Anna de la Cruz – Research and Evaluation Professional
Anna De La Cruz is an international development research and evaluation professional, with content expertise in global health, microfinance and innovative market solutions to poverty alleviation. Anna brings to our Social Performance Committee over a decade of experience evaluating international development programs in nonprofit and academic institutions, and has worked with organizations including the UCSF Global Health Group, Innovations for Poverty Action, and the Financial Access Initiative at New York University. She has published several articles and reports on social franchising for health and other global health interventions. Latin America holds a special place in Anna’s heart, having lived in Mexico City and worked throughout the region, but she has also enjoyed opportunities to work on projects throughout Africa and Asia. Anna received a Master’s in Public Administration with a focus on International Policy from New York University, and a Bachelor’s with distinction in International Studies from the University of Washington. She also completed the J-PAL Executive Education course on Randomized Controlled Trials at MIT.
Paula Farrell – Friendship Bridge Board Member
Paula’s professional background includes over 35 years of experience leading and working with nonprofit and government organizations. Her experience has largely involved work with and in organizations that served underrepresented and disenfranchised individuals and families. She frequently worked as an advocate and organizational leader for people with developmental disabilities, individuals with severe mental illness, victims of domestic violence, people who were homeless as well as adults and teens who were unemployed. In the early 90s, she was Director of the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Planning Council under Governor Romer. Her mid-career focus was on the deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities and mental health concerns. She also worked in organizations focused on reducing racial disparities in income and access to healthcare. During the recession between 2007 and 2010, she was the Director of the Division of Workforce Development under Mayor John Hickenlooper. In 2015 she became a Social Entrepreneur when she opened an art gallery to benefit local artists and nonprofit organizations. Paula ran the gallery for two years.
Leigh Fiske – Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado
Cara S. Forster – Independent Consultant and SPTF Secretariat Member
Cara S. Forster works as an independent consultant on the topics of client protection and social performance in microfinance, with clients that include ACCION International, the Social Performance Task Force, and the Grameen Foundation. From 2010 to 2012 Cara was the Program Manager for Network Development Services at The SEEP Network, where her work focused on capacity building for microfinance networks. During this time she was also the Global Facilitator for the Social Performance Working Group for Networks, a platform for collective action among networks to advance social performance within their member MFIs and their regions. From 2008 to 2010 Cara helped launch the Center for Financial Inclusion and the Smart Campaign in her capacity as Program Manager for the Double Bottom Line at ACCION International. Her work there centered on consumer protection in microfinance, coordinating the Beyond Codes project, and managing tool creation for the The Smart Campaign. Prior to her work with ACCION, she spent 4 years in environmental consulting, designing performance measures and conducting project evaluations for several EPA programs. Her interest in microfinance began 12 years ago with her Peace Corps service in Nicaragua where she coordinated a small savings and loan cooperative for single mothers. She has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from Harvard College and a Masters in Sustainable Development from Duke University.
Jessica Jones – Assistant Professor at University of Tennessee Knoxville
Jessica Jones is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her career merges research, teaching, and service at the intersection of poverty, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. Specifically, her research has a special interest in connecting the entrepreneurial process to societal outcomes, such as social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Jones has taught courses in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management at the University of Colorado and Miami University. She holds a PhD in Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Operations from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to receiving her PhD, she worked for a social enterprise in Guatemala, where she lived in both Nebaj and Quetzaltenango, serving both local communities and university students with experiential entrepreneurship education. She has also served as an Assistant Director of an academic entrepreneurship center at Miami University.
Meryle Melnicoff – Friendship Bridge Board Member and Committee Chair
Meryle’s involvement with Friendship Bridge builds on her longstanding work to empower women entrepreneurs. Meryle was a co-founder of the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs of Philadelphia and has published two guidebooks on funding for start-up businesses. Currently, she is a member of WIL of Greater Philadelphia, which supports selected microfinance institutions, including Friendship Bridge. Previously, Meryle was the Director of Business Development at The Wistar Institute, where she established multiple collaborations that led to the commercial development of Wistar’s technologies for new vaccines and cancer treatments. Her work at Wistar brought substantial funding to the institute and enabled it to double the endowment. Meryle received an M.S. in Clinical Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine) and has been involved with multiple projects to develop new diagnostic tests. Meryle resides with her family in New Jersey where she is on the board of the Delanco, NJ public library.
Francy S. Milner – Retired Instructor at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado
Francy is a retired Instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who taught business ethics and corporate social responsibility at the Leeds School of Business. She also taught graduate and undergraduate courses in social entrepreneurship at Leeds and across campus, with a focus on business solutions to global poverty. Francy is an experienced employment lawyer and corporate trainer who served as the Assistant General Counsel for Legal Compliance at Coors Brewing Company. She has provided consulting services to companies on corporate ethics and compliance programs, compliance risk management, and corporate governance. Francy is fluent in Spanish and has served on the boards of directors of Friendship Bridge and two other nonprofit organizations, The Conflict Center and the Colorado Judicial Institute.
Carolina Roca – Friendship Bridge Board Member and Partner of IDC
Carolina Roca is an Economist with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (Harvard University) and has extensive experience working with the public as well as the private sector. She is at present leading a project to establish UCEN, a new private, non- profit and non-denominational university. She was the Commissioner of the Guatemalan Tax and Customs Administration 2005-2008, serving two different government administrations. During her term, SAT credibility was regain, revenue collection increased in more than 1% of GDP with no increase in tax rates –an important achievement for a country with a tax burden of less than 11% of GDP- In previous governments she served as Vice Minister of Energy and Mines, Vice Minister of Public Finance, Technical Secretary of the Economic Cabinet and Director of External Financing.
As a senior partner at IDC, a Guatemala small consultancy firm, Carolina has consulted in the areas of finance, institutional development and innovation, and Public Sector Reform for more than 10 years. As an independent consultant she has worked for the World Bank, IMF, IDB, US-TREAS-OTA, and PNUD in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Bolivia Honduras, Pakistan, and Guatemala. She was part of the Research Faculty of the Central American Institute for Business Administration –INCAE- and recently a Research Fellow of the Weatherhead Center of Harvard University. She served as President of the Foundation for Women’s Development, small NGO granting credits and training to women´s micro-business projects, is presently a board member of FUNDASISTEMAS, Entrepreneurs for Education and Vital Voices Guatemala.
Caroline Rodriguez – Friendship Bridge Board Member
Caroline joined the Friendship Bridge Board in August 2015, bringing over three decades of work in business and community development. In her 33-year affiliation with the McDonald’s Corporation, Caroline spent 22 years on the corporate side and 11 years as a Franchisee. Caroline’s experience spans operations, training & development, marketing, product development, and business research. Caroline serves as the Treasurer of the Antelope Valley Friendship Circle, and she serves her local community in many ways – most recently as the 2014 Chairwoman of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce, as past Chair of Zonta International, and as Board Member of Girl Scouts Joshua Tree Council. She currently serves on an Advisory Board of Small Business Owners and is a member of the National Latin Women’s Business Association’s Los Angeles Chapter.
Sarah Sterling – Operations Manager at Conveners
Sarah Sterling has years of experience working with entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations on developing effective impact metrics, program development and management, social media outreach, fundraising, and team leadership skills and training. Sarah has over 5 years of experience working with and training international organizations such as Mercy Corps, Oxfam International, SOCAP, and Agora Partnerships, as well as impact investment funds, and social entrepreneurs in Latin America in areas of organizational sustainability and impact metrics development.
She has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey where one focus of her studies was how to work with organizations to develop their strategies around fundraising and building core competencies and confidence in the leadership/management team in grant writing – both to governmental organizations and non-profit grant agencies.
Carmen Velasco – Co-Founder of Pro Mujer and Co-Chair of Executive Committee for Truelift
Carmen is Bolivian and lives in Lima Peru. She has studied Education in the University of Chile, and has post-graduate studies in Microfinance (University of Boulder) and Project Management (Harvard University). She worked for 15 years as Professor at the Catholic University in Bolivia. In 1990, she has co-founded Pro Mujer, an international institution for the socio-economic inclusion of women through integrated services, and worked in the institution for 22 years. As Project Director, she has co-designed and implemented the training program and the Communal Association Program, and the integrated model that combines microfinance and health services to further empower woman and their families.
She was the Executive Director for Pro Mujer Bolivia from 1995 to 2007. She was the Executive Director for Pro Mujer Inc. and participated in the expansion of Pro Mujer to four Latin American countries. She was part of the Board of PMI and the local boards of Pro Mujer Peru, Pro Mujer Mexico, and Pro Mujer Argentina. She has represented Pro Mujer in local and international Forums and Conferences. Today she is part of the Board of Social Performance Task Force. She is the Co-chair of the Executive Committee for TRUELIFT and participates in the Global Advisory Committee for the Micro Credit Summit. She serves in the Board of Directors of Microfinance institutions.
Carmen currently participates in developing new initiatives and services with different entities to promote the socio-economic inclusion of the people living in poverty and actively participates in conferences and seminars to promote the role of Microfinance as a powerful tool to fight against poverty. She was named a CNN Hero in recognition of being “Community advocate”; recognized by Veuve Clicquot for “The initiative for Economic Development”; and invited to the White House “Conference on the Americas”, Washington DC, 2007. In October 2012 Washington DC, she received The International Alliance for Women “Award for 100 men and women in the world, for contributing to make difference in the world in the economic empowerment of women, a world of difference.”
