CARE's Executive Management Team

Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organization with approximately 10,000 staff whose poverty fighting programs reached 82 million people last year in 87 countries. Since joining CARE in 2006, Dr. Gayle has led efforts to reinforce CARE's commitment to empowering girls and women to bring lasting change to poor communities. Under her leadership, CARE has strengthened its focus on long term impact, increased policy and advocacy efforts and deepened connections between poverty and the environment. Gayle has leveraged the power of CARE's corporate and NGO partners to significantly expand CARE's reach across the globe. An expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle then worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Rockefeller Foundation, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Cox Enterprises Incorporated and ONE. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Public Health Association. Dr. Gayle also chairs the Obama Administration's Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and serves on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Named one of Foreign Policy magazine's "Top 100 Global Thinkers," and Newsweek's top 10 "Women in Leadership" Dr. Gayle has been featured by national and international media outlets. She has also published numerous scientific articles.

Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

Jonathan (Jon) Mitchell currently serves as CARE USA's Chief Operating Officer (COO) providing strategic-level direction, leadership and management for CARE. Jon, a 27-year veteran of CARE, recently served as CARE USA's senior vice president for global operations, where he worked closely with country and regional offices as well as the organization's humanitarian emergency and security teams.

Mitchell, who grew up in Kenya and has over 30 years experience in international relief and development, is a United Kingdom national with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Surrey. He joined CARE in 1984 managing a water and sanitation project in Haiti and has served many roles since, directing country offices, regional offices and, more recently, CARE International's humanitarian emergency function based in Geneva. Mitchell has brought his focus on organizational development to many of his assignments.

Jon rejoined CARE USA as Senior Vice President for Global Operations in January 2011 and transitioned to the COO role effective August 2011.

Vickie Barrow-Klein joined CARE, Inc. in November 2008 as Sr. Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to CARE, she served as Vice President for Finance and Information Management, Treasurer and CFO for Save the Children Federation, Inc.

She led the Human Resources, Information Systems, Internal Audit, Knowledge Management and Finance departments through more than 15% annual Agency growth by focusing on building teams, developing leaders in their respective disciplines, strengthening oversight and internal controls, and challenging staff toward continuous improvement.

Prior to Save the Children, Vickie served as the Deputy CFO for the Peace Corps where she oversaw their first financial statement preparation and annual audit in the same year that Oracle Federal Financials was rolled-out to all 82 offices world-wide. Vickie has also worked with the Academy for Educational Development: first, as their Director for Bids and Proposals, then as the Manager for Finance and Administration on the BASICS project, and finally as the VP for Financial Systems and Billing. In total, Vickie has almost 25 years of experience in the administrative and financial management of U.S. Government contracts, cooperative agreements, and grants as well as multi-lateral, UN, foreign government and private foundation agreements. Nearly twenty of those years have been serving in a financial role within the international NGO sector.

Patrick is Senior Vice President, Global Support Services and oversees Human Resources, Information Technology, Business Services and Gender Equity and Diversity at CARE USA. Patrick came to CARE in 2003 as the Director, Internal Audit and in April 2005 became Senior Vice President for Human Resources.

Prior to BellSouth, Patrick worked at Marathon Oil Company and Proctor & Gamble, both in Ohio. Patrick has gained experience over his career in Internal Audit, Finance, Human Resources, and Operations Support. He has a BBA in Accounting from Howard University, and an MBA from Georgia State University. Patrick, a native of Trinidad & Tobago, is married with two children. He is very involved in his local community and is on the Board of Directors of 21st Century Leaders, a non-profit organization that prepares young people in Georgia for life after high school.

Jean-Michel joined CARE in 1988 as Manager of an agro-forestry project in Northern Togo. Over the last 20 years he took the position of Assistant Country Director for Program in Niger and El Salvador, Country Director in Sierra Leone, Togo-Ghana-Benin and Mali and Regional Director for West and Southern Africa before becoming Vice President for Program Quality and Impact in October 2008. He is a Belgian citizen.

Jean-Michel holds a Master's degree in agronomy and forestry, specialized in tropical areas and a Master's degree in Secondary Education from the University of Gembloux, Belgium.

Abby is Vice President of International Programs & Operations, overseeing regional management units and their country offices in East & Central, West and Southern Africa; Latin America & the Caribbean; Asia; and the Middle East/Europe. Abby came to CARE in 1995 and has taken on country and regional leadership roles in East and Central Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, and Haiti.

Prior to CARE Abby worked with the U.S. Peace Corps, German Agency for Technical Cooperation, UN World Food Programme, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from Colorado College and a Master of International Administration from The School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. She has over twenty years of experience in international humanitarian relief and development leadership and operational management, working with host country counterparts, bi- and multi-lateral agencies and at grassroots level.

Kent became General Counsel of CARE USA in April 2011, and oversees the legal affairs of the organization.

Previously, Kent served as the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Emory University for over a decade. Earlier in his career he also served as the Presidentially-appointed United States Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia and was a Partner in the law firm of King & Spalding.

An Atlanta native, Kent graduated from Tufts University and the University of Virginia School of Law.

He has been very active in the civic community, including co-founding Hands On Atlanta, nonprofit organization that coordinates the community work of over 50,000 volunteers.