|
 Sam Worthington, President and
CEO
Sam Worthington
Sam Worthington became the President and CEO of InterAction in October 2006. Prior to joining InterAction, he served as the Vice Chair of InterAction’s Board of Directors, chaired its PVO Standards and Membership committee and was Co-Chair of its Commission on the Advancement of Women. Before joining InterAction, he was the CEO of Plan USA from 1994 to 2006.
Mr. Worthington is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on USAID’s Advisory Committee for Voluntary Foreign Assistance and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee at the United Nations. He also sits on the boards of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign and the Alliance to End Hunger, and is an International Trustee of Religions for Peace. His many leadership roles include chairing the global NGO Impact Initiative on behalf of the office of the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery (President Clinton), and serving as co-founder of the Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI), a partnership of NGOs working to address the impact of AIDS on children.
Mr. Worthington has a master’s degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont.
 James
Keough Bishop, Vice President for Humanitarian Policy and Practice
Mr. Bishop has been the head of Humanitarian Policy and Practice
at InterAction since 1995, working with the forty members engaged in
disaster response, including the relief of affected populations. A founding
member of the Sphere Project Management Team, he has helped guide the
pioneering rights based approach to humanitarian assistance since its
inception in the late nineties. Prior to joining InterAction, he was
a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for 33 years. During that time his assignments
included Ambassador to Niger, Liberia, and Somalia as well as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for Africa (81-87) and Principal Deputy
Assistant for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (91-93). For six
years in the late nineties and early 2000s he was a member of the International
Peace and Justice Committee of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference.
 Dr. Suzanne Kindervatter, Vice President for Strategic Impact
As head of the Strategic Impact Team, Dr. Suzanne Kindervatter oversees InterAction’s work on priority international development issues, gender integration and women’s empowerment, and documenting InterAction member field activities and technical experience from the field. Over the past 25 years, she has worked in 20 countries, in the areas of adult and nonformal education, microenterprise development, organizational capacity building, evaluation, and gender and development.
Previous to joining InterAction in 1994, Dr. Kindervatter served as Director of the Better Life Options for Girls and Young Women Program at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), where she managed a 15-country initiative to expand rights and opportunities for adolescent girls, and as Asia Region and Technical Services Director of OEF International. She is widely recognized as a pioneer in developing participatory training materials and guides to women in development, evaluation, and other areas.
She has served on the boards of the Association of Women in Development, Women Thrive Worldwide, US Women Connect, and since 2003 has been a member of the World Bank’s External Gender Consultative Group.
She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Foundations/Asian Studies from the East West Center/University of Hawaii (1971) and an Ed.D. in International Education from the University of Massachusetts (1978).
 Barbara Wallace, Vice President for Membership & Standards
Barbara is
responsible for promoting InterAction's strategic engagement with the
leadership of member organizations, developing long-range plans for
membership development and expansion and building a strong U.S. NGO
community.
Barbara came to InterAction from RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund, where she served initially as Managing Director and then Executive Director from 2001-2006. She represented RESULTS in the National Anti-Hunger Organizations Coalition and InterAction and served on the boards of the Basic Education Coalition and the U.S. Alliance to End Hunger. Barbara served as chair of the Alliance to End Hunger's Presidential Task Force, created to bring issues of hunger and poverty forward as major issues for all candidates in the 2008 presidential election.
Prior to RESULTS, Barbara worked at Landmark Education where her she
managed multiple departments, volunteer recruitment and leadership
development. Barbara's experience as a businesswoman began while still
in college, at which time she started the first of two successful
businesses in the printing industry, generating impressive revenue and
industry innovation. For several years, Barbara volunteered with
organizations that fought for Native American rights and educational
opportunities for the impoverished. Participation in the ceremonial life
of Native American people and long-term activism in Native American
issues are cherished parts of her life.
 Todd D. Shelton, Senior Director for Public Policy & External Affairs
Prior to joining InterAction, Mr. Shelton was the Senior Government Relations Associate with the Sheridan Group, serving as lead representative for multiple non-profit NGOs and successfully advocating for funding increases and policy initiatives for U.S. Global AIDS programs, debt relief, trade reform and family planning. He was a Congressional Liaison Officer at USAID where he represented over 30 country/ regional programs to key committees and members’ offices of the U.S. Congress and guided successful efforts to secure development assistance to Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. Her also served as an aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT. Mr. Shelton has extensive experience in managing integrated grassroots, media and legislative strategies to achieve policy outcomes, and has designed and executed education and rebranding campaigns for established NGOs that enhanced program funding opportunities and secured favorable policy changes.
Mr. Shelton holds a degree in Government and a certificate in Public Policy from the University of Virginia.
 Nasserie Carew, Senior Director for Public Relations
Nasserie Carew is responsible
for all internal and external communications, including a comprehensive
public relations effort focused on media outreach, advocacy and online
presence. With an extensive background in media relations and branding,
she brings over 10 years of public and private sector experience to InterAction.
Carew recently served as the senior public relations program manager
for the Center for Health Communication at the Academy for Educational
Development. In this role she managed several communication initiatives,
including: Project Safe Neighborhoods, funded by the Department of Justice,
and the National Immunization Coalition Partnership Project, funded by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Prior to joining AED, she held the position of director of communications
for the YWCA USA. In this capacity, she had overall responsibility for
the national communication policies and strategic positioning of the
YWCA USA. She oversaw the development and implementation of internal
and external communications, including the YWCA’s multi-million-dollar
branding campaign.
As a specialist in strategic external communications with non-profit
organizations, Carew has developed and managed numerous national and
international media campaigns on innovative programs and policy initiatives.
 Sylvain Browa, Director for Global Partnerships
Sylvain Browa oversees InterAction’s collaboration with northern and southern NGO platforms and a number of bilateral and multilateral development institutions. He joined InterAction in 2004 as Program Manager for the Africa Liaison Program Initiative, which worked to strengthen partnerships between US and African development organizations. He specializes in the design and management of development programs with regional focus in Africa and Southeast Asia and a multi-sectoral experience including education, good governance, health, microfinance, agricultural and economic development, community-based natural resource management, organizational development, monitoring and evaluation, and grants management.
 Allen Abtahi, Director of Information Technology & CTO
Allen is the Chief Technology Officer and the Director of Information Technologies at InterAction. He is responsible for the complete oversight and management of InterAction’s network-based operations and communications systems. This includes all facets of InterAction’s information systems, networking hardware, software, servers, clients, and communication technologies (video, audio, digital, analog). Prior to his current position, he was the CEO between 1999 and 2007 of Orbital Technology Solutions Inc., an IT company based in Virginia, and from 1995-1999 worked for BDM Technologies and subsequently for TRW. A member of IEEE, Allen is a systems engineer with backgrounds in mechanical and electrical engineering.
 Brian Greenberg, Director for Sustainable Development
The interface between climate change and agriculture has been an area of increasing focus for Dr. Greenberg over the past 10 years. His experience in rural development extends from sustainable agriculture and natural resource management to capacity strengthening for NGOs and communities. His field experience includes work in Egypt, India, Jamaica, Nepal, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dr. Greenberg has experience in field survey methods, participatory rural appraisal, agricultural development, monitoring and evaluation, conflict assessment and mitigation, gender issues, natural resource management, strategic planning and organizational capacity strengthening. Dr. Greenberg has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Dickinson College, a M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Brown University, and a Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. His prior professional experience includes academic research and teaching, a Science and Policy Fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and independent consulting. |
