Introducing myself and my journal: Empowering Women for World Peace

About Me:
I have 15+ years of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating international development programs focused on women’s empowerment, conflict mitigation and management, community development, capacity building, local governance, civil society, youth, and elections processes. As the former Chair of InterAction’s Gender Integration Working Group, and the founder and lead for IRD’s Gender Working Group, I am current with gender related development, employing strategies for women’s participation, monitoring and evaluation, and winning proposals. I recently received a Masters in Conflict Management with an emphasis on Women and Power from John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

I got my start in women’s political empowerment when I was hired to be the first male political director of the National Women’s Political Caucus. Since then I have advised several women candidates for the US Congress, along with countless women candidates, presidents and party leaders in developing countries. I have served as Chief of Party (CoP) and other senior technical leadership positions in 17 countries in the Middle East, Balkans, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. I have spearheaded over 250 high-profile trainings and conferences in over a dozen countries worldwide, many with a gender focus, including a women’s campaign training program in Kuwait during their historic elections in 2005. In addition, I have organized and participated in election observation missions in Iraq, Kuwait, West Bank/Gaza, Sierra Leone, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kenya, Lesotho, and Romania.

I have successfully built coalitions and anti-conflict alliances in highly charged environments, managing complex relationships on aggressive schedules. I have expertise and experience in convening and leading multistakeholder groups to foster change, including the U.S. and foreign military, world leaders, passionate local activists, police and the local media. Finally, I have made contributions to all aspects of the business development lifecycle, including writing state of the art conflict mitigation and capacity building proposals (see attached list of the proposals I submitted last year). As a result I have helped organizations win awards from clients such as USAID, the U.S. Department of State, UNDP, and DfID.

My Passions:
Women's Political Empowerment

My Challenges:
Maximizing my capacity to affect change

My Vision for the Future:
A world with more women leaders

My Areas of Expertise:
Democracy and Governance