Staff
C. Lynn Robson, President/CEO
Lynn Robson was appointed ISED President July 1, 2008. Lynn brings a rich background in non-profit management, international development, economic development, and asset building. Ms. Robson recently returned from three and a half years in Afghanistan where she served as the program quality officer for Catholic Relief Services developing agriculture, water and education programs. Subsequently she managed public health programs for Save the Children developing hospital, clinic and health post delivery of basic health services as well as established a regional Midwife School. Prior to Afghanistan, Ms. Robson led three non-profit community development programs in the State of Montana, a three-county development corporation and the Montana State Department of Commerce microfinance program through twelve communities. The cost benefit analysis led by Ms Robson at the Montana Department of Commerce was awarded the President's Award for Excellence in Microenterprise in 1998. The Department of Commerce program won the U.S. Small Business Administration national award for the outstanding business technical assistance featuring a unique partnership between community SBDCs and CAP agencies. For eight years, Ms. Robson served on the International Board of Directors of Partners of America, which formed hemisphere community development partnerships addressing indigenous people's rights, women's democratic action, infrastructure development such as water and sanitation, and satellite public education. Ms. Robson served on the University of Montana's President's Council, the Montana Community Foundation, the Montana Economic Developers Association, and the Governor's Council for Montana's Future. She was a Presidential appointee to the U.S. Small Business Administration Region VIII Board of Advisors. Ms. Robson was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO). She holds certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional from the National Development Council.
Sara (Saikhanchimeg) Jadambaa, Accountant
Sara Jadambaa, Accounting Specialist, has joined ISED Solutions in May 2009. Ms. Jadambaa brings eight years of office management, personnel and procurement experience in both private and nonprofit organizations. She has worked for six years with United Nations Development Program in Mongolia at the operations department as well as Energy Efficient Housing project as Admin and Finance Assistant. Sara brings to ISED a results oriented work ethic, strong interpersonal and communication skills gained from working with individuals from diverse backgrounds. She holds an MBA in Accounting from Strayer University, Washington DC (2008) and MS in Engineering from Mongolian University of Science and Technology (1997).
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Olga Lasco, Operations Analyst
Olga Lasco, Operations Analyst, joined ISED in June 2010. She is responsible for logistics and internet coordination. Ms. Lasco holds a Master of Public Administration form Strayer University with a GPA of 3.83. She managed the Learning Resource Center and Technology Division at the Washington D.C. Campus of Strayer University. Prior to coming to United States she worked at IDIS (Institute for Development and Social Initiatives) “Vitorul” in Moldova, a nonprofit organization that provides consultancy to public administrators. Olga has extensive experience managing grants and projects. She has strong computer and technical skills and is an accomplished trainer. Olga is fluent in Romanian and Russian and is excellent in English with good understanding of Spanish and French.
Peggy Gilbert, Senior Program Advisor State Refugee Program (New York)
Peggy Gilbert, ISED's Senior Program Advisor, leads the Wilson-Fish Alternative Resettlement Program. Ms. Gilbert has extensive experience working with refugees, human service agencies, and providing technical assistance to agencies operating innovative programs that serve refugees and other disenfranchised populations. Her professional experience encompasses program development, planning, and implementation. Prior to joining ISED, she provided leadership in the refugee programs field nationally, directing the Refugee Resettlement Program for World Relief for 13 years. At World Relief, she managed 26 local affiliates, developed and provided oversight to refugee processing in Haiti, as well as social service provision to detainees at Guantanamo Naval Base in Joint Task Force 160. She has also provided broad national leadership through a variety of means. For instance, she facilitated national agency planning, chaired the Refugee Resettlement Subcommittee at InterAction, and served on two Department of State/Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration task forces. She also served on the Placement Academy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR); the Amerasian Planning Task Force; and the Refugee Overseas Orientation Task Force. She has been a long time advocate for refugee protection and adequate assistance to refugees accepted into the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. She holds a Master of Science degree in counseling and administration from the University of Bridgeport. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and biblical studies.
Marijana Ababovic, Program Manager Refugee Microfinance and Individual Development Accounts (New York)
Marijana Ababovic, ISED Senior Project Manager, has worked in the refugee microentreprise and IDA field from 1996. Ms. Ababovic first worked as a Business Consultant and then Program Director in a refugee micro enterprise program in upstate New York. From 2005, she has been engaged by ISED first as a consultant in ORR refugee micro enterprise program, and then a project manager for both IDAs and Micro enterprise agencies. Ms. Ababovic brings strong training skills to ORR grantees, stemming from 20 years of teaching and training, and coupled with her education in business management and finance, it allows her to transfer best business practices to non for profit organizations. Her expertise is improving efficiencies in non for profits, through improved knowledge of their target market - refugee populations and their needs. In her consulting work, she is interested in facilitating learning and change. She holds an MBA in finance, consulting and marketing from William E. Simon School of Business, University of Rochester.
Hugh Joseph, Program Manager Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program (RAPP - Boston)
Hugh Joseph, PhD, ISED Solutions Program Manager is currently directing ISED’s technical assistance services for RAPP. In addition to his work with ISED Solutions, Dr. Joseph is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Program on Agriculture, Food and Environment at Tufts’ University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Mr. Joseph holds an MS and PhD in Nutrition from Tufts University and teaches graduate courses on Food Systems and Community Food Planning and Program Development. Hugh Joseph has spent his career on community-based food, agriculture, and nutrition and food security initiatives at the local, regional and national levels, including: New Entry, Beginning farmer networks, Outreach and enumeration, CFSC.
Kate Foster, Program Support, Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program (RAPP-Washington, DC)
Kate Foster is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where she majored in Human and Organizational Development, specializing in Community Leadership and Development, and minored in French. She is thrilled to be working under the Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program as it combines her past work experiences and professional interests. Kate has had several opportunities to work directly with refugees tutoring English language learners in St. Louis and Memphis, raising funding and leading cultural fieldtrips in Nashville and St. Louis, and designing and teaching a health and nutrition course specifically for Bhutanese clients of World Relief Nashville. In her senior year, Kate served as the Organizational Development intern of the Nashville Mobile Market, a social enterprise startup working to provide affordable access to healthy foods in food desert areas of Nashville through a mobile grocery store route. In this role, she primarily managed a pilot subsidiary wholesale program in which products were sold to corner stores/gas stations in food desert areas the mobile route did not reach. She was recognized as a runner-up in Vanderbilt’s Human Organizational Development Impact Award competition for her contribution to the Nashville Mobile Market.
Joanna Van Asselt, Program Officer, Financial Literacy and SBA PRIME
Joanna Van Asselt joined ISED Solutions in July 2011, as the Program Officer for the Financial Literacy Program and recently has taken on the SBA PRIME Program. Prior to becoming an employee Joanna worked for ISED Solutions for a year as an intern. Joanna has worked internationally with refugees and immigrants at Heshima Kenya, in Nairobi, Kenya and at Jesuit Refugee Services, in Santiago, Chile. In May 2011, Joanna graduated from American University with a degree in International Relations and Environmental Science. Joanna graduated as part of the American University Honors Program after completing her thesis on immigrants working as domestic servants in Santiago, Chile. Joanna is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French.
Matt Sokolowski, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Matt Sokolowski, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), joined ISED in 2007. He is currently a partner at The Owner’s Representative, LLC, where he acts as a consultant Chief Financial Officer for multiple nonprofit organizations. Mr. Sokolowski has also overseen several construction projects for his clients including the restoration and renovation of a prominent National Historic Landmark site. Mr. Sokolowski served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa. In 2008 Matt joined the Benin Education Fund Board. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from The George Washington University.
Ibticem Kamoun, Program Director Maghreb - ROCCD (Tunis)
Mrs. Ibticem Kamoun is an expert in trade development, especially services such as business plan development, market readiness evaluation, and coaching exporters in international trade in topics such as trade environment, export planning, export diagnostics, communication skills etc. At 24, Mrs. Kamoun became the youngest board member at the National Women's Organization in Tunisia, responsible for foreign relations of the organization. She has participated in international meetings all over the world, including the UN meeting for women in Copenhagen, and was also a member of the Tunisian government delegation for the creation of the INTERAFRICAINE SOCIALISTE aimed at developing economic relations between African countries under the presidency of former Senegalese president Leopold Senghor. She hold various training certifications, including Access Trainer /Mentor through the ITC IFOC program aimed at developing export skills of entrepreneurs in Africa, and the World Bank-funded FAMEX program that supports Tunisian companies to start or to expand exports. Her private activities are varied. She was responsible for marketing fresh and canned Japanese tuna in Tunisia, and she subsequently launched the first factory for processing smoked salmon in Africa. Later, she managed exports of smoked salmon throughout the Arab countries. In recent years, Mrs. Kamoun has accompanied more than 50 companies in the agro-foods and handcraft sectors on trade tours. She is a founding and board member of the Tunisian Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs, a board member of the Tunisian American Chamber of Commerce (TACC), and member of several non-profit civic associations.
Ibtihel Hmam, Program Manager Maghreb - ROCCD (Tunis)
Ibtihel Hmam, ROCCD Program Manager, worked at the University of Management in Tunis as an assistant between 2005 and 2010. During this period, she taught several subjects related to management and finance. She also participated in conferences and seminars, including the first conference on E-business in Tunisia in 2005, in which she was a member of one of the associated committees. From February 2011 to April 2011, Ibtihel worked and trained at the Chamber of Commerce of Tunisia, where she was responsible for account settlement, cash management and the overall financial situation of the chamber. Ibtihel holds a Master's Degree in Finance from the Higher Institute of Management of Tunis. She is currently undertaking her doctoral thesis with a study of the efficiency of Tunisian financial markets. Ibtihel is fluent in English, French and Arabic.
Nivanne Mortagy, Lead Program Manager, ROCCD (Egypt)
Nivanne Amr Mortagy has extensive background in Corporate Strategy & Planning, and Public-Private Partnerships with specialty in Corporate Social Responsibility in the Egyptian private sector. Mrs. Nivanne Mortagy has worked with a number of international development agencies including the United Nations (UN), the World Bank (WB), The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the Milan Chamber of Commerce. At the national level, she worked with the Cabinet of Minister’s, Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry, the Federation of Egyptian Industries, Industrial Modernization Center (IMC), the Arab African International Bank (AAIB) and Barclays Bank Egypt (BBE). Mrs. Mortagy is an active member of the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) and the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). She has an MBA from IESE Business School and Nile University and her MA and BA from the American University in Cairo.
Mohamed ElSharkawy, Program Coordinator ROCCD (Egypt)
Mohamed has extensive experience in Marketing, Sales & Customer Service in the Egyptian market. With 5 years of experience in both private and nonprofit organizations, he has demonstrated strong leadership and technical skills and is very active in philanthropic ventures in Egypt. He possess strong interpersonal and communication skills gained from working with individuals from diverse backgrounds in the many positions he has held. He holds a BA in Business Administration, majoring in Management and Information Systems from Modern Science and Arts University (MSA) in Cairo and finished his graduation project on the supply chain of Mercedes-Benz (Egypt) in 2007. He has completed a number of training courses including; customer service, negotiating skills, Sales diploma from the Canadian center, and is certified in Applied Project Management for Project-Driven Businesses from Nile University in collaboration with the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT).
Bryan Rhodes, BDO Service Development Expert
Bryan Rhodes has spent the last six years working with business associations and SMEs in Afghanistan. As Chief of Party of the USAID ASMED project for Development Alternatives, Inc., Bryan introduced several innovative approaches to SME development including the creation of the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan, the establishment of over 300 business associations and Chambers of Commerce, placing $40 million in public-private capital to support new manufacturing facilities in Afghanistan and the creation of the first insurance company in Afghanistan. Prior to his time in Afghanistan, Bryan completed his graduate study at UCLA in Political Economy after working for ten years as an investment analyst for the US real estate industry.
Nick Sabato, Intern
Nick Sabato is an intern at ISED’s headquarters in Washington D.C. Having obtained an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Miami University (OH), Nick is currently pursuing a Master's degree at American University's School of International Service. Nick is focusing his studies on International Affairs and Refugee Integration and will complete his degree in December, 2011. Nick has spent a great deal of time working with refugees in a service capacity, currently working with the Eritrean Diaspora in Washington DC as well as volunteering as a refugee mentor for a Rwandan family with the Pan-African Association and Chicago Cares organizations in Chicago, IL. Nick is utilizing this synthesis of first-hand experience, international perspective and graduate coursework to help ISED with proposal development, report generation, as well as GSA certification.