Benjamin Mueller Email & Phone Number

Urbana, Il, Us

Urbana, Il, Us

Urbana-Champaign Area Illinois

My position provides direct assistance to primarily Spanish-speaking immigrants many of whom are undocumented or in an asylum proceeding. My work is to help them resolve their difficulties and improve their status by helping them navigate available resources in multiple areas including legal assistance, better access to housing and employment opportunities.

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

Beginning in 2016 established ISCU as a Not For Profit as President of the Board, part-time executive director and volunteer coordinator moving to a full-time executive director position in 2021. Under Mueller’s leadership, the organization became a strong immigrant relief organization with a strong faith-based volunteer staff and a full advocacy and educational organization in Champaign County and East Central Illinois. Established a full warehouse of furnishings for immigrant families and became an important partner with public health and community-based organizations in providing needed services and outreach education for hundreds of families affected by COVID-19. Currently manages 7 staff members and more than 20 volunteers serving 200 immigrant families. Under his leadership, the organization currently manages nearly a $600,000 portfolio of grants and donations.

Kenya

Attended a regional Sub-Saharan conference hosted by ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. Mueller developed a concept note to partner the AgReach team with a group of premier scientists and transfer technology specialists from ICIPE to implement and evaluate a scaling-up strategy whose researchers have made significant contributions to African society by enhancing food security through research of the complex mechanisms in smallholder, cereal-livestock production systems leading to the development of push-pull technology (PPT). ICIPE, based in Nairobi, has established cost-effective partnerships in 18 Sub-Saharan East African countries

Colombia

Consultant for UIUC AgReach to provide an assessment of ongoing and potential activities related to USAID assistance for Colombia government’s Office of Post Conflict which focuses on extension support for smallholder cocoa and coffee producers in five post-conflict states or departments, and is supported by the Colombian Federation of Coffee Producers (FNC), the Colombian Federation of Cacoa Producers (FEDECACOA) and the Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Investigation (CORPOICA).

Georgia

Consultant for Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development to provide technical expertise and contribute to the development of the Agriculture Section under the full Low Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS) document for the Government of Georgia supported by USAID/Caucasus Cooperative Agreement.

Tbilisi, Georgia

Managed USAID-funded Associate Award to the Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS). SEAS is a cooperative agreement with subawards with Texas A&M University and Winrock International. SEAS is administered by the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Chief of Party’s main responsibilities are administration of the SEAS Georgian office, supervision of SEAS staff, planning and monitoring of SEAS projects, coordination with the USAID AOR for SEAS, and maintaining communication and providing project monitoring reports to the SEAS Project Director.

Tbilisi, Georgia

Managed USAID-funded Associate Award to the Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS). SEAS is a cooperative agreement with subawards with Texas A&M University and Winrock International. SEAS is administered by the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Project Manager’s main responsibilities are administrative oversight and strategic planning and implementation support to SEAS.

Tajikistan

Managed USAID-funded Associate Award to the Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS) project, the Farmer Advisory Services Tajikistan Program (FAST). FAST is a cooperative agreement with a sub-award with Public Organization Ruyo, a Tajikistan NGO. FAST is administered by the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Project Manager’s main responsibilities are administrative oversight and strategic planning and implementation support to FAST.

Champaign, Illinois

Avicenna Community Health Center (ACHC), 501 (C) 3 is a Not for Profit (NFP) free clinic for the uninsured in Champaign, IL. ACHC is supported by a large volunteer pool of students, faculty, and providers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and area clinics and hospitals offering clinical and preventative health services using its own designed electronic medical records (EMR) and biomedical technology to train the next generation of the healthcare workforce. Directed the clinic operations, managed approximately 80 student volunteers in 5 teams, liaison with the board of directors, organized the relocation to Frances Nelson, a federally qualified health center of Promise Healthcare, coordinated the Avicenna Research Unit, coordinated grants and contracts division and provided leadership and representation for ACHC in the health sector of Champaign- Urbana as well as with the free and charitable clinics statewide.

Champaign, Illinois

Coordinated volunteer management, developed community, state and regional partnerships, and designed and implemented multiple outreach prevention interventions, health fairs, and educational activities to support Avicenna Community Health Center, a 501 (C) 3 free clinic for the uninsured in Champaign, IL.

Colombia

Performed an evaluation of the Extension Service of the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers (FNC), a public/private partnership with over 500,000 members in 17 departments of Colombia. This project is administered by MEAS at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics. Created and presented multiple workshops and multi-media presentations to facilitate the adoption of management best practices applied to smallholder producers, regional organizations, and central administrative operations. MEAS technical note was authored as part of the project deliverables. The MEAS FNC evaluation is considered one of the highest impact projects in the MEAS portfolio both in terms of number of persons impacted and the quality of organizational change behavior as a result of the MEAS intervention.

Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico

This project was an US-AID supported 4-year effort entitled "Capacity Building in Southern Mexico" involving Western Illinois University (WIU), Universidad Tecnológica de la Selva (UTS) and Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (UAQ). Monitored and evaluated the Rural Development Center established at UTS in the Chiapas Department of Mexico. Subsequently provided oversight for TIES’ programs and capacity building related to entrepreneurship, marketing, and technical assistance for indigenous and settlerproducers of coffee, dairy and ecotourism. Evaluation included organizational development model of a university extension partnership; producer outcomes and capacity building in three sectors; and, student and faculty exchange programs between UAQ, UTS and WIU.

Urbana, Illinois, United States

Nuevos Horizontes (New Horizons) Spanish Language Media Initiative, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Created and produced an award winning, weekly radio outreach program broadcast in Spanish over a wide network of stations in the U.S. and selected Latin American countries focusing on immigrant policy, health and cultural themes over a 17 year period. Developed a cutting-edge technology website and multi- media educational tools for students and listeners including an oral comprehension course used extensively by high school Spanish teachers to prepare their students for College Board Spanish language comprehension exams.