Who We Are
Direct Change, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, was founded in 2006 to connect people who care about Africa with projects that are effective in helping Africa's children.
Direct Change's projects in Africa are carried out by partner organizations that are either African-based groups with low overhead costs or American groups that spend 100% of funds received from Direct Change on their programs in Africa.
Volunteer supporters create their own "Funds" to raise support for the projects of their choice.
People |
|
Corporate Supporters |
|
|
|
The following companies have donated in-kind services:
|
Ken Deutsch has over 20 years of experience managing and consulting with non-profit organizations. An early innovator of the use of the Internet as a tool to assist non-profit organizations, he has served as a consultant and oversaw the development of the web sites and applications for over 30 major organizations. Mr. Deutsch was a principle at Issue Dynamics where he was employed for 12 years and most recently served as Executive Vice President. In his role at Issue Dynamics, he oversaw the development of a technology division. His non-profit management experience includes serving as Organizing Director at the New York Public Interest Research Group where he managed a full time staff of 24 and temporary staff of over 200. He also has served as organizing director at Public Citizen and was the principle field organizer for Earth Day New York City 1990 (one of the largest political demonstrations in history).
Sylvain Browa joined InterAction as the Program Manager for the Africa Liaison Program Initiative (ALPI) in April 2004. ALPI seeks to create a venue outside of the traditional procurement sphere, for African and US NGOs and USAID (three key stakeholders in the implementation of US foreign assistance to Africa) to collaboratively, in a tripartite effort, identify, discuss and address common challenges at the policy, practice, and operational relationship levels. Sylvain has more than 15 years of experience in the management of international development programs and relationships in Africa and Southeast Asia, including professional experience with southern NGOs, U.S. PVOs and USAID. Sylvain holds an M.A. in international development management from The American University in Washington, D.C. He joined InterAction from Pact, a U.S.-based PVO, where he has served for seven years as their Washington-based program manager for a number of African and South East Asian countries.
Sylvain's professional experience covers the areas of international secondary education, refugee camp management, democracy and good governance, microfinance, small and micro-enterprise development, community-based natural resource management, agricultural development, organizational capacity assessment and strengthening, grants management, civil society strengthening, and HIV/AIDS and primary health care program development.
Tom Foster is founding partner at Quince Hill Partners, a firm that raises capital from institutional investors for real estate investment funds or advisors.
Mr. Foster, prior to co-founding Quince Hill Partners, worked exclusively with
Rockwood Capital, where he successfully raised over $1 billion in three successive real estate investment funds. He is currently completing the successful raise of the first institutional fund for Covenant Capital, a Nashville based investor in value-add apartments.
Prior to his affiliation with Rockwood, Mr. Foster worked at the Taylor, Simpson Group, an offshoot of Lazard Freres, where he was in charge of client relations and marketing. He was solely responsible for successfully structuring and marketing the firm's first two real estate institutional investment funds, totaling $400 million.
From 1982-1992, Mr. Foster was a senior marketing professional for JMB Realty, a
Chicago-based real estate investment firm, where he was integral in fund raising and client service for almost 300 investors participating in a wide variety of investment funds. He was personally responsible for raising $3 billion of the $11 billion raised from institutional clients by the JMB team.
Mr. Foster practiced law from 1980 to 1982 with Chadwell, Kayser, Ruggles, McGee and Hastings, also located in Chicago.
Mr. Foster serves on the boards of National Public Radio and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival.
Mr. Foster graduated from Duke University in 1976 with a B.A., magna cum laude, in economics. He received his J.D. from the University of Michigan in 1979.
Chandler Howell serves as Chief Operating Officer of The Fifth Network and brings over 20 years of communications and marketing experience. He has extensive knowledge in developing and structuring messages, implementing communication strategies, creating marketing and public affairs campaigns and managing general business operations. Howell has consulted with, and worked for, several Fortune 100 corporations as well as associations and non-profits of all sizes. Specialties include helping organizations use the Internet to improve their internal and external communications, identify new markets, launch public relations strategies, develop community relations, prepare for and establish crisis communication plans.
Jennifer Silberman serves as vice president of APCO Worldwide where she provides corporate communication and corporate responsibility counsel for APCO clients. She has over 14 years of experience in the areas of corporate communication, stakeholder engagement and issues management in the United States and throughout Latin America. Her current projects include developing and managing communication strategies and stakeholder outreach plans for corporate responsibility and philanthropic programs, performing reputational risk assessments and creating issues management programs for global companies.
In addition to deep knowledge of global labor, supply chain and environmental issues, Ms. Silberman has significant experience working with human rights and women's organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo (The Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina) and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina), where she focused her research on the disappearance of women and children during the military dictatorship of the late 1970's in Argentina. In addition, she has worked in community health centers as a volunteer and educator on women's reproductive and nutritional issues in Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the United States. Currently Ms. Silberman serves on the working groups of the Global Business Coalition's Healthy Women Healthy Economies initiative and the UN Foundation's Coalition for Adolescent Girls.
Ms. Silberman holds a Master of Arts in International Economics and Latin American Studies from The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Latin American Studies from Mount Holyoke College. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has working knowledge of French and Russian.
Sarah Cohen Wood currently serves at USAID as the Strategic Planning and Learning Coordinator for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. Ms. Wood worked in the past as the USAID liaison for the State Departments Office for the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). She has worked in several countries in Africa, and specializes in the role of civil society in post conflict and transitioning environments. For three years she managed the NGO Sector Strengthening Program, which is a program that works to enhance the institutional capacities of local NGOs and Civil Society organizations in fragile and post conflict countries.
She is a specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation and designed the first workshop for local and international NGOs and USAID Mission staff on Conflict Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation for USAID, which was held in West Africa and focused on the Mano River Region. She has worked extensively with participatory methods for program and planning design, and has applied these to several field settings to enhance the participation in planning with local groups and stakeholders. She recently worked on a Disaster Assistance and Response Team (DART) for the Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance in Darfur, Sudan and was stationed in both North and South Darfur.
Brahm Fleisch serves as a Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Education in South Africa. During the Mandela Administration he served as a District Director for a provincial Department of Education. As an expert and author on educational reform in Africa he has served as a consultant throughout the continent. He earned his masters and doctoral degrees from Columbia University.
Richard Moose's long record of public service includes being the Deputy Undersecretary for Management and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs in the Carter Administration and Under Secretary of State for Management in the Clinton Administration. Previously he had served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1969-76, and on the National Security Council staff from 1966-69. during the late Lyndon Johnson and early Nixon administrations. His private sector experience includes, managing director for international financial advisory activities at Sherson Lehman Brothers, and Senior Vice President for international and government affairs at American Express and President of Institute for Policy Research. He led a Council on Foreign Relations study group on foreign affairs financing and recently authored a chapter on technology and foreign affairs for a forthcoming book of the LSU Press.
Pascale-Emmanuelle Nouama is an experienced communications and international development professional that currently serves as the Director of Development and Communications at the N Street Village. A native of Cote d'Ivoire, she has extensive experience developing and implementing communications strategies for a wide variety of organizations in Africa and the United States.
