammer
and George Judge. Dan cofounded SpaceKnow and helps to
organize the annual EcoHack conference alongside CartoDB.
He teaches math at San Quentin State Prison as a lead
instructor with the Prison University Project. Dan graduated
with high honors in economics and mathematics from
Swarthmore College.
R. David Harden has been recommended for promotion to
the rank of Minister Counselor in the Senior Foreign
Service. He became the USAID West Bank and Gaza Mission
Director in July 2013. Prior to this, he was the Deputy
Mission Director for the USAID Mission in Iraq where he
managed a multi-year $1.3 billion portfolio focused on
governance (including capacity development in the health
and education sectors), democracy and economic growth.
Mr. Harden is an experienced Middle East veteran, having
served for three years as the Senior Advisor to the Special
Envoy for Middle East Peace. Mr. Harden earned his Juris
Doctorate from Georgetown University.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Lawrence Hardy II
Matt Higgins
Mission Director, USAID/Brazil
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Senior Director, Digital Strategy + Media, Group SJR
@RealMattHiggins
Lawrence Hardy II is a Minister Counselor in the Senior
Foreign Service Officer with 20 years of experience with
USAID. He has served multiple tours in Southeast Asia,
South Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South
America. While in Brazil, he engineered and completed
USAID's first transformed of a USAID country program
from that of a traditional bilateral program to one of
strategic partnership with the government, private sector,
and people of Brazil.Prior to joining USAID, he consultant
for a boutique management consulting firm that developed
economic diversification strategies for Pacific Rim countries.
Hardy received a Master's in Business Administration degree
from UC Berkeley.
Senior Director of the Digital Strategy + Media Group SJR
(WPP), Matt is an evangelist for today’s paradigm shift in
marketing and communications. He has extensive experience
working as a specialist in digital strategy, content
development and media campaigns for a clientele including
TED, USAID, GE, Dell, and Coca-Cola. His background in
television brings with it an understanding of science and
global storytelling. Matt hails from Philadelphia and currently
lives in Manhattan.
SPEAKER CATALOG
David Hill
Bryan Hurren
Senior Director, Industry Solutions, Hewlett-Packard
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Strategic Partnerships Manager, Facebook/Internet.org
Exploring the Current Role & Potential of ICTs for Development
@bryanhurren
David Hill is the Senior Director for HP’s Industry Solutions
organization. In this role, David is responsible for the
strategic planning, product design, sales operations, and
business development for the core Education and Healthcare
verticals. Prior taking on this role, David was General
Manager for HP’s US Consumer Online business where he
was responsible for running HP’s eCommerce store. David
has 15 years of experience in the technology industry in
addition to 5 years of structural engineering practice. His
diverse background, includes both a Professional Engineering
certification and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
David has an undergraduate Engineering degree and a
Masters in Business Administration.
Bryan Hurren is a Strategic Partnerships Manager at
Facebook/Internet.org. He is responsible for Global
Publisher and Civil Society relationships for the internet.org
Free Basic Services program. Prior to Facebook, Bryan was a
co-founder of SlingRide and Livemocha, and spent 10 years
in various product management leadership roles at
BlackBerry.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Michelle Jennings
Nai Kalema
Regional Engagement Latin America and the Caribbean Chief, USAID
Careers in Development
@Mijenni
Project Coordinator, MIT International Development Innovation Network
@nailee17
Michelle A. Jennings has been a Foreign Service Officer with
the Agency for International Development (USAID) since
2003, serving overseas in East Africa and Central America
for the last 9 years. Michelle’s work has focused on
management and leadership, food security and agricultural
development for the rural poor, natural resource
management, climate change, and trade and market
development. Michelle has worked on several whole of
government Presidential initiatives such as Partnership for
Growth, Feed the Future, and Global Climate Change. Prior
to USAID, Michelle worked with several USG Agencies on
domestic disaster preparedness and response programs.
Nai Kalema is responsible for coordinating many of the
International Development Innovation Network (IDIN)
program's logistical, operational and financial processes, both
at MIT and across its global-network of consortium partners
and institutions. Additionally, Kalema has coordinated
campus-wide IDIN student events featuring USAID
leadership, by working with networks of student groups
from MIT and Harvard. Kalema is a graduate of George
Washington University, and as a student, served as Foreign
Affairs congressional intern on Capitol Hill. Currently,
Kalema is pursuing her Master of Liberal Arts in
International Relations from Harvard University, Extension
School.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Jennifer Keller Jackson
Elizabeth Kountze
Senior Program Officer, VentureWell
How to Support Student Innovators and Early Stage Teams on Campuses
Director of Outreach and Partnerships, Internews
@lizziekountze
Jennifer Keller Jackson is Senior Program Officer at
VentureWell, a not-for-profit organization reaching more
than 200 universities, VentureWell is the leader in funding,
training, and early investment that brings student innovations
to market. Jennifer oversees VentureWell’s faculty grants
program, and she also leads the annual conference, Open,
which brings together faculty and students from across
disciplines. Her experience includes program development
and management, technical proposal writing and business
development.
Elizabeth Kountze is the Director of Outreach and
Partnerships for Internews, an international organization
dedicated to helping communities in developing, postconflict, and in-conflict countries realize the benefits of
independent media, technology, and the free flow of
information. As Director, Kountze shares and leverages
Internews’ expertise in media and developing economies to
build collaboration with partners in technology and
information access. Kountze has managed communications
technology projects in Brazil, Haiti, India, Lebanon, Mexico,
and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She has designed
outreach campaigns for innovation initiatives at USAID
including Grand Challenges for Development.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Kimberly Bardy Langsam
Rebecca Chandler Leege
Program Director, SEAD, Duke University
Project Director, All Children Reading Grand Challenge, World Vision
@ReadingGCD
Kimberly Bardy Langsam is the Program Director of the
Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD). Kim
manages the research and evaluation agenda for SEAD,
working with faculty, staff, and students to build the
knowledge base around scaling innovations in global health.
Additionally, Kim oversees SEAD’s student engagement
activities, working with a student advisory council to identify
ways to inspire and engage the next generation of
development professionals who will bring innovative thinking
to their work. Kim was previously a Health Development
Officer in the Office of HIV/AIDS at USAID where she
worked on PEPFAR’s supply chain management initiatives.
Rebecca Chandler Leege is World Vision's Project Director
for their partnership in All Children Reading: A Grand
Challenge for Development. Prior to this, she was World
Vision US's Director for Child Development and Protection
since 2007. Rebecca also worked with World Relief for four
years, initially based in Kigali, Rwanda as their Director of
Programs before relocating to their headquarters in
Baltimore, Maryland USA as Director of Global Program
Operations. She has lived and worked throughout Africa and
Asia for over 10 years. Rebecca also spent six years working
in the private sector in international human resources.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Benjamin Linder
Amy Lockwood
Associate Professor, Olin College of Engineering
Sensing Change in Development
Chief of Staff, Global Health Sciences, UCSF
Venture Development Support: A Mini-Accelerator
@amylockwood
Dr. Linder works to enable people to engage design and
creativity to lead more purposeful, hopeful lives. This effort
is focused in the areas of environmental sustainability and
international development. He is particularly interested in
understanding how changing mindsets and agency through
local innovation and collaboration can lead to more
sustainable communities. The outcomes of his work include
new techniques and approaches that further a more
ecologically connected and socially just design practice. He
co-leads the Design Stream at Olin College and co-organizes
the Three College Collaboration Sustainability Certificate
Program, and the Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship
Program.
Amy Lockwood is the Chief of Staff at University of
California, San Francisco’s Global Health Sciences where she
leads strategy and operations for the AIDS Research
Institute and the Institute of Global Health Delivery and
Diplomacy. Previously, Amy was the Deputy Director of the
Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford, the
Executive Director of Project Healthy Children, and the
Director of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program and India
Deputy Country Director for the Clinton Foundation. Prior
to her work in global health, she was a consultant with a
specialty in brand strategy.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse
Daniel Lopez
Assoc. Director, Partnerships, Development Impact Lab
USAID/Colombia
Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse is the Director of Special Projects
at the Blum Center, supporting the operation and progress
of the Center’s ongoing work and new projects, including
the USAID-funded Development Impact Lab (DIL). She also
serves as Associate Director of Partnerships for DIL. Prior
to joining the Blum Center, she developed health and
education programs for children in the US and Latin America
as Managing Director of Absolute Return for Kids US, and
managed and contributed to a body of research on social
franchising while serving as Program Manager for the Private
Sector Healthcare Initiative at UCSF’s Global Health Group.
She has a Master’s in Public Policy and a Master’s in Public
Health.
Daniel Lopez is Colombian and has a background in
agriculture. After being a farmer for seven years, decided to
join the regional environmental authority in the Caldas
department, where he was part of the planning direction and
worked on the land use commission. Daniel has a post
graduate diploma from the University of London in
Environmental Management and did his Msc on
Environmental Science and technology at the UNESCO-IHE
in the Netherlands. He worked for the Global Water
Partnership in supporting the development of national
integrated water resources management plans, with a strong
focus in African countries. Since 2008 Daniel works for
USAID/Colombia.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Temina Madon
Jose Magaña Paredes
Managing Director, Development Impact Lab
Development Engineering
Graduate Student, Duke University-SEAD
Building In-Country Capacity: Lessons Learned
Temina Madon directs the Center for Effective Global
Action (CEGA), a research network headquartered at the
University of California, Berkeley that designs and tests
solutions for the problems of poverty. In this role she also
co-directs the Development Impact Lab, a USAID-funded
academic initiative bringing science and engineering
innovation to global development. She has been an advisor
to the World Health Organization and has held positions in
science policy at the Fogarty International Center, National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Senate, where she
served as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy fellow. She
holds a PhD in health sciences from UC Berkeley.
Jose is a current graduate student at Duke University
undergoing two masters programs: Masters in Business
Administration (MBA) and Masters in Environmental
Management (MEM). Jose's focus in the MBA program is
Health Sector Management and Entrepreneurship. His focus
in the MEM program is Ecotoxicology and Environmental
Health. Jose hold a BA in Economics from UCLA and a
professional Certificate in Finance from UC Berkeley. Prior
to graduate school, Jose worked for a software company and
for a regional hospital system, both in California. Jose spent
this past summer (2014) helping a health services start-up in
Queretaro, Mexico with business strategy and financial
reporting.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Roy William Mayega
Lauren McKown
Deputy Chief of Party, ResilientAfrica Network
ResilientAfrica Network: Community Driven Solutions to Resilience
@RoyMayega
Communications Coordinator, MIT IDIN
Meet the IDIN Network
@IDINetwork
Dr. Roy William Mayega is a tenured Faculty at Makerere
University School of Public Health, in the Department of
Epidemiology and Bio-statistics. He holds a Bachelor's
Degree in Medicine, Master's Degree in Public Health and a
PhD in Medical Science. He has over 16 years experience in
public health related service delivery. His recent work is in
Disaster Management and Chronic Diseases. His current
interests are in innovating for resilience. He is the Deputy
Chief of Party of the ResilientAfrica Network, one of the
HESN partner labs.
Lauren McKown is Communications Coordinator for MIT
IDIN. The International Development Innovation Network
empowers a diverse, global network of innovators to design,
develop, and disseminate technologies to improve the lives
of people living in poverty. IDIN is a consortium of
academic, institutional, and innovation center partners
headquartered at MIT D-Lab.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Karl Mehta
Dr. Nathalie M. Me-Nsope
Founder & CEO, EdCast Inc.
OpenEducation for Impact
@edcast
Gender Lead, GCFSI, Michigan State University
Karl Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, author, investor,
engineer, and civil servant with over 20 years of experience
in founding, building, and funding technology companies in
the U.S. and international markets. He is currently Founder
& CEO of EdCast Inc., a next-generation knowledge
platform company and venture partner at Menlo Ventures, a
leading VC firm of Silicon Valley with over $4B under
management. Previously, he was the Founder & CEO of
PlaySpan Inc., acquired by Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), the world’s
largest payment network. Karl also served as a White House
Presidential Innovation Fellow, selected by the Obama
Administration during the inaugural 2012-13 term.
Dr. Nathalie M. Me-Nsope is the Gender Lead for the
Global Center of Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI) at
Michigan State University (MSU). She has a PhD in
Agricultural Economics from MSU, an MA in Women and
Development from the University of York, United Kingdom,
and a BSc in Women and Gender Studies and Economics
from the University of Buea, Cameroon. Her broad areas of
interests include food security, improved nutrition and
poverty reduction as outcomes of food system activities, and
how these outcomes are influenced by intra-household
dynamics and gender relations. She has worked in the
Central, West, South and East regions Africa.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Brittany N. Montgomery
Susan Murcott
Ph.D. Student, MIT CITE
Research Scientist, MIT
Evaluating Technologies to Reach Scale
Brittany N. Montgomery studies the political economy of
infrastructure systems in cities of the developing world. As a
doctoral student in the International Development Group at
the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, she
investigates problems that stem from her professional
experience in seven developing countries. Her current
research examines the effects of shifts in political power on
metropolitan infrastructure and service provision in Mexico.
At MIT, she works with the USAID-sponsored
Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE)
on developing new pedagogies related to technologies for
use in developing countries. She holds a S.B. in Civil
Engineering from MIT.
Susan Murcott is currently a Research Scientist in the MIT
Department of Urban Studies and Planning, an instructor in
DLab and the Senior Technical Advisor to the MIT Comprehensive Initiative for Technology Evaluation, Water
Filter Project, India. Her work is dedicated to raising
awareness of and making a contribution towards safe water,
sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and environmental well-being
for all. Building on a foundation established during the 1980s
and 1990s with her mentor, emeritus MIT Professor Donald
Harleman, for the first decade of her engineering career,
Murcott concentrated on wastewater treatment and reuse
for mega-cities.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Deborah Naatujuna
Ashley Napier
Engagement Manager, ResilientAfrica Network
Building in-country Capacity to Innovate for Resilience
@ndeborah1
Junior Program Manager, AidData
@AshNape
Deborah Naatujuna is the Engagement Manager at
ResilientAfrica Network. She holds an Master's in Computer
Science and a Bachelor of Science with Education. She has
experience in working in higher education institutions,
supporting academic institutions in Africa in the area of ELearning and fostering entrepreneurship skills among youth.
At RAN (HESN Lab), she is in charge of stakeholder
engagement and student engagement, she is involved in
helping the Network to form strategic partnerships: The
Partnership Accelerator focuses on enabling successful
partnerships by connecting individuals and organizations that
support innovations in the region to build resilient
communities.
Ashley Napier is a Junior Program Manager / Research
Associate at AidData. Her work includes supporting the
USAID HESN award, managing student engagement
opportunities, and coordinating student research activities.
Prior to joining AidData, Ashley was the Senior Research
Assistant for the Reform Incentives project at ITPIR. Ashley
received a BA in Public Policy and Finance from the College
of William & Mary in May 2014.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Matt Nash
Dr. Pouyan Nejadhashemi
Center Director, Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator, Duke (SEAD)
@nashcase, @dukesead
Associate Professor, Michigan State University
Matt Nash is the Center Director of the Social
Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD), a USAID
development lab for scaling innovations in global health.
Formerly the executive director of the Center for the
Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke’s
Fuqua School of Business, Matt also serves at the managing
director of social entrepreneurship for the Duke Initiative
on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) and teaches an
undergraduate course in social innovation at Duke’s Sanford
School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the CASE team at
Duke, Matt was a senior consultant in strategy and change
management with the public sector practice at IBM Business
Consulting Services.
Dr. Pouyan Nejadhashemi is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at
the Michigan State University (MSU). He has an extensive
background in computer programming, developing decision
support tools, geographic information systems (GIS), and
soft computing techniques (artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic)
for decision-making. He is currently leading the Decision
Support and Informatics Units and the Climate Change
Impact Assessment on Water Resources Group for the MSU
Global Center for Food System Innovation.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Wanjiku Nganga
Kamran Niazi
Director of Innovation, ResilientAfrica Network
@shikunganga
Project Management Specialist, USAID/Pakistan
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Dr. Wanjiku Nganga is the Director of Innovation at
ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), Makerere University,
Uganda where she provides leadership and technical
guidance on the sourcing and development of resiliencestrengthening innovations. She is also actively involved in
developing a vibrant network of resilience innovators across
RAN’s network universities and communities. She has also
served as a senior faculty member at the School of
Computing & Informatics, University of Nairobi in Kenya
where she co-founded and managed the University’s
Computing for Development lab (C4DLab) that is active in
ICT-related R&D. She has collaborated on several
international projects as a technology systems specialist.
Kamran Niazi is an Economic Growth Specialist with the
USAID Pakistan Provincial Mission to Punjab. He has worked
extensively in public and private sector organizations in
Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. His technical
expertise in private sector development spans business
enabling environment reforms, business linkages and value
chain development, business development services, grants
making and making markets work for the poor. He has been
successfully involved in local economic development
programming including facilitating the creation of sector
development strategies, youth engagement,
entrepreneurship development and small business
mentoring, and foreign direct investment.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Alexander Nicholas
Dr. Brandie Nonnecke
Program Officer, The Lemelson Foundation
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Postdoctoral Scholar, Research and Development Manager, CITRIS Data &
Democracy Initiative, UC Berkeley
@Bnonnecke
Dr. Alexander Nicholas is a Program Officer at the
Lemelson Foundation and manages a portion of the
Foundation’s education and technology dissemination grants.
Alexander’s work supports the development of a pipeline of
inventors and invention-based enterprises in the US and
seeds technology development that could improve the lives
of the poor in developing countries. Prior to joining the
Foundation in early 2012, Alexander served as a Senior
Policy Advisor in the Office of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at the US Department of Commerce. His
portfolio included managing the work of the National
Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship
subcommittee on Collaboration.
Dr. Brandie Nonnecke is the Research & Development
Manager of the CITRIS Data and Democracy Initiative at the
University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on
how information and communication technologies (ICTs)
can be used as tools to support civic participation, to
improve governance and accountability, and to foster
economic and social development. She has published articles
in Telecommunications Policy, Telematics & Informatics,
Communications & Strategies, and Information Technologies
& International Development. Brandie has an M.S. in
Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State
University and a Ph.D. in Mass Communications from The
Pennsylvania State University.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Plavevski Ognen
Dr. Dorothy Okello
Architect, ICT4D Solutions
Big Data
@r0b0tn1k
Director, Eastern Africa RILab
@AfricaResilient
As an architect for ICT4D Solutions, Plavevski is responsible
for on-boarding new projects that require ICT4D, obtaining
requirements, and suggesting solutions that are easily
scalable, sustainable, and replicable across the agency.
Plavevski is also responsible for updating and maintaining the
ICT4D portfolio, which is a collection of solutions that fit
the criteria for replicable and scalable solutions, which serve
as a guideline for future projects.
Dr. Dorothy Okello is Director of Eastern Africa RILab (EA
RILab) at Resilient Africa Network. The ResilientAfrica
Network (RAN) - www.ranlab.org - is a partnership
targeting 20 Sub-Saharan African universities led by
Makerere University in Uganda, together with Tulane
University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy
(DRLA), Stanford University, and the Center for Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS) in the United States. RAN
seeks to identify, develop and scale innovative solutions that
will strengthen the resilience of African communities afflicted
by natural as well as man-made shocks and stresses by
applying science, technology, innovation and partnerships,
and using evidence-based approaches.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Alexandria (Sandy) Oleksy-Ojikutu
Kweku Opoku-Agyemang
Senior Education Advisor, USAID
Postdoctoral Fellow, Development Impact Lab
Democracy Dilemmas: What Mobile Innovations Mean for Africa...and You
@Kweku_OA
Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu has 25 years experience working with
USAID. She has worked for 22 years at the field level in
Ghana and extensively in Nigeria. For the past three, Sandy
has served as a Senior Education Advisor with the Bureau
for Africa, AID/Washington. While in Ghana, she
implemented the first USAID education program in that
nation. At USAID/Nigeria, Sandy served as the Acting
Program Officer during the Foreign Assistance reform. She
managed the establishment of the first education portfolio
and Education Team, working with the GON and education
stakeholders to define the USAID/Nigeria education
strategy. Sandy has her PhD from Fordham University, NYC,
in Educational Psychology.
Kweku Opoku-Agyemang works on the political economy of
development--how both economic and political factors affect
social change, with current emphasis on technological
innovations and impacts. Before becoming a fellow at the
University of California, Berkeley, Kweku was a Research
Scholar with the Agricultural and Applied Economics
Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kweku
Opoku Agyemang holds a doctorate in Development Studies
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. in
Economics from Ohio University, and a B.A. in Economics
with Geography and Resource Development from the
University of Ghana. Kweku was selected as a National
Service Person with the Ghana Government.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Susan Owens
Alexander Pan
Division Chief, USAID/BFS
Program Coordinator, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
@Alexpan77
Susan Owens leads the Human and Institutional Capacity
Development/Board for International Food and Agriculture
Development (BIFAD) Division in the USAID Bureau for
Food Security Office of Agriculture Research and Policy.
Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Owens worked for nearly 10
years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She served as
Director of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Trade and
Scientific Capacity Building Division, bringing together
government and university partners to resolve issues related
to barriers to two-way trade in agriculture. Earlier, Ms.
Owens served as Director and Deputy Director of the
Research and Scientific Exchanges Division.
Alex Pan is a program coordinator at the Aspen Network of
Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). In this position, Alex
helps to manage ANDE’s global network of regional chapters
and facilitates collaboration and knowledge sharing among
ANDE’s 200+ members. He also manages ANDE’s
initiatives to systemically address the talent gap for small and
growing businesses and leads ANDE’s efforts to create a
more supportive ecosystem for science, technology and
invention based entrepreneurship in the developing world.
Before joining ANDE, Alex worked for the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy where he assisted in
the development of their impact investing policy.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Tapan Parikh
Matt Podolsky
Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley
@tap2k
Associate Director, DIL
Data Analytics and Research Scientist, TIER
@mattpodolsky
Tapan Parikh is an Associate Professor at the School of
Information at the University of California, Berkeley. Tapan's
research interests include human-computer interaction
(HCI), mobile computing, paper and voice UIs and
information technologies for education, governance and
international development. Tapan and his students have
started several technology companies serving communitybased organizations (CBOs), non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), governments and non-profits. He
holds a Sc.B. degree in Molecular Modeling with Honors
from Brown University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
Computer Science from the University of Washington.
Tapan has also received the NSF CAREER award.
Matt Podolsky is a researcher at the University of California,
Berkeley in the Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging
Regions (TIER) group, and the Associate Director for Data
Analytics at the Development Impact Laboratory, part of the
USAID Higher Education Solutions Network. In addition to
his two decades of networks research and development, he
has worked on emerging regions technologies for the past 9
years. Through Intel’s Berkeley Research Laboratory and
Rural Data Services groups he co-developed the Intel Rural
Connectivity Platform, an inexpensive long distance wireless
platform, and with UCB’s TIER group he has worked on
inexpensive rural mobile, long distance wireless, solar, and
microgrid technologies.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Josh Powell
Edwin C. Price
Director of Innovation, AidData
@joshuacpowell
Director, Center on Conflict & Development
Breakthroughs in Conflict & Development
@edpriceTAMU, @condevcenter
Josh Powell is Director of Innovation at AidData and
Development Gateway. Josh works with the AidData and
Aid Management Platform teams, primarily focusing on
geocoding, aid effectiveness and coordination, and
transparency. In his time with AidData, he has worked on
the World Bank's Mapping for Results initiative, the African
Development Bank's mapping pilot, and the CCAPS
program's Malawi multi-donor mapping initiative. Josh
currently leads all innovation activities under the USAID
Higher Education Solutions Network AidData award. He
holds a BS in Finance from the University of Baltimore and
an MA in Public Policy with an emphasis in International
Development from Brigham Young University.
Edwin C. Price leads the Center on Conflict and
Development at Texas A&M, seeking to create and utilize an
understanding of the role of development in preventing and
mitigating armed conflict. He conducts research, teaching
and development on fragile states, including Iraq,
Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and other conflict affected regions. As founding
director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International
Agriculture, he built international agriculture at Texas A&M
University System reaching $75 million in grants and
contracts in 2012. Price was the lead author and advocate of
federal PL 106 373 Famine Prevention and Freedom From
Hunger Improvement Act of 2000.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Javier Rosa
Dan Runfola
PhD Student, UC Berkeley (TIER)
Research Assistant Professor, AidData
@geogdan
Javier Rosa is a Computer Science PhD student with the
Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER)
research group at University of California, Berkeley. He has
been working on designing, building, and deploying
adequately sized and efficient Smart Grids in developing
regions. His main efforts are in the area of system
management and communications as well as developing
more general tools for measuring the impact of similar
projects.
Dan Runfola is AidData's Geospatial Scientist and a Research
Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary. He
previously worked on research projects for both the
National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers examining the use of Geographic
Information Science (GIS) in climate-change related decision
making. Currently, he is working to integrate AidData's
information into better decisions regarding aid allocation.
Dan has widely published his work in a number of high
profile outlets, including recent contributions to the United
Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth
assessment report. Dan holds a PhD and MA in Geography
from Clark University.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Leslie Ruyle
Patricia Rwasoka-Masanganise
Research Scientist, ConDev
@Leslie.Ruyle
Senior Agricultural Development Specialist, USAID
Dr. Leslie Ruyle is a conservation ecologist, expedition
leader, and project manager who has lived in four countries
and traveled to over sixty in her career. She holds a Ph.D. in
Ecology from the University of Georgia, served as a Peace
Corps Volunteer in Ghana, West Africa, and has led or
participated in development and biodiversity science
research initiatives around the world. Dr. Ruyle seeks to
understand how conservation and protection of wild places
can support communities and promote peace and stability.
She is interested in creative interdisciplinary problem solving
by tapping into the diversity of people, their experiences,
and seeking local solutions for problems.
Patricia Rwasoka-Masanganise is an Agricultural Economist,
Development Specialist and Facilitator with more than 21
years of practical experience in agriculture, food and
nutrition security, livelihoods development, agricultural
research for development, climate change adaptation, HIV
and AIDS, gender and children’s rights, policy analysis,
including, training and writing on issues for improving food
and nutrition security, expanding land access, improving land
tenure security, and developing land markets for poverty
alleviation and economic growth in developing countries. She
holds a Master's Degree in Agricultural Economics with
Distinction from University of London, United Kingdom.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Laura Sampath
Dr. Jaspal Sandhu
Senior Program Officer, Global VentureWell
Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Innovation Marketplace Judge
@jaspal
Laura Sampath is the Senior Program Officer for Global
Programs at VentureWell (formerly NCIIA) where she
oversees the planning, development, and execution of
curriculum and training programs for global health
innovators from the Grand Challenges programs. From 2007
to 2012, Laura ran the MIT International Development
Initiative where she worked with students, faculty and alumni
to develop effective models of engagement in emerging
markets. Previously, Laura worked with USAID's Regional
Conflict Management and Governance office in Nairobi,
Kenya. She has also been a Fulbright Scholar as well as a
Peace Corps Volunteer.
Jaspal is co-founder and partner at the Gobee Group, a firm
that innovates for social impact globally. Current Gobee
initiatives include: creating a digital platform to improve the
cost-effectiveness of HIV drug purchasing by African
governments, sparking community innovation in the Best
Babies Zone in East Oakland, and building innovation
capacity in the health care safety net across California. Jaspal
is also a Lecturer at the School of Public Health at the
University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches
graduate-level, interdisciplinary courses on the innovation
process. In 2014, he taught a new course focused on the
intersections of food, innovation, and health:
Eat.Think.Design.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Bishwapriya Sanyal
Robbie Schingler
Professor, MIT
Co-Founder & President, Planet Labs
@schingler
Professor Bish Sanyal is Ford International Professor of
Urban Development and Planning in the Department of
Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He also heads the
Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at MIT and is
Director of the MIT Comprehensive Initiative on
Technology Evaluation (CITE) as part of USAID’s Higher
Education Solutions Network (HESN) which gave a $10
million grant under Professor Sanyal’s leadership to evaluate
technologies for the poor. Professor Sanyal joined MIT in
1984, served as the Head of the Department of Urban
Studies and Planning from 1994 to 2002, as the Chair of the
MIT Faculty from 2007 until 2009, and most recently, as
Head of the International Development Group.
Robbie Schingler is the Co-Founder and President of Planet
Labs. He is the executive sponsor responsible for strategic
partnerships, launch, US government, international and
Planet.org affairs. Prior to Planet Labs, Robbie spent 9 years
at NASA. He helped to formulate the Small Spacecraft Office
at NASA Ames Research Center and was Capture Manager
for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Robbie
had two tours at NASA Headquarters. He served as NASA’s
Open Government Representative to the White House; and
the White House recognized NASA as a model for openness
in government. Robbie also served on the founding team as
Chief of Staff for the Office of the Chief Technologist at
NASA.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Joel Segre
Lu Sevier
Product Strategist, VentureWell
So You've Perfected Your Product
Senior Research Assistant, AidData
Joel Segre is a product development strategist focused on
increasing the impact of innovations in maternal, newborn
and child health. In his consulting practice, Joel’s clients
include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, General
Electric, and others working on product development and
distribution. Prior projects have included direct selling of
health products (Uganda), pharmacy franchising (Ghana), and
private sector distribution of anti-malarial drugs (Tanzania).
Today, the products he helped develop are sold across India,
Europe, and beyond. Joel has a BS in biomechanics
engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from
Harvard Business School.
Lu Sevier is a Senior Research Assistant with AidData,
responsible for student management and geocoding. As a
Biology major, she is interested in connecting International
Development, Public Health, and GIS. On campus, Sevier is a
member of La Casa Hispanica (a language house at W&M)
and sings in a blues band. Sevier loves being a part of the
AidData community and one day hopes to work or teach
overseas.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Wallied Shirzoi
Russell Siegelman
Manager, Policy Design and Evaluation Lab
Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Wallied Shirzoi is Manager of the Policy Design and
Evaluation Laboratory at UC San Diego. He is responsible
for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the lab. He is
responsible for maintaining and strengthening working
relationships with academics, research experts, officials at
outside universities, institutions, federal governments and
international ministry levels to further promote the goals
and objectives of the projects undertaken at PDEL. Shirzoi
received his Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from
the American University in Washington, DC and his Master
of Arts in International Affairs from the Graduate School of
Public and International Affairs at the University of
Pittsburgh.
Russell has been in high tech, software and the Internet for
over 25 years, as both an operator and investor. He has a
physics degree from MIT, and he was a programmer in the
early 80's before going back to Harvard Business School. He
spent 7 years at Microsoft where he started and ran MSN.
He came to Silicon Valley in '96 and became a partner at
KPCB and participated in 4 KP funds, leading over 20
investments. Currently he is an active angel investor, having
made over 40 investments. He serves on the boards of
seven private technology companies and three non-profits.
He teaches several classes at Stanford Business School in
entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and marketing.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Alice Siu
Chuck Slaughter
Associate Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
Founder and President, Living Goods
@Living_Goods
Alice Siu is the Associate Director of the Center for
Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. Alice
received her Ph.D. from the Department of Communication
at Stanford University, with focus in political communication,
deliberative democracy and public opinion. She received her
B.A. degrees in Economics and Public Policy and M.A. degree
in Political Science from Stanford University. During her
graduate career, Alice worked closely with James Fishkin and
Baogang He, where she played a significant role in
conducting the first Chinese Deliberative Poll in Zeguo
Township. Alice’s research interests include what happens
inside deliberation, including examining the effects of socioeconomic class.
Chuck earned both a BA and MBA from Yale. In 1991 he
founded TravelSmith, a leading travel wear company, and
grew it to over $100 million in catalog and online sales. In
affiliation with Golden Gate Capital he participated in the
acquisition and turnaround of major consumer brands with
combined sales over $2 billion. In 2007 Chuck founded
Living Goods, the ‘Avon of pro-poor products’, which
empowers micro entrepreneurs to deliver life-changing
products to the doorsteps of the poor. He serves on the
boards of The Yale School of Management, Three Day
Blinds, The Initiative for Global Development, and the
Goldsmith Foundation. He received an Ernst and Young
Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
SPEAKER CATALOG
James B. Soukamneuth
Alena Stern
Deputy Chief, Regional Trade and Investment Office, USAID/West Africa
Program Manager, AidData
@AlenaStern
A Private Enterprise Officer, James Soukamneuth has
worked for USAID at both the Philippines and West Africa
Regional missions. In West Africa, he currently manages the
Regional Economic Growth team's monitoring and
evaluation mechanism, the mission's Africa Center of
Excellence, and the transport/logistics activities of the Trade/
Investment portfolio. At USAID/Philippines, he provide
programmatic leadership on a variety of economic activities
(such as mobile money, electronic payments, credit
enhancements, energy, and urban development). James holds
a Ph.D. in the Political Economy of International
Development from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Alena is AidData's Program Manager for the USAID HESN
award, whose portfolio includes donor relations, program
management, monitoring and evaluation, and in-country civil
society outreach and capacity building. She also manages
AidData's Summer Fellows program. Prior to joining
AidData, she worked as an Associate at Chemonics
International. Alena received her BA in International
Relations and Economics from the College of William and
Mary.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Carrie Stokes
Tamara Straus
Agency Geographer & Director of the GeoCenter, USAID
Editorial Director, UC Berkeley Blum Center for Development Economies
@Blum_Center
Carrie Stokes has worked for 25 years in international
development and the environment. She currently serves as
the first Geographer of the US Agency for International
Development (USAID), headquartered in Washington, DC.
She helped established and now directs the Agency’s
GeoCenter, which works to incorporate geographic analysis
into the strategic planning, implementation, monitoring, and
evaluation of USAID’s international development programs.
Prior to becoming the Agency Geographer, Carrie served as
the director of the SERVIR program for USAID, in a joint
venture with NASA. She served as a U.S. Peace Corps
Volunteer in Niger, West Africa, and holds an M.S. in
Environmental Science.
Tamara Straus is Editorial Director at the Blum Center,
where she works with students and faculty to communicate
multidisciplinary approaches to tackling global development
problems. Previously, she served as senior editor of the
Stanford Social Innovation Review, news features editor at
the San Francisco Chronicle, and senior writer and editor at
AlterNet.org. She has written for The Nation, The New
Republic, Salon.com, and Mother Jones, and holds a B.A. and
M.A. from Columbia University.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Kofi Taha
William Tarpeh
Associate Director, D-Lab
Coordinator, IDIN
@IDINetwork
PhD Student, UC Berkeley
Down the Drain: How and Why We Should Reimagine Human Waste
@Tarpehdiem
Kofi primarily works on trainings that introduce design
thinking as an asset-based approach that communities can
use to develop their own livelihood and quality-of-life
technologies. He has co-facilitated village-level trainings in
Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Haiti; worked with the Peace
Corps to create appropriate technology centers in Zambia;
and is coordinating support for local innovation centers in
Brazil, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Nepal, Sierra Leone,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Kofi is also part of a team
developing a Multicrop Thresher, part of D-Lab's
management team, and has been known to mention that he
is from the Bronx. He studied political economy at Columbia
University and international development at MIT.
William Tarpeh is an environmental engineering PhD student
working to increase sustainable access to sanitation in the
developing world. William received his B.S. in Chemical
Engineering with a minor in African Studies at Stanford and
his M.S. in Environmental Engineering at Berkeley. He has
experience working on water and sanitation projects with
multidisciplinary teams in Peru, South Africa, Kenya,
Ethiopia, and Mexico. William researches new sanitation
technologies and their distribution models, including ion
exchange and electrochemical cells to recover nutrients
from waste, and eventually hopes to implement them in subSaharan Africa.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Dr. Evan A. Thomas
Dat Tran
Assistant Professor, Portland State
Technology and Global Health: Closing the Loop
@PStateSweetLab
Senior Venture Development Officer, VentureWell
Evan A Thomas, PhD, PE, MPH is an Assistant Professor and
Director of the Sweet (Sustainable Water, Energy and
Environmental Technologies) Laboratory, and a Faculty
Fellow in the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland
State University. Evan works at the interface of engineering,
environmental health and social business, with professional
experience working in government, industry, non-profits and
academia. Evan is also a social business entrepreneur,
currently as Chief Operating Officer of DelAgua Health, a
social enterprise working with the Government of Rwanda
Ministry of Health to implement a water treatment and
improved cookstove program for 600,000 households.
Dat’s passion is to improve life of young people through
innovation and entrepreneurship. He has over ten years of
global development experience, including providing
entrepreneurial skills for university students in Tanzania. Dat
is a graduate of Macalester College and the University of
California, Santa Barbara where he earned his PhD in
chemistry. He also holds a certificate in product and service
design from Cornell University. In his down time, he relaxes
with family and dreams about his daughter being an
entrepreneur someday – to help girls in developing countries
create their own ventures and make an impact on their
economy.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Erin Troland
Dr. Krishna Udayakumar
PhD Candidate, UCSD
Empowering Homegrown Community Monitors: Evidence from the Philippines
Head of Global Innovation, Duke Medicine
@krishna_u
Erin Troland is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the
University of California, San Diego. Her research interests is
the relationship between governance, institutions and
economic outcomes. She is particularly interested in local
governance issues related to civil conflict, budgeting
decisions, resource management and elections. Her research
includes projects investigating (i) ICT solutions to weak
governance and environmental crime, (ii) developing country
local public finance, and (iii) civil conflict and economic
activity. She received her B.A. in economics and French from
the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Krishna Udayakumar leads multiple initiatives at Duke in
the fields of health innovation and globalization of healthcare.
As Head of Global Innovation for Duke Medicine, he is
responsible for the development and implementation of
global strategy as well as global business development across
Duke Medicine. Dr. Udayakumar has also led the
International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery
(IPIHD), a non-profit co-founded by Duke Medicine,
McKinsey & Company, and the World Economic Forum,
since its inception in 2011. As Executive Director, he leads
all aspects of IPIHD’s work to support the scale and
replication of transformative health solutions globally.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Abby VanMuijen
Phil Weilerstein
Illustrator
Visual Notetaking 101
@abbyvanmuijen
President, VentureWell
Innovation Marketplace Judge
Abby specializes in visual communications-- particularly
illustration, story art and illustrated video. She was the
illustrator and story artist for the #GlobalPOV project at the
Blum Center for Developing Economies and has since been
working as a freelance artist in the Bay Area. In addition, she
teaches courses and workshops on visual note taking, design
thinking and design visualization.
As an entrepreneur leading a not-for-profit organization, Phil
has grown VentureWell (formerly NCIIA) from a grassroots
group of enthusiastic university faculty to an internationally
recognized resource supporting and promoting technology
innovation and entrepreneurship to create experiential
learning opportunities for university students, and successful,
science and technology based socially impactful businesses.
NCIIA does this by providing a linked sequence of programs
that develop community and help move faculty and student
entrepreneurs from innovative ideas to the launch of
products and businesses. Phil began his career as an
entrepreneur as a student at the University of
Massachusetts.
SPEAKER CATALOG
Madeline Williams
Regional Engagement Chief, Africa, USAID
Madeline is a career Foreign Service Officer with more than
20 years of experience in democracy, human rights and
governance and overall strategy development, project design
and management and budget planning and execution subSaharan Africa, the Middle East and Latin America and the
Caribbean. She currently works in the Center for Mission
Engagement and Operations in the US Global Development
Lab. In her current position, I lead the coordination of the
Lab's various programs, tools and mechanisms to support
the integration of science, technology, innovation and
partnership for greater development impact in Mission-based
development portfolios in the Africa region.