Board of Directors

Margie is an environmental campaigner, strategist, and coalition builder, currently serving as the Campaign Director for the Climate Action Campaign, an unbranded coalition of 14 major national environmental, environmental justice and health organizations focused on winning bold federal action on climate and climate justice. During the 2020 and 2018 elections Margie served as the Program Director for Green Wave, a joint effort by 5 national green groups to mobilize their members to help elect pro-environment members to congress. From 2007 – 2017 Margie was the founding Executive Director of Environment America. Under her leadership the organization grew to include 29 state offices and 1.5 million members, donors, activists and allies. In addition to winning major victories like the Clean Power Plan and the Clean Water Rule at the federal level, during her tenure Environment America helped pass numerous state renewable electricity standards, protected millions of acres of public lands, and won numerous lawsuits against major polluters. While leading Environment America Margie also served as a chair of the Green Group, a coalition of 30+ major national environmental organizations. She helped found the Climate Action Campaign in 2012 and co-chaired the coalition up through 2017. In addition to her issue advocacy and organizing experience Margie has worked on numerous electoral campaigns.

Margie grew up in Long Beach, New York, graduated from Yale College and currently lives in Somerville Massachusetts.

Tony is the International Program Director for Natural Resources and Climate Change for the Ford Foundation. He also serves as the foundation’s representative on the Board of the Climate and Land Use Alliance, ensuring their natural resource governance has a positive impact on public interest.

Tony is also an Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Higgins Professor of Environment and Society at Clark University where he also served as Director of the Graduate School of Geography from 2010-17. Prior to that he was a professor at the University of Manchester and held academic positions at Cambridge University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has also been a social scientist at the World Bank on two separate occasions, and a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development. He has worked in the Andean countries since the late 1980s on issues of agriculture and rural development, farmer and indigenous organization, and the relationships between extractive industries, livelihoods and socio-environmental conflicts. He has also worked in El Salvador and Indonesia. Tony is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has received distinguished scholarship honors from the Association of American Geographers and has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and Clark University.

Ash has more than 21 years of accounting experience, including experience at a Big 4 Firm as an auditor of public and private companies in numerous industries, a regulator at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and currently in Grant Thornton’s national office supporting various audit quality initiatives.

Ash specializes in international accounting/auditing issues and has extensive experience serving multi-national listed clients in the financial services, including broker dealers, banks, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail and distribution industries.

His experience also includes inspections of international audit firms registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. His areas of expertise includes but is not limited to Security and Exchange Commission rules and regulations, revenue recognition, fair value, consolidation, and Sarbanes Oxley Internal Control over Financial Reporting Requirements.

Ash was born and raised in Curacao (Dutch Caribbean) and speaks five languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Papiamentu.

Joe recently retired after a 35 year career in international insurance. He led Liberty Mutual’s international strategy and expansion from 1995 through 2015, starting and acquiring companies in over 20 countries generating $9 billion in revenues. He has a long experience in the international insurance arena, starting and managing businesses in Latin America, Europe and Asia, as well as the US, with experience in acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, and start-ups. He has served as a director on multiple subsidiary and joint venture non-US boards, as chairman and member of several international insurance associations, and as an advisor on financial sector and insurance projects with international supervisory bodies, the World Bank and the WTO. Joe is currently an active advisor and member of the President’s Circle of Acción International, a financial inclusion/microfinance organization. Joe attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a BA in Plan II Honors and a MA from the Institute of Latin American Studies. He has lived and spent extensive time in several Latin American countries and Spain. He is fluent in Spanish.

Kaitlyn Henderson is a senior researcher and the staff-elected member of Oxfam’s Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Henderson was a Brent Scowcroft Award Fellow with the Aspen Strategy Group, which focused on national security and foreign policy through Track II diplomacy. Dr. Henderson completed her PhD in modern Latin American history at Tulane University, where she received the Peter T. Cominos Memorial Award for her dissertation work. During her graduate work, her research focused on race and politics in twentieth-century Cuba. She is an affiliate of the Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural Juan Marinello and has worked closely with the Fundación Nicolás Guillén and the Instituto de Historia de Cuba.

Among other projects, Dr. Henderson is the lead researcher and author of Oxfam’s Best States to Work Index, a look at how states treat workers and working families in the US. This index captures 25 policies across three themes – wages, worker protections, and rights to organize – and includes all 50 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. There were special editions of the index released in 2020 focused on COVID and in 2021 focused on working women. Dr. Henderson is a member of the Oxfam Research Network (ORN), a coalition of researchers across all Oxfam International, and works within the ORN as a member of the Gender Working Group. She writes regularly for Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty Blog.

Sherine Jayawickrama is an independent consultant working with international NGOs and foundations to enhance organizational governance, adapt institutional architecture, improve organizational learning, and evaluate organizational evolution processes.

From 2008 to 2013, Sherine managed the Humanitarian & Development NGOs domain of practice at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, and served as Executive Director of the NGO Leaders Forum, a gathering of the CEOs of America’s major international NGOs. For ten years, she played a coordination role for the NGO Leaders Forum. Between 1999 and 2009, Sherine worked at CARE USA for ten years in roles related to policy analysis and advocacy, regional management (Asia) and the Office of the President. Earlier in her career, Sherine worked on environmental policy issues in Sri Lanka, where she grew up.

Sherine has a B.A. in economics and international relations from Scripps College, and an M.P.A. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Yana Watson Kakar, Managing Director and Head of Americas. Based in New York, she is a member of the CDPQ Global Management Team, which develops and implements CDPQ’s international strategy. In addition to heading the New York office, Yana oversees the CDPQ offices in Mexico and Brazil. She works closely with the heads of the asset classes in developing CDPQ’s investment strategy and partnerships across the Americas region while strengthening the existing portfolio of constructive capital invested in private equity, fixed income, real estate, infrastructure, technology, and equity markets.

A seasoned executive, Ms. Watson Kakar has dedicated her career to generating economic and financial returns through the application of inclusive and sustainable business and investment strategies. Before joining CDPQ, she was the CEO of Growth for Good, a special purpose acquisition company with a strategic focus on decarbonization of the global economy.

Until 2020, Ms. Watson Kakar was Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors, a mission-driven multinational consulting firm specializing in policy, strategy, and investment advisory. By the conclusion of her two terms in that role, she had led the firm to triple its revenues and grow to nearly 30 offices worldwide.

Ms. Watson Kakar sits on the Board of Directors of Oxfam America and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Women’s Forum of New York and 100 Women in Finance. She has been widely published, including in Bloomberg, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, The Guardian, and Yahoo! Finance. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University.

Homi Kharas is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. In that capacity, he studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, including aid to poor countries, the emergence of the middle class, and global governance and the G-20. He previously served as interim vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development program.

He has served as the lead author and executive secretary of the secretariat supporting the High Level Panel, co-chaired by President Sirleaf, President Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Cameron, advising the U.N. Secretary General on the post-2015 development agenda (2012-2013). The report, “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development,” was presented on May 30, 2013.

His most recent co-authored/edited books are "Leave No One Behind" (Brookings Press, 2019), "From Summits to Solutions: Innovations in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals" (Brookings Press, 2018), "The Imperative of Development" (Brookings Press, 2017), "The Last Mile in Ending Extreme Poverty" (Brookings Press, 2015), "Getting to Scale: How to Bring Development Solutions to Millions of Poor People" (Brookings Press, 2013), "After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World" (Oxford University Press, 2012), and "Catalyzing Development: A New Vision for Aid" (Brookings Press, 2011). He has published articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on global development policy, global trends, the global food crisis, international organizations, the G20, the DAC, and private philanthropy.

Divya Kumaraiah has built a career at the intersection of technology, government, and community organizing, focused on increasing access to opportunity.

Most recently, Divya was the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Director in Pennsylvania for the 2024 Harris Walz presidential campaign. Prior to that, she worked at Airbnb as the Director of Cities, Quality, and Accessibility. In that capacity, she led compliance with global home-sharing regulations, product development for governments, and improvements in the quality and accessibility of all supply verticals. Earlier in her career, Divya served in the Obama Administration at the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Divya has also worked in a number of other public and private sector roles: a member of the 2020 Biden-Harris Transition's Agency Review Team, head of community development, marketing, and communications at a healthcare technology startup, and a field organizer on the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Divya earned her MBA at Harvard Business School, MPP at Harvard Kennedy School, and her BA at Brown University. She was previously a Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in New York City.

Sara Gaviser Leslie is the founder and principal of In Other Words, a brand positioning and messaging consultancy. She works with hyper-growth startups and established companies that struggle to explain and present their business clearly and succinctly, internally and externally. She began her career as an investment analyst on the buy side and was a case writer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

She specializes in brand positioning and messaging and has worked for B2B tech or tech-enabled companies (Zoom, LinkedIn, Bloomreach, Welltok, Inspirato, LadderLife, Jive, Clari, Latitude), social impact organizations (Oxfam, Environmental Defense Fund, Elevate Health, Aspen Institute), and venture firms (Sequoia Capital, KPCB). She works directly with clients and in partnership with agencies (Duarte Design, Emotive Brand, Noise13) and also has deep experience crafting fundraising pitches and large-scale presentations.

She served as a board member of Acción Opportunity Fund, the country’s largest microlender, and of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation. She is also a Wexner Heritage Fellow.

She earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from Wellesley College where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa. A Minnesota transplant, she is married with 3 sons and now lives in Menlo Park, CA. And, no, she doesn’t miss the snow.

Abby Maxman is the President and CEO of Oxfam America, where she leads with a transformative vision for a more just and equitable world. Under her leadership, Oxfam America is advancing its commitment to addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality, and injustice, through locally led partnerships in humanitarian policy and practice, and advocating for economic justice, gender equality, climate action, and rights and dignity in crisis.

Maxman brings over 30 years of experience in the field, having held leadership roles including Deputy Secretary General of CARE International and Vice President of International Programs and Operations at CARE USA. Her career has taken her to more than 70 countries, and she has lived and worked in Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, the Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel, the Republic of Georgia, Haiti, Ethiopia, Switzerland, and the United States. These experiences have honed her understanding of systemic issues and reinforced her commitment to inclusive, feminist leadership and decolonizing the aid sector through policy and practice.

Maxman’s work spans critical global challenges, from the apartheid era in southern Africa, the HIV/AIDS and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, and chronic food insecurity in Ethiopia. She has been involved in post-genocide relief and recovery efforts in Rwanda, supported civil society organizations in the Republic of Georgia, and led large-scale humanitarian responses in Haiti and Ethiopia. Her leadership has been instrumental in advancing gender and climate justice, fighting inequality, and driving Oxfam America’s ambitious 2030 strategy.

At Oxfam America, Maxman is reshaping the organization to be more representative of the communities it serves. She has supported global governance as Oxfam advances its de-colonial journey, and has invested in fostering an anti-racist culture and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector. Her approach is deeply values-driven, focusing on systemic change and advocating for justice to address the root causes of poverty and inequality.

Maxman’s leadership extends beyond Oxfam America. During her tenure, she has served as the Chair of the boards of InterAction, and the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, and as an NGO principal on the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.  She serves as a Trustee on the board of Frontline AIDS, the Global Executive Leadership Initiative and on the Classy Leadership Council and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her contributions reflect a steadfast commitment to collaborative and intersectional approaches to global challenges.

Maxman holds a BA in History and Political Science, a Master’s in International Administration, and several honorary doctorates. She is a mother of three and resides with her husband of thirty years in Boston, continuing her lifelong dedication to global justice and equality.

Carlos is an Independent Consultant on Organizational Development and Leadership. He was Executive Director for Oxfam Colombia. For over 25+ years have been working on humanitarian/Developmental issues, leading programs and teams to effective strategic aid worldwide. Possesses the ability to empower staff with team building and development. Drives results through precise assessment skills, matrix development, and keen global knowledge.

Before Oxfam Colombia, he was Humanitarian director for Oxfam USA and Senior Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; SCUK ERP Deputy Team Leader/Operations Manager; Humanitarian Consultant and Trainer with several organizations such as JRS, Aecid, IIHA, MSF, and others, developing projects in Spain, Liberia, Ethiopia, Italy, Central America, Middle East & Ukraine. He led 2 projects for Jesuit Refugee Service at the Headquarters’ level in Rome, Italy. (1) Developing the JRS´ Rapid Response System; (2) Supporting the regional response to the Syria Crisis by facilitating a training program on humanitarian issue to the National Director in Turkey and, assessing the programmatic possibilities for the JRS team in Jordan. He was Project Director for JRS operations in the Dollo Ado region (February ­April 2012). On behalf of AECID (The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation), prepared an evaluation on the work done by
UNICEF for Ivory Coast refugees in Liberia. (Liberia January 2011).

He also coached the director for the development office of the Jesuits in Rome on strategic planning processes and designing an educational tool for use in the Philippines, India, Malta, Cuba, Brasil, East Timor, Lusitania, and East Africa. Several times he was facilitating trainings and workshops for teams and masters students at different institutions.

Oussama Mezoui currently works as a people-oriented nonprofit consultant.

From 2016 to 2021, he served as the Founder & CEO of Penny Appeal USA, a social services, relief, and development organization committed to alleviating poverty in the US and overseas. Since launching in 2016, the organization grew substantially each year, raising over $25m USD from individuals, companies, and foundations.

Prior to establishing Penny Appeal USA, Oussama served in a number of positions for nonprofit organizations in the UK and the US, where he held titles of Campaigns Manager, Chief of staff, and VP Programs.

Oussama currently serves as a Board Director at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a DC based nonprofit organization that provides objective research and education about American Muslims to support well-informed dialogue and decision-making. In the past he also served on the boards of Our Three Winners Foundation and InterAction.

Oussama holds a BA in History from Queen Mary, University of London and a JD from the University of Oxford.

Carl has dedicated his professional life to international investment banking, social impact investing, and development finance. Most recently he served as CEO of the Inter-American Investment Corporation, the multilateral private sector investment banking affiliate of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. Early in his career he was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan & Co. where he was Head of Investment Banking for Mexico and Senior Risk Officer for Latin America. He also designed an innovative social investment strategy for the firm. Carl later focused on innovations in the fields of social and development finance. He was an investor, strategy consultant, and board member to companies, foundations and academia primarily in Europe, the United States and Latin America. He has served on several international corporate and not-for-profit boards, including Voxiva, Microvest, Ashoka (Spain), Global Citizen Year, and Emzingo. He is a co-founder of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame. Carl has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Between degrees he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Roshan Paul has built a career around connecting global citizens to solve social problems across boundaries. He is currently the Executive Director of the Climate Talent Initiative, a new philanthropic effort to propel talent and workforce development solutions to address the climate crisis. Previously, he was Director of Leadership Practice at IREX, where he managed a multi-year portfolio of over $130 million and a team of 90 people that worked with thousands of young leaders across more than 100 countries. Prior to IREX, Roshan co-founded Amani Institute in 2010 and co-led the organization from an idea to an award-winning social enterprise and the largest talent development organization for the social sector based in the global south, with offices in Kenya, Brazil and India. Under his tenure as CEO, Amani Institute trained and guided 10,000+ people from more than 65 countries.. Based on this work, he co-authored the Amazon #1 bestseller The New Reason to Work: How to Build a Career that will Change the World in November 2021.

Raised in Bangalore, India, Roshan has a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in International Political Economy from Davidson College. He has written three books, delivered two TEDx talks, and spoken at more than 50 universities and other major institutions worldwide, including the Commencement (graduation) speech at the University of San Diego in May 2015. He writes the well-regarded newsletter Work Out Loud and has contributed 20 essays to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, as well as several other publications. He has also been interviewed in Fast Company, The Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, Forbes, and CNBC Africa, among others.

Jack is a lawyer, and a Senior Fellow at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, working in its Veterans Legal Clinic.

Jack is a retired partner in the Boston office of WilmerHale’s Litigation Department, where he was a member of its Intellectual Property Litigation and Business Trial Practice Groups. He served for many years as Co-chair of WilmerHale’s Pro Bono Committee, which manages the firm’s extensive pro bono legal services, inner city community services programs, and international cases for NGOs and disadvantaged peoples in Africa and Latin America. He had an active pro bono practice, including extensive work in Haiti, the representation of veterans, and counseling nonprofits in many sectors.

Jack is a former President of the Boston Bar Association and trustee of its charitable-granting arm, the Boston Bar Foundation. Jack has also been a board member, trustee and board chair for a variety of other important Boston area nonprofits. He currently is a trustee of the Lynch Foundation, a major charitable grant maker in Boston.

Jack is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Jack served as a lieutenant in the US Navy, and deployed to the Mediterranean, and on a frigate to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Tonkin and Persian Gulf areas.

Dr. Naima Green-Riley is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her research focuses on U.S. and Chinese public diplomacy, and it uses empirical methods to measure the extent of American and Chinese influence on public opinion in other countries.

Before pursuing her Ph.D. at Harvard University, Naima was a Pickering Fellow and a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, where she worked in the public diplomacy cone. Naima was the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Alexandria, Egypt during the Arab Spring (2011-2013). She also served as a Consular Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China during the Obama administration's "Pivot to Asia" (2014-2015). Naima worked as an intern and an advance associate for the White House in 2010. She contributed to the first ever Forum for Young African Leaders hosted by President Obama, and she worked on subsequent U.S. government youth outreach programming in Africa and the Middle East.

Naima received a Bachelor’s degree (BA) in International Relations with Honors from Stanford University. She was a Belfer Center International and Global Affairs fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she graduated with a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP). She earned her PhD in political science from Harvard University. She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese, and she also has an intermediate-level knowledge of Arabic.

Kitt is a member of the Oxfam America board of directors and chairman of the board of the Oxfam America Action Fund. A lawyer and former managing director of Goulston & Storrs, he practices general corporate and business law. The bulk of his practice involves mergers, acquisitions, shareholder and partnership agreements, debt and equity financing, and other general corporate matters. He coordinates Goulston & Storrs’ pro bono representation of Oxfam America, counseling the organization on its international relief and development efforts. He was a co founder of Boston Employment Service (“Strive”) and currently serves on the board of directors of Strategies for Children and on the board of overseers of the New England Aquarium. Kitt did his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and received his law degree from Boston College Law School.

Jamey Shachoy is a volunteer, director and independent corporate advisor.

He worked as Accenture’s Chief Tax Officer and held various finance leadership roles with the company. Before Accenture, Jamey worked for a global accounting firm advising clients in the technology industry. He is a lawyer and a CPA.

Jamey has been active in professional and tax policy organizations and has taught as a adjunct professor in international tax.

Jamey is a Trustee Emeritus of the Zeiterion Theater, a board member of the Marion Institute and serves as Board Chair for Oxfam America.

Michael Silberman is the founder of the Food Disinfo Lab, an organization dedicated to accelerating the transition to a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. The Lab identifies emerging threats and coordinates campaigns to counter disinformation and influence policy, opinion, and culture. He also guides nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sector organizations worldwide to scale their impact through emerging technologies and systems change strategies. At UNICEF, Michael is growing the NGO's capacity to leverage data for decision-making through the responsible use of AI, big data, machine learning and spatial data science. At Greenpeace, Michael established a center of excellence that transformed the organization's digital advocacy, organizing, communications, and influencing capabilities across 55 countries.

Michael's work has been recognized by The New Yorker, Newsweek, and Wired. His research focuses on the impacts of repressive technologies, such as digital surveillance and disinformation, on human rights and democracy. He serves on several nonprofit boards and developed and taught a graduate course on digital-era advocacy at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. Michael started his career leading the first successful digital grassroots organizing program in U.S. politics for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.

Tara is a high yield bond portfolio manager and analyst, as well as co-research director for fixed income, at Capital Research and Management Company. She is based in New York but also spends significant time in Los Angeles, where Capital Research is headquartered. She is a chartered financial analyst. Tara is also a member of the Fixed Income Board of the Applied Security Analysis Program, at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and works closely with students looking to enter the investment profession.