Technical Staff
Freedom from Hunger has technical staff with diverse training and experience, both before and after joining our organization. A distinctive common feature of our technical staff, including the President, is that all have been trained to be trainers and advisors to other organizations in various aspects of adding value to microfinance. These are the people Freedom from Hunger can offer to do training and technical assistance and other special assignments, including research studies and technical presentations. Their biographies are presented below to show the depth of experience and diversity of skills and backgrounds that Freedom from Hunger’s International Center can offer to other organizations. The technical staff residing outside North America are listed for each of our regional offices. To engage their services as trainers and technical assistance providers, please refer to the sections on training and technical assistance.
Technical Staff of the Freedom from Hunger International Center:
Christopher Dunford, President
Chris has over 30 years of rural development experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States. He joined Freedom from Hunger in 1984 as Director, Arizona Programs and then became Regional Director, U.S. Programs; Director, International Operations; and Vice President for Programs prior to becoming President. Chris was co-creator of the Credit with Education methodology and now provides organizational leadership and speaks and writes for international audiences on the impacts of microfinance for the chronically hungry poor, on measurement and management toward social objectives, and on integration of microfinance with lifeskills education and health protection. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Chris worked for the U.N. Environment Program in Kenya and then for USAID contractors in Tanzania, Botswana, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, and the Sudan. Chris has a Ph.D. (University of Arizona in Tucson) in ecology and a B.S. (Cornell University) in biological sciences. He reads/understands French and Spanish.
Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Africa & Asia
Kathleen has 35 years experience in international development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 1984 and co-created the Credit with Education methodology. As Associate Vice President from 1991 to 1997, Kathleen managed the West Africa region, providing technical assistance and training to credit unions and rural banks and developing Freedom from Hunger’s business education curriculum. Since 1997, Kathleen has been a Vice President responsible for new program development, strategic business planning and special project innovations, including Saving for Change and Financial Education. She was interim director of External Affairs 2005-2007. Currently, Kathleen oversees programs in Africa and Asia. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Kathleen was a USAID project manager for microcredit and nutrition education in Burkina Faso and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. She holds an M.A. in International Administration (School for International Training Graduate Institute) and a B.A. in Psychology (Clark University). She speaks fluent French.
Lisa Kuhn Fraioli, Vice President, Latin America
Lisa has over 11 years experience in microfinance and 15 in Latin America. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2005 as Technical Advisor in Microfinance, providing technical assistance and training to microfinance organizations throughout Latin America. Since then she has launched offices in Mexico, Peru and Ecuador and expanded partnerships in the region from eight to over fifty. Currently, Lisa supervises all programmatic activity in Latin America. She also serves on the steering committees of the Imp-Act Consortium and the Latin American Network for Gender Justice in Economic Development. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Lisa worked as a gender and microfinance specialist for Opportunity International, specializing in product design and research. She has also worked for FINCA International. She has an M.S. in Foreign Service (Georgetown University) and a B.A. in Romance Languages and Latin American Relations (DePauw University). She speaks Spanish and French.
Cassie Chandler, Technical Advisor, Training
Cassie has over 7 years of experience in international health and community development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in January 2008, and worked as a Program Associate and later Technical Advisor, supporting and providing technical assistance to Freedom from Hunger’s Microfinance and Health Protection initiative, which combines health protection innovations—products that improve knowledge of, access to and financing of health services—and microfinance. She is now working with the Training Services Team and develops, tests and supports implementation of innovative education and other products. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Cassie worked with the Latino Health Access Network in New Orleans, with organizations in Mexico and Kenya on microfinance and HIV/AIDS projects, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras. She holds an M.P.H. (Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine), a B.A. (University of Washington) in zoology and political science-international relations, and she speaks Spanish.
Laura Fleischer Proaño, Director, Savings Group Methodologies
Laura has over 8 years of experience in international development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2005. She has been a Technical Advisor with the Training Services Team, where she developed training manuals and provided technical assistance on Savings Group management, financial literacy and health topics for women and adolescent girls in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Laura now leads Freedom from Hunger’s Savings Group work, including the Saving for Change program. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Laura provided research and technical support to communities in the impoverished region of Appalachian Ohio with the Voinovich Center and provided technical assistance on microenterprise development and Savings Groups management with the Peace Corps in Ecuador. She has an M.A. (Ohio University) in International Affairs and a B.A. (University of Pittsburgh) in Business and International Studies, and she speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Nichola Fluehr-Lobban, Technical Advisor, Training
Nicki has over 3 years working in the field of development and offering technical assistance, particularly in the region of Central/West Africa. She joined Freedom from Hunger in September 2009 as Technical Advisor with the Training Services Team. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Nicki worked with the African Economic Research Consortium housed in the IMF Institute in Washington, DC. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the south of Cameroon where she developed her aspiration to work in the world of development in Africa and where she learned to speak French. Nicki holds an M.S. (New York University Center for Global Affairs) in International Economics and Development and a B.A. (University of Denver) in International Affairs.
Edouine François, Director, Training Services
Edouine has 14 years of experience in building capacity of trainers and designing education curriculum. He joined Freedom from Hunger in 2003 as Technical Advisor in Education, delivering training-of-trainer sessions and technical assistance to microfinance institutions in West Africa and Haiti. From 2007 to 2008, Edouine played major roles in strengthening the Freedom from Hunger training system to develop the capacity of a global network of trainers. He now leads the talented trainers of the Training Services Team. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Edouine worked as Training Manager and Training Consultant for CAFEM in Haiti, where he provided to local and international development organizations a series of training services related to market study for developing education modules, curriculum design, and coaching of trainers. He holds a B.A. (Haiti State University) in Business Administration and has completed coursework in psychology. He speaks Haitian Creole, French and Spanish.
Megan Gash, Research & Evaluation Specialist
Megan joined Freedom from Hunger in 2007. She works with partner organizations to design, implement and analyze research and evaluation studies that measure the efficacy of their programs. She also provides relationship management with local and international research institutions, consultants and interns involved with our research initiatives. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Megan worked in microfinance research with a focus on poverty assessment and has conducted trainings and carried out field research in Central America, East Africa and Southeast Asia. She has an M.A. (American University, Washington, DC) in International Affairs and a B.A. (University of California, Davis) in International Relations, and she speaks Spanish.
Bobbi Gray Kotara, Research & Evaluation Specialist
Bobbi joined Freedom from Hunger in 2004. She works with our partners to design, implement and analyze research and evaluation studies that measure and assess the impacts of Credit with Education and other program interventions, including feedback of this information to stakeholders for decision-making. She also specializes in helping partners develop robust social performance management systems whereby organizations put their social mission into practice. Bobbi helps oversee the ongoing project to develop, test and document the food-security scaling for use by our partner organizations to assess poverty levels of their clients and changes in poverty over time. She holds a Master of Public Administration (Monterey Institute of International Studies) in International Management and a B.A. (Texas Tech University) in French and Spanish, and she speaks both languages.
Christian Loupeda, Director, Social Performance Management
Christian has 20 years experience in international microfinance and private-sector capacity-building. He joined Freedom from Hunger in 2000 to provide technical assistance to our partners in West Africa, Madagascar and Haiti. From 2007, Christian designed and implemented technical assistance and training provision models for expansion of value-added microfinance. He currently directs the international Imp-Act Consortium of organizations committed to promote the practice of Social Performance Management by microfinance institutions. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Christian worked with the Banque Internationale pour l’Afrique Occidentale in Paris, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Catholic Relief Services and The World Bank. Christian is a certified service provider for MicroSave Africa market research tools. He has a Master’s degree (Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) in Economics and a degree of advanced studies (Université de Paris II-Assas) in Development Economics, and he speaks fluent French, English, and Fon (a Beninese language) and reads Spanish.
Marcia Metcalfe, Director, Microfinance and Health Protection
Marcia has over 20 years experience with innovative healthcare financing and delivery models in the U.S. Since 2006, Marcia has worked with Freedom from Hunger to design and demonstrate new approaches to integrate health and microfinance. She was an early contributor and leader of our work with five microfinance partners in Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines to design, demonstrate and evaluate the impact of integrated health and financial services. She also directs our work to develop consumer education for health micro-insurance and assist microfinance institutions to develop linkages to health microinsurance. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Marcia taught nonprofit management at Allegheny College and served as Senior Vice President for Organizational Development with a health insurance organization in the U.S. Marcia has a Masters (University of Michigan School of Public Health) in Health Administration and a Bachelors (Oakland University) in Economics.
Rossana Ramirez, Director, Advancing Integrated Microfinance for Youth
Rossana has 10 years experience in providing training and technical assistance and in conducting community-based research. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2005 as a Technical Advisor, conducting training for organizations to adapt and implement a financial education curriculum in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Her primary areas of expertise include financial education, market research and social performance management. In 2009, she became the director of a new initiative to develop and test value-added microfinance focused on youth. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Rossana worked with nonprofit organizations to link low-income families to affordable financial services. She has a Master of Public Administration (Harvard University), a Master of Community and Regional Planning (University of New Mexico) and a B.A. (Rice University) in Economics and French. She speaks fluent Spanish and English, and is proficient in Portuguese and French.
Myka Reinsch Sinclair, Special Advisor, Microfinance and Health Protection
Myka has over 15 years of experience in international community and economic development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2004 as Senior Technical Advisor in Microfinance, providing technical assistance and training to microfinance institutions and credit union federations, particularly in West Africa and the Philippines. From 2006, Myka started and directed the Microfinance and Health Protection initiative to develop and test a variety of health-financing and healthcare linkages that could be practically offered by microfinance institutions. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Myka worked in U.S. community development lending, microenterprise development with Peace Corps in Thailand, investment promotion in emerging markets through a Euromoney subsidiary, and independent research in Senegal. She has an M.B.A. (Columbia University) and a B.A. in linguistics (Vassar College), and she speaks French, Thai and Wolof (a Senegalese language).
Eden Rock, Director, Institutional Giving
Eden has over 20 years experience in community and international development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2007 as Director, Institutional Gifts, providing strategic direction and support for securing funds and managing relations with corporate, foundation and public funding institutions. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Eden worked with numerous community-based international nonprofit organizations on issues of international development and development education, community development, refugee resettlement and adult education, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. She has a Master of Public Administration (San Francisco State University) and a B.A. (University of California, Berkeley) in Psychology, and reads French and Spanish.
Perth Rosen, Technical Advisor, Training
Perth Rosen has 10 years experience developing and managing global health projects worldwide, with a concentration in Latin America. Perth joined Freedom from Hunger in 2010 as a Technical Advisor, Training, to design and package innovative training curricula, informed by market research, that focus on dialogue-based, behavior-change education. Before joining Freedom from Hunger, she coordinated HIV research along Mexico’s northern and southern borders with the Division of Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, researched human trafficking with the International Organization for Migration, was health project trainer for Peace Corps Honduras, supervised HIV services for underrepresented groups at the San Diego-Tijuana border and served as Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru and Honduras. She holds a BA (University of Colorado, Boulder) in International Relations and an MA (University of Queensland, Australia) in Peace and Conflict Resolution, and she speaks Spanish and German.
Jessie Tientcheu, Technical Advisor, Training
Jessie Tientcheu has seven years experience in microfinance and international development. She joined Freedom from Hunger in 2008 as a Technical Advisor. Jessie worked for the Imp-Act Consortium, a global association of organizations, promoting social performance management by microfinance institutions. She now works with the Training Services Team to support development and implementation of Freedom from Hunger’s innovative products. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Jessie worked with the UNDP (U.N. Development Program) Grassroots Poverty Reduction Program in Cameroon, provided technical assistance to Cameroonian microfinance institutions and their clients as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and conducted research on small businesses and microenterprise. Jessie holds a BA (Sarah Lawrence College) in economics, a Masters in Urban Policy Analysis and Management (The New School), and speaks French.