Lorraine Sherr, Professor, Head of Health Psychology Unit PCPS, Royal Free and UC Medical School UCL
Susan Wilkinson-Maposa, Independent Consultant and Author of "The Poor Philanthropist", South Africa

March 2008

Cyprian Maro, Executive Director, Elimu, Michezo na Mazoezi (EMIMA), Tanzania
Maxwell Matewere, Executive Director, Eye of the Child, Malawi

September 2007

Mulugeta Gebru, Executive Director, Jerusalem Children & Community Development (JeCCDO), Ethiopia
Mawinnie Kanetsi, Co-Founder, Touch Roots Africa (TRA), Lesotho
Philip Motlhaolwa, Director, Diketso Eseng Dipuo Community Development Trust (DEDI), South Africa

March 2007

Godfrey Kasozi, Executive Director, The Center for Environment Technology and Rural Development (CETRUD), Uganda
Jill Donahue, Consultant, Economic Empowerment, HIV/AIDS, Community Mobilization, South Africa

August 2006

Wairimu Mungai, Program Director, WEM Integrated Health Services (WEMIHS), Kenya
Daphetone Siame, Deputy Director of REPSSI, Zambia

March 2006

Kate Harrison, then Senior Technical Advisor on Children, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, United Kingdom; now HIV Coordinator, Comic Relief, United Kingdom
Kerstin Rausch, MA Research Psychology Co-Founder of Insideout Research, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, South Africa

September 2005

Phillip Motlhaolwa, Manager, Diketso Eseng Dipuo Community Development Trust-DEDI, South Africa
Linda Richter, Executive Director, Child, Youth, Family & Social Development, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa

March 2005

Cati Vawda, Director, Children's Rights' Centre, South Africa
Brenda Yamba, Save the Children-US, Malawi

March 2004

Betty Gahima, Benishyaka Association, Rwanda

September 2003

John Williamson, Displaced Children and Orphans Fund, USAID, United States

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kerry Olson, Founder & President

Kerry Olson serves as president of the Firelight Foundation's Board of Directors and plays an active role in the Foundation's strategic planning, advocacy, and outreach. She founded Firelight in 1999 with her husband, Dave Katz, a Silicon Valley software engineer.

In 2007, Kerry and Dave were recognized by Geneva Global and Barron's Magazine as being among 10 philanthropists nationwide whose foundations "epitomized thoughtful and effective giving."
Olson engages in public speaking, writing, and the building of strategic partnerships to promote best practice in international philanthropy and child-focused grantmaking.

Kerry is co-author of The Promise of a Future and From Faith to Action—two widely-endorsed publications promoting donor investment in grassroots programs that work to strengthen family and community care for children.

Olson chairs the Faith to Action Initiative and serves on the steering of the Better Care Network.  Prior to Firelight, Kerry worked for more than 20 years in the nonprofit sector as an educator, the founding director of child/parent community centers, and a research social scientist for SRI International.

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David Katz, Vice President
Senior Software Engineer

Dave Katz serves as vice president of the Firelight Foundation’s Board of Directors. Katz and his wife, Kerry Olson, established the Firelight Foundation in 1999 out of their shared sense of social responsibility towards those in need. Through the years, Dave has been instrumental in supporting the information technology needs of the Foundation.

Currently a senior software engineer at a Silicon Valley Internet infrastructure company, Katz has worked in the computer and networking field for more than 25 years in both university and industry settings.

One of his more recent engagements was with Juniper Networks, where he served as senior engineer for a number of years in the lead-up to the company’s initial public offering in 1999.

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Jonathan C. Lewis, Treasurer
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, the Opportunity Collaboration

Jonathan C. Lewis is the founder and chief executive officer of the Opportunity  Collaboration—a four-day learning, teaching, and networking summit of 300 senior anti-poverty leaders that occurs every year on World Poverty Day.   

Jonathan is also the founder and board chair of MicroCredit Enterprises, an innovative social venture which leverages private capital to make tiny business loans to deeply impoverished people—mostly women—in developing countries.

In his eclectic entrepreneurial career, Jonathan has served as the founder of a business knowledge company which addressed the role of American healthcare companies in the global health economy; CEO of the California Association of Health Maintenance Organizations; the Chief Budget Advisor to the President of the California State Senate; founder/CEO of an urban real estate investment company; and founder/owner of a contemporary art gallery.   

Lewis is a recipient of both a Social Venture Network Innovation Award and a World Affairs Council Award. He is also the Former Managing Chair of the Ambassadors Council of Freedom from Hunger; the Former President of the Academy for International Health Studies; and the Founder of the International Health Summit. He is a Member of the Advisory Boards of the Global Philanthropy Forum, the International Center for Corporate Accountability, and the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

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Diana Aubourg Millner
Program Officer, Stoneleigh Foundation

Diana Aubourg Millner currently serves as a program officer with the Stoneleigh Foundation (www.stoneleighfoundation.org), which supports outstanding individuals whose work unites research, policy and practice to improve youth serving systems. At Stoneleigh, she oversees two fellowship programs and the work of both senior and junior fellows.

Previously, Diana served as a Senior Policy Analyst with Bread for the World Institute, focusing on foreign aid reform and related global hunger and poverty issues. Prior to this, she served as Executive Director of Save Africa’s Children (SAC), an African-American church initiative that supports orphan care programs throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. In this capacity, she led the disbursement of more than 400 grants to hundreds of grassroots and faith-based organizations serving orphans and vulnerable children in Africa, and represented SAC to faith-based organizations and policy and advocacy groups addressing the global aids pandemic. She has traveled extensively throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

Diana has also worked as a research associate with the Right to Development Project at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and served on the boards of the Jubilee USA Network and Global Action for Children. She has worked closely with Firelight’s founder and president, Kerry Olson, as a founding member of the Faith to Action Initiative of the Better Care Network, an effort to promote community-based care for orphans and vulnerable children. Diana earned a bachelor’s degree in policy studies from Syracuse University and a master’s in international development planning from MIT. She is happily married to Rev. Marlon Millner and the proud mother of EJ, (age 3) and Imma (age 1).

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Barbara Fagan-Smith
Founder & CEO, ROI Communication

Barbara Fagan-Smith is the founder and CEO of ROI Communications, an award-winning communications consulting firm. Building on more than two decades of experience in corporate communications and journalism, Fagan-Smith leads ROI's work helping Fortune 500 companies develop and manage effective communication projects that deliver clear business results.

Since its launch in 2001, ROI Communication has worked with a broad array of clients, including Hewlett-Packard, Adobe Systems, Pacific Gas & Electric, Wachovia, Cisco Systems, Gap Inc., The Home Depot, Chevron, Microsoft, and Walgreens. ROI Communication has been recognized with multiple communications sector awards, and was chosen by Working Mother Magazine as one of the “25 Best Small Companies for Women” in 2007.

Barbara is also the founder and managing director of Family ROI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people of all backgrounds apply proven business principles to revitalize, focus, and strengthen the most important organization in the world: their own family.

Prior to founding ROI Communication and Family ROI, Barbara was the Director of Employee and Electronic Communications at Quantum Corporation, and the Director of Interactive Communications at Simply Interactive, Inc.

Before her career in corporate communications, Barbara worked as a London-based television producer for ABC News, where she covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the 1991 Gulf War for ABC’s PrimeTime Live and World News Tonight.

Barbara was selected as a winner of the 2008 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards, an annual tribute to North America’s top women entrepreneurs.

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Geoff Foster, MD
Consultant Pediatrician, Ministry of Health, Zimbabwe

Geoff Foster, MD, has served on the Firelight Foundation’s Advisory Board (since renamed the “Advisory Council”) since 2002.

He is a leading expert in Zimbabwe on health care and other forms of support for children affected by HIV/AIDS. Foster is a pediatrician with more than 20 years of experience.

In 1987, Geoff founded Family AIDS Caring Trust, one of the first AIDS service organizations in Africa. He served as its Director until 2000. In 1993, he designed the FOCUS program, which is now considered by UNICEF to be a model approach to community-based care for orphans. During the past 10 years, Foster has researched and consulted on the issue of orphans and vulnerable children, resulting in numerous publications.

Geoff consults with many national and international organizations and has recently analyzed issues related to the scaling-up of services and programs. For years, he has worked on HIV/AIDS prevention, home care, community responses, faith-based responses, and impact. His work assessing the effectiveness of community interventions resulted in field assignments in Malawi and Zambia.

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Rowland P. Hobbs

Managing Partner, Post+Beam

Rowland Hobbs is the founder and managing partner of Post+Beam, where he focuses on communication stewardship and innovation planning for a diverse roster of clients that includes Hunter Douglas, Facebook, Credit Suisse, and the Guggenheim Museum. That means asking questions as well as answering them—questions such as “Can great brands create breakthrough user experiences?” “How can we balance social good with bottom-line success?” and “How can we constantly improve agency-client relations?” Before founding Post+Beam (previously called DMD Network), Rowland was the senior managing director at Ruder Finn Group, where he founded the company’s interactive brand. He has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in philosophy from K.U.Leuven (Belgium). He has studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Whitman College, Washington. Rowland also serves pro-bono as senior vice president of communications for MicroCredit Enterprises.

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Catherine H. Milton

Catherine Milton is a leader in the national service movement and a social entrepreneur with exceptional experience in the start-up phase. She also has 8 years experience as a senior executive (Executive Director and Vice President) with Save the Children where she developed an innovative program using national service volunteers and corporate partnerships and three years as President of Friends of the Children, a national mentoring program.

She served as the first executive director of the federal Commission on National and Community Service where she was responsible for the design and implementation of the national service programs which eventually evolved into AmeriCorps. She then was appointed as the senior vice president of the Corporation of National Service where she oversaw the development, launching and funding of AmeriCorps. She also designed and directed for a year the Presidio Leadership Center, the first national service leadership training center.

Catherine was the founder and director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University where she developed and led what many consider the most premier volunteer program for college students. Catherine was also given the highest award for improving undergraduate education at Stanford’s 100th Anniversary Commencement and in 2010 Stanford announced that it is establishing a fellowship for social innovation in her name.

In addition, Catherine has held senior positions in the Treasury Department and the US Senate, and was a senior program officer at the Police Foundation. She has authored or co-authored six books, on issues relating to the police, the role of women in the criminal justice system, including Women in Policing, and the history of Black Americans. In 1984 and 1985, she served as a member of the US Attorney's Task Force on Family Violence. In her work with the US Senate, she authored the first two significant pieces of legislation focused on victims of crime, both of which were enacted into laws.

Catherine is currently co-chair of the advisory board of Generations United. She has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Mt. Holyoke College; a prestigious three-year Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship with extensive international travel.

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Dick Staufenberger

Dick volunteers with Save the Children where he is Director, Office of Stakeholder Accountability and Senior Advisor to the President. Since April of 1996, he has helped the organization redesign the focus of its U.S. programs, served for three different extended periods as the Acting Chief Financial Officer, filled in when the Chief Operating Officer position was vacant, and undertaken a variety of special projects as Senior Advisor to the President. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and Clothes Helping Kids.

In February of 1994, Dick retired from the Corporation for National and Community Service where he was the Acting Chief Financial Officer. Prior to assuming that position, he was the Deputy Director for the Commission on National and Community Service. From 1983 to 1992, he was with the Employment Standards Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. From 1983 to 1990, he was Deputy Director of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (from 1986 to 1987 he was acting Director). From 1981 to 1983, he was Assistant to the Inspector General at the Department of Labor. He came to the Department of Labor from the Department of Agriculture where he also was Assistant to the Inspector General. He held that position from September 1978 to 1981.

Dick has taught at three universities. The courses he specialized in included public administration; public policy; state, local, and national government; and criminal justice administration. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1970 from the University of Maryland. He co-edited the college text Police Personnel Administration (1974). He is also co-author and editor of the text Progress in Policing: Essays on Change (hard cover 1980, paperback 1982) and has written numerous articles that have appeared in professional journals. In 1988, Mr. Staufenberger was one of six senior federal executives chosen as charter members in the Senior Executive Service fellowship program. The program was created to recognize and reward top-level federal career employees who have made significant contributions to the development of employees in their agencies. In 1990, he received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service.

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ADVISORY COUNCIL

Geoff Foster, MD
Consultant Pediatrician, Ministry of Health, Zimbabwe

Geoff Foster, MD, has served on the Firelight Foundation’s Advisory Board (since renamed the “Advisory Council”) since 2002.

He is a leading expert in Zimbabwe on health care and other forms of support for children affected by HIV/AIDS. Foster is a pediatrician with more than 20 years of experience.

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Mulugeta Gebru
Founder & Executive Director, Jerusalem Children and Community Development Organization (JeCCDO)

Mulugeta Gebru is the Founder and Executive Director of the Jerusalem Children and Community Development Organization (JeCCDO), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. JeCCDO is one of Ethiopia’s oldest and largest organizations dedicated to promoting community-based childcare programs and building community capacity to support orphans and vulnerable children.

Mr. Gebru co-founded JeCCDO more than 20 years ago to help children orphaned or abandoned in the wake of Ethiopia’s famine and civil war. At the time, the organization was operating six orphanages accommodating 1,000 children. Since then, JeCCDO has done groundbreaking work in helping children living in orphanages move back and reintegrate into community settings, and in phasing out the orphanages it had operated.

Today, the organization is involved in multi-faceted development work focusing on improving the lives of disadvantaged children, women, and youth in different parts of the country. JeCCDO funds 12 nongovernmental organizations directly and supports 21 community-based organizations. The organization also serves as the secretariat of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Network, which is comprised of 140 Ethiopian organizations.

A few years ago, JeCCDO’s work caught the attention of Tony Blair, then the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, who visited one of the organization’s community projects and highlighted the difference they were making.

Mr. Gebru has served as a board member for several NGOs and has been a parent committee member for five schools. A native of Ethiopia, Mr. Gebru holds a degree in Business Management and an Advanced Diploma in Development Studies.

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Stefan Germann
(Dr) Director for Partnerships, Innovation & Accountability/Global Health & WASH Team/World Vision International

Stefan Germann is an "innovator" of social development programs in southern Africa in the support of children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS. His involvement in orphan care programs in rural Africa dates back to 1992.

In 1998 under the auspice of the Salvation Army, he designed the Masiye Camp program in Zimbabwe, pioneering scalable psychosocial support for orphans and vulnerable children through adventure-based learning. Stefan currently serves as the Salvation Army Africa Regional Team Focal Person on Children, Youth and AIDS.

In 2002 he was one of the founders of Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI), a regional initiative to scale up emotional and social support to orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. He now serves as their Advisor for Strategic Partnerships.

Stefan Germann supports many regional and international organizations in an advisory role for programs that aim to improve the quality of live for orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS.

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Howard Kasiya
HIV and AIDS Programme Manager at the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM)

Since March 2003, Howard Kasiya has served as the HIV and AIDS Program Manager of the Evangelical Association of Malawi, where he coordinates the responses of local area churches to HIV and AIDS. He is a trained clinical officer who first became involved with HIV and AIDS Programs in the late 1980’s while working with Ekwendeni Mission Hospital of the Christian Hospital Association of Malawi (CHAM) as an Assistant Medical Doctor.

Mr. Kasiya established the first Hospital and Community Based HIV and AIDS Program in Malawi, as well as the first HIV and AIDS program targeting youth, called “AIDS TOTO CLUBS”. This model was later adopted and developed by UNICEF for in- and out-of-school youth programs in Malawi. Mr. Kasiya was jointly responsible for developing a community-based counseling model in HIV infection and AIDS focusing on family involvement and community participation for enablement. He co-wrote a book titled “Care Counseling” and also authored a manual on the topic, which was used by the Malawi Ministry of Health to provide guidance and training on counseling.

Mr. Kasiya has built his career around encouraging and facilitating community-based responses to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

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Wairimu Mungai
Program Director, WEM Integrated Health Services (WEMIHS)

Wairimu Mungai is the Program Director of WEMIHS, a highly regarded NGO that provides integrated health and development services in the Central Province of Kenya. Ms. Mungai developed WEMIHS's initial vision and strategic plan based on the overwhelming demand for care and support services in Thika. Over a period of four years Ms. Mungai and the other two founding members used their own meager resources to establish an office, build volunteer care and support services, and strengthen community structures. WEMIHS has since evolved to a nationally recognized program with a track record of best practices in prevention and behavior change for youth, ART adherence education, psychosocial support for people living with HIV/AIDS, and sustainable livelihoods to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on vulnerable communities.

Ms. Mungai has a wealth of experience in capacity building for institutional and human resource development, policy development, gender, and HIV/AIDS mainstreaming. From 1997-2000, Ms. Mungai served as Capacity Building Deputy Manager for Catholic Relief Services, where she focused on child survival programs in Kenya and Tanzania. In addition to providing technical support, she served as a resource person for assessing the effectiveness of training on project work and was a member of the Technical Review Committee for the East and Central African Region.

In 2003, Ms. Mungai worked as the Project Coordinator with Futures Group Europe providing technical support required by key national level policymaking and coordinating organizations, such as the National AIDS, STI Coordinating Program (NASCOP), and National AIDS Control Council (NACC).

A native of Kenya, Ms. Mungai received her BS in Nutrition and Food Systems Administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MA in Education from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where she specialized in Curriculum Development and Training.

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Linda Richter, PhD
Distinguished Research Fellow, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) & Senior Specialist (Vulnerable Children), Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Linda Richter is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council in Durban, South Africa. In July 2010, Dr. Richter was appointed Senior Specialist for Vulnerable Children at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

She holds a Chair in Psychology and is an elected Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has conducted both basic and policy research in the fields of child and youth development as applied to health, education, welfare and social development.

Dr. Richter has published more than 150 papers in the fields of child adolescent and family development, infant and child assessment, protein-energy malnutrition, street and working children, and the effects of HIV and AIDS on children and families, including HIV prevention among young people.

Professor Richter is the Principal Investigator of Birth to Twenty, a longitudinal study of the maturation and development of more than 2,000 young people born in Soweto-Johannesburg in 1990, who are being followed-up prospectively for 20 years.

She is a co-author of a book on the study entitled Mandela’s Children: Growing up in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2001) and the lead editor of a recent book on the sexual abuse of prepubertal children entitled The Sexual Abuse of Young Children in Southern Africa (2004).

Dr. Richter serves on several national and international committees, including the Technical Steering Committee of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, and FutureThink, an expert consultation organized by the WHO to anticipate future threats to the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.

She has devised several innovative intervention programs and has advised other agencies on the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions for extremely vulnerable children and families.

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Cati Vawda
Director, Children’s Rights Centre (CRC)

Cati Vawda is the Director of the Children’s Rights Centre (CRC) in Durban, South Africa. CRC was founded 1988 in response to the visible violation of children under the government’s State of Emergency. CRC’s early work focused on encouraging international advocacy for children’s rights in South Africa.

Ms. Vawda joined the organization in 1990 with the aim of addressing a significant question: How do you make children’s rights real and understandable for children? CRC now works to build a child-friendly society. Their activities aim to ensure access to quality education and safe play spaces, and to promote child participation in decision-making and child-friendly local government.

CRC also works to monitor the situation of children and children’s rights in South Africa, both individually and nationally. Under Ms. Vawda’s leadership, CRC has built and supported networks focused on linking organizations within a broader movement for children, and assisted with programs to ensure access to antiretroviral treatment.

Ms. Vawda participated as a Visiting Scholar in Firelight’s Advisory Board meeting in March 2005.

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STAFF

Peter Laugharn, Executive Director
peter@firelightfoundation.org

Peter Laugharn assumed the Executive Director position at Firelight in July 2008. For the six years before that, Peter served as Executive Director of the Netherlands-based Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), a private foundation that funds and shares knowledge about work in early childhood development and children's rights. Before taking the helm of BvLF, he served as the Foundation's Director of Programs.

Peter worked for more than 11 years in a variety of roles for Save the Children USA, with much of his extensive experience focused on Africa. As Save the Children's Deputy Director in Mali, Peter helped develop the "Village Schools" model, which promoted access to basic education, girls schooling, and community participation. He was later Save the Children's West Africa Area Director and then Education Adviser for Africa, providing technical assistance for programs in 10 countries.

A graduate of Stanford and Georgetown Universities, Peter holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of London. He was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 1982 to 1984. Currently a member of the Council on Foundations International Committee, Peter is also co-chair of the Inter-Agency Task Team on Children and HIV and AIDS.

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Robin Dixon, Communications Officer
robin@firelightfoundation.org

As Communications Officer, Robin manages communications, marketing, and media production for Firelight. She also manages social media channels and Ubuntu, the Firelight blog.

Robin joined Firelight in February 2011. Prior to that she managed a digital media education program, Digital Media Learning Foundation and was an independent writer and media creator for socially conscious projects with her company, Vue. She’s a founding member of TEDxSantaCruz and a Board member of KUSP, a community supported National Public Radio station.

Robin’s background in grassroots grantmaking comes from the Fund for Non-violence where she was a program officer for the prison program and worked with the ACLU of Northern California and the Haywood Burns Institute on issues of disproportionate minority confinement. She was a senior program officer at Girl’s Best Friend Foundation, a now sunset foundation that promoted girls’ rights and activism in Chicago. Robin received her master’s degree from DePaul University and her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa.

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Gretchen Ellis, Program Associate
gretchen@firelightfoundation.org

Gretchen Ellis joined the Firelight team as an intern in June 2009 and in October 2009 was brought on staff as Grantmaking Assistant. In March 2010 she was promoted to Program Assistant, then Program Associate in January 2011. She works with a Program Officer to manage the Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe country portfolios. In this role, Gretchen is responsible for managing all aspects of the grantmaking process, including evaluating proposals; making funding recommendations to the Board of Directors, maintaining relationships with Grantee-partners; and supporting grantee capacity building.

Gretchen graduated in December 2009 with a BA in Psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz.

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Aili Langseth, Program Officer
aili@firelightfoundation.org

As Program Officer at Firelight, Aili Langseth works with grantee-partners in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In this role, Aili is responsible for managing all aspects of the grantmaking process, including evaluating proposals; making funding recommendations to the Board of Directors, maintaining relationships with Grantee-partners; and supporting grantee capacity building.

Aili joined the Firelight team in 2006 as a Program Assistant. Prior to that, Aili worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) supporting national elections in Ethiopia, and also assisted a small grassroots organization in Tanzania that facilitates community and government dialogue for local development in Kilimanjaro.

During her undergraduate years, Aili studied history and development in Zimbabwe. She earned her Master’s Degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, focusing on the impact of international assistance on democratic processes in developing countries.

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Dila Perera, Program Officer
dila@firelightfoundation.org

As Program Officer, Dila manages all aspects of the grantmaking process, including evaluating proposals, making funding recommendations, maintaining relationships, and supporting the capacity building of Grantee-partners in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Dila joined Firelight in July 2010 after working for three years as a Program Manager for the International Training & Education Center for Health (I-TECH), based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. There she supported the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare to strengthen HIV training for healthcare workers and support health training institutions throughout the country. Dila also supported sites in an HIV-prevention clinical trial focusing on HIV-discordant couples at 15 sites in Sub-Saharan Africa. She began working with community-based organizations in rural and urban Madagascar 10 years ago as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she worked with community health volunteers and organizations working with commercial sex workers. Dila has also served as an intern and researcher with a micro-finance program for sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, exploring the social benefits of participation in micro-finance programs.

Dila holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health from the University of Washington, focusing on both maternal & child health as well as global health.

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Scott J. Pietka, Grants Administrator
scott@firelightfoundation.org

Scott serves as the Grants Administrator and Swahili translator for Firelight’s Grantmaking Team. In his role, Scott works closely with the Director of Programs to monitor the effectiveness of Firelight’s grantmaking systems and manage the implementation of system-wide improvements. His responsibilities include managing the database, facilitating the processing of grants, including ensuring regulatory and administrative compliance, and the sharing of grant-related information with finance, communications, and development staff.

Prior to joining Firelight in March 2008 as a program assistant, Scott worked in Tanzania as an Environmental Peace Corps Volunteer for two years, assisting his village with permaculture techniques, HIV and AIDS education, and primary school development. From Tanzania, he went on to serve as General Manager for Allure Flowers, a fresh-cut exporting rose farm.

Scott received his BA in Business Administration, with a focus on Management, from San Diego State University.

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Joop Rubens, Director of Development
joop@firelightfoundation.org

Joop Rubens serves as Development Director, leading donor engagement.

A native of Belgium, Joop lived and worked in a township in Limpopo Province, South Africa from 1997 to 2000 where he assisted community-based organizations in their work around HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Joop has over a decade of experience raising support for local, national and international issues. Most recently as Associate Director of Development at the University of California Santa Cruz, he raised support for the Division of Social Sciences.

Joop served as Firelight's Communications and Development Officer from 2003 to 2006 and has now re-joined Firelight as the Development Director in July 2011. Over the years, he remained a dedicated Firelight volunteer and in February 2011 raised funds to travel and document the work of a Firelight grantee partner in Malawi. The trip inspired Joop and he decided to return to Firelight and build even broader support for the work of our grantees.

Joop holds a Law degree from the University of Ghent, Belgium and a Masters in International Development from the University of South Africa. He also runs his own photography business, Joop Rubens Photography and many photographs of Firelight are credited to him.

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Zanele Sibanda, Director of Programs
zanele@firelightfoundation.org

In her role as the Director of Programs, Zanele Sibanda manages a seven-member program team and plays a central role in leading the development and implementation of Firelight’s Grantmaking, Organizational Learning, Capacity Building, and national-level Advocacy programs.

A native of Zimbabwe, Zanele joined Firelight in 2006 as Program Officer and Advocacy Coordinator. Previously, she worked with informal community groups to develop income-generating strategies and care for vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. Zanele has also served as the Director of Education and Public Policy at Chicago United, a business membership organization that promotes access to resources for minority groups.

Before that, she worked for the Chicago Public School system and the University of Chicago-affiliated Chapin Hall Center for Children.

Zanele received her undergraduate degree from Grinnell College and has completed graduate studies in social policy at the University of Chicago.

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Jane Stokes, Finance Manager
jane@firelightfoundation.org

As Finance Manager Jane is responsible for managing all aspects of Firelight’s accounting, and oversees internal and external financial reporting.

Jane joined the Firelight team in August 2011 with over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Jane previously served as Director of Development at Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory School and as Accounting Director at KUSP Central Coast Public Radio in Santa Cruz.

Jane began her career at the international professional services firm KPMG and provided audit, accounting and management advisory services to South Bay for-profit and nonprofit organizations as an independent practitioner. She studied at The Evergreen State College and San Jose State University, earning a BA in Humanities and pursuing additional studies in finance and accounting.

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Cheryl Talley-Moon, Human Resources & Office Manager
cheryl@firelightfoundation.org

Cheryl Talley-Moon serves as Firelight’s Human Resources & Office Manager.

Cheryl first became involved in Firelight several years ago because of her admiration of the Foundation's work in helping vulnerable children in Africa.

Previously, she worked in the field of alternative medicine and Alzheimer patient care.

Cheryl studied holistic medicine for 18 years, earning certifications in massage and nutrition. In 1988, she received her BS in Art, with an emphasis on Photography, from the University of California Santa Cruz.

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Dawn Weathersbee, Engagement Associate
dawn@firelightfoundation.org

Dawn joined Firelight in 2010. Previously, Dawn taught English and counseled families in a special program for at-risk high school youth.

Dawn’s nonprofit sector experience includes being a founding board member of Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz, a nonprofit dedicated to working with the community to ensure the development of and access to trails for bike users. She is also the Board Secretary for Trips for Kids Santa Cruz, a nonprofit dedicated to introducing at-risk youth to mountain biking and teaching them about health and bike maintenance.

Dawn’s experiences working with youth helped influence her decision to join Firelight. She has seen first-hand the positive impact of working within a community to change lives, and believes in supporting grassroots organizations that change lives, families, and communities.

Dawn holds a BA in World Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has studied in Morelia, Mexico and London, England. She also holds a teaching credential in English, as well as certification in Teaching English as a Second Language.

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Bridget Zwimpfer, Program Assistant
bridget@firelightfoundation.org

Bridget Zwimpfer joined Firelight in February 2010 as a Grantmaking Intern and was promoted to Grantmaking Assistant in June 2010 then Program Assistant in July 2011.

She works closely with a Program Officer to maintain the Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia country portfolios. In this role she monitors communications with grantee-partners; analyzes and synthesizes their work; and processes contracts, grants, reports, and other docket-related material. She also assists the Grants Administrator with systems management.

Bridget graduated in June 2010 with a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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