Board of Directors

Leslie Sherriff

Leslie Sherriff is a MEAL and international development professional with more than 30 years of experience. She has degrees from the University of Southern California, the University of Pittsburgh, and London Metropolitan University in London, England. Her career includes work world-wide with the National Endowment for Democracy, Catholic Relief Services, LINGOS (now Humentum), American University, and others as an independent consultant. During the last 10 years, Leslie has focused her time building capacity in the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) field via on-line learning. She helped design and taught a course for American University’s on-line MS in Measurement and Evaluation and co-wrote the Guide to the MEAL DPro. She also assisted in the development of the MEAL DPro resources and courses. She is MEAL certified with the International Association…

Clara Hagens

Clara Hagens is a Senior MEAL Advisor with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and has participated in the evolution from M&E to MEAL within the agency over the last decade. Clara began her work with CRS as a regional technical advisor for M&E in Asia and currently focuses on global MEAL initiatives and resources. She has co-led the agency's work on MEAL policies and procedures and the developing of the SMILER+ MEAL System Development Resources as well as guidance on Feedback, Complaints and Response Mechanisms. Clara also contributed to development of MEAL DPro Guide and resources. Clara facilitates a community of practice among accountability practitioners, including MEAL staff and program teams. Currently, she is working to integrate localization initiatives with MEAL activities, contributing to stronger partnerships between CRS and local actors.…

Juan Manuel

Juan Manuel Palacios, started his career in the development sector with non-profit organizations about 27 years ago, working as project coordinator, project manager, operational director and regional manager for international cooperation and non-profit organizations, on leadership projects, development of indigenous populations, art and culture, income generation, microfinance and small business development. Between 2003 and 2006 he worked in the Northeast of Brazil, in monitoring, evaluation and financial training for over 25 NGO's in self-sustainability and organizational strengthening. In 1996, he founded VRS Consult, a consulting company for strengthening of management skills for companies and non-profit organizations, planning, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting, self-sustainability and strengthening of Human Resources. He has developed training processes in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, USA, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau,…

Sharon Mitchener

Sharon Mitchener, a Kenyan native, has an in-depth background in financial systems and risk strategy and management, and has parlayed her 25 years’ experience in the financial sectors to founding several initiatives in the evolving and robust field of visual arts. Before founding an artists-oriented enterprise known as The Image Foundry in 2010, Sharon served as a consulting programme manager for USAID & GiZ, advising the Kenya Government on its communications and training strategy for its Public Procurement parastatal, PPOA. Before that, Sharon was a financial consultant with The World Bank in Washington D.C, driving the organizations implementation of enterprise-wide reporting financial systems. Prior to The World Bank, Sharon worked as an independent consultant providing financial advisory services to US fortune 100 companies such as Delta Airlines, Cingular Wireless, MCI…

Oliver Filler

A passionate advocate for promoting excellence in project and programme management, Oliver Filler has over 10 years of experience in humanitarian response and development programming. As Project Cycle Management Programme Support Specialist, Oliver has been leading Plan International’s global project management strengthening initiative. This initiative utilises PMD Pro Level 1 as a core global project management standard. Through this roll out Plan has PMD Pro trained staff in all 54 country offices and has a growing pool of Regional and National Office trainers. In this role, Oliver has co-authored Plan International’s global Programme and Influence Quality Policy and created Plan’s global project cycle procedures, tools, guidance, competencies, maturity model and standards. Oliver also provides direct project management support to Country Offices and Regions. Oliver’s background is in programme quality, specifically in…

Nesty Delgado

Jesus E. (Nesty) Delgado-Morales is a Civil Engineer and Project Manager passionate about bringing ideas to viable and healthy projects, and bringing those projects to results that generate a real impact and fundamental changes; successfully implement strategy to promote continuous innovation and achieve true resilience in the communities and organizations I serve. Nesty is enthusiastic about applying the best practices of engineering, exponential technologies, and the principles and methodologies of Project Management, Strategy Implementation, and Business Continuity to help our clients solve difficult problems, achieve the success of their projects, add value, and increase their readiness and their Organizational Resilience and Maturity. After more than 20 years of professional practice, he is convinced that the only way to stay relevant in such a changing and challenging world is through continuous…

Michael Zhiqiang Chen

Michael Chen is the CEO of HANDA Rehabilitation & Welfare Association and the President of HANDA Social Service Development Center in China. He is an experienced Project Manager has been worked in development sector since 1999. He also serves as consultant and advisor for many international and Chinese NGOs for program and project management, providing training for thousands of NGOers. With medical background and as a medical doctor, he was a Temporary Expert for WHO for disease control programs. He has a passion for quality social service and development of social sector, especially in project and program management. He sits on several boards in social sector committing himself to developing sector and quality project and program management. Michael is certificated as Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute…

Josephine Carlson

Josephine has worked in international development and humanitarian response for more than twelve years. A true generalist, she has accumulated a broad experience from managing programmes, people, and processes for several large INGOs and across a wide range of thematic areas, predominantly while based in post-conflict and/or disaster-affected contexts, such as Afghanistan, Lebanon and Myanmar. Having played a central part in Mercy Corps’ efforts to roll out and standardise project management across the agency globally, Josephine is qualified to Project DPro Level 1 and Program DPro, and a trained facilitator and Trainer of Trainers in Project DPro. Josephine is a firm believer in that improving and assuring quality, with the ultimate goal of delivering the best impact for the communities we support and serve, should drive all international development work.…

Hazem Zeitoun

A passionate for strategy, project management, and business development, Hazem thrives in a culture that drives innovation, change and results. For him strategy is not a matter of being better at what you do – but different at what you do. Hazem has 25 years of experience and has been working as a senior consultant and trainer for more than 15 years, providing consulting and training assignments for clients from different sectors around the world. So many stories have shaped his core. Originally a pharmacist, Hazem holds an Ms in Marketing and holds the PMP accreditation as well as PMD Pro and project DPro Practitioner. Juggling between both industries, Hazem made the shift to satisfy his desire to serve others and help make the biggest leaps forward within teams, companies…

Gabrielle Bielen

Gabrielle Bielen believes expanding project management knowledge and skills is one way to promote global health, economic growth, and prosperity. As Director of Project Management at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Gabrielle has embraced the power and simplicity of the PMD Pro Guide and toolkit. She is a certified PMP with the Project Management Institute (PMI), PMD Pro 2 with PM4NGOs, and MSP with Axelos. She holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Marquette University and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Colby College.