Imali J. Abala is a writer and Professor of English at Ohio Dominican University (ODU) in Columbus, Ohio. She teaches creative and freshman writing, world literature, African literature, and women literature. As a recipient of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship in 2019, she worked with students at Kisii University in Kenya to promote and mentor aspiring writers. Her work there led to the publication of In the Murk of Life, a student poetry collection about contemporary Kenyan life, of which she served as one of its co-editors. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Kenya Studies Review, a premier and interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing scholarship on Kenya. She is also an author of several books through which she highlights gender disparity in Kenya, especially in her novella, The Dreamer, nominated for the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2017. Her passion is to empower young girls through her writing and believes when you empower girls, you empower a nation.

When she is not teaching at ODU, she spends some of her time, through her writing groups, mentoring and offering editorial assistance to emerging Kenyan writers. While during her summer holidays, she prefers to volunteer at Kerongo Primary School. It is this passion she has for literacy in her community that led her to spearhead a renovation project to improve the quality of the aforementioned school’s latrines in 2020; this was in spite of the COVID-19 challenges. She has her sight set on other development initiatives in this rural community school: To improve the classroom facilities. She believes education is a gate path to success and it can only be achieved if students have a conducive learning environment.

She has a Doctorate Degree in English and Master’s Degrees (M.A. in English and M.A. in African American and African Studies) from The Ohio State University. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Wilmington College, Ohio.

Ajaga Buran Innocent is founder and director of Care Community Education Center (CCEDUC) Child Development. He has a degree in Development Studies with certificates in project planning and management, Information technology and HIV/AIDS Prevention at in the workplace.

Innocent was born in the northwest of Uganda, in the Yumbe District which was isolated from the country for many years due to a war which disproportionately impacted women (52.8%) and children (65.8%). Seeing that scarce resources were also in demand from South Sudanese Refugees in the nearby Bidibidi Refugee camp, Innocent was inspired to establish CCEDUC to empower vulnerable women and children in the Yumbe District.  

Since 2017 he has been a consultant for German Volunteers working to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children through education. He assisted them in establishing an orphanage where 317 orphans and other vulnerable children can now receive an education.  

In early 2020, CCEDUC collaborated with RPCV Chris Roesel to install wells, hand pumps, latrines, hand washing, malaria protection and treatment facilities. Chris introduced TCP Global to CCEDUC which now serves as mentor and fiscal agent for fourteen women’s Village Savings and Loan Associations which receive TCP Global funds to increase their loan pools.

Mark Aledda served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Medellin, Colombia from 1973-1975 working with small businesses and credit cooperatives.  Mark graduated from Boston College with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, and also holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of International Management. Mark worked for over 30 years in International Banking, including overseas assignments in Chile and Mexico, and spent the final 6 years of his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, before retiring in 2016.  He has been an active TCP committee member since 2009.

A native of Niger, Ibrahim earned a Master’s Degree from Southern New Hampshire University and wrote his Master’s Thesis on “Introducing sustainable agricultural techniques to the nomadic community of Ingui in northern Niger.”  Ibrahim provided agricultural skills training to Peace Corps Volunteers in Niger and has extensive experience in Niger and Tanzania in training in agricultural and artisan-based income generating activities, business and money management, product quality control, analysis of market demands, community enterprise and development and sustainable market gardens. Ibrahim is very familiar with the opportunities and challenges facing TCP Global partners working with subsistence farmers in Niger. He now resides in California.

Shea served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 2018 to 2020. Serving in the Community Economic Development sector, he advised numerous entrepreneurs, taught financial literacy education in two high schools, and partnered with the Chamber of Commerce of Cartagena to formalize local businesses in his rural Caribbean site. Shea studied Finance and Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning his Bachelor of Business Administration in 2018. He also has experience in youth development, legislative affairs, and community organizing.

Zachary Coen first connected with TCP Global as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia when he facilitated the launch of a TCP Global community microloan program in his Peace Corps site of Aracataca in 2019.  Upon returning home from Colombia, he deepened his relationship with the organization by spearheading a project to improve the loan reporting and data analysis capabilities of the organization, eventually joining the Board of Directors in 2020.  Zachary is currently an MBA Candidate at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he is pursuing opportunities in FinTech with the goal of improving the access and flow of capital to emerging markets around the world. 

Emily Chambard is from the Seattle area, with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Spanish from Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. As Director of Program Administration for TCP Global, Emily researches, develops, and translates internal and external programming resources, communications assets, and reporting materials to support partner programs, marketing efforts, and internal team management. She also provides administrative project management support for the US-based team, while supporting three Colombian nonprofits as a Community Development Mentor and Reporting Analyst. Aside from TCP Global, Emily offers consulting services including grant research and writing, strategic communications planning, and content development to nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada through a boutique firm based in Denver, Colorado. Previously, she served as a Community Economic Development Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Colombia, where she worked with a wide variety of stakeholders across public and private entities to build locals’ capacity in financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and bolster small business development in the regional capital of Valledupar and its surrounding rural communities. Prior to joining the Peace Corps she was a Health & Social Impact Associate with the global communications agency Weber Shandwick, where she served as an account and project manager, as well as digital content developer, for clients including the Gates and Dell Foundations.

Curt is a data professional with an MS in Business Analytics (’16) from the College of William and Mary. Before serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, he worked as a developer in Washington, D.C. and as a data scientist at a youth non-profit in Wilmington, DE. Curt was as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 2019 to 2020. He served as a Community Economic Development Volunteer in southern Magdalena where he supported a local NGO with its micro-loan program funded by TCP Global.

Joshua served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 2018 to 2020 as a Community Economic Development volunteer. While there, he worked with a local organization that was implementing TCP Global’s micro-credit program. Joshua graduated from Saint Louis University with a bachelor’s of science in Economics.

As a Mentor Program Coordinator for TCP, Joshua helps link organizations in communities around the world that fall under TCP Global’s purview with current and former Peace Corps Volunteers in order to establish a micro-credit program and create a mentorship between the two. He facilitates the preparation of the mentor, enabling him or her to be a system of support for the local organization, and acts as a point of contact for TCP Global.

John Dada has served as a volunteer CEO and later as Chairman of Board of Fantsuam Foundation (www.fantsuam.org). Fantsuam was founded in 1996 to empower community members, particularly women, to find means of employment and income and meet their own development needs.

John served on the faculty at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria before leaving for the UK as Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. John also trained as a nurse in the UK and was chairperson of the African Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. John received the Meritorious Award of University of Queensland, Australia, and was nominated a CNN Hero.

John's services in Fantsuam Foundation has resolved around developing programs that address the Mission of Fantsuam Foundation: to eliminate poverty and disadvantage through integrated development programs.

Working in 50 communities across 7 Local Government areas in Kaduna State, close to 15,000 individuals benefit from Fantsuam’s services every year and it was recently estimated that over 400,000 people have benefited either directly or indirectly from Fantsuam Foundation’s activities to date.

Fantsuam's integrated suite of programs is crucial to its effectiveness in eliminating poverty and disadvantage in its host communities. Its combined focus on Sustainable Livelihoods, Health, Education and capacity building in non-violent conflict resolution, with emphasis on women and older people's roles, has evolved from Fantsuam Foundation’s ability to recognize and respond to the needs of its beneficiary communities.

Michelle served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal from 1990-1992 teaching and training teachers. She graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in English Literature and a minor in Economics. She has worked in Global Education at the World Affairs Council of Northern California and CGI in Chicago. For the past 20 years she has represented the US overseas in Bangladesh, Germany, Jerusalem, Switzerland and France. Michelle joined the TCP Global Board of Directors in 2019 and facilitates communications with the projects in Nepal.

Helene served as an Urban Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Barranquilla, Colombia from 1968-70 and as a Small Business Development volunteer in Slovakia from 1997-1999. She is a former member of the National Peace Corps Association Board of Directors, former chair of its Micro-Enterprise Program and has served on the board of directors of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida and Friends of Colombia. In 2007, Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter presented Helene with a Presidential lifetime service award for her on-going commitment to service and Peace Corps values. In 2013, she received the Lillian Carter Award from President Jimmy Carter. She has a B.A. from St. Louis University and a Masters in Management Information Systems from Florida International University. In 2008 she retired after 22 years in Miami-Dade County government and six years with state government in Illinois and Florida. 

Helene is a founding member of The Colombia Project- TCP Global and 2019-20 President of the Rotary Club of Coconut Grove.

Jerry Fickel was an agriculture program volunteer in Peace Corps Colombia during 1967-1969 in the northern department of Bolivar. Fickel was first assigned to PINA, a human nutrition program and later worked with SENA, a vocational education program, together with the INCORA land reform project at Marialabaja. Fickel's primary efforts were directed toward teaching farmers methods of handling and raising cattle.

Fickel is a graduate of Kansas State University in Animal Husbandry with graduate studies in animal reproduction. His career, by combining his education with Peace Corps experience, has been one of sales of breeding cattle and genetic products throughout Latin America.

Fickel resides in Miami and is on the board of other not-for-profits, The Ministry of The Good Shepherd, which provides nutrition and community development projects in Peru, Alticultura, which records climate change on farms at high altitude in Guatemala and seeks crops adapted to the changes, and Empowered Youth, a program to give inner-city boys in Miami a second chance. He volunteers with the local St. Vincent de Paul Society to visit and assist the poor and is a member of the Hialeah-Miami Lakes Rotary Club . Jerry has visited three of the micro-loan sites in Colombia, participated in the 2009 Micro-Loan Micro-Summit in Cartagena and assisted with Colombia Project workshops in La Victoria in 2012.

Zakari Hassane holds a Master’s Degree in Financial Auditing. As founder and head of Potentiel Terre, he trains women and girls in marketable skills, works to improve the incomes of disadvantaged communities and supports efforts to increase food and nutrition, primarily in rural areas of Niger. He contributes significantly to empowering girls and women in Dosso, Niger to participate more completely in the sustainable development of the area 

Zakari is the former Director of Inspection and Control of Niger's second largest microfinance institution. Through a partnership with TCP Global, he supervises three women’s savings groups and has assisted three other organizations in the establishment of microcredit programs with TCP-Global. 

Yogi Kayastha has an MA in Renewable Energy from the University of Flensburg in Germany and
has 20 years of experience working in the NGO sector in Nepal. He also worked as Language
Instructor for Peace Corps Volunteers in 1990.

He began his NGO career in 1992 working for UNDP funded programs and INGOs. He began his
work with the Development Fund Norway in 2009. Since 2016, he has served as the Country
Coordinator of the Development Fund Norway looking after monitoring and documentation of
7 direct partners and 7 sub-partners in Nepal.

Yogi has traveled extensively throughout Nepal including 72 out of 75 districts. He has in-depth
knowledge of the socio-political and economic situation of the rural population of Nepal.
At the request of his former language student, Michelle Daniels, Director of Asia Programs of
TCP Global, he continually identifies and recommends cooperatives and community based
organizations as new partners of TCP Global in Nepal. He also serves as liaison between TCP
Global and its partners in Nepal.

Andrew Koch, a TCP Board Member since 2018, is currently an MBA Candidate at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. From 2016-2018, Andrew served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the Community Economic Development sector where he advised local NGO, 'La Olla Milagrosa', in its launch of a TCP micro-loan program. Andrew also has professional experience in private equity, venture capital, and entrepreneurship in Latin America and the US. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Wake Forest University. 

Founding member of The Colombia Project. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in  Palmira, Valle de Cauca - Colombia from 1973 to 1974. Tim served as an education volunteer from 1973-74 at the Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) teaching communication and technical English to graduate students from South America, Central America, and Africa who were earning post-graduate certificates in agriculture. One day per week, he also taught English as a Second Language SENA in Buga. During his last six months in Colombia, he worked as the Volunteer Leader of the Education Program. Tim earned his bachelor’s degree in Public Address and Group Communication at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, an M.Ed. and Ph.D. in Psychology at Loyola University of Chicago, and a Master’s in Public Health at Florida International University. Tim had a long career at Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System as Director of Training for Psychology Service and as the facility’s Designated Learning Office before taking a position as a psychologist with Peace Corps in 2010.

Ebby Luvaga is a Teaching Professor of Economics at Iowa State University (ISU) in Ames, Iowa.  Her interests are in economic development, particularly the role of gender in development.  She was part of a 2014-2017 USAID-Feed The Future (FTF) interdisciplinary research team that worked with smallholder farmers in Uganda and Mozambique on legumes and soil fertility management. Ebby has also worked on various programs focussed on Nigeria. In 2017 she received a grant through the Cochran Fellowship Program (USDA-FAS) to host a group of women entrepreneurs in agriculture, mentored a Mandela-Washington Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Fellow, and also led a team to Ogbomosho, Oyo State to lay groundwork for a 4-H youth program. Ebby previously served on the Board of Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR), a non profit organization that awards small grants to women groups in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and India, and is currently on the Executive Board of Friends National Committee on Legislation (FCNL) as the clerk of the Policy Committee.

Ebby continues to be actively engaged in her rural community of Maliki, Western Kenya, where she has built a public library in honor of her parents who were long time educators and role models. She also supports and empowers college graduates from the community to visit primary schools to distribute sanitary towels to girls, and educate them about feminine hygiene. Her other community projects include a scholarship program for needy children and is planning to work on renovating school structures, improved pit latrines, as well as provision of clean water.

As part of Ebby’s teaching, she has led more than 25 study abroad student groups to Argentina,  Australia, Panama, Spain, France, Belize, the US Virgin Islands, and the United Arab Emirates, to study Production Agriculture, Business, Economics, Trade and Culture. Ebby earned her doctorate degree in Economic Education and master’s degree in International Affairs both at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio.  Her bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Music were at Berea College, in Berea, Kentucky. She has received many awards and recognitions from ISU and is featured on the 2021 Women Impacting ISU calendar.

Elyse Magen served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the Community Economic Development sector.  While in the Peace Corps, she worked closely with a farming cooperative and assisted them with setting up TCP Global.  Elyse has spent significant time in Latin America both studying abroad in Argentina and interning at the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador. She is interested in economic development issues in Latin America, specifically the intersection of gender, poverty, health, and the environment. She graduated from Tulane University with a degree in both Economics and Environmental Studies. 

Kiki Mutis was born in Colombia and has lived in Miami since 1981. She received a Bachelors of Art in Environmental Studies and Master of Science in Environmental Science from Florida International University after completing the Peace Corps Master International Program. Kiki Mutis worked as a Natural Resource Volunteer in Bolivia from 1999- 2001. 

Kiki has been a member of The Colombia Project Board since 2004 and has traveled to Colombia to meet program administrators and visit micro-loan sites in order to better understand their front-line concerns. Kiki often handles the SKYPE communications with partners in Colombia. 

Kiki currently works as the Community Outreach Coordinator at Fairchild Tropical Garden Since 2004 she has been an active Member of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida and volunteers with RPCV events such as organizing the annual Everglades National Park Trip. During the last four years Ms. Mutis has worked in the planning and implementation of the annual Everglades Trip. She recruits naturalist from local environmental organizations who volunteer to guide homeless and migrant farm-worker children thru the trails of the park. She contacts and works closely with National Park staff to ensure that the Everglades outing will be successful. 

Kiki sits on the board of the Environmental Education Providers and umbrella organization for organizations providing a vast assortment of environmental education to the greater Miami Dade community. She also leads excursions for Miami Dade College, Earth Ethics Institute. 

Rita Novak served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1973-1975, in Fusagasuga, Cundinamarca. Working in partnership with the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros and the Comite de Cafeteros de Cundinamarca, Rita’s focus was developing and supporting women’s groups by offering programs in nutrition, home economics, and healthy families. She also oversaw an innovative project in which women from remote areas were trained in sewing, with the expectation that they would return to their communities and teach their neighbors to sew. The skills acquired also permitted them to sell their products locally.

After returning from Colombia, Rita attended law school. She received a J.D. from DePaul University and an LL.M. from Columbia University. As a lawyer, Rita worked primarily in the public or non-profit sector, serving many years in the Illinois Attorney General’s office. She was also a law professor at Indiana University at Indianapolis and directed a project for the American Bar Association designed to curb litigation delays in the appellate process.

In 1997, Rita became a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, in Chicago. She served in a number of divisions of the court, including Child Protection, Law and Chancery. She has been an active  volunteer in professional and civic organizations. She retired from the bench in 2016.

One of her goals in retirement was to become more involved in the work of TCP Global. Although she had been a member of Friends of Colombia and a donor to TCP Global and the Colombia Project for a number of years, she hoped to take on addition responsibilities. Rita is a new member of the Advisory Team and excited to be part of the team.

Chris Roesel grew up in rural Georgia before the Civil Rights Act, upset and confused by the segregated systems. Trying to understand, he attended a seminary and the Air Force Academy before becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala in 1973. Despite his background, he was shocked by the conditions, government, and US actions he saw in Guatemala and felt his efforts to improve conditions were insignificant. He got an MS in nutrition, an international public health degree, reviewed and analyzed the best health projects in the world, and then worked in Asia, Africa, South and Central America, Haiti, and 11 states, creating, managing, and evaluating programs. Afterwards, he studied leadership, management, whole systems change, civil engineering, journalism, and political science, searching how to be more effective in improving lives.

Chris is dedicated to ensuring the poorest have access to resources, information, respect, inclusion in decision-making, and clear processes because he has concluded those are what ensure people have a chance and a choice in life, rather than being condemned to just struggling to survive. He works in a needy community every year.

Sally spent part of her childhood in Cali, Colombia. She was an ETV volunteer who originally trained for Uruguay and completed her Peace Corps Service in Cucuta, Colombia and the surrounding region of the Santanderes from 1967-69.  

Sally is now in private practice as a psychologist in Miami and joined The Colombia Project Board in 2008. Sally participated in the 2012 workshops in La Victoria, Colombia where she met all of The Colombia Project administrators and visited nearby micro-entrepreneurs.

Kathleen’s passion for community development and engagement was first sparked when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1989-1991.  As a Small Business Advisor in Maai Mahiu, Kenya she worked with women’s groups on income-generating projects and also taught Business Education in a Youth Polytechnic to students of carpentry, tailoring, and masonry. 

Kathleen has been the Community Engagement Manager at Horizon Credit Union since 2016 and before that was the Director of Marketing at Cheney Federal Credit Union.  Prior to her immersion in the Credit Union world, she was the Executive Director of the West Plains Chamber of Commerce.  Kathleen was a small business owner from 1998-2010 and has experience in accounting and tax work. 

Kathleen currently facilitates community engagement, philanthropic giving, volunteerism, and financial education on behalf of her employer, Horizon Credit Union.  In addition to volunteering with TCP Global, Kathleen is also a member of the Junior Achievement of Eastern Washington and North Idaho Advisory Board.

Kathleen has four sons and three step-daughters, 3 grandsons, and is married to Bill, a Special Education teacher.

Kenney Tran is an MPA student at the Evans School of Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He served in Colombia as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Community Economic Development sector, working alongside various agencies such as the Department of Education, local high schools, and advised a start-up NGO called "Semillas por la Paz", the  TCP micro-loan program in a rural annex of his town. Kenney holds a double degree in Political Science and Social Justice from Merrimack College where he graduated in 3 years.

Balazs Vandor is a project management and process improvement professional living in Miami. His Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech is a great match to his personality, always looking for ways to accomplish goals more efficiently. He also holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Balazs is originally from Hungary, growing up there and in Italy and moving to the US in high school. His passion about the environment started with canoe camping trips during his university years, but really blossomed once moving to South Florida. At first he volunteered doing mangrove habitat restoration with canoes. Nowadays, at least twice a week you will find him biking to outrigger canoe practice. Balazs has also participated in numerous beach clean-up, invasive plant removal and native tree planting events as well as wildlife rescues. He has been an active TCP committee member since 2014. In 2020 he visited two loan sites in Colombia with his partner Kiki Mutis.