Our Board:
Dr. Wilson Bamwerinde:, Co-Founder / Co-Director, Uganda
Mr. Jonathan W. Moore:, Co-Founder / Co-Director, United States
Ms. Florence Bamwerinde:, Uganda
Dr. Katharine R. Hobart:
Katharine R. Hobart PhD MSW LCSW is a long-standing practitioner, researcher and professor of community practice social work. In 2011, Dr. Hobart was a Fulbright Scholar at Bishop Barham University College in Uganda teaching at the first Masters of Social Work program in East Africa and conducting action-based research with rural elders. Over her career Katharine has run a federally-funded Administration on Aging intervention/ research grant empowering frail elders, lived in Guatemala while working with a women’s microcredit organization, and has practiced clinical social work in urban hospitals. Katharine has consulted and lectured on program development, participatory monitoring/evaluation, and global aging issues in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Guatemala, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Her PhD is from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work where she has taught since 1997. Her MSW is from Boston University. This is Dr Hobart’s second year as a regional advisor (Rocky Mountain Region) and faculty member for Boston University School of Social Work OLP.
Douglas S. Spencer: United States
Doug has had a varied career across both the private and not- for- profit sectors. He has been the Director of Funds Development for the Denver United Way, managing $25-30MM community campaigns; Founder, Chairman and CEO of a manufacturing business; Development Director and CEO of Friendship Bridge, a Guatemalan microfinance institution, and Director of Development of Water for People, a global water and sanitation development organization. Doug has chaired 2 large conferences, one on access to capital markets in 2005 and another in 2008 on youth employment and social business that drew Muhammad Yunus to Denver as the keynote speaker.
Doug has been in the impact investment space for many years, albeit with less planning and forethought than we are now moving towards with all of our investible assets. Doug is a founder of Cultural Cloth, a textile import business, and has invested in a number of early stage social business opportunities in East Africa, Central America and the US. He is deeply concerned about climate change, water and sanitation, women’s empowerment, and other poverty related issues both domestic and abroad.
Nancy Heister:
Nancy Hiester has 34 years of experience in the non-profit sector and 14 years in international development. She hold a masters in Public Administration and has worked in Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Honduras. Currently Nancy works as the director of development for Mount Evans Home Health Care & Hospice and has been there for five years. Prior to that she worked as director of development for Friendship Bridge.
Michael Hill:
MICHAEL HILL received his Masters in Social Work with an emphasis in community development after two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi (’64-64). In 1997 he co-founded Malawi Children’s Village) and served on the board until 2008. MCV set up a village-based orphan care program on Lake Malawi that provided services to around 1,600 orphans. From 2005-10 he was a co-founder of Orphan Support Africa and lived in Malawi as its Director. OSA expanded the MCV model to apply to over forty community-based organizations (CBOs) throughout Malawi, southern Tanzania and northwest Uganda. Central to this work was a participatory approach to include guardians as leaders in their communities, extensive training to impart administrative and financial skills and regular monitoring of the CBOs by two outreach teams. This approach was supported by a 3-year Gates Foundation Grant and widely acknowledged by the Malawi Ministry of Women and Children and other international NGOs. Mike retired in 2012 and seeks to continue his work through volunteer opportunities in east and southern Africa. He lives in the rural, northern NM village of Abiquiu.
NOTE: CRD is in the process of evaluating candidates to expand the Board.