Office of Foreign Assistance, Resources and AppropriationsBudget Formulation Lead

http://www.unitefoundation.org/Served as President of the Board of Directors from July 2013 to June 2015Coordinate fundraising efforts for grant-giving foundation focused on youth development in West Africa.Recruit, retain, and supervise nine-member executive team for financial management, administration, communications, and outreach.

Manage budget planning for the $100 million annual appropriation of foreign assistance funding to Mexico for security programming. Serve as program officer for democracy and governance programming including, but not limited to: rule of law, good governance, transparency and accountability, counter-trafficking in persons, and corrections. Manage relationships and communication with the Department of Justice and international organization implementers including the Organization of American States and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Plan, facilitate, and implement high-level program strategies in support of foreign assistance goals.

Served as Country Coordinator for United States assistance to Libya, Morocco, Algeria, and the territory of Western Sahara in the bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) office of Assistance Coordination. Served as Program Officer and/or Grants Officer Representative on 13 bilateral and regional grants throughout the grant cycle from concept to close out. Coordinated budget planning and justification documents for $160 million annual bilateral and regional foreign assistance programming. Represented the State Department and the U.S. government to international donors, congressional staff, and interagency counterparts. Advised the NEA Assistant Secretary on matters regarding United States assistance to Libya, Morocco, Algeria, and the territory of Western Sahara.

Planned, developed and implemented a strategic public information and cultural outreach grants program aimed at the improvement of the public image of the United States and achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals. Coordinated programming according to the Integrated Country Strategy in alignment with the Mission Resource Request and the Public Diplomacy Implementation Plan. Provided consultation to the Ambassador and State Department staff on the development of approaches to the general public, Lebanese media, program constituents, and other interest groups. Facilitated the goals and objectives of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon by fostering greater public understanding and support of the American people and American foreign policy through a robust community grants program.

Facilitated policy-development activities for the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) at the Department of Labor to support federal government job training, worker dislocation programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. Supported priorities and legislative initiatives such as facilitating the congressional budget justification, coordinating regulatory activities, and staffing emerging policy activities.

Served as primary contact for Assistant Secretary to senior government officials, members of Congress and staff, think tanks, college presidents, union leaders, private industry executives, foreign government officials, state and local elected officials, and other constituents. Directed the development of briefing information and background materials for Assistant Secretary and Chief of Staff. Managed work flow and internal processes including tracking assignments and requests to the office of the Assistant Secretary. Expedited priority projects and developed plans of action for accomplishing assignments within a team structure. Tracked, reviewed, edited, and responded to incoming and outgoing executive-level correspondence including the federal budget lifecycle, proposals, research reports, responses to OIG, policy documents, and procedures and guidelines.

http://www.unitefoundation.org/what-we-do/Wrote successful grant applications (USAID, Peace Corps Partnership, US Embassy Public Affairs Fund, and Unite Foundation) to raise $90000 over three years to fund CONGECS (a consortium of three Togolese non-profit organizations) to run Camp Unite - 6 weeks of summer camp for students and apprentices. Over three years, recruited and trained 120 facilitators to work with 260 youths on topics including overcoming ethnic conflict, youth organizing, and family planning.

As a non-profit management consultant in Togo, I identified key workforce development needs in Togo and created a training module for non-profit organizations to enhance their ability to serve their communities through transparent financial management, effective human resource management, and strategic planning. I co-authored a training manual that has been distributed to Peace Corps programs across the world.  Using the Peace Corps strategic priorities and a needs assessment in my village, I worked with two local non-profit organizations to organize and improve the implementation of a summer leadership camp and a girls scholarship program. As a support and training specialist in my third year in Togo, I developed and monitored implementation of site development policies for Peace Corps Togo including 50 individual site visits, gathering input from stakeholders, and communicating new policy to stakeholders.

• Created youth outreach program to rural areas of Scotland integrating mental health/suicide prevention with anti-homophobia campaign. Collaborated with small team to formulate work plans, timelines, activities, and write evaluation reports.• Expanded Internet outreach service to multiple social networking sites, instant messaging software, and email. Conducted 48 Internet outreach sessions, contacting, informing and supporting 500 young people.• Delivered workshops to increase awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and to reduce the stigma of being LGBT in local youth communities to 33 youth service and education professionals, 16 youth groups (150 young people), 50 high school classes (920 students).• Produced and distributed DVD on conjunction of mental health and homophobia. Prepared 15 peer educators to write and film the DVD.• Designed presentation and tailored it to each audience (ranging from 20 adolescent boys to 20 school teachers and administrators) to introduce the difficult subjects of mental health, bullying, and homophobia.

• Created new protocols for organizational communication, maintained and improved accuracy of service provision reporting and facilitated inter-agency referrals.• Promoted stakeholder interests and built support serving as Co-Chair on Edinburgh Women’s Equality Forum.• Planned Annual General Meeting and facilitated meetings with local and national coalition partners. Identified and invited three new active network members. • Researched and wrote health and safety protocols. Performed annual staff and volunteer risk assessment.• Ensured effective communication between day and night teams of staff and volunteers.• Participated on fundraising team, generating ideas to attract individual donors and seek to diversify funding.• Responded to daily inquiries and requests for support, handled cash flow, and distributed sexual health and drug harm reduction resources to service users

• Managed up-to-date resources for students enrolled in the undergraduate European Studies certificate - recruiting language professors to test language ability, building a list of potential supervisors for European Studies dissertations, and answering daily inquiries about the program.• Promoted awareness of European Studies issues through events and grants to graduate and undergraduate students for international exchange programs or research.• Compiled a list of courses relevant to the Institute by assessing course content and interviewing lecturers, including courses available through study abroad programs.• Handled recruitment sessions and reviewed academic requirement fulfillment for undergraduate European Studies certificate. Increased number of enrolled students in certificate program from 2 to 18 in 2 years.• Created and updated contact database in Microsoft Access.