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Ayse Birsel
Co-Founder and Creative Director, Birsel + Seck Ms. Birsel is an award-winning designer named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in 2017. Using design processes and tools, Ms. Birsel will lead her nationally renowned workshop that teaches how to create a meaningful life. Her closing plenary will give Forum participants the opportunity to coalesce their inspiration, ideas and vision to “Design the Life You Love”.
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DR. SARAH CHAPMAN
Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Deloitte. Sarah focuses on IDO and social impact advisory. She also oversees Deloitte’s internal community investment, employee volunteering, pro bono, sustainability, and impact measurement and reporting functions in Canada and Chile. Sarah has significant international experience across the US, South America, UK and the Asia-Pacific, specializing in building and advising innovative community and social impact programs that create shared economic and societal value. Sarah serves on the Board of Volunteer Canada and is the Co-Chair of the Canadian Council on Volunteering. She is also the Chair of the Toronto Impact 2030 Council.
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Stephanie Oueda Cruz
Head of Gender and Diversity, IDB Invest the private sector branch of the Inter-American Development Bank. Ms. Oueda Cruz ensures that all operations, when relevant, have a positive impact to lead to a more gender balanced society. She has spear-headed the initiative to foster programs that also include other under-represented groups, such as afro-descendants, LGBT, indigenous people and people with disabilities.
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Kathleen Flanagan
Kathleen Flanagan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Abt Associates. Kathleen joined Abt Associates in 1983 and was named President and CEO in 2009, after a distinguished career working across the broad range of markets and policy areas that reflect the company's business today. Prior to becoming President and CEO she served as Group Vice President for Social, Economic and Health Policy. Flanagan has been a member of the company's leadership team since 2001. She is a founding member and former president of Jobs Have Priority, a Washington-area nonprofit and serves on the board of the Professional Services Council. Flanagan holds an M.S. in Public Policy from the University of Rochester.
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Bonnie Glick
Deputy Administrator, USAID. Ms. Glick was most recently the Deputy Secretary of the Maryland State Department of Aging. Before that she worked as a Senior Vice President at Meridian International Center. Prior to that, she worked for IBM in a variety of positions. Ms. Glick began her career as a Foreign Service Officer in the Department of State, where she served tours of duty at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during Operation Desert Shield; at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and at the U.S. Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua.
Ms. Glick holds a B.A. in Government/International Relations from Cornell University, an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Amharic, French, and Russian.
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Catherine Kannam
Senior Vice President of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan regions, Chemonics International. A local economic development and municipal governance specialist, she has supported projects in Afghanistan, Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon. She served as director of the Regional Agricultural Development Program – South and the director and deputy chief of party for the Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations – South in Afghanistan. Previously she worked with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and with the Praxis – Institute for Participatory Practices through the American India Foundation Clinton Fellowship for Service. She holds degrees from Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins University.
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Jay L. Knott
Jay L. Knott, Chief Business Officer, Abt Associates. Jay joined Abt in 2010 and oversees all of the company’s international business operations, including Abt’s global offices in the UK and Australia and the U.S.-based international development division. Before joining Abt, Knott served as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director in both Jordan and Mozambique. He joined USAID in 1988 and worked in a number of leadership roles in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining USAID, Knott worked as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and at the private firm Fox, Weinberg, and Bennett. Knott received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Debbie Kennedy-Iraheta
Chief Operating Officer, FHI 360 Ms. Kennedy-Iraheta ensures the delivery of measurable, cost-effective results, and enables FHI 360 to meet its goal of applying holistic, country-centered solutions to complex development challenges. Prior to joining FHI 360, Debbie held multiple leadership positions with USAID: in two Regional Bureaus (Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Near East) leading bilateral and regional programs in education, governance, climate change and biodiversity conservation; as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Human Resources, where she led USAID Forward's talent management component and oversaw the rebuilding of USAID's Foreign Service Corps.
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Sylvia Megret
COO, ACDI VOCA Ms. Megret is a strategic and resourceful management, operations, and business development executive with over 25 years of experience working with mission-driven international development organizations. She brings proven expertise in convening and building successful global teams. She is skilled in the conceptualization and institutionalization of innovative business systems, enhancing efficiency and continuous process improvement. Ms. Megret is recognized as problem-solver, mentor to staff at all levels, and thought leader.
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Dr. Nhu To Nguyen
Deputy Country Director for Vietnam, FHI 360, and Chief of Party, USAID SHIFT Project, Dr. Nhu is well-versed in the management of training, technical assistance, and transitioning efforts to build and sustain the quality of HIV services in Vietnam. She has a medical degree from Hanoi Medical University and a master’s degree and PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Los Angeles, having been accredited in addiction medicine by the International Society of Addiction Medicine in 2012.
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Dr. Omékongo Dibinga
Dr. Omékongo Dibinga is a motivational speaker, TV talk show host, trilingual poet, rapper, and professor of Crosscultural Communication at American University. His writings and performances have appeared in O Magazine, as well as on TV and radio from CNN and TEDx to The BBC and NPR. He’s written songs for major motion pictures and organizations such as NASA. He has spoken before the United Nations and partners with the State Department to conduct leadership trainings overseas. He has shared his work in 25 countries. Omékongo provides leadership, and diversity & inclusion consulting for organizations. For more, please visit www.upstanderinternational.com.
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Dr. Cindy Pace
Vice President, Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at MetLife. In this role, Pace leads the global D&I strategy for an enterprise wide employee base of 49,000 in nearly 40 countries. Aligned to the company’s business imperative, Pace drives and promotes D&I as critical success factors to fuel innovation, cross-cultural collaboration and business success.
Pace is also a leadership scholar practitioner who frequently provides thought leadership at global conferences and academic institutions where she presents on global diversity, inclusive leadership, purpose and women’s leadership. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Fortune Magazine and the book Women’s Leadership Journeys: Stories, Research, and Novel Perspectives.
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Garry Ridge
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, WD-40 Company This private sector company leader speaks around the globe about organizational culture and effective leadership techniques. Garry is the co-author of “Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy” and ‘Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A.’
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Vivian Riefberg
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company Vivian is a recent leader of the Public Sector Practice for the Americas and was co-leader of the US Health Care practice. Since joining McKinsey, Vivian has led major performance improvement programs across various participants in the private, public and non-profit sectors. She leads work in the areas of strategy development, performance improvement, organization and operations. She currently serves on the Senior Partner Committee evaluating and helping develop the global senior partners.
Sumeet Seam
Vice President and General Council, Save the Children USA, Sumeet is a member of the senior management team and is charged with managing all legal affairs of the organization. In addition, he oversees the functions of child safety, employee safety and security, procurement and enterprise risk management. He also serves as the Chair of the organization’s Diversity & Inclusion Council. Prior to that, Seam has 16 years of legal experience in public and private company settings. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Columbia University Law School in New York and a Bachelor’s of Arts in International Affairs from The George Washington University.
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