Katy Herchson Email and Phone Number

I served as Senior Program Officer for the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, a capacity development program for medical, legal, and law enforcement professionals who support survivors of sexual violence in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I led the MediCapt project, a mobile application designed to enable clinicians to better document and securely store evidence of sexual violence. MediCapt won awards from MIT Solve, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, the World Bank, and others. I established the MediCapt Tech Advisory Board to bring together experts in mobile applications, security, and open source code to guide the technical direction of the project. Together with a fantastic group of colleagues, partners, and volunteers, we piloted MediCapt in Kenya in 2018 and expanded use in Kenya and DRC.I oversaw monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) for the Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, including designing and executing the MEL strategy, managing a team of expert external consultants to conduct evaluations including medical and legal record reviews, and working with my colleagues to use MEL data in real time to improve our work. I spearheaded a participatory MEL exercise with the end users of MediCapt in Kenya, which resulted in a co-authored report with the end users highlighting their experience using the app with patients.I served as a project manager on the team, working closely with colleagues in Kenya and DRC to implement activities, manage multiple budgets, and ensure that deliverables are met on time. I Identified creative solutions to challenges and resource constraints, including successfully soliciting pro bono and financial support from private sector partners.I also designed new programs and wrote proposals to seek support for programming, as well as representing our work to donors and external partners.

I supported the piloting of a monitoring toolkit we created in Nigeria as part of the Enhanced Response Capacity Consortium focused on multipurpose cash grants. The project in Ethiopia included conducting qualitative research in IDP camps to adapt the tools to the context, relationship building with partners to support the pilot, and logistical management to get the pilot started. I also served as focal point on participatory monitoring, and I wrote a report on recommendations for how to conduct participatory monitoring in emergency response.

I led a project to assess how and to what extent gender justice work has been incorporated into two crucial stages of Oxfam America's work: fundraising efforts and grant-making processes. Through a series of interviews with staff and an analysis of their work from the past three years, I created a checklist and set of indicators for Oxfam America to better measure gender justice efforts in all of their projects. I presented this work to teams across Oxfam.

I managed the multi-stakeholder partnership responsible for piloting gender recommendations in internally displaced person (IDP) profiling exercises with the Joint IDP Profiling Service. Additionally, I conducted a global landscape analysis of data on refugees and IDPs and co-authored a report focused on recommendations for how to improve data gender sensitivity.

I developed and led the pilot of monitoring tools for an ECHO-funded consortium focused on multipurpose cash programming in Northeast Nigeria to be used by all consortium members. The tools included a household survey, key informant interview, and a participatory community group discussion template. I managed the logistics for the pilot, supervised a team of sixteen enumerators, and conducted community group discussions with IDPs. After the pilot, I analyzed the quantitative and qualitative data and summarized findings in a report for the consortium and other partners.

I supported two projects: a research project focused on measuring women’s economic empowerment and Data2X, an initiative focused on identifying gender data gaps and promoting more and better gender data. I managed Data2X's partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Wide Web Foundation and served as the Data2X lead for the world's first gender data competition, "TechMousso." I established and maintained the Data2X Twitter account, maintained and updated two team websites, and drafted blogs and memos. I also managed the team’s multi-million dollar budget and all contracts, invoices, and expenses. I prepared successful proposals, including to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private foundations; led on internal and donor reports; and worked with the internal budget team to produce and carefully review financial reports. I also planned and executed events, including a researcher convening on measuring women’s economic empowerment and a gender data event featuring Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg.

During my time with the IRC, I managed a multi-million dollar grant portfolio, coordinated proposal development and report writing for donors, including UN agencies, USAID, ECHO, DFID and private foundations. I compiled and analyzed data on Somali returns, human rights violations, IDP movement, and impact of programs. I led implementation of the Communication and Advocacy Strategy and served as communications focal point. I managed a partnership with a local NGO; including partnership development, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation. I represented the IRC at various external forums including technical working groups, consortium meetings, with donors, and with various UN agencies. I supported the Women’s Protection and Empowerment team through organizing regional workshops, co-conducting gender trainings for staff in Nairobi and in Somalia, and participating in UN cluster system meetings on gender-based violence. I conducted trainings for Somali field staff on reporting, advocacy, and communications. I was also seconded to the IRC Uganda program to provide advocacy and communications support to field staff.

I guided students on campuses across the Midwest of the United States on creating and running the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative (CFCI) to raise awareness about violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, established CFCI in twenty new university campuses, and aided in planning national events (e.g. conferences, days of action) for all CFCI students.

I researched relevant legislation and wrote briefings, communicated with the Wisconsin network to keep members informed about current lobbying efforts, and coordinated wide-scale advocacy efforts to urge leaders to respect human rights.

I drafted email updates to members of Congress and Enough’s network of activists, assisted in planning and running events, as well as the development and editing of advocacy materials, researched and wrote reports on policy related to conflict in Africa, and wrote blog posts for the Enough Project Blog. I was asked to continue on as a Regional Coordinator for the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative.

I helped plan and execute workshops on women’s rights in rural communities, researched and wrote reports regarding key human rights issues in Ghana, and monitored the media for human and women’s rights news daily and compiled the findings.