Professional Experience:
I am a multilingual (English, French, and Swahili) international development and humanitarian aid professional with advanced degrees (BA, MSc, and MA) in and a passion for migration, development, language, and cultures. I have almost a decade of experience securing, designing, and/or implementing emergency humanitarian and development programming for vulnerable and often conflict-affected populations, such as refugees, IDPs, returnees, and host communities. Most notably, my experience includes: working with prominent non-governmental/international organizations (e.g., the US Peace Corps, Mercy Corps, & CARE International) across various programming sectors and modalities (e.g., DRR/climate resilience, CASH, education, FSLN, health, protection/GBV response and mitigation, WASH, etc..); 7.5 years working directly in the realms of program quality, development, and management/coordination; 3 years of managing a diverse team of technical advisors/experts in 4 different INGO (African) country offices; and 7.5 years of living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Togo, and Zimbabwe), including 5 years in a fragile context (DRC).
More generally speaking, my career thus far also continues to be characterized by my:
- time spent in several leadership roles (including two Assistant/Deputy Country Director roles) which required acting as a member of senior and executive leadership teams for multiple (CARE International) African country offices (DRC and Zimbabwe).
- understanding and engagement with core humanitarian standards and other critical humanitarian principles and architecture (e.g., via IASC/cluster coordination spaces and representation responsibilities as part of senior and executive leadership teams, including in fragile and protracted crisis contexts, such as Eastern DRC).
- strong interpersonal communication skills, a proven ability to take on progressive leadership roles, and the fact that I am a proud polyglot – all of which are characteristics having equipped me with an extensive learning agility and allowed me to successfully manage many direct reports who come from different backgrounds than my own.
- experience contributing to the design, roll-out, implementation, and/or monitoring of country-specific, regional-level, and organizational-wide programmatic strategies and their outcomes and relevant targets.
- ability to work under intense pressure and with a diverse range of internal and external teams and stakeholders to complete complex, competing, and demanding tasks – such work often takes place within consortium settings with in-country and/or multi-country networks and organizations.
- engagement with a wide range of international (multilateral, bilateral, foundational, and private sector) donors/funders, with whom I have cultivated successful partnerships (either directly and/or as part of a larger team) to secure more than $25-30M USD for response programming initiatives and activities in countries such as DRC, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ethiopia (see provided CV Annex for a list of these donors).
Such a skill set and related experiences (more detail in my CV) has primarily been built through my years spent working in the following roles:
- Grants/Emergency Programs Intern with Mercy Corps in DRC from 2017 – 2018 (Goma, DRC);
- Proposal Writer & Reporting Officer with CARE DRC from 2018 – 2020 (Goma, DRC);
- Program Quality Coordinator with CARE DRC from 2020 – 2022 (Goma, DRC);
- Program Quality & Impact Coordinator for CARE Kenya in 2021 (Nairobi, Kenya);
- Deputy Country Director for Programs with CARE Ethiopia in 2022 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia);
- Assistant Country Director for Programs with CARE Zimbabwe from 2022 – 2023 (Harare, Zimbabwe); and
- Program Development Specialist with CARE International UK in London since 2023.