I am a researcher and practitioner specializing in inclusive approaches for promoting action and social change. I joined UNICEF's West and Central Africa Office as Regional Advisor for Social and Behaviour Change in December 2020 after working in the Democratic Republic of Congo with UNICEF's Ebola/COVID outbreak team. From 2018-2020 I led the Research/Data-use portfolio in the Polio Unit's Social and Behaviour Change team at UNICEF's New York-based headquarters. 

 

From 2016- 2018,  I served as Director of Research and Innovation at Equal Access, a non-profit organization working in media and community engagement for social change in Asia and West/Central Africa. I have also worked on several projects with Ideo.org, as a design researcher in Mexico, Congo/DRC, and Côte d'Ivoire. 

 

From 2013-2015, I led the Communication for Development (C4D) teams in Chad and Karachi Pakistan as part of UNICEF’s Polio Eradication efforts. While teaching in the Communication and Development Master's program at Ohio University (2012-2013) I co-led the design and delivery of social change courses (online and face-to-face) for UNICEF and USAID. 

 

I was fortunate to have a Fulbright Fellowship  (Colombia, 2008-2009), and conducted research there to complete my Ph.D. in Health Communication from Ohio University.  I was an English teacher and HIV/AIDS educator as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon (1998-2000), and have a BA from Duke University in Spanish and an MA in International Education from New York University. 

 

My passion is the design of social change interventions that invite  community leadership and action, where community members are positioned as resources and active agents of change rather than "targets" or beneficiaries. I am fluent (for speaking) in French and Spanish and can bargain and make grammar mistakes in Pulaar and Wolof.