Prof. Carl Levan is an Associate Professor in the School of International Service at American University in Washington. He is the author of Dictators and Democracy in African Development: the Political Economy of Good Governance in Nigeria (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics, from Oxford University Press (2018). His publications on power-sharing in East Africa, democratization and civil society in Nigeria, Boko Haram, comparative authoritarianism, and the U.S. military’s Africa Command have appeared in the leading journals on African studies, political science, and public policy..

.His latest book, Constituents before Assembly (Cambridge University Press, 2017), co-authored with Todd Eisenstadt and Tofigh Maboudi, demonstrates the lasting benefits of participatory constitution-making around the world for democracy. He is currently writing a book about why Nigeria’s ruling party lost the 2015 elections.

Prior to receiving his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California—San Diego, LeVan worked as a legislative director in the U.S. Congress, and then served as the National Democratic Institute’s first country director in Nigeria. 

Nancy Overholt is an expert in international education and professional training.  Nancy has conducted training in the government sector, including Ministerial level executives from several countries, e.g.,  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the the Government of Chile.  She has also conducted trainings in the corporate secor for clients such as Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. and Aramco.  Her work in the judicial sector includes projects for the judges and judicial experts from North Africa.  Coordinated several capacity building initiatives for senior ministers and officials of the Government of Afghanistan in Malaysia.

Nancy has supervised programs for the Institute of International Education on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and the International Visitor Leadership Program, both programs engage legal experts, lawyers and judges from outside the U.S., including Nigeria.

Nancy joined IIE in 2002 and since then has provided leadership and support to IIE’s high visibility programs such as the ECA/Humphrey Fellowship Program, the ECA/International Visitor Leadership Program, USAID, US Department of Agriculture, KAUST, and Professional Education Programs for Aramco and Toyota companies.  Prior to joining IIE, Ms. Overholt designed and administered programs for international students and professionals through appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California, Santa Barbara.   Ms. Overholt received a Bachelor of Arts, French, minor in History, Albion College, Albion, MI (magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa) and an Arts Masters in Romance Linguistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.  She has native fluency in the English and French and speaks some Spanish.  Her awards include the Fulbright Specialist Award, Antananarivo (DoS/ECA); IIP, Morocco (DoS); Director’s Citation (DoS/ECA); and the Exemplary Service Award, VEGA.  Ms. Overholt has provided key note addresses, professional presentations and lectures on international exchange in the US and abroad. She has one publication in translation.

Winnie Lanoix is a certified executive and leadership coach, with area of expertise in executive presence, organizational dynamics, global leadership, emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, communication, on-boarding, team alignment and influencing skills. With over 25 years of coaching experience, Winnie is known for creating positive behavioral changes in leaders. As a trained counseling psychologist with a background in organizational dynamics and a profit and loss business experience, she has the benefit of understanding the individual and the interplay between emotional intelligence and success in the business environment. By building on positive attributes, Winnie has been able to reduce the time needed to create sustainable changes. Winnie’s style is practical and focused. Winnie has coached leaders in companies such as COMCAST, The Fulton Corporation, The WorldBankGroup and IFC, DTCC, ARKEMA, SIEMENS, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Linde, Intelsat, LSI, Cleveland Clinic, Day and Zimmerman, DuPont, Wilmington Trust, MBNA, Bryn Mawr Trust, AstraZeneca, Monsanto, DTCC, SAP, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Lockheed Martin, CGI, Verizon, Wharton in the MBA and the EMBA programs, Merck, as well as in higher education. Winnie has served as a Global Subject Matter Expert for Coaching Center for Excellence; supervised the quality delivery of over 100 coaches globally; and conducted research on best practices and the ROI of coaching. Winnie holds a doctorate in Counseling Psychology, (Ed.D) from Rutgers University, a B.A. magna cum laude, from Tufts University, and M.A. and M.E d. degrees in Organizational Behavior from Columbia University. She is certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Winnie grew up in Geneva, Switzerland and has extensive coaching practice with people from diverse cultures and has coached, VPs, GMs, CIOs, CEOs, Directors and high potentials.

Jim Rives worked as a Senior Director at FTI Consulting and is based in Washington DC as a Bank Regulation and Governance Practice within the Forensic and Litigation Consulting Segment. Mr. Rives is a financial services regulatory professional with more than 25 years’ experience in consumer finance, commercial banking, and financial institution supervision and remediation in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Mr. Rives focuses his practice across the compliance and credit risk areas, providing clients with assistance on a wide range of issues from a practitioner and regulatory perspective, including governance, risk management and compliance. In addition to assisting clients resolve issues with regulatory agencies, Mr. Rives performs due diligence and independently analyses bank compliance and credit administration functions. Mr. Rives has expertise in commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and consumer/retail lending, including mortgages. Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Rives was a Supervisory and Principal Examiner at the Federal Housing Financial Agency (FHFA) where he assisted in the supervision and examination of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Mr. Rives led a targeted examination of enterprise risk management at Freddie Mac in 2011 and was the Examination Manager for a team of credit examiners embedded at Fannie Mae in 2013-2014 charged with ongoing supervision of single family ($3.1 trillion) and multifamily ($200 billion) credit risk management, compliance and operational activities. He has represented numerous financial institutions, directors and officers of banks and thrifts, and affiliated parties of depository institutions in enforcement matters brought by financial institution regulators as well as in monetary claims made against such individuals and entities. He was primarily responsible for the settlement of a $50 million claim brought by the FDIC against 34 former directors of a failed New York City bank. The claim was based on violation of laws and regulations, abusive insider transactions and negligence on the part of the directors. Tom led the steering committee of lawyers in these negotiations with the FDIC. From 2006 through 2008, Mr. Rives managed a $15 million portfolio of technical assistance projects for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) designed to assist member countries identify and diagnose financial system problems and deliver advisory services for transactional or systemic reforms activities consistent with macroeconomic and other structural policies including the development and capacity building of national financial intelligence units. the Senate Subcommittee on Housing. His practice continues to be heavily involved in federal and state financial services regulatory issues. From 1998 to 2006 in a consultancy role, Mr. Rives delivered and managed financial sector regulation, compliance, restructuring, and reform projects in emerging markets spearheading training, change management and transformation activities for regulatory agencies, central banks and other public service, private and industry associations. Mr. Rives led and trained teams of examiners, bankers, due diligence and other subject matter experts in: i) the development and implementation of modern supervisory tools at central banks and national regulatory agencies (CAMELS and other rating systems, financial regulatory reporting, early warning systems, enforcement and compliance frameworks, etc.); ii) the turnaround and privatization of banks, non-bank financial institutions, and payment systems; and iii) the development of deposit insurance schemes and financial intelligence units. Mr. Rives demonstrated 'cradle to grave' proficiency in administering USAID and foreign government bilateral and multilateral grants and contracts in compliance with relevant donor regulations. Previously, Mr. Rives worked at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the primary regulator of National Banks, as an examiner and policy analyst. Mr. Rives conducted numerous compliance (AML/BSA, consumer protection/fair lending and Community Reinvestment Act), safety and soundness examinations principally in problem financial institutions in the Southwest and Northeast United States. He developed extensive governance, risk management and compliance experience and expertise during his nine years as a field examiner and two years in policy development and implementation in the OCC’s national headquarters in Washington DC. Mr. Rives began his career at a consumer finance company and then at a commercial bank where he focused on retail lending, credit analysis, commercial (real estate and industrial) loan underwriting, troubled loan workout and collections. Jim received his M.B.A. from Marymount University, B.B.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University, Stonier Graduate School of Banking (No Thesis) at University of Delaware. He completed Course on Risk Management at George Washington University. He received number of certifications including Commissioned National Bank Examiner (NBE), Certified Housing Finance Examiner (HFE), International Certificate of Bank Regulation and Risk (ICBRR), Professional Affiliations Financial Executives Network Group (FENG), Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA), and Risk Management Association (RMA)

David Bulova is an elected representative to the State of Virginia(USA). Professionally, David is a Project Manager at Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure, Inc. and works to help governments and industry comply with state and federal environmental regulations.

Both David and Gretchen grew up in Fairfax.  David received a BA from the College of William and Mary, a Master’s in Public Administration and Policy from Virginia Tech, and is a graduate of the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.

David was first elected to the General Assembly in November 2005.  He currently serves on the General Laws, Education, and Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources committees.  He is a member of the State Water Commission, Chesapeake Bay Commission, Housing Commission, the Joint Commission on Health Care, and the Virginia War Memorial Board.  He serves as Governor McAuliffe’s appointee to the Legislative Advisory Council to the Southern Region Education Board and the Legislative Advisory Board to the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, and was Governor Kaine’s appointee to the Commission on Climate Change.  From 2003 to 2005, David was an elected representative on the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District Board.

David is passionate about community service.  He is currently on the Board of Trustees of Brain Injury Services, which provides support to survivors of brain injuries and their families, the Board of the City of Fairfax Band, and the Board of Advisors for the William and Mary Public Policy Program.  His is also an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Centreville-Chantilly.  Other community service includes: former coach with Fairfax Little League and Burke Athletic Club soccer; former member and treasurer of the Rotary Club of Annandale (1999-2002); former member of the Fairfax County Tree Commission (2004-2005); and, former Governor’s appointee to the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Board.

David and Gretchen also served as co-chairs of the annual Middleridge community National Night Out celebration for seven years.  This event is part of a nation-wide crime prevention and awareness program.  The Middleridge NNO is one of the largest in Northern Virginia.

Mr. Jorge Claro is an internationally recognized expert with over 35 years of work experience with international organizations and private sector companies in governance issues, project formulation, design, management and evaluation, and particularly, in public sector procurement policy, budget and finance.

After working for over 20 years in the United Nations system in New York and several countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, he moved to Washington, D.C. to become the Chief of the Procurement Policy and Coordination Office of the lnter-American Development Bank (lDB), a position he held for over eight years at the lDB. From 2005- 2007, he was the Director of the Public Procurement Law and Policy Center at the lnternational Law lnstitute in Washington D.C.

Mr. Claro holds an MBA from Leeds University and an MClPS from the Chartered lnstitute of Procurement and Supply (ClPS) in the UK. He is fluent in English and Spanish, with a working knowledge of French and Portuguese.

Charles A. Ray is a retired Foreign Service Officer who served 30 years in the US Foreign Service, and before that, 20 years in the US Army. During his army service, including two tours in Vietnam, he served in Military Intelligence, Special Operations, and Public Affairs, with tours of duty in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and Panama, as well as posts throughout the U.S., and retired in 1982 with the rank of Major.

During 30 years in the Foreign Service, he was posted to China, Thailand, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe. His overseas assignments included service as Deputy Chief of Mission in Sierra Leone during that country’s transition to democratic rule, he was the first US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and was ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe. From 2006 to 2009, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs and Director of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

Since retirement from public service, he has been a full time freelance writer and consultant, and is the author of more than 50 books of fiction and non-fiction, including three books on leadership. He is a frequent blogger and contributor to several Internet news and content sites. Ray is also a photographer and artist, and has worked as a journalist and artist for a number of publications in the US and abroad. During the late 70s he was editorial cartoonist for the Spring Lake (NC) News, a weekly newspaper near Fort Bragg, NC. He was the first chairman of the American Foreign Service Association’s Professionalism and Ethics Committee. He runs a workshop on professional writing for Rangel Scholars at Howard University each summer, and is a lecturer at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Johns Hopkins University, speaking on global hotspots and the History of American Diplomacy. He has also done consulting work for the Department of Defense on personnel recovery (working with the Angel Thunder PR exercise) and as an interagency subject matter expert during army unit pre-deployment training.

Layne Huttenberger has been involved in the commercial banking business for 35 years.  He is a commercially trained banker, and has spent 20 years working mostly as a field examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “BoG”), the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”).  He holds three federal examination commissions from the OCC, the BoG, and the FHFA.  Most notably, Mr. Huttenberger acted in the role as credit expert for each of these United States regulatory authorities.

Mr. Huttenberger has been a consultant to the industry, and most notably worked for the trustee of the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, and was a senior advisor to the post-bankruptcy American International Group (“AIG”) in 2012 as it prepared for first ever supervision by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and its designation as “systemically important.”

Additionally, Mr. Huttenberger has been approved by the OCC as a CEO to run the most troubled banks in the United States, where he has served as a replacement CEO to two OCC national banks with the lowest regulatory ratings possible.  One of those banks was closed by the OCC pursuant to Mr. Huttenberger’s discovery and documentation of widespread fraudulent lending and financial reporting irregularities.  He is a noted troubled bank stabilizing and turnaround chief executive.

Dr. Rajesh Kumar Shakya is a digital governance specialist, Certified Project Management Professional (PMP®), currently working with the World Bank as an e- Procurement Specialist and also supporting the Asian Development Bank as a Project Team Leader and other capacities on Public Finance Management (lnvestment Management).

He has also worked with USAlD, Eastern African Community, lnter-American Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, and other development agencies. He has extensive practical international experience in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe guiding more than 30 countries on planning, designing, developing processes and procedures, institutional arrangements and business model development, implementation of e-Procurement systems, framework agreements, developing procurement and e-procurement strategies, e- GP Guidelines, e-GP Readiness Assessment, assessing country procurement systems and e-Procurement Systems using OECD Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS ll). He is a Ph.D. with distinction in Public Administration with dissertation on ‘Good Governance in Public Procurement through e-Procurement' from the Capella University, USA.

Mr. Simeon Sahaydachny has over 30 years of experience as an international consultant to governments, international organizations and development institutions (World Bank, African Development Bank, ADB, USAlD, MCC, CARlCOM, COMESA) on public procurement, e-commerce, mobile money, concessions, public-private partnerships, and others areas of commercial law and dispute resolution.

He was formerly a Senior Officer at the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on lnternational Trade Law (UNClTRAL), where he served as secretary of various inter-governmental committees of UN General Assembly and authored and contributed to working drafts of model laws (mainly government procurement, cross-border insolvency and e- commerce), international conventions and legalguides relating to international commercial transactions adopted by UNClTRAL and recommended by the UN General Assembly.

Mr. Sahaydachny was instrumental in transforming the public procurement systems in numerous countries. He has worked on public procurement reforms in over 30 countries including China, Georgia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Mr. Sahaydachny received his J.D. in 1979 and his L.L.M- lnternational Law from New York University in 1986.

Kevin N. Green is a Vice President at Bank of America. E currently supports US Card Finance Managing the development and implementation of valuation tools and methodologies for the US Credit Card Business. A six Sgma Green Belt, Kevin has an extensive background in banking Marketing, Operations Technology, and Finance beginning his career with MBNA America (a legacy Bank of America copany) in 1990. His contributions include successful product launches (MBNA Quantum in 2000), extension of technology platforms to international businesses (MBNA Canada in 1999, MBNA Europe in 2004) and implementation of regulatory requirements (CARD ACT 2011)

In addition to his Six Sigma certification Kevin is certified in Web Development, Administration, and E-Commerce. He managed a data management team to study customer service and customer’s behavior. He led a team to predict and correct pricing, marketing strategy, process improvement and many other initiatives for process improvement.

Prior to his professional career Kevin attended the University of Delaware and completed internship at the UD Center for Composite Materials as part of his undergraduate studies in Chemistry.

Suman Raj Timsina is an accomplished Manager with 20 + years of leadership with strategy, management, and execution experience. He highly motivated dynamic leader who drives growth from a deep understanding of customer behavior, technology, product design and execution. Proven track record of designing, developing, planning and delivery of innovative strategy, complex Profit & Loss (P&Ls) and cross-functional change programs.

Prior to joining IDI, he was a Vice President at Bank of America. He has been heavily involved with global Nepali diaspora in a number of capacity. He is a Past President of Non Resident Nepali National Coordination Council of USA.  He is currently a board member of America Nepal Medical Foundation. He has been affiliated with number of organizations. His areas of interest have been innovation, entrepreneurship, mentoring, diaspora study, community development, education and health care. He has numerous policy papers on these issues. He was also an adjunct faculty in Temple University in Philadelphia. He has studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India) and University of Pennsylvania. He has authored a book and edited a number of magazines. He is also a Fulbright recipient of 1991.

Ameen Habibi served in many capacities in the government of Afghanistan including Acting Deputy Minister for Policy and Director General for Policy, Coordination and Program Implementation at the Ministry of Finance and Co-chaired the Asset Transfer Commission, which oversaw the transfer of military bases/Provincial Reconstruction Teams from International Security Forces to the Government of Afghanistan. Mr. Habibi has more than a decade’s experience of national level policy-making, programs and projects management, preparation of strategic papers, donor relations, fund raising and stakeholders (international financial institutions, civil society, academia, etc.) coordination, and leading organization of international pledging events.

As part of Mr. Habibi’s last assignment in the Government of Afghanistan, He successfully organized and managed, the Brussels International Donors’ Conference on Afghanistan on October 5, 2016, where $ USD 15.2 billion were pledged to Afghanistan for the years of 2017-2021. Prior to that Mr. Habibi organized and managed the Tokyo and London International Donor Conferences on Afghanistan in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Mr. Habibi was the main negotiator from government of Afghanistan side for many of the aid effectiveness mutual accountability mechanisms introduced by the international community in Afghanistan, individually or collectively. These included the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (which in later avatars is now called SMAF (Self-reliance through Mutual Accountability Framework) and New Development Partnership of USAID. In addition, Mr. Habibi led the technical teams, which drafted the Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework, the five-year national development plan of Afghanistan and preparation of National Priority programs.

Sidi Sanneh is a versatile and skilled diplomat, professional economist, and development specialist with leadership qualities and excellent hands-on experience in development finance, governance and post conflict countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ambassador Sanneh brings over 35 years of experience in International Development and diplomacy. He, a native of Gambia, served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004-05) and Ambassador to Senegal Mali and Burkina Faso. (2005-06). He was a Member of the Executive Boards of Director of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund where he served for a decade before joining the United Nations Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Africa as Senior Advisor for Resource Mobilization. He also served as Community Development Block Grant Coordinator for The City of Madison, Wisconsin and the County of Dane. Ambassador Sanneh was appointed Project Director, UNAMID program at DynCorp International before being one of the founding members and Senior Partner at Frontier Markets Partners.

Ambassador Sanneh holds a BA degree in Economics and Political Science from Wilberforce University, a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a a certificate holder from the MIT Executive Program.

Mr. Baxter is a South African who lives in the USA.  He is currently a Senior Advisor to the International PPP Resilience Center (IPPPRC) in New Orleans which is affiliated organizations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).  Additionally, he advises the Afghan PPP Hub located Kabul and the Istanbul PPP Center of Excellence. As a freelance consultant in international development, procurement, and Public-Private Partnerships he works all over the world on projects, primarily with the public sector.

He has provided capacity building programs and infrastructure procurement consulting services to many international clients located in Africa, North and Central America, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.    Many current and past client projects are sponsored by development/donor agencies including USAID, MCC, ADB, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank.

He has also lead alliance-building initiatives with institutions around the world that that have included the UNECE PPP Center of Excellence in Geneva, the African Development Bank, the PPP Center of Excellence in Istanbul Turkey, the Monterrey Institute in Mexico, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

He is an internationally recognized PPP thought leader and has contributed to publications distributed by the World Bank and The Global Infrastructure Hub.  He is a prolific writer of opinion pieces on PPP best practices.  His insights can be read on LinkedIn

Matthew Uzukwu is an Adjunct Professor of Healthcare Administration at the Newport News Virginia Center of Saint Leo University. He was an Adjunct Professor of Production and Operations Management at Bowie State University, Maryland, USA for several years.

Dr. Uzukwu earned his MBA from Howard University and his Ph.D from Walden University. He has published several books, book chapters and scholarly articles. His doctoral dissertation on HIV/AIDS was published as a book by Lambert Academic Publishing in 2012. Dr. Uzukwu’s recent scholarly article “ Issues Of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) in Southeastern Nigeria: A Study of Patients On Dialysis,” co-authored with Dr. Obi Ekwenna, Transplant Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Urology and Transplantation at the University of Toledo Ohio, was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Public Health and Safety in May 2018. Dr. Uzukwu’s research interests are in healthcare/hospital management, healthcare policy, healthcare access in developing countries, and the applications of Six Sigma to achieve hospital management cost reductions and continuous healthcare quality outcomes. He has trained various staff of several organizations. Dr Uzukwu is a Six Sigma Black Belt and has the capacity to lead Six Sigma organizational turn-around projects. He is a certified instructor of CPR/AED/BLS.

Kerin Hilker-Balkisson brings twenty years of experience engaging K-12, post-secondary, non-profit, and workforce sectors through innovative systems collaboration; strategic and collective impact partnerships; blended academic, navigational and career pathways design; and holistic, wrap-around supports to move the needle on K-20 and career outcomes for under-resourced populations. The founding director and operational designer of the award-winning Pathway to the Baccalaureate and Elevating Parents in College initiatives, at George Mason University Hilker-Balkissoon designs and implements targeted and systemic K-20 and career pathways to enhance access, equity and inclusion in STEM.

She brings strong expertise in innovative program/project design, management, and evaluation; student success and advising; enrollment strategy; workforce development; grant-writing and management; integration of high impact practices (internships, research, civic engagement and service-learning); fostering student engagement, leadership and social capital. She is bilingual in Portuguese/English with some proficiency in Spanish..  She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master’s of Science in Counseling from The Johns Hopkins University, and is pursuing coursework toward a doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a concentration in Collaborative Community Action at George Mason University.

Dr. Ana M. Ferreras often serves as a speaker, professional developer, consultant, evaluator, researcher, fundraising expert, and advisor for organizational leaders in the private sector, academia, and federal government. She is a Senior Program Officer at National Academy of Science. She is the leading author of “Company Success in Manufacturing Organizations: A Holistic Systems Approach” where she shares with company leaders how to achieve success in manufacturing organizations.
Dr. Ferreras is one of the few industrial engineers in the United States working on STEM policy and STEM diplomacy. She is a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where she manages the U.S. National Committees for theoretical and applied mechanics, physics, radio science, crystallography, and mathematics instruction. Dr. Ferreras earned a PhD in industrial engineering and management systems (IEMS) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and her doctoral research focused in the development of mathematical models to assist organizational leaders making wiser decisions in complex situations.
She also holds an MS in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology and a BS in electrical engineering from UCF. During her doctoral research, she assisted the IEMS Department at UCF reengineering the undergraduate curriculum. Prior to getting into STEM policy and STEM diplomacy, Dr. Ferreras was a winter 2008 Christine Mirzayan Policy Graduate Fellow with the Center for Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education at the National Academy of Engineering.

Sangya Gyawali is a lead consultant at International Development Institute. She’s consulted with large corporations, local NGOs, and venture-backed startups alike on business and product development. The intersectionality of her experience gives her the capacity to work creatively with a diverse group of cultures, norms, and business practices. Her work spans across the United States, China, and Africa at large. He bring strong background in business strategy, operations, and product development. Her strength in research and data analytics makes her a very strong team member. Sangya has undergraduate degree from University of Pittsburg and Master’s in Management Science degree at Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar.

Dr. Arun R. Joshi is Founder of Leadership Academy Nepal (LAN) and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is also an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, Washington D.C. He worked at the World Bank, Washington D.C. for over two decades. His experience spans education policy reform and program development in a diverse range of countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. He has a master’s degree in international education policy and a doctorate in human development from Harvard University.

Mr. Ovidiu Slimac has over 18 years of experience in procurement. He is familiar with Romanian national legislation, European Directives in Procurement, and World Bank procedures. He is an engineer, specialist, public procurement expert, nationally and internationally accredited, trainer (of trainers), social responsibility manager. He was a lecturer at the Contract Management (FIDIC types) Seminar in the discipline ”Preparation of documentation, particularities and practical aspects in the field of public procurement.” He was one of the Key Note Speakers at Western Balkan Circular and Climate Innovation Beacons ”CE Beacons” event, held on-line on 14th October 2020, with the title: ”The European Green Deal - Implications and impacts on public procurement.” Mr. Slimac contributes in number of blogs and is a faculty of public procurement.

Ovidiu will coordinate IDI's programs in eastern Europe & Danube Region.

Pankaj Pradhananga comes with an experience in Tourism industry over 2 decades. He is a seasoned corporate trainer. He holds an MBA from Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) with a specialization in CRM.

He is a charter President of Tourism Toastmasters Club and also a faculty member at ACE Institute of Management in Kathmandu. He has enjoyed training & speaking assignments in Nepal, Europe and the USA. His areas of expertise include delighting the customers, and motivational storytelling. He was recently featured on the cover page of Toastmasters Int’l magazine’s global issue.

Mr. Bhatta brings over two decades of national and international experience in the field of natural resource management and governance. He is passionate about knowledge sharing on sustainable ecosystems and poverty alleviation. Previously, he served as a team leader for Final Evaluation of Nepal Climate Change Support Programme for UNDP, where he carried out Nepal climate change support program, jointly implemented by UNDP Nepal and the Ministry of Forest and Environment, Nepal funded by EU, DFID/UK. He has also served as Senior Ecosystem Specialist for ICIMOD, Senior Advisor for SNV, and Team Leader for The Mountain Institute. Bhatta has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and wrote 20 books and book chapters. He has previously provided Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for Government environment inspectors, Sustainable Livelihood approach (SLA), Value Chain Development (VCD), Ecosystem assessment for government officials.

He holds a Masters in M.Sc in Environmental Management from National University of Singapore.

Mr. Sherchan has had over 25 years of working experience in community-based natural resource management, local livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Mr. Sherchan started his professional career as a conservation officer in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Annapurna Conservation Area is one of the most popular trekking destinations of the world.
Sherchan served WWF Nepal from 2009-2012 as a Program Manager for Sacred Himalayan Landscape (SHL). He was responsible for biodiversity conservation, sustainable tourism, and climate change adaptation programs in Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, Sagarmatha National Park, and Langtang National Park. Mr. Sherchan worked closely with the then Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and Water and Energy Commission Secretariat. Recently, Mr. Sherchan has worked for BIOFIN project of UNDP and is involved in developing Multiple Forest Strategy and Action Plan of Nepal for the government.

Sherchan holds PhD in Environmental Science from Tribhuwan University and Masters from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.