"There will never be justice anywhere until you yourself are justice now." — Marguerite Duras

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Board of Directors

Robyn Fehrman, Chair
Program Director, Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship,
Duke University Fuqua School of Business, USA

Michael Sullivan, Treasurer
Independent Investor and Company Advisor, USA

Tori McLeod, Secretary
Associate, Eagle Hill Consulting, USA

Sharmila Bhatt
Director, Soft Tech Consultants, Tanzania

Arthi Rabikrisson (MBA, ACC-ICF)
Founder and MD, Prerna Advisory, South Africa

Marie Odette Kansanga Ndahiro
Gender Expert and Social Anthropologist, Rwanda

Gretchen Ki Steidle
Founder and President, Global Grassroots, USA

Susan Alal
Uganda Special Member, Uganda



Global Grassroots Staff

Gretchen Ki Steidle, Founder and President
Our overarching operations, strategy, vision, and program design are managed by Founder and President, Gretchen Steidle who holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. Gretchen is a certified Integrative Breathwork Practitioner and has a background of 18 years in international finance, social entrepreneurship, mindfulness-based leadership, personal transformation, and mind-body trauma healing methods.

Sara Taggart, Managing Director
Sara holds a BA in history from Dartmouth College and an MPA in education and social policy from the University of Washington. She brings nearly 30 years of experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of social innovation and systems change efforts in the US and Africa, including work with WorldTeach Namibia, The Broad Center, Mercy Corps, and one of the first AmeriCorps programs, Partners in School Innovation. Sara is an experienced mindfulness and Hatha yoga teacher and co-facilitated Global Grassroots Young Womens Academy in Rwanda and Uganda between 2012-2014.

Elle McPherson, Administrative and Finance Officer
Elle holds a MBA/MA in Nonprofit Management and Sustainable International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University and a BA from Bates College. She has over ten years of experience in nonprofit financial and operations management in the fields of social entrepreneurship and international development. She has worked with a range of nonprofits including Agora Partnerships, Ashoka, AmeriCorps, Outward Bound, and Heifer International.

Zara Bott-Goins, Director of Development & US Operations,
Zara brings over 15 years of experience in strengthening nonprofits and international organizations through strategic planning, development, innovative communications and program management. Social impact and equity issues have been the focus of her work with diverse organizations including Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, American Red Cross, Maasai Girls Education Fund and Djembe Communications. She holds an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from the American Graduate School in Paris.

Gyslaine Uwitonze, East Africa Senior Program Officer
Gyslaine manages our Rwanda country programs. She holds a Bachelors degree in human rights law from Kigali Institute of Education and is certified as a Conscious Social Change practitioner. Gyslaine has served Global Grassroots since its inception in 2006 when she first joined as an interpreter. She currently oversees all training, venture development, and monitoring and evaluation activities for both our Academy for Conscious Change and our Young Women's Academies, as well as international staff training.

Thacienne Nyiraneza, Rwanda Program Associate
Thacienne holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Kigali Independent University. She has eight years experience working in microfinance and community economic development programs. Thacienne has been instrumental in building strong relationships with our venture teams and provides support for all of our programs in Rwanda.

Francis Kumakech, Uganda Program and Communications Associate
Francis has a BA in Organizational Studies from Makerere University and has work experience in graphic design, psycho-social support programs, and social entrepreneurship endeavors, founding two local groups to support vulnerable women and youth in his community. He is currently focused on providing translation assistance and support for our venture development and oversight in Gulu, as well as management of our eAcademy platform.

Rose Kansiime, Uganda Program Associate
After graduating from Global Grassroots' 2014 Young Women's Academy for Conscious Change, Rose earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Development Studies from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Rose joined Global Grassroots in May 2017 as our first intern. She provides support to our Uganda Program Associate, assists with our Young Women's Academy in Uganda, and with our monitoring and evaluation efforts.

Alain Placide Nsabimana, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer
Alain has a BA in Social Sciences and is currently completing an MPH program. He has over 10 years of professional experience in project design, monitoring, evaluation & learning in USAID-funded projects implemented by international development organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, IntrahealthInternational, Jhpiego, Chemonics International, as well as Government of Rwanda institutions, including National Child Development Agency, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender & Family Promotion, among others. He brings extensive technical skills and experience in developing and implementing M&E systems, indicators baseline and targets, data analysis and data use, conduct of quantitative and qualitative assessments. His technical areas including Early Childhood Development (ECD), social protection programs for vulnerable women & children, adolescent girls, nutrition,maternal and child health, WASH and community health.

Esperance Ineza, East Africa Administrative and Finance Officer
Esperance joins Global Grassroots from Teach A Man To Fish where she managed Rwandan finance, operations and support to the ongoing activities of the program team. Esperance holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Kigali Independent University and she is currently pursuing a Masters in Business Administration/ Finance at Adventist University of Central Africa.

Atosha Genevieve, Program Assistant
Atosha did her BA in Healthcare Management with a Global Perspectives concentration, and she holds an AA in General Business Studies from Southern New Hampshire University under Kepler's program. She was Miss Arts and Talent Africa 2020. GlobalGrassroots trained her as a conscious social change agent. She loves God and people. Her interest is in contributing to the lives and well-being of people.

Global Grassroots also selects Young Women's Academy alumni who have recently completed university to join us for one year as paid Fellows. Their role is to act as teaching assistants and/or assist with mentoring and with our monitoring and evaluation program. We also have a corps of 15 certified Conscious Social Change practitioners who are qualified to teach our curriculum where requested globally as independent contractors, and dozens of others in the process of completing their certification.



Rwanda Graduate Advisory Council

Baguma Innocent
President, Let Us Build Ourselves

Hacimana Seraphine
President, Hard Workers

Mukakarera Monique
President, Light In Our Home

Mushimiyimana Mediatrice
President, Think About the Young Girls

Nyiraneza Charlotte
President, Achieving a Better Life



Senior Advisors

Richard P. Brown, M.D.
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University

Terry Donovan
Consultant and Advisor to Social Entrepreneurs and the Citizen Sector

Patricia L. Gerbarg, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, New York Medical College

Jennifer Holden
Holden Sports Management

Joe Keefe
President, Impax Asset Management, Pax World Funds

Debbie Ladwig
Communications, US Veterans Administration (retired)

Katy Lundardelli
CEO, Euphrates Institute

Cristina Ljungberg
Founder, Influence Films

Alan Pesky
Founder and Chair, Lee Pesky Learning Center

Shirley Randell, Ph.D.
Director, Kigali Institute of Education Centre for Gender, Culture and Development Studies

Lina Srivastava
Lina Srivastava Consulting, LLC

Jane Wells
Founder, Three Generations


GlobalGiving Top-Ranked Organization 2017   GlobalGiving Vetted Organization 2017  GlobalGiving Verified Organization 2017

Global Grassroots
1950 Lafayette Road
Suite 200, Box 1
Portsmouth, NH 03801 USA
Tel (+1) 603.787.5759‬
info@globalgrassroots.org

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