Terms Of Reference Podcast

Jeroen van der Sommen is the director and co-founder of Akvo, an organization that builds open source internet and mobile software which is used to make international development cooperation and aid activity more effective and transparent.Jeroen helped to ignite the Akvo phenomenon after the Stockholm World Water Week in summer 2006 and has steered Akvo’s evolution to ensure it is relevant to, and supported by, a wide range of implementation NGOs, funding partners and global institutions. He started his career as a geologist, working throughout the 1980s in countries such as Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Niger, Mali, Indonesia and India, managing water supply and management projects on behalf of organizations such as the World Bank and the European Union. In 1998, Jeroen founded the Netherlands Water Partnership, where he built a dynamic network of over 200 member organizations that collaborate.

Laura Walker McDonald is the Chief Executive Officer of the Social Impact Lab Foundation, an organization that designs, implements and measures the impact of inclusive technology projects, and explores new ways that technology can facilitate and simplify project objectives.Before joining SIMLab, Laura worked for the British Red Cross on international humanitarian policy and learning, focussed on quality and accountability, innovation, urbanization, cash transfer programming and civil-military relations, as well as strategic planning.Drawing on her expertise in humanitarian aid, human rights law and international development, she brings a cross-disciplinary approach to communications, innovation and information management.

Andrej Verity is a disaster responder and information management officer for the United Nations (OCHA) and co-founder of the Digital Humanitarian Network. He has deployed to many high-profile emergencies over while also leading innovation around humanitarian information management and managing the UN’s collaboration with the volunteer and technical communities. Most recently, his work has supported and focused on how big data in crisis, microtasking and artificial intelligence can improve disaster response.Andrej openly shares his ideas in the hope of finding energetic collaborative partners to help move the humanitarian community forward at http://blog.veritythink.com

Dr Peter Bradley is the Director of Public Health Development at Public Health Wales. He is committed to improving and protecting the population’s health, by reducing health inequalities, maintaining excellent public health services and making health information and evidence accessible and relevant.Peter has worked in public health for many years in the UK and abroad. For 5 years he worked as a senior medical advisor for the Norwegian government, advising on clinical policy, health technology assessment and was the acting head of the Norwegian equivalent to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.He has a strong commitment to using evidence and promoting its use in practice. He has a ten year history of international/national teaching on evidence-based practice and completed a PhD focusing on medical education.

Deirdre White is a globally recognized leader in building tri-sector partnerships to address the world’s most pressing challenges. As CEO of PYXERA Global she has led the transformation of the organization to one that maximizes impact through strong and strategic partnerships through cutting edge programming like Global Pro Bono, Local Content Development, and Integrated Community Development.Deirdre’s expertise spans private, public and social sector experiences.  Her social sector tenure at PYXERA Global is complemented by early career roles at the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and American Councils.  She has also served on the Boards of Directors of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) and the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy (now a signature initiative of PYXERA Global.)  Prior to joining PYXERA Global in 2002, Deirdre was a Senior Manager in the Public Sector Practice at Arthur D. Little, Inc., leading projects focused on strategy and organization for the US Agency for In

Sean Martin McDonald is the CEO of FrontlineSMS. Frontline technologies is used by thousands of organizations to reach tens of millions of people, saving lives, improving healthcare and building inclusive societies. Frontline was named the #1 Technology NGO in the world and was listed by the Nominet Trust Social 100 in 2014.Sean is a Trustee of the Awesome Foundation DC and an affiliate with Harvard University's Berkman Center. Sean is an advisor to Digital Democracy, DoSomething.org, ECPAT USA, the Law Without Walls Program, TechChange, and UNDP. Sean is a lawyer, barred in New York. He also holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University.

Linda Raftree is a co-founder of Kurante a company dedicated to helping organizations better understand how technology can improve development outcomes.Linda has worked at the intersection of community development, participatory media, youth, gender, and information and communication technologies since 1994. She has advised The Rockefeller Foundation’s Evaluation Office on the use of ICTs in monitoring and evaluation and worked with Plan International USA on youth engagement, innovation, transparency and strategy. She has also conducted research on adolescent girls and ICTs for UNICEF, the role of ICTs in child/youth migration for the Oak Foundation, the use of mobile technologies in youth workforce development for the mEducation Alliance, and ICT-enabled monitoring and evaluation for Rockefeller.Linda is also a co-founder of Regarding Humanity, which encourages debate and dialogue around the portrayal of ‘the poor’ in the media, social impact work, and non-profit marketing. She coordinates Technology Salons

Jacob Korenblum is the CEO, President and Co-founder of Souktel. Souktel designs and delivers custom mobile solutions that connect job seekers with employers, and help development implementers get information to and from the people they serve.Prior to Souktel, Jacob worked managing economic development and emergency relief projects for USAID and the Canadian International Development Agency. Fluent in Arabic and French, Jacob has worked in the emergency aid sectors in the Middle East, East Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. He is a frequent panelist on technology, development, and labor markets--with speaking engagements ranging from the GSMA Mobile World Congress to the World Bank Human Development Forum. He has co-authored a chapter in the sector publication “Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management” and has written articles on mobile technology for the MIT Innovations Journal, CNBC Online, and the Overseas Development Institute. His work as a Souktel co-founder has been profiled by The Wall Street J

Djordje Vdovic has over 20 years of progressive experience with the United Nations in the fields of management, logistics and procurement in more than dozen different duty stations across four continents.Djordje is a proven trouble-shooter with a list career credits that include delivery of fast and effective support services in emergencies and rationalization of the World Food Programme's largest and most complex Purchase for Progress program in Afghanistan.

Dr. Beryl Levinger is a highly regarded development professional, distinguished professor and chair of the Development Practice and Policy program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.With a career that includes senior positions such as the President of AFS Intercultural Programs, Senior Vice President of CARE and Vice President of Save the Children, Beryl draws on a rich array of experiences to teach classes and deliver consulting across the five issues of evaluation, capacity development, strategic planning, education and health. A former vice chair of both Pact and InterAction, Beryl has worked in nearly 90 countries and, for the past 15 years, she been research director or co-director of Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers Report, a publication that offers a comparative perspective on the health, education and gender issues faced by girls and women throughout the world. Beryl has won numerous international awards for the quality of her contributions to the field of

Nick Martin is the founder and CEO of TechChange, a Washington DC-based social enterprise that provides tech training for social change. The TechChange training model has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Economist, Fast Company and elsewhere.Nick is a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, and an International Youth Foundation Global Fellow. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown and George Washington Universities where he teaches graduate courses on Technology for Social Change, Technology for International Crisis Response, and Mobile Phones for International Development.

Peter Mousaferiadas is a composer, conductor, producer, award-winning leader and executive director of Cultural Infusion, an Australian organization committed to building cultural harmony and wellbeing through a range of sustainable arts and engagement programs for schools, youth and communities.Cultural Infusion's programs use intercultural contact to catalyze positive change to a broad audience. For example, Cultural Infusion’s education program “Discovering Diversity” is delivered to more than 200,000 students annually.

Michael Ketover is a highly experienced independent consultant currently working with the Peace Corps, USAID/Ghana and a USAID implementing partner.Michael is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer and AmeriCorps/ VISTA alumni. He was hired by the Peace Corps in 2000 as a program and training director for Papua New Guinea and Ecuador. He has also served as interim country director at 11 Peace Corps posts for a total of four years and as Senior Advisor to the CFO at Peace Corps Headquarters focused on internal controls and agency risk assessment.Before and after Peace Corps, Michael worked as a senior inspector at the Department of Commerce’s Office of the Inspector General, as an evaluator of USAID and MCC international development programs, as a corporate lawyer and human rights and poverty law attorney, and in emergency and disaster response. Most recently, Michael worked on a USAID/Feed the Future project in Ghana and on criminal justice strengthening activities in El Salvador and Mexico

Lori Thicke has worked in languages for over 20 years. In 1986 she founded the Paris-based Lexcelera, a translation company which today has offices in Paris, London, Buenos Aires and Vancouver. In 1993 she co-founded Traducteurs sans frontières to provide pro bono translations to support global aid work.In 2010, Lori founded Translators without Borders, now the world’s largest community of humanitarian translators. Translators without Borders supports global aid organizations by donating millions of words of professional translations each year. With the creation of its translator training center in Nairobi, Kenya, Translators without Borders is actively taking down language barriers to knowledge for some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.

Alessandra Pigni has run the blog Mindful Next, since 2011, to help aid workers build resilience, prevent burnout and keep sane while serving others in the field.Trained as a clinical psychologist, she has worked as a psychologist with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and as a consultant with local and international NGOs spending a good part of the last seven years in Palestine. She is currently a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford working on a book on aid workers' wellbeing.

David Hess was commissioned as a U.S. Foreign Service officer with USAID in 1980. During his career with USAID, he served as Project Development Officer in the West Africa regional office in Cote d’Ivoire, Rural Development Project Officer in Peru, Director of the Alternative Development Office in Bolivia, Program Officer in USAID’s Africa Bureau in Washington, D.C., Supervisory Program Officer in Guinea, Environment and Energy Officer in India, Supervisory Program Officer in Rwanda and Deputy Mission Director in Mozambique. His final USAID assignment was Director of USAID’s Office of Natural Resources Management in Washington, D.C. Since retirement in 2006, Hess has worked for Conservation International as Vice President for Asia programs; the Millennium Challenge Corporation as Senior Director for environmental and social assessment; International Resources Group Senior Manager for the environmental and natural resources division; and USAID/PPL Bureau as consulting Senior Adviser for strategy and project de

Tina Cornely is the founder of the non-profit organization Bridging Humanity - an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty through holistic solutions. In particular, Tina focuses her work on her recently published 9 Steps To Eradicate Poverty, which provides practical solutions for agriculture, self medical care, energy production, water purification, repurposing of trash, family planning, hygiene and environmental protection.Prior to founding Bridging Humanity, Tina was the Director of Technology of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and former Operations Director of the Miami Art Museum.

Birgitte Jallov is an independent communication and media specialist and the founder of Empowerhouse.   Since 1980, she has worked with community radio for development, empowerment and social change. This includes the development of a series of special tools, organisation forms and methodologies for community organisations to enact change in more than 60 countries and 250 assignments over the years.

Patrick Meier is the author of the book Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data Is Changing the Face of Humanitarian Response. He directs the Social Innovation Program at the Qatar Computing Research Institute where he and his team use human and machine computing to develop "Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies" in partnership with international humanitarian organizations. Patrick has a PhD from The Fletcher School, Pre-Doc from Stanford and an MA from Columbia. He blogs regularly at iRevolutions and you can follow him at @patrickmeier.

Johnny Girges works with with Arcenciel, an organization dedicated to social inclusion through their programing with youth, health, mobility, agriculture and more. Johnny is a true Aidpreneur, combining his skills as a physical educator, circus artist, and NGO manager to "edutain" and empower at risk youth in Lebannon and beyond with critical circus performance skills that can be used under the tent and throughout their lives.