Barie Carmichael
Marta Erhard
Chris Gardiner
Winnie Hill
Fiona Hodgson
Paul Isenman
Rita Khanna
Nobantu Prudence Mabele
Geri Mannion
Karen McNeil-Miller
Board Bios
Chair
Ann Van Dusen, Ph.D. is an expert in the areas of economic and social development, humanitarian assistance and poverty alleviation, both internationally and in the United States. She has extensive public and private sector experience leading organizations and organizational units, including at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Save the Children, and Enterprise Works (formerly Appropriate Technology International). Dr. Van Dusen is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and has published on social indicators; health and poverty; women and family in the Arab world; and, most recently, on foreign aid reform. She is a currently senior associate at Arabella Advisors. Prior to that, Dr. Van Dusen consulted with corporate and nonprofit clients on strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation. She is very active in the nonprofit arena where she works with a number of organizations including the Washington Area Women’s Foundation and the Catalogue for Philanthropy. Dr. Van Dusen served on the Boards of Planned Parenthood/Metropolitan Washington and EnterpriseWorks/Vita, which focuses on small enterprise development and job creation for farmers and entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia. Today, in addition to CEDPA, she serves on the Board of Liberty’s Promise, a nonprofit working with immigrant youth in the Washington DC area. She has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in sociology and social anthropology, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. with honors from Wellesley College.
Chair Emeritus
Kaval Gulhati is a senior population and development specialist with more than 30 years of experience in health and demography, institutional development, training, project management, program design and implementation in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Born and educated in India, her career has spanned work internationally in the field of development. She has developed training programs aimed at empowering women through skills, information and capacity building. She has expertise in organizational development, having successfully co-founded and served as President and CEO of the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) in Washington, D.C. During her tenure, the organization established a reputation for professionalism, integrity and development with caring. She is the co-author of two recent books on the voluntary sector in India. Other publications include articles on population, management and women in development. She also serves as Board Member to several nongovernmental organizations. Her current work is focused on the management of the Unniti Foundation. Her mission is to promote individual, secular philanthropy for development in India.
Vice Chair
Jodi Taylor, Ph.D. is principal of Taylor Leadership Consulting. Formerly, she was president and founder of Summit Leadership Solutions, which was bought out by Whitehead Mann, LLC. After the selling, Dr. Taylor remained with the organization as the managing partner of the Leadership and Consulting Group. Prior to that, she served as vice president of the Center for Creative Leadership. Dr. Taylor is an expert in executive coaching, creating organizational development plans, designing leadership development systems for large organizations and working with executive teams. She has presented in business forums all over the world on topics of leadership and executive development. Her clients include General Motors, Prudential Financial, FMC, Maytag, Readers Digest, Tenneco, Coach and Ciba-Giegy. Dr. Taylor authored Executive Selection: Strategies for Success, which was published in 2002.
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Treasurer
Suzn K. Stewart is a wealth management specialist and was recently with Morgan Keegan & Company, a premiere regional investment firm based in Tennessee. Her prior post was director of the southeast region with Morgan Stanley. She worked at Morgan Stanley for 18 years, holding various positions in the corporation, including northeast regional sales manager in New York, and branch manager and assistant branch manager in Virginia. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Ms. Stewart worked at Merrill Lynch from 1977 to 1986 as a financial advisor and on the Institutional Sales Government Bond Trading Desk. Ms. Stewart received a B.A. in zoology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She has also been involved in numerous volunteer activities over the past 25 years, such as the Junior League, United Way Campaign Cabinet, Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors and the Academy of Women Achievers - New York.
Secretary
Doris Mason Martin has over 25 years of experience in international economic development and law. She is currently the general counsel for the African Development Foundation, a government funded agency that provides financial support to African non-governmental organizations that enhance the participation of the poor in the economic and social development of their countries. Ms. Martin has worked as an independent attorney, providing legal and strategic advice to a variety of international and domestic organizations, including the United Nations Development Program/Ministry of Justice for the State of Eritrea, the World Bank, Georgia State University, the National Council for Negro Women, the National Summit on Africa, the Ford Foundation and several private corporations. In addition, Ms. Martin was a senior advisor to the Africa Bureau in the Agency for International Development and senior vice president of the Mitchell Group management consulting firm. She is published in the area of gender and law. Ms. Martin holds a M.A. in economics from The American University and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center. She received her B.A. from Clark College in Georgia.
President & CEO CEDPA
Carol Peasley
Board Members
Cheri Alexander is the executive director of programming at University of Michigan Ross School of Business Executive Education Department. Previously, she held the positions of president of the General Motors University and executive director Global HR for General Motors. She is an expert in human resources specializing in mergers and acquisitions, joint venture formation and execution, talent management, leadership development, corporate universities, security, crisis management, safety, industrial health engineering and business process outsourcing. During Ms. Alexander’s time as vice president of human resources for international operations, she visited operations in 51 countries. A native of Detroit, Michigan, she received her bachelor’s degree in zoology and physiological acoustics from the University of Michigan, as well as, her first master’s in industrial health engineering (industrial hygiene). She was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan fellow and completed her master’s in science in management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The Honorable Phoebe M. Asiyo is the commissioner of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, the chairperson of Kenya’s Caucus for Women’s Leadership, a member of Parliamentarians for Global Action and serves as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Hon. Asiyo served as a member of parliament in Kenya representing Karachuonyo from 1979 to 1997. During her tenure, she was a vocal and ardent supporter of the extension of rights to women and advocated for full political participation for women. From 1970 to 1975, she was appointed as a delegate by the government of Kenya to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. From 1970 to 1979, Hon. Asiyo served as chief executive officer of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya and as UNICEF’s coordinator for the “Year of the Child” in Kenya. From 1966 to 1971, she was a delegate from Kenya to the United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on Human Rights. Hon. Asiyo is an alumna of the Women in Management workshop, CEDPA’s flagship training workshop with a 23-year history of preparing women to lead development
Barie Carmichael is senior counselor at APCO Worldwide, with more than 25 years of experience in corporate communication. Ms. Carmichael has managed strategic communication in a variety of industries involving regulator issues, corporate branding, media relations, litigation, employee/member communication and restructuring. She served for 12 years with Dow Corning Corporation as their vice president and chief communications officer. During this time, she helped guide the company through the breast implant crisis, including devising a turn-around strategy that obtained positive, sustained, page-one coverage in The New York Times, numerous favorable Wall Street Journal editorials, supportive editorials in all major national and regional newspapers, and supportive features on 60 Minutes, the BBC, and Frontline (PBS). Ms. Carmichael has also held the position of partner at The Brunswick Group and served as VISA USA’s executive vice president of corporate relations. She has been recently appointed a Batten Fellow at The University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate Business School and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. Ms. Carmichael received her undergraduate degree from Carleton College and her master’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
Marta Erhard is the co-founder of CorVirtus which has served businesses and nonprofits for 23 years through consulting and employee selection assessments and surveys. Her company serves clients throughout Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Ms. Erhard serves or has served on the board of directors for The Chancellor’s Leadership Class at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak United Way, Goodwill Industries of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Festival of World Theatre and a privately held company of restaurants in Canada. She has completed graduate coursework at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, has a master’s degree in personnel and employee relations from the University of South Carolina and holds a bachelor’s degree from Scripps College. Ms. Erhard is also a graduate of the Colorado Springs Leadership Institute at the Center for Creative Leadership. She has received the Colorado Leadership Alliance Award for Outstanding Friend to the leadership programs on Colorado College and University campuses and the Guiding Light Award from Goodwill Industries of Colorado Springs.
Chris Gardiner is the founder of Gardiner, Kamya & Associates, P.C. (GKA), a highly respected certified accounting and management consulting firm in the District of Columbia. Over the past 20 years, GKA has established itself as one of the premier firms in the Washington metropolitan area. The firm provides services to federal and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Mr. Gardiner is the former chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Caribbean Community Affairs and is the founder and chair of the Caribbean-American Political Action Committee. He is a former treasurer of the Board of Directors of Howard University Hospital; the Public Benefit Corporation (Parent Corporation of DC General Hospital) and the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. In 2000, he was invited by former Congressman Lee Hamilton to be a member of the Council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He served on the Audit Committee and the Fellows Selection Committee until resigning from the organization in 2007. Mr. Gardiner was educated in the Bahamas, England and the United States. He is a British chartered accountant (member of the Chartered Institute of Certified Accountants) and a certified public accountant (member of the American Institute of CPAs).
Winnie Hill has a valuable blend of business skills and experience with international and multinational nonprofits as well as the private sector. A former CFO for two International NGOs, Ms. Hill is a recognized expert in the financial management of nonprofit entities. Currently, she is a consultant specializing in this sector for Resources Global Professionals, an international consulting firm. Some of her recent clients include Freedom House, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDs Foundation, National Public Radio (headquarters), Society for Human Resource Management and Trinity University of Washington. Ms. Hill served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal (’66-’68) and as staff in headquarters (’69-’74). Most recently, Winnie participated in two additional Peace Corps assignments; the Russian Far East (94-96), and Bulgaria (96-99). While living in Bulgaria, Winnie was the country director for a USAID funded NGO which supplied American volunteers for Small Business Enterprise Development.
Fiona Hodgson is a senior managing director at Changing Our World, Inc., an international philanthropic services consulting firm, where she leads major fundraising campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic. Ms. Hodgson began her fundraising career at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, as alumni relations director, where she built the Annual Fund and Reunion Giving programs and was the campaign director for Boston Children’s Hospital building campaign. Ms. Hodgson has had more than 25 years of experience in senior fundraising and alumni relations, having worked in higher education, medical and humanitarian organizations in both North America and the UK. Ms Hodgson received her M.Ed. from Boston University in social psychology and her B.S. from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Paul Isenman is a seasoned expert on development policy and aid effectiveness. He is now a consultant on aid effectiveness for the World Bank and other international organizations, specializing in aid architecture; health and education; global programs and fragile states. He most recently directed the division responsible for aid effectiveness in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Mr. Isenman led strategy, policy and grant-making efforts at the United Nations Foundation before then. His extensive programmatic experience was garnered from 22 years with World Bank wherein he held the position of director, dealing with countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. He also occupied several senior level policy and economic posts throughout his years with World Bank. Mr. Isenman has a B.A. and M.B.A. from Harvard University and has published in the areas of human development, aid allocations, food aid and purchasing power parities. He lives in France and is fluent in French.
Rita Khanna, Ph.D. is president of International Technology Transfer Management, Inc. and legal counsel for Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation. In these capacities she is involved in issues relating to global health with a focus on developing country diseases and technology transfer in the field of biotechnology. Prior to this she was director of technology transfer at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Khanna also worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Office of Technology Transfer, the Office of the General Counsel and National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Technology Development and Commercialization Branch. In addition to her technology transfer and legal experience, she has extensive research experience in both academia and private industry, including at NIH, Smithsonian Radiation Biology Laboratory, a Maryland biotech company, Max-Volmer Institute and University of Illinois. Dr. Khanna received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and her J.D. from the University of Maryland.
Prudence Mabele is a South African activist working to promote the rights of people living with AIDS. In 1996, she found the Positive Women’s Network, a nonprofit organization working to empower HIV-positive women. She was also instrumental in the formation of the South Africa branch of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa and is currently its coordinator. Prudence has worked extensively with grassroots groups and communities as well as regional, national and international organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS. Ms. Mabele is an alumna of CEDPA’s 2001 Women in Management training. She is a recognized expert in counseling, human rights, gender/empowerment, HIV/AIDS prevention/care and support, networking, capacity building, NGO issues, research and advocacy. Ms. Mabele is a sought after speaker nationally and internationally. She holds a diploma in engineering and psychology from institutions in South Africa.
Geri Mannion is director of Carnegie Corporation's U.S. Democracy Program and brings a wealth of experience about the role of philanthropy in challenging, improving and deepening the civic dialogue. She has chaired the division since 1998, after staffing the corporation's program of Special Projects for almost 10 years. In addition to supporting projects that focus on improving broad civic engagement, the U.S. Democracy Program focuses on immigrant civic integration, youth civic education and election administration. Ms. Mannion has spent more than 30 years in the field of philanthropy and, before joining Carnegie Corporation, she worked for the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. Her 13-year tenure with the Rockefeller Foundation involved a variety of positions before she ultimately became a program associate in the international relations program. At the Ford Foundation, Ms. Mannion consulted with its international affairs program, assisting with both grant evaluation and grantmaking in its focus on arms control and security issues. She holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in political science, both from Fordham University.
Karen McNeil-Miller is president of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and has over 25 years experience in nonprofit institutions, 20 of which were in leadership roles. Founded in 1946, the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust’s mission is to improve the quality of health and life for the financially needy. The trust awards approximately $27 million annually, investing in solutions that respond to basic life, health and wellness needs as well as initiatives addressing the root causes of poverty. Formerly, she was with the Center for Creative Leadership, an internationally acclaimed leadership development training and research organization. While there, she developed her expertise in individual and organizational leadership development, team building, diversity, leading change and transitions, and strategic thinking. A former special education teacher and independent school head, Ms. McNeil-Miller holds bachelor's and master’s degrees in education as well as a doctorate in general leadership. She is very active in her community serving on boards such as the United Way, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, Novant Health Systems and Southeast Council of Foundations. Ms. McNeil-Miller is also a Fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
