Meghan Armistead
Meghan Armistead is a Senior Research and Policy Advisor at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), focused on identifying, analyzing, and translating evidence for improved humanitarian and development policy. Her portfolio focusses on local leadership, localization, civil society and aid reform. Previously, Meghan was a Senior Technical Advisor in the Program Quality and Impact team at CRS, working with partner agencies around the world and supporting local leadership. Over the past 20 years, Meghan has worked with community, faith-based, and national organizations overseas to build partnerships, strengthen organizational capacities, and to help scale civil society leadership. She has been an NGO Development Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Haiti and worked for Lutheran World Relief (LWR), in East and West Africa, as well as serving at LWR headquarters focused on global program quality.
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Tala Bautista
Tala is a member of the Sumacher First Nation in Kalinga, Philippines. She got involved in the peacebuilding field in 2008 and currently works with Peacebuilders Community Inc. (PBCI) as Chief Operations Officer and with Coffee for Peace Inc. (CFP) as Senior Vice President. She is also currently serving as an adjunct faculty for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
Her work with PBCI and CFP is focused on community organizing and advocacy to local leaders to adopt the Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) framework in their organizations. She helps develop the local communities’ own vision for peace, crafting contextually-based, culturally-sensitive strategies to address peace issues in their contexts. Her approach in peacebuilding work involves intensive listening and intentional relationship-building with the people most impacted by injustices. She believes that peacebuilding should be firmly grounded in people’s lived experiences, taking care to be sensitive to power differences and relations.
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Charlie Danzoll
Charlie is an international development and humanitarian assistance practitioner with over 30 years of experience working with International NGOs, local organizations, and foundations in Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. Over the past 5 years, Charlie has guided and supported participatory processes with several international NGOs to support, facilitate, and empower local leadership through organizational governance, institutional strengthening, and strategic and operational planning.
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Keti Getiashvili
Ketevan (Keti) Getiashvili is a Founder and Board member of BRIDGE – Innovation and Development, an OXFAM spinoff organization in Georgia. She led the transformation process from 2015-2018.
She has 25 years of diverse work experience in Humanitarian and Development Programs Management on Sustainable Rural Economic Development, Microfinance, SME development, Community Based Primary Health Care, Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction, Active Citizenship, Gender Equity, and emergency response.
As Country Director of Oxfam GB in Georgia for 15 years, Keti possesses excellent leadership, personnel management, and representation skills, as well as donor liaison and contract management competencies. The challenge of working in completely new environments, including in Tajikistan and Yemen, led to her open and flexible attitude and deep passion for international development.
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Rachel Hayman
Rachel was Director of Research, Learning and Communications at INTRAC between 2011 and 2021, a UK-based not-for-profit organization focused on strengthening civil society through participatory training, consultancy, research, and learning. At INTRAC, Rachel led a multi-faceted program to put sustainability on the agenda of civil society funders. This included research on exit strategies and capacity strengthening activities with CSOs and funders on responsible exit and sustainability planning. Rachel left INTRAC in June 2021 and joined Oxford University as a Strategic Research Development Manager, supporting large-scale, interdisciplinary, and strategic research initiatives as well as capacity strengthening for researchers, including on research programs to address climate change and global health. Rachel has a PhD in African Studies and has over 25 years’ experience in international collaboration at the interface between research, policy, and practice.
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Catherine McMahon
With over 20 years of experience in program development, implementation, and management, and leadership positions in international relief and development, Catherine enjoys helping mission-driven teams and organizations assess needs and priorities, articulate and communicate critical concepts, and identify and address roadblocks to positive, practical action. She has provided consulting services to over 25 clients ranging from start-up firms to small and growing nonprofits to industry-leading humanitarian and development agencies. She brings organizational acumen and analytical skills to adapt services and deliverables to meet the unique needs of each client. She has extensive international experience throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. A clear and compelling writer, skilled facilitator, experienced negotiator, and effective leader and manager, she is skilled at building and supporting high-performing teams and providing strategic guidance and mentoring. She is a business development and acquisition expert with in-depth knowledge of strategy and tactics at the organizational level as well as proven skills to lead the development of high-quality, competitive bids and negotiate strategic program partnerships. She is fluent in Spanish and conversant in French and Romanian.
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Joseph Jimmy Sankaituah
Joseph is a highly motivated and experienced project manager with over fifteen years of expertise in implementation of conflict transformation projects in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone and Liberia. As the present Country Director of Search for Common Ground Sierra Leone, he possesses strong leadership, organizational, and people management skills. Since 2018, he has been leading the transition from Search for Common Ground Sierra Leone and Liberia to Talking Drum Studios Liberia and Sierra Leone, after supporting the setup and operationalization of the two local entities. He now serves as a resource on the Boards of both organizations in recognition of the leadership roles he played for the establishment of both organizations.
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Pauline Wambeti
Pauline believes in “not waiting for other people to make the changes for us, but to make the changes ourselves.” Having invested over 15 years in community development in Kenya, Pauline is currently the Managing Director for Nuru Kenya. Prior to joining Nuru, Pauline worked for the United Nations Environment’s Regional office for Africa-Nairobi. She has been a Programme Officer for the National Organization for Peer Educators; a Business Development Officer for K-Rep Bank Ltd and, a Program Facilitator for Doctors of the World. Pauline has studied Social Work and Community Development in addition to post graduate studies in Development Studies and Project Management. She is a 2018 East Africa Acumen Fellow.
