Professional Experience

Lecturer, Columbia University Climate School/School of Professional Services and School of International Public Affairs  September 2022 - Present

  • Teaches graduate courses on Energy and Sustainable Development and Energy, Enterprise, and Development.

  • Served as faculty mentor to a student capstone project exploring the feasibility of investing in green hydrogen in West Africa for the UNDP. 

DAI, Bethesda, Maryland  September 2003 - Present

Chief of Party, Advancing Women for Resilient Agricultural Supply Chains (AWRAS)  Oct-Dec 2024 [acting]; January 2025 - Present 

  • Leads a $30M USAID-funded cooperative agreement that supports women’s inclusion in agricultural supply chains, leveraging a planned $60M in private sector resources.

  • Manages relationships with private sector partners PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, McCormick, and Nespresso to implement activities in countries including India, Indonesia, and Morocco.

  • Designs and implements technical activities to identify and address gendered constraints to supply chain resilience.

  • Oversees a team of partnership managers, operations staff, and technical specialists to support key partner activities, holds responsibility for management of $30M in USAID resources, as well as collaborative management of private sector resource contributions. 

Deputy Chief of Party, USAID Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) February 2023 - December 2024

  • Provided overall technical guidance for activity planning, oversees INRM’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) function, ensures appropriate resourcing for technical activities, and manages activity portfolios to ensure client satisfaction, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness.

  • Managed a $10M portfolio of activities, including managing INRM’s Land and Resource Governance and Women’s Economic Empowerment work, as well as a series of high-profile conservation finance roundtables for USAID, DFC and the Department of State. 

  • Led a co-creation that resulted in the submission of the AWRAS concept, and supported the launch of the US Government’s Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) Initiative.

  • Facilitated a 2-day, in-person co-creation with USAID and Amazon to design a gender responsive climate finance facility, now known as the Climate Gender Equity Fund.

Senior Global Practice Specialist, Climate, Land and Natural Resources  May 2018 - January 2023

  • Supported DAI’s climate change and natural resource management initiatives across projects, focusing on climate change strategies and women’s economic empowerment.

  • Developed, in partnership with the USAID/Guatemala Nexos Locales project, MuniCAT, a tool to benchmark the capacity of municipal government to support climate adaptation.

  • Developed technical proposals for sustainable development, including successful bids for USAID projects in Honduras and Vietnam.

  • Served as a Portfolio Manager (50% time) for the USAID/INRM activity, overseeing INRM’s activities focused on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Land and Resource Governance, ensuring effective and timely project delivery. (July 2022 - January 2023)

  • Developed environmental compliance plans and Climate Risk Management Plans for USAID projects in South Sudan, Mozambique, and Nigeria. Developed and delivered an internal Environmental Compliance and Climate Risk Management training for DAI staff.

New Business Manager/Technical Writer/Senior Technical Writer  November 2010 - June 2018

  • Provided technical writing and support for proposal development in areas including sustainable fisheries, forest conservation, and low-emissions development.

  • Managed and integrated new business proposals for DAI across multiple sectors, ensuring quality and timely submission of contract proposals.

  • Reviewed proposal drafts to ensure compliance and improve win probability. 

New Business Manager, Health October 2008-November 2010 

  • Built and maintained a pipeline of new business for DAI’s newly-launched Health Sector.  

  • Managed, wrote, integrated, edited, and provided quality control for proposals in the sector, and developed and managed relationships with key partners and clients. 

  • Won 10 new contracts totaling more than $200 million. 

Technical Writer March-June 2008 

  • Supported DAI marketing efforts through written communications, including news stories, press releases, and marketing flyers. Generated content for the DAI Web site. Researched and wrote DAI Success Stories. Contributed to various DAI publications. 

Senior Proposal Analyst, DAI Europe May 2007-February 2008 

  • Provided Business Development support to the DAI Europe office in 9-month secondment. Supported and monitored DAI’s European Strategic Initiative, developing standard cross-company business development procedures and information-sharing mechanisms. 

  • Provided proposal management and integration support. 

Special Assistant to the CEO June 2006–May 2007

  • Participated in the development of DAI’s 2007–2010 corporate strategy, including development of a business case study for the Middle East. 

  • Supported initial efforts to implement the DAI Strategy through the winter and spring of 2007, and  served as Assistant Corporate Secretary, responsible for taking minutes of DAI Board meetings.

  • Wrote and designed DAI’s successful application for the 2006 Government Contractor of the Year Award, and prepared a winning submission nominating Dr. Peter Reiss for the Lourdes Arizpe Award for Policy, Anthropology, and Environmental Issues. 

Junior Acquisition Manager, BDU April 2004–June 2006

  • Managed workflow and proposal development process for teams of five to 20 people. 

  • Managed relationships with subcontractors, including teaming agreements, proposal inputs, and meeting arrangements. Liaised with DAI’s Recruitment, Contracts and Publications offices.

  • Contributed to research and writing of technical proposals, corporate capability statements, and CVs. Prepared implementation/work plans, organizational charts, and graphics. 

  • Designed and delivered proposal management and coordination training sessions in Bethesda and Ramallah, West Bank. 

  • Served as Interim Publications Specialist for the USAID/Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq activity, based in Erbil, Iraq. Published consultant reports, ARDI daily reports, policy briefs, a quarterly newsletter, and training course materials, and made substantial contributions to the ARDI Quarterly Report. In addition, contributed to special reports as requested by USAID and the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. 

Marketing Assistant/Acquisition Assistant September 2003-March 2004

  • Developed a prototype new business tracker and worked with the Director of Global Business Solutions to maintain communication with DAI subsidiaries for tracking of all DAI new business. 

  • Managed bid and proposal code allocation, and tracked bid funding for proposals companywide. Supported Acquisition Managers in proposal efforts. 

Education

M.S. Sustainability Management, Columbia University, 2021
Capstone project: 30x30: Marine Habitat Conservation in the New York Bight. Developed a framework for the application of other effective conservation mechanisms in marine areas and estuaries in the New York Bight, in support of the New York Aquarium’s NY Seascape Project

B.S. Foreign Service, cum laude, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 2003

Training & Certifications

  • Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (2021)

  • USAID Environmental Compliance Training (2020)

  • Systems Thinking Training (2015)

  • Facilitation Training, Training Resources Group (2006)

Languages

  • English (native), French (proficient)