CARE Subject Experts

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media contacts | experts database

If you are interested in interviewing any of the following people, please contact our media relations office.

FOREIGN AID EXPERT

Peter D. Bell

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT

Susan Farnsworth

EMERGENCY EXPERTS

Ahuma Adodoadji
Robert MacPherson

HUMAN RESOURCES EXPERTS

Barbara Murphy-Warrington

POLICY EXPERTS

Andrew Pugh
Marianne Leach
Kevin Henry

NON-PROFIT LAW

Joe Iarocci

REGIONAL EXPERTS

Africa

Jon Mitchell
Chris Conrad
Jack Soldate

Asia

John Ambler
Sherine Jayawickrama

Europe and Middle East

Beat Rohr

Latin America

Rafael Callejas

DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS

HIV/AIDS

Sarah Degnan Kambou
Kristin Kalla
Luke Nkinsi

Family Planning/Health

Susan Rae Ross
David Newberry
Dr. Sanjay Sinho
Dr. Elena McGowan

Environment/Agriculture

Avtar Kaul

Small Economic Activity Development

Calvin Miller

Women's Issues/Basic and Girls' Education

Jane Benbow

Hunger/Food Security

Jeannie Downen

Water, Sanitation and Environmental Health

Peter Lochery

FOREIGN AID EXPERT

Peter D. Bell
PRESIDENT

As president and CEO of CARE, the world's largest private relief and development organization, Bell is responsible for the organization's policy, administration and fund raising and for its programs in more than 60 developing countries.
Before becoming president of CARE in October 1995, Bell was the president of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, where he worked to improve conditions for the disadvantaged. He has been president of the Inter-American foundation, which supports grassroots development in Latin America. He also worked for the Ford Foundation for 12 years, including 10 with its Latin American program. Bell was on CARE's board of directors for eight years - five of which he served as chairman. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Peter D. Bell can tell you about:

Perspectives from a life spent in the fight for human rights and the reduction of poverty.
The landscape of private giving - individuals and foundations; trends and challenges.
The beginnings of transition: his visits to Kosovo, Gujurat, India; Afghanistan; Angola; and Sudan.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT

Susan Farnsworth
PLANNING AND COORDINATION DIRECTOR

Farnsworth has more than 15 years of international experience in non-governmental organizations, working in Mali, Niger, and Senegal, and serving as CARE's country director in Tanzania and assistant country director in Somalia and Niger. Farnsworth is responsible for planning, coordinating and integrating CARE's Program Division efforts among and between divisions and country Offices. She also monitors and oversees the Program Division's annual operating plan and budget. She is skilled in strategic planning, negotiation and conflict resolution, financial management, administration, and design and implementation of community projects. She has worked for CARE in both relief and development activities, and in 1994 coordinated CARE's response to the Rwandan refugees flowing to Tanzania. Farnsworth has a Masters of Public Administration degree (MPA) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is fluent in French.

Susan Farnsworth can tell you about:

Household livelihood security
Issues of natural resource use and management around refugee camps.
Designing/implementing a strategic plan for establishing a new CARE Country Office.

EMERGENCY EXPERTS

Ahuma Adodoadji
DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY GROUP

Adodoadji is responsible for guiding CARE's response to emergencies overseas. He has more than 20 years experience in relief and rehabilitation operations with several humanitarian organizations, including World Vision.
Adodoadji also worked for the Carter Center as Associate Director/Acting Director for the African Governance Program. Most recently he has been the Director of Disaster Response for World Relief.

Ahuma Adodoadji can tell you about:

The challenges of providing emergency aid during a disaster
The many facets involved in a complex emergency, ranging from deployment to advocacy issues

Robert "Bob" MacPherson
DIRECTOR OF SECURITY AND PROTECTION UNIT

In his current role, MacPherson is responsible for designing and implementing security measures for CARE staff around the globe. MacPherson first joined as assistant director for the Emergency Group in 1998 after four years as a consultant to CARE, specializing in emergency training and operation start-up and management. In addition, he coordinates all of CARE's land mine awareness and demining programs worldwide. Since 1994, MacPherson has helped CARE respond to emergencies in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Timor. MacPherson is a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel with 25 years of service, including Vietnam, Desert Storm and Somalia. As part of the United Nations operation Restore Hope in Somalia beginning in late 1992, Macpherson served as deputy director for Civil/Military Operations, prioritizing and coordinating multi-national relief efforts. From 1979 to 1982, MacPherson returned to his alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute, as an associate professor, where he taught military history and leadership. After completing active service with the Marines, he founded Enable, a humanitarian relief organization dedicated to assisting the survivors of land mines and war. Wounded in Vietnam, MacPherson is the recipient of the Presidential Legion of Merit and four commendations for valor.

Bob MacPherson can tell you about:

Security in conflict situations
Responding to an emergency quickly and efficiently
Humanitarian demining strategies

HUMAN RESOURCES EXPERTS

Barbara Murphy-Warrington
SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT FOR HUMAN RESOURCES

Barbara Murphy-Warrington has served as Senior Vice President of CARE USA's global Human Resources Division since April 1998. The division sets and implements an global human resources management strategy for CARE's 12,000 employees. The division also is responsible for partnering with line managers and other national members of the CARE International confederation around the world to implement that strategy in over 60 countries. The division works to ensure that CARE is an employer of choice amongst international nongovernmental organizations.
Ms. Murphy-Warrington came to CARE from The Ford Foundation in New York City, where she was the Deputy Director of the Office of Human Resources. She was the liaison at Ford's headquarter to its field office representatives in 17 countries where Ford worked. Ms. Murphy-Warrington was responsible for designing and implementing the Foundation's leadership and management development program, and for leading the effort to realign the HR function with Ford's organizational goals and mission. She worked specifically in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Nambia and Vietnam. Prior to that position, she was Resident Counsel for 10 years in Ford's Office of General Counsel, where she concentrated on domestic and international employment matters, ERISA, contract, tax, and oversight of employment litigation. Ms. Murphy-Warrington also served as Deputy Attorney General, in the Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey, from 1984 to 1986.
Ms. Murphy-Warrington is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bar Associations and the International Society of Human Resources.

Ms. Murphy-Warrington can talk about

Matching human resources to opportunities for development
The diversity of CARE's staff

POLICY EXPERTS

Marianne Leach
PUBLIC POLICY AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Leach has more than 20 years experience in government affairs and international humanitarian development and relief organizations. She has worked in Papua New Guinea, Turkey and England. Leach is primarily responsible for communicating CARE's mission and perspective on development and relief issues to the Administration, Congress, and other key audiences. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey, Leach also served as a Peace Corp training officer for four projects teaching English as a secondary language in Turkey. She has a bachelor's degree in history from Emory University, and is a recipient of Emory's Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Marianne Leach can tell you about:

Peace as the only hope for progress.
Land mine issues
Foreign assistance

Andrew Pugh
COORDINATOR FOR ADVOCACY

Pugh is responsible for coordinating CARE's advocacy activities at CARE Headquarters and at CARE's Washington, DC Office of Public Policy and Government Relations, as well as expanding advocacy efforts at CARE's overseas field offices. Pugh brings more than ten years of experience as a CARE development expert, including assignments in Armenia, northern Iraq, the Newly Independent States and Africa. As advocacy coordinator, he works on policy positions surrounding issues such as land mines, foreign assistance levels and family planning in front-burner countries such as Sudan and in the Balkans.

Andrew Pugh can tell you about:

Peace as the only hope for progress.
The politics of food.
CARE Packages for Congress.

Kevin M. Henry
DIRECTOR OF ADVOCACY

Henry has more than 15 years of experience designing and managing long-term development programs and participating in major humanitarian relief operations. Prior to his current position, Henry served as senior assistant to the president, policy analyst and as CARE's regional manager for East Africa, overseeing CARE's operations in 11 countries. His current duties include leading the development of CARE USA's advocacy strategies with regard to the 11 member nations that make up CARE International (CI). Henry also is responsible for drafting CARE USA positions on significant CI policy matters and serves as a liaison between CARE USA and CI.

Kevin M. Henry can tell you about:

Where CARE works and why.
International seeds of support for aid.
Making donor nations from aid recipients.

NON-PROFIT LAW

Joseph J. Iarocci
GENERAL COUNSEL

Iarocci has been CARE's General Counsel since 1998. Before joining CARE, he worked in private law practice in New York City and Atlanta. Iarocci manages CARE's Office of General Counsel, the department that oversees CARE's legal affairs in the United States and around the world.

Joe Iarocci can tell you about:

How CARE operates under different legal systems in over forty countries.
New laws addressing terrorism that are applicable to the non-profit sector.
How charitable fund-raising laws affect organizations like CARE.

REGIONAL EXPERTS

Africa

Jon Mitchell
EAST AFRICA REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Mitchell has worked for 16 years in international relief and development, initially as a volunteer in Indonesia and then with CARE in Haiti, Nepal, Kenya and Sierra Leone. For the past three years, he served as a senior manager in CARE's Atlanta headquarters, and now is based in Nairobi as Regional Director for all of CARE's relief and development programs in East Africa -- including Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Palestine and Egypt.

Jon Mitchell can tell you about:

How families conquer the barriers to development.
The abundance of success stories in East Africa: the side you don't hear about.
The diverse languages, cultures and challenges of the area.

Chris Conrad
SOUTHERN & WEST AFRICA REGIONAL DIRECTOR

A development veteran of more than twenty years, Conrad has worked in Togo, Congo, Uganda, Mali, Chad, India and Haiti. As regional director, Conrad oversees a range of relief and development programs, including an innovative regional AIDS prevention program in West Africa that educates migrant workers at bus and taxi stations about how to prevent infection.

Chris Conrad can tell you about:

How bus stations factor in the fight against AIDS.
Mali: An African success story.

Jack Soldate
SOUTHERN AND WEST AFRICA DEPUTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR

During his 26 years with CARE, Soldate has accumulated more than 15 years overseas experience, working in Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Rwanda and India. He also served five years as the executive director for the American Refugee Committee. As regional director, Soldate oversees CARE country programs in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Angola. He is fluent in Turkish and French.

Jack Soldate can tell you about:

Emergencies involving population migration - crossing international borders and internally displaced populations.
Responding to the needs of the people swirled by civil conflict.
The evolution of African governance in politics.

Asia

John Ambler
ASIA REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Ambler has worked in Asian development for 23 years, initially as a volunteer in Indonesia and then with Ford Foundation in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has also run East Asia programs for the Social Science Research Council. Since May 2000 as Regional Director he covers CARE USA's Asia programs--Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, and Thailand.

John can tell you about

Relief and development challenges in Afghanistan and Central Asia
Right based programming on HIV/AIDS
Community management of natural resources

Sherine Jayawickrama
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT OF CARE
Sherine has worked with CARE for three years, assisting the President of CARE with a broad range of communications, management and policy issues. She has traveled to Afghanistan, Angola, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Somalia for CARE. This summer, Sherine takes on the post of Deputy Regional Director for Asia. Before coming to CARE, Sherine worked in Sri Lanka for three years as an analyst for a USAID-funded environmental policy project. Her academic background is in public policy and development studies.

Sherine can tell you about:

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, especially as it relates to women.
The challenge of ending poverty and fighting social injustice in today's world.

Europe and Middle East

Beat Rohr
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST

Rohr has worked in Development and Relief for twenty years with assignments in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru and Egypt. For the last year Beat has worked in Cairo covering all CARE activities in the Middle East, the Caucasus Region and Eastern Europe including the Balkans.

Beat Rohr can tell you about:

Complexities of development in post conflict situations
Difficulties of working in conflict zones
Regional challenges

Latin America

Rafael Callejas
REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR LATIN AMERICA

As Regional Manager, Rafael is CARE's point-person for relief and development in Latin America and the Caribbeans. He oversees 8 Latin American Caribbean countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti. Prior to assuming this position in January 2001, Rafael was the Country director for CARE El Salvador. He holds degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and from José Simeón Cañas University, El Salvador.

Rafael Callejas can tell you about

Natural Disasters: Improving your skills and knowledge, to reduce vulnerability
Networking: How working in networks can help build better and stronger communities.
Improving managerial skills of overseas staff.

DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS

HIV/AIDS

Sarah Degnan Kambou
REGIONAL COORDINATOR

Sarah has more than ten years of field experience, working in countries like Togo, Zambia, Ethiopia, Mali and currently in Ivory Coast. She is a highly qualified reproductive health professional having substantial cross-sectoral programming and management experience specifically in the areas of health and population, civil society and local governance, small economic activity development and basic education. Sarah has progressive management experience and staff supervision as family planning project manager, health sector coordinator, reproductive health technical coordinator, assistant country director (program) and regional coordinator (HIV/AIDS). She also is particularly skilled at building consensus on organizational values and mission, and at creating and sustaining shared vision among team members. Sarah has primary dn tell you about:

Improving and expanding the reproductive health services in developing countries.
Reproductive health and family planning.
Strategic planning and management of reproductive health and family planning programs.

David Newberry
PROJECT DIRECTOR, POLIO ERADICATION, CORE GROUP PARTNERS PROJECT

David Newberry directs the strategic framework and polio eradication team in a $ 11 million dollar project implemented through polio endemic country PVOs and NGOs in national and regional partners with 21 grant funded community-based agreements. With more than 35 years experience in national and international public health he has provided leadership and strategic planning guidance in primary health care and Child Survival Programming. David served 25 years with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention in a variety of professional appointments including infectious disease Epidemiology, program development and management, and served as a member of CDC's Smallpox Pox Eradication Team. He trained health professionals in applied, basic and special problem Epidemiology. Newberry was also responsible for CDC's hospital infection control training, tuberculosis program, general health program management and served various assignments in sexual transmitted disease Epidemiology and conducted training and methodology in the WHO 30 cluster survey technique. Mr. Newberry received a Research Scientist faculty appointment as a Ph.D. equivalent at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Department of International Health based on education, experience, training and professional reputation. He has first hand experience in three disease eradication programs, smallpox, guinea worm and polio.

David Newberry can provide insight on:

Strengthened collaboration relationships with national ministries of health, USAID, PVOs, NGOs, universities and donors.
Health Topics of Child Survival, immunization, Integrated Management of Child Health (IMCI), Diarrheal Disease, program planning, implementation, training and monitoring & Evaluation.
Emerging diseases, reemerging diseases, global disease elimination and eradication as public health strategies.
Health Analysis and Planning activities based on surveillance and appropriate responses

Dr. Sanjay Sinho
SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVISOR, CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Dr. Sanjay Sinho can talk about:

Improving and expanding the reproductive health services in developing countries.
Reproductive health and family planning.
Strategic planning and management of reproductive health and family planning programs.

Dr. Elena McGowan
TECHNICAL SPECIALIST, BEHAVIOR CHANGE

McGowan is responsible for providing support for Child Survival projects in Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Mozambique. Elena will also provide strategic technical assistance to the whole of CARE's Health portfolio in the field of Behavior change.
Elena comes with a rich experience of over 13 years in the field of Public Health mostly in Nicaragua, where she received her MD as a general physician then later specialized in Pediatrics. She has also done a course on management for international Public Health (CDC and Emory University) Elena comes to Atlanta with more than six year of field experience with CARE. She has served as Project Manager for Child Survival in Matagalpa, Nicaragua and also as Health Sector coordinator in Nicaragua.

Elena can talk about:

Techniques to ensure child survival
Decentralization and health sector reforms on health equity

SMALL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT

Calvin "Cal" Miller
DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Miller has more than 20 years of worldwide experience in economic development, including the design, implementation and evaluation of credit, production and marketing programs, and institutional development. His experience ranges from on-the-ground fieldwork as an agricultural economist to organizational and program management as the country manager of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) in Bolivia. It also includes many consultancies for organizations, such as World Relief, World Vision, the Interamerican Development Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency, Deloitte & Touche, and the World Bank. As director of CARE's Economic Development Unit, Miller provides leadership and technical support for more than 200 CARE micro- and small-enterprise, and agriculture and natural resource projects in more than 40 countries. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree. in agricultural economics. He is fluent in Spanish and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.

Calvin Miller can tell you about:

Evaluation of Rural Credit Programs in Bolivia.
Factors Impeding Credit Use in Small Farm Households.
Analyzing the Role of Credit in Small Farm Households.

WOMEN'S ISSUES / BASIC AND GIRLS' EDUCATION

Jane T. Benbow
DIRECTOR OF BASIC AND GIRL'S EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Benbow has more than 20 years experience in designing, implementing and managing training and education programs both in the United States and in nearly a dozen developing countries. Benbow is responsible for researching and implementing strategies that ultimately boost girls' education programs in the developing world. Currently, only 55 percent of school-age girls in the least developed countries attend primary school.

Jane Benbow can tell you about:

Reading, writing and arithmetic: The pillars of basic education.
How girls' education decreases infant mortality and increases family health and income.
The classroom or the cornfield? Hard questions for families struggling to survive.

HUNGER / FOOD SECURITY

Jeannie Downen
DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIP & HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD SECURITY (HLS)

Downen oversees a process of linking together and ensuring that CARE's programming framework provides adequate and sustainable access to income and other resources to enable households to meet basic needs (including adequate access to food, potable water, health facilities, educational opportunities, housing, time for community participation and social integration, etc.). During her 17 years with CARE, Downen was previously the country director in Swaziland and the East Africa regional manager.

Jeannie Downen can tell you:

How do you meet the basic needs of the people?
Creating dependency -- not in my aid project!

WATER, SANITATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Peter Lochery
SENIOR ADVISOR FOR WATER, SANITATION & ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Peter Lochery has more than twenty years experience in water and sanitation programming. Prior to joining CARE, he worked for a consulting firm and then the UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, in the Middle East, West Africa and South Asia. Since its inception in 1957, CARE's water and sanitation portfolio has grown to more than 70 projects in nearly 30 countries; Lochery is responsible for developing the strategies that ensure these projects have sustainable impact on poor people's health and their social and economic well-being.

Peter Lochery can tell you about:

What's the secret of success in delivering water to poor communities?
How behavior affects the improvements clean water can provide
Americans feel greatly inconvenienced when water is cut off for only a few hours, but a billion people live this way every day.