Seattle SID Board

Monika Aring - President

Monika Aring works with donors, policymakers, governments, business leaders, NGOs, and education institutions on designing policies, programs and partnerships that build human capital for sustainable economic growth. Aring has worked in 42 countries and speaks five languages.  A graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Aring is highly skilled in helping countries develop effective human capital development strategies.  Most recently, Aring assisted the IDB with helping Costa Rica learn about what human capital strategies work in terms of helping countries rapidly transform their economies, recommended policies for employment and skill development in the 10 ASEAN nations in preparation for their becoming a common market in 2015, and is assisting the International Labor Organization, (UN) with developing a way to help arrest the hemmorhaging youth unemployment in Greece. Aring has led multi-country stakeholder forums in Latin America, Africa, and India, and trained donors on how to build more strategic partnerships with the private sector to achieve shared goals. Her work has been published internationally and featured in the Journal of the Society for International Development, International Herald Tribune, National Public Radio, Fortune Magazine, New York and Los Angeles Times, and various technical articles and books.

Sumi Bhat-Kincaid - Vice-President

Bio coming soon.

Frances Walker-Dudenhoefer - Strategy Co-Chair

Frances serves as the Seattle-Puget Sound Chapter Strategy Co-Chair in partnership with Caroline Clarke.  She has a diverse background - initially studying French in Paris, then working as a Global Travel Director in Europe and North America.  For the past fifteen years she has worked on a range of health issues for the public and private sectors, with several years in global health.  This includes consultancies with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and the William J. Clinton Health Access Initiative.  Frances holds a Masters degree in International Affairs and an MBA in Sustainable Business.  With a broad perspective on global development, her areas of interest include gender, racial and social equality; health equity; human trafficking; and sustainable economic development.

Caroline Clarke - Strategy Co-Chair

Bio coming soon.

Elizabeth McNeilly - Finance Chair

Elizabeth McNeilly serves as the finance chair for the Seattle-Puget Sound Chapter of the Society for International Development. Elizabeth is currently working towards CPA candidacy and will be joining Deloitte’s Audit practice in early 2014. Elizabeth recently worked as an economic research assistant to Martha Choe, Chief Administrative Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Elizabeth graduated in June 2013 from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs with a Master of Public Administration and certificates in Accounting and International Development Policy and Management. Throughout her MPA, Elizabeth was a Finance Fellow with Lumana, a microfinance organization for women in Ghana. She received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.  

Preston Thompson - Marketing Chair
Bio coming soon.

Jeff Halvorson - Members Chair
Jeff is in his 2nd year at the University of Washington, where he is finishing his Masters of Public Affairs degree. After spending a number of years working and living abroad as Project Leader and Program Director for experiential education and leadership development firms, he is returning to the world of development through two exciting approaches: shared value and public-private partnerships. 

Lotte Mulder - Communications Chair
Lotte Mulder recently moved to Seattle after getting her Ed. M. at Harvard University, where she focused on leadership and group development. She is now running the Northwest office for a life coach and academic consulting company while also helping with the creation of two new charter schools, one based in Seattle and the other in Los Angeles. Before going back to school, she took high school and college-aged student to the developing world for semester long cultural immersion programs.

Seattle Chapter SID Event on Women's Health & Empowerment

Seattle Chapter, SID Event

January 29 or 30, 12:30 – 2:30 PM

Imagine a woman in Ghana leaving the clinic with her newborn.  She has been prepped on what she needs to do when she gets home. But, once home, she can’t spare the taxi fare to return to the clinic for support,  and the leaders in her community think that the measures she was taught at the clinic are too costly and not in line with tradition.  Is this a health issue?  Or an economic justice issue?  Or both?

The Seattle Chapter of SID is partnering with the SID Washington, DC Chapter (http://www.sidw.org/)  to produce a bi-coastal discussion on recent breakthroughs at the intersection of health and women’s economic empowerment.  Each Chapter will feature two speakers who will share recent breakthroughs.  The discussion will include conversation from both cities  so that Chapter members in each location will be able to participate with both sets of speakers and each other via video feed.  We are currently looking for the best site and speakers. Please check our website for updates.  The event will take place either January 29 or 30, depending on speaker and site availability… updates soon.

The Seattle SID Chapter is dedicated to breaking down the silos in the practice of international development.  Seattle SID is intended to be a “home” for development professionals to come together across the boundaries of their organizations to share their experiences, learn from each other, and foster a more inclusive conversation about the art and practice of Development.

Who should attend?  Anyone interested in the topics of health and women’s economic empowerment.  For more information please contact

Thessalonika.benny@gmail.com
Monika.aring@gmail.com
Sumibhatkincaid@gmail.com

Background

According to the World Bank’s World Development Report 2012, which focuses on gender equality, the world’s 3.5 billion woman and girls still face an uneven playing field in education, employment, earnings, and decision-making power. The report shows that gender inequality comes with a cost, while equality for women can create economic opportunities and boost efficiency and productivity. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that if women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education, and markets that men do, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million. For these reasons SID has focused on  Woman and Economic Justice to look at how women’s economic empowerment links to other development areas.

An insider’s look at the InterAmerican Development Bank --- Nov 12 Seattle SID Meeting

At our November 12 meeting, Caroline Clarke, Seattle SID member, will talk about working in Latin America and the Caribbean for the IDB, giving us a chance to learn about the InterAmerican Development Bank, one of the three regional development banks in the world.

During her short talk, Carolyn will give an overview of the Bank, (its mission/governance, how they finance, how they decide what to do) plus a flavor of what it’s like working there.  She’ll help us get a personal look at a new direction that is trending with the IDB now – namely partnerships, and especially partnerships with corporations to solve problems neither the IDB nor the corporations can solve on their own.  Caroline will answer questions following her talk.

Following Caroline's presentation we will discuss the SID event calendar for the year and our links with the Washington DC SID office (www.sidw.org/).

The Seattle SID meeting will be held at Sightlife, 221 Yale Ave, Suite 450.  You can enter through Vivace Coffee.  Meet and greet at 6:30 p.m.

Our First Seattle Puget Sound SID Meeting - Monday, September 10th!

Our founding meeting will be held on Monday, September 10, 2012 from 7 to about 9 p.m. at the SightLife facility located at 221 Yale Avenue, Suite 450, Seattle 98109.  This facility is across from REI, north of downtown Seattle.  Thank you SightLife for generously donating this space for our use!

The meeting will be free to all for this first meeting. If you would like to join our chapter, you can pay your $45 dues at the meeting.

All are welcome to attend.  We hope to see you there!

Executive Board Meets for the First Time as Chapter in Formation - July 10, 2012

The Executive Board of the Seattle SID Chapter met on July 10, 2012 at the home of our chair, Monika Aring.  We announced that the International SID organization had designated our chapter as a Chapter in Formation.  We had completed all necessary steps to be authorized to form a SID chapter in our area.  

Each board member took on responsibility for various items, including gathering dues, finding venues for meetings, and coordinating with other like-minded organizations.  The board also developed a calendar of events, with monthly meetings and quarterly speakers forums. For more information, please go to the Board section of this website and read the minutes for the July 10, 2012 meeting.

Welcome

Hi,

I'm Monika Aring, President of the Seattle Puget Sound SID Chapter, and so excited to welcome you to this website.  We have a fantastic executive team and our membership is growing rapidly.  So SID tight!

As a new Chapter in the Seattle region we can be linked to all the other SID chapters around the world.    We look forward to providing you, our members, with many valuable services.  For starters, we're creating monthly professional development/networking meetings where we ask two of our members to go into some depth explaining what they do.  We'll hold quarterly forums where we work with other SID chapters to explore topics of interest to the entire development community.

Welcome!

Seattle SID Chapter - We're the "other" Washington!

You have reached the site for the Seattle Puget Sound Chapter of the Society for International Development. We are located in Washington State - on the other side of the United States from our nation's capital in Washington, D.C.

While the Washington, D.C. chapter is the largest and most active SID chapter in the world, the Seattle SID Chapter aspires to be at the cutting edge of new conversations and new solutions in the world of global development.  Our chapter seeks to promote peace, prosperity, and freedom around the world by encouraging international development. We hope you'll join us!