MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL
Nihal W. Goonewardene, President and Chief Executive Officer, has been with ISTI since 1978. He has worked in Manila as Project Manager for a World Bank Agricultural Education project and Regional Representative for the Asia/Pacific Teaching Fellows Program of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the Tufts University, and held positions with the editorial staff of The Boston Globe and with Bell & Howell Electronics. His graduate degrees are from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Viresh Desai is the Chief Financial Officer of ISTI. Previously, he was the Vice President and CFO of Helen Keller International in New York and the Deputy Controller overseeing USAID contracts at John Show, Inc in Washington DC. Mr. Desai has a MBA in Finance and Investments from George Washington University and a BS degree in Production Engineering from Bombay University.
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The illustrative list of staff resources below includes professionals who worked at ISTI in the course of the past eight years.
Diane Bendahmane is ISTI consultant and formerly the Coordinator of Information Management at EHP. At EHP she was responsible for communicating information regarding its activities and capabilities in both print and non-print media. Prior to joining ISTI, she was a consultant to Inter-American Foundation, the Center for Study of Foreign Affairs of the U.S. and the Foreign Service Institute. Earlier she was Director of Publications for Appropriate Technology International and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and staff of the Foreign Policy Quarterly. Ms. Bendahmane has an M.A. in English and Education from the University of Minnesota and is fluent in French and Arabic.
Dan Campbell has his Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina. Since 1983, he has served as ISTI’s librarian and information dissemination specialist for the Water and Sanitation for Health Project (WASH) and the successor Environmental Health Project (EHP) through five iterations. After a brief two-year absence he has returned to EHP.
Liliana Campos-Dudley is Country Program Manager for the MOST Project and has more than ten years of experience designing and managing international health and natural resources programs. Ms. Campos-Dudley manages MOST’s programs in the Philippines, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and El Salvador. She is responsible for developing country plans and budgets, mobilizing technical and financial resources, and administrative oversight. Before joining ISTI she was Country Director and Regional Coordinator for Conservation International’s programs in the Andean Region and managed ecological research programs in Zimbabwe. Ms. Campos-Dudley has an M.A. in Latin American Studies with emphasis in regional planning, a B.S. in Biology, and graduate training in institutional management and fundraising. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and has working ability in Portuguese and French.
Brenda Costello is the Information and Dissemination Manager of the MOST Project. Previously, she was Communications Liaison for the US Agency for International Development responsible for overall public affairs efforts for USAID’s health programs; Senior Policy Manager for FINCA managing legislative plan for international and domestic microfinancial policy; Communications/Research Director for the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Deputy Research Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She has a B.A. from the School of Public Affairs, The American University and a Minor in Spanish from the Instituto Universitario, Spain.
Milton D’Silva is Grants/Financial Manager with the MOST Project. Previously he was at International Relief and Development, Inc. (IRD); Administrative/Financial Officer at Mother Care Project for John Snow, Inc.; Financial Officer at TransManagement, Inc., in Washington, DC; and Administrative Officer at FPLM Project for John Snow, Inc. in Bangladesh. He has extensive experience in financial management and contractual compliance of USAID- funded contracts, cooperative agreements and grants, and management and negotiation of subcontracts. Mr. D’Silva holds a B.A. in commerce from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and is fluent in English, Bengali and Hindi.
Omar Dary is food fortification advisor for the MOST Project. He has worked in the field of international nutrition, specifically in micronutrients and food fortification programs: salt, sugar, corn and wheat flour in the Central American countries, as well as other countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. In his previous work at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP/PAHO-WHO), he was responsible for providing laboratory support for national biochemistry surveys aimed to evaluate micronutrient status of populations. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Vitamin A consultive group (IVACG), a collaborator of IDD-ICC for Central America and an advisor for WHO in food fortification subjects. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He is fluent in Spanish.
Hannan Ezekiel is ISTI’s senior consultant macro economist and has expertise in monetary policy, financial-sector analysis, and food-aid policy. He was a Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (1984- 1992). Earlier, Dr. Ezekiel was Economist and Division Chief of the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund; Chief Economist and Head, Tata Economic Consultancy Services; and Editor of the Economic Times of India. Author of four books, he has an LL.B. and a Ph.D. in Economics from Bombay University.
Saba Farzaneh is a Program Associate with ISTI and executes program management activities, and performs research for report preparation. Prior to joining ISTI, she was a program coordinator with the World Bank. She has worked with the Baha’i World Center in Haifa, Israel as an Information Analyst. Ms. Farzaneh holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Potsdam, Germany and a B.A. in Economics and Education from the University of California at Davis. She is fluent in Farsi and has a working knowledge of Arabic.
Marli Fazio, the office/travel and logistics manager for the MOST Project. She coordinates all travel, overseas project acquisitions, and reviews travel and field accounts. Ms. Fazio has a B.S. in Business Economics from the State University of Ponta-Grossa, Brazil and speaks both Spanish and Portuguese.
James Finucane is the Director for ISTI’s Solar Homes Systems Project in Indonesia. Earlier, he was Chief of Party for the Mahaweli Enterprise Development Project in Sri Lanka. Dr. Finucane is a senior economist and a specialist in micro-, small- and medium-enterprise and trade development with more than 20 years of experience. He worked for Appropriate Technology International as the Director for Latin America, was an Economic Advisor to the UN and has served as a consultant for USAID and the World Bank. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of London and an M.A. from London School of Economics. He is fluent in Spanish and Swahili.
Nimal Gunatilleke, Senior Associate, is the project manager for Environmental Health Project (EHP) in Nepal. He also managed ISTI’s financial markets project in Sri Lanka. Earlier, he was ISTI’s Policy Advisor to the Private-Sector Policy Support Unit in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr. Gunatilleke was Assistant Director of the Economic Studies Division of the Marga Institute in Colombo and has provided technical assistance to the World Bank, USAID, Asian Development Bank, ILO and UNDP. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University.
Robin Houston, MD, is ISTI’s Senior Technical Advisor to MOST Project, and Environmental Health Project in Nepal. Previously, Dr. Houston directed the salt fortification intervention for a lymphatic filariasis research effort for CDC. He has assessed and monitored micronutrient malnutrition programs in Asia, Africa, Central Europe, the Pacific and the Americas for UNICEF, USAID, CIDA, GTZ-SEAMEO-TROPMED and the World Bank, and led intervention to control diarrheal diseases, improve rural sanitation programs, reduce acute respiratory infections in children in Nepal, Vanuatu and Switzerland for UNICEF, WHO and USAID. A physician with a specialty in pediatrics from University of Vermont, Dr. Houston has held clinical positions with the U.S. Peace Corps in Nepal, at Riverton Hospital, and Quinault Indian Reservation in Washington, Linda Vista Community Clinic in California and Chilkat Valley Medical Clinic in Alaska. Dr. Houston also has a MPH in Epidemiology from University of Washington.
Richard Huntington is a senior consultant to ISTI and was formerly team leader for Performance Monitoring Analysis (PMA) Project, conducted in partnership with Center for Development Information and Evaluation under USAID’s Strategic Planning, Performance Measurement and Evaluation IQC. A former Vice President of ISTI, Dr. Huntington has directed its Agriculture and Natural Resources portfolio and conducted evaluation and implementation activities at ISTI for more than 10 years. He has performed impact assessments, evaluations, strategic planning, and program designs in over thirty countries for USAID, UNDP, the Ford Foundation, and leading private voluntary organizations. Dr. Huntington has served on the faculties of Harvard, Princeton, the American University in Cairo, and the University of Khartoum. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Duke University.
Seth Isaacs is a securities industry professional who is a lecturer/trainer, broker, trader, and stock exchange official. He is frequently called upon as an expert witness in complex dispute resolution matters relating to derivatives, equities, debentures, trading and settlement. As ISTI’s resident training specialist in Sri Lanka beginning in 1993, he was responsible for the creation and implementation of an extensive training program for Securities Industry Participants including the Charted Financial Analyst (CFA) program. He also established the Sri Lanka Association of Securities and Investment Analysts (SLASIA) and spearheaded the financial training program for the judiciary and financial journalists. He also has extensive experience working with professional in Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco and New York and Hong Kong.
Abdulzatar Kuku is ISTI’s graphic production consultant at Environmental Health Project (EHP). Prior to joining EHP he worked for the Freeman Decorating Company as a graphic artist responsible for design and production layout. He has a B.A. in Graphic Design and an Associate Degree/Certification in Liberal Arts and concentration in Computer Graphics and Animation. He has six years experience in web design, desktop publishing, printing, graphic design, illustration and military background in Logistics. He is proficient in both Mac and PC platforms with an exceptional ability in drawing painting, cartooning and sculpting and also knowledgeable in areas of video production and digital photography.
Vicki MacDonald is a Country Program Manager providing management oversight for the MOST Project’s field activities and programs in Ghana and South Africa. Ms. MacDonald has over twenty-five years of experience in managing family planning, child survival, environmental and agricultural development projects for USAID. Prior to joining ISTI, she served as country director for USAID’s US-Asia Environmental Partnership in Indonesia. Ms. MacDonald has an MPH in International Health/Humanitarian Assistance from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in International Development from American University. She has basic skills in French and Bahasa Indonesia.
John McWilliam, currently on leave of absence, was ISTI’s senior associate and director of Health, Population and Nutrition. Mr. McWilliam has served as Chief of Party for the lead agency of USAID’s family planning and reproductive health program in Uttar Pradesh, India, as Administrator of USAID’s Family Health Services Project in Nigeria, and as Director of the Population Technical Assistance Project of A.I.D.. He also worked with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as Deputy Representative and Senior Advisor on Population for Nigeria, and as Senior Evaluation Officer. Before joining, UNFPA, Mr. McWilliam was a project officer in the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations. Mr. McWilliam has an M.S. in Development Sociology and Demography from Cornell University.
Leigh Miller is Chairman of the Board of Directors. He has provided leadership to significant deregulation of private banking and investment finance in Pakistan, equity market activities in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and privatization advisory services to the Government of Sri Lanka. Mr. Miller had a distinguished career with American Express International Banking Corporation, was a senior officer of Schroder Bank and Deputy Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York. He also served as Associate Assistant Administrator of USAID, responsible for private-sector initiatives. He has an A.B. and LL.B. degrees from Yale University.
Roy Miller is the Executive Project Director for USAID-funded Micronutrient Operational Strategies and Technologies (MOST) Project. He has been active in the field of nutrition and health for over 20 years, largely in the areas of program design, monitoring and evaluation. Before joining the MOST project, Dr. Miller served as the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator on USAID’s LINKAGES project, and as director of the Center for International Health Information, a project managed by ISTI. Prior to joining ISTI, Dr. Miller worked with the Joint WHO/UNICEF Nutrition Support Program. Dr. Miller holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan and has a working knowledge of French.
Jose Mora, MD, the Policy Advisor to the MOST Project, offers 30 years of experience in the field of nutrition in academic, public, and private settings and working extensively with USAID, PAHO/WHO, and the World Bank. Dr. Mora worked with ISTI as the Senior Associate to the LAC HNS project, after which he became the Micronutrient Policy Technical Advisor to the OMNI project. He has an M.Sc in nutrition and epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health and both an MD and MPH from the National School of Public Health in Colombia. Dr. Mora speaks both English and Spanish fluently.
Kristi Mueller is a Program Associate with over five years of research and program support experience. At ISTI, she executes program management activities, and performs research for report preparation. Ms. Mueller has worked in program and planning support at FINCA International Inc. in the US, Cook Inc. in Spain and the Department of State in Washington DC. She holds an MPA in Public Finance and Economic Development and a BA in Spanish and Business from Indiana University. She is fluent in Spanish.
Jake O’Sullivan, Country Program Manager for the MOST Project is responsible for development of country plans and budgets, and administrative oversight of country activities and programs. Before joining ISTI he was Health Sector Coordinator for CARE-Nepal. He has ten years experience developing and implementing reproductive health, child survival and HIV/AIDS programs in Asia. Mr. O’Sullivan has a BIS in Development Management and Asian Studies, an MPA in Comparative Social Change and Development, and is trained in demography.
Adnan Ozair is a consultant to ISTI and was formerly the research analyst for the Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CIHI). Earlier, Mr. Ozair was research assistant to South East Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) Project, and USAID’s Economic and Health Benefits Assessment Project in Egypt. He is fluent in Urdu and Hindi and has a working knowledge of Punjabi and Arabic. Mr. Ozair has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from University of Karachi and M.S. in Resource and Development Economics from Michigan State University.
Nishanie Perera, Program Associate provides oversight to ISTI’s tasks in pension fund reform, capital markets, bank supervision and private-sector and managed ISTI’s macro-and-international economic analysis indefinite quantity contract funded by USAID. Earlier she was research assistant for the Research and Evaluation Division of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. Ms. Perera has a B.A. in Economic Theory and an M.A. in Applied International Economics from the American University. She is bilingual in English and Sinhala.
May Post, MD, is ISTI’s Coordinator of the Information and Communications Unit (ICU) of the Environmental Health Project (EHP). Dr. Post is a licensed physician with training in public health and tropical medicine. Prior to joining ISTI, Dr. Post worked for Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Bank.
Bechir Rassas, Senior Associate is an economist with more than 20 years of international development experience. He provides management and corporate oversight to ISTI’s projects in agriculture and natural resources; and technical assistance for strategic planning, performance measurement and evaluation activities. He has more than 30 years of field experience in a variety of technical areas, including economic analysis; agriculture and natural resources management; program and policy analysis; program and project evaluation; private sector development; strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation; survey design and implementation; and database development and management. Also serves as MOST Economic Advisor. Mr. Rassas is a Ph.D. candidate in agricultural and resource economics. He holds an M.A. in economics and an M.A. in international relations. He is trilingual in English, French, and Arabic.
Golam Robbani works for MOST-Bangladesh as Country Co-ordinator. His responsibilities cover overall project management and co-ordination with World Food Program (WFP), USAID, ICDDRB, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science (INFS), Dhaka University and other partners to implement the Flour Fortification Project under NIPHP, USAID-Ministry of Health and Family Planning. He has been working with various projects under USAID, GOB and Private Sector for last 10 years. He has a MSS in Economics from the University of Dhaka.
Grigore Scarlatoiu is a Management Associate at ISTI headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. He is fluent in French, Korean and Romanian and holds MAs in international organizations and international political economy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and Seoul National University and a BA in international relations from Seoul National University. He has a decade of experience in Northeast Asia and was previously with the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland and BioKorea in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Jeffrey Shahan serves as Technical Director of USAID’s Participant Training Support Project. Technical assistance under this project is provided to the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade (EGAT) and USAID Missions worldwide. Mr. Shahan is responsible for monitoring training implementation and performance, conducting training needs assessments for USAID Missions, and advising on the preparation of training plans. Mr. Shahan holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations.
Jean Shaikh, Deputy Director of the MOST Project, has more than 25 years of experience in international project and corporate management. Ms. Shaikh has directed such projects as the $80 million USAID-funded Environmental Policy and Technology Project for the former Soviet Union and the USAID-funded Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring Project and served as a senior manager on such projects as the USAID-funded Primary Health Care Operations Research Project and the Project for Strengthening Health Delivery Systems in West and Central Africa. From 1988 to 1995, she was ISTI’s Vice President for Health, Population, and Nutrition, and from 1998 to 2002, she was Vice President, International Financing Institutions Program, for CH2M HILL. Ms. Shaikh has an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish.
Ram Shrestha is the Technical Advisor for Community Based Health and Nutrition Program. Before joining ISTI, he was the Director of the Vitamin A Program in Nepal and Executive Director of Nepali Technical Assistance Group. He also worked as a Consultant to the BASICS Project in India. Mr. Shrestha holds an M.S. in Health and Nutrition from the Tufts University and an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He is fluent in Nepali, Maithali, Hindi and English.
James Sonnemann, MD, Chief of Party for ADB-funded Family Health and Nutrition Project in Indonesia, is a public health physician and an epidemiologist with experience in tropical medicine and vector biology. Highlights of his previous positions are Director, International Health for Medical Service Corporation International (1992 – 1996); Deputy Director, Vector Biology and Control Project (1992 – 1994); Chief of Party, Maternal and Child Health/Child Survival Project in Cameroon (1987 – 1989). Dr. Sonnemann received his MPH in Epidemiology from University of California, Berkeley, and M.D. in Medicine and Surgery from University of Michigan School of Medicine. He is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of Arabic, German, Hausa, Krio, Spanish, and Bahasa Indonesia.
Samuel Stern, ISTI Director, has specialized for more than 30 years in project finance, transnational investment and trade. He currently has law offices in Washington and St. Petersburg, Russia, and provides legal advice and business development assistance to companies investing or engaging in trade with Russia and to Russian commercial entities. He has an A.B. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an LL.B from Harvard University.
Philip Stokoe, MD, is ISTI’s Team Leader for Project Preparation Activity for Decentralized Health Services Project (DHS II) in Indonesia. This activity funded by the Asian Development Bank is slated to work in five provinces to investigate issues in health sector development. Earlier Dr. Stokoe was health services consultant for DSH I; ADB’s health resident advisor to the Ministry of Health in Indonesia; WHO consultant to the Ministry of Health in Indonesia; and Senior Physician at Ras Tanura Medical Health Center in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Stokoe has a FRACMA in Health Administration from the Royal Australian College of Medical Administration; M.Sc., Dr.PH. and M.P.H. from Harvard; and MBBS from The Christian Medical from India. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Indigenous Indian languages, Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia.
Eve Tamela manages the country programs for the MOST Project in Madagascar, Morocco and Zambia. She is fluent in French and her international management and technical experience has focused on reproductive health, community development and communications. She holds an MPH in Health Administration from Columbia University, and MA with an emphasis on African clothing and textiles from Michigan State University and a BS in Secondary Education.
Tory Taylor is Micro-nutrient Prevalence and Program Analyst for the MOST Project. Ms. Taylor has over six years of research experience on tobacco use and disease, parasitosis study, nutrition, maternal/child health, anthropometric assessments using Hemocue portable unit for iron deficiency screening. Prior to joining ISTI, she served as Assistant Study Director for the Center for Survey Research at University of Massachusetts. Ms. Taylor has an MPH in International Health and Development, Public Nutrition and Food Security Track from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a BA in Natural Sciences, cum laude, from the Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Massachusetts. She is fluent in Spanish.
Panduka Wijeyaratne is Resident Team Leader for the country program in Nepal and Program Director for Tropical Disease Prevention of the Environmental Health Project. He has 25 years of applied and laboratory experience in malaria, yellow fever, filariasis, schistosomiasis, and other tropical diseases. Previously, Dr. Wijeyaratne was with IDRC, Canada, a lecturer with the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and the School of Public Health at the University of Texas. He has served on expert committees and panels with WHO/TDR and other international organizations and has published extensively. He has a Ph.D. in Medical Ecology, Entomology, Parasitology from the University of Texas.
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