David Grossman brought 30 years of technical and managerial experience in international development to his position leading ICMA International when he took on that new position in January 2008. In addition to his experience in municipal development, he has expertise in such areas as finance, credit, and urban infrastructure. He began his professional career with the New York City Planning Commission, helping tenants to organize and maintain their buildings. After a year with the United Nations Development Program, he served for six years as a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Foreign Service Officer, in Honduras and Costa Rica. From 1984 to 1994 he worked in the USAID Office of Housing and Urban Programs, including serving as its chief operating officer (COO). He later held COO positions with USAID’s Global Bureau Environment Center and USAID’s Office of Development Credit. Most recently he served as the senior advisor for research and development for the USAID Development Credit Authority. During his years at USAID, he received Honor Awards and other citations for outstanding performance. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science/Latin American studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree in international affairs, with a specialization in economics and urban planning, from Columbia University, in New York City. He speaks English and Spanish. Contact: dgrossman@icma.org  

Caroline Bixiones, Program Manager

Caroline Bixiones joined ICMA in July 2011, bringing six years of international experience in public health and education development. She previously served as an assistant language teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Tottori, Japan, and managed volunteer tours for The PEPY (Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself) Ride, an education non-profit in Cambodia. Caroline continued her transition into international development with the Global Capacity Project at IntraHealth International, where she focused on project management and operations. She has traveled throughout Europe and Asia and spent a semester studying in Florence, Italy, at the Lorenzo di Medici Institute. Caroline received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Women’s Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Public Administration degree from North Carolina State University. She speaks intermediate French and beginning Japanese and Italian. Contact: cbixiones@icma.org.

Judit Deilinger joined ICMA in 1996. She brings comprehensive experience in municipal management, local economic development, intergovernmental relations, and local government association development in transitioning countries. She has designed and implemented programs focusing on economic development, local government capacity building, and decentralization in numerous countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, and the Russian Far East. Her experience in designing and delivering public administration focused workshops, study tours, and training of elected local government officials in policy-making, communication, and other leadership skills has given her a reputation as a proficient trainer, facilitator, and curriculum developer. Currently, she leads ICMA International’s business development activities. In addition, she serves as Senior Governance Advisor for programs in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe and Eurasia. Previously, she served as ICMA’s regional representative for the Serbian International Resource Cities partnerships, Deputy Project Director for ICMA’s Public Administration Project in Hungary, and Director of International Relations for the Partnership of Hungarian Local Government Associations. A native speaker of Hungarian, Judit is fluent in English and also speaks conversational Russian. She holds an M.A. in European Studies/Economics from the University of Economics in Budapest, Hungary. Contact: jdeilinger@icma.org

Emily Elledge, Assistant Program Manager

After working several months as an intern for the International team, Emily joined the ICMA staff as a full-time employee in January 2012.  Her interest for international development blossomed when she traveled to Costa Rica on a mission trip, where she taught English to school children, and helped repair old classrooms. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Communications and History, and a minor in Spanish. During her sophomore year, she seized the opportunity to study abroad in Seville, Spain, where she learned how to cook tortilla de patatas and met the Real Madrid soccer team. After returning to the United States, Emily became actively involved with the international organizations on UNC’s campus, and she served as an ambassador to international students. Before joining the ICMA staff, she worked at a community center tutoring immigrant children from Africa and South America. She also interned at a global health nonprofit, Population Services International, in their Latin America department. In her free time, you can find her hiking in the mountains of North Carolina, baking, or watching Carolina basketball. Contact: eelledge@icma.org

Nate Engle, Senior Program Manager

Nate Engle joined ICMA in August 2011 with more than seven years of experience in international affairs. Most recently, he had served for two years as the country representative for an international NGO in Southern Sudan. Prior to that he lived and worked in Madagascar, serving two years with the Peace Corps and working two years in the private sector. Nate's work has also taken him to Uganda, Kenya, Mauritius, and Canada. Hailing from the “Great Lakes State,” he has provided international trade support to Michigan-based businesses and has worked in Michigan state government. His professional interests include comparative politics and public administration as well as issues surrounding land use, agriculture, and food systems in the Great Lakes region. Nate earned a bachelor of science degree in urban and regional planning at Michigan State University and a master of public administration degree at Grand Valley State University’s School of Public, Nonprofit and Health Administration in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In his free time, he enjoys reading history and biographies as well as hunting and bicycling with his wife. Contact: nengle@icma.org

Brancy Finkler, Director, Operations and Program Management

Since joining ICMA International as an intern in 1998, Brancy Finkler has made contributions to the larger organization as well as to the International Team. During her tenure at ICMA, she has managed a portfolio of programs, served on proposal development teams as the overall and cost coordinator, contributed to business development, and assisted with team operations. This has led to overseas  travel to Albania, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Mongolia and work experience with many countries. Currently, Brancy oversees the International Team’s annual grants and contracts portfolio and supervises project staff. She has also represented the International Team on a number of organizational “hot teams” and committees that focused on specific issues/topics such as contract administration, corporate culture, program management, and procurement. In 2000, Brancy received an award for Employee Excellence. Prior to joining ICMA, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan, where she taught English to students in grades five through ten. During her time in Central Asia, she established an after-school English club at both a school and a children’s activity center. In 1996, Brancy served as a White House intern in the Counselor to the President’s office. She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College and has a basic understanding of Uzbek and German. Contact: bfinkler@icma.org  

Shraddha Kharel-Pandey directs business development and program management for ICMA's Asia programs. She has more than ten years of international development and program management experience in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central America. Previously, she was a senior member of ICMA’s Afghanistan Team, overseeing ICMA’s portfolio of programs in that country. During her tenure at ICMA, which began in 2005, she also managed ICMA's signature CityLinks program and all aspects of the USAID-funded Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program, the FIRE III program in India, the MEGA Serbia program, the World Bank-funded Lebanese Local Economic Development program, and other programs in India and Sri Lanka. While a graduate student at the University of Louisville, where she earned a master's degree in political science with a focus on international studies, Shraddha was a member of the Management Team for the International Service Learning Program. She received a bachelor's degree from Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu, Nepal) and also worked in Kathmandu as a marketing officer at a prominent bank before coming to the United States. Shraddha has a PMP certification and she speaks fluent English, Nepali, Hindi, and Urdu. Contact: skharelpandey@icma.org

Lindsay Kuhn, Assistant Program Manager

Lindsay Kuhn joined ICMA in 2013 with two years of experience as a program management and business development associate. Previously, she worked for International Relief & Development (IRD), a nonprofit international development nongovernmental organization; interned for the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations and the Middle East Policy Council; and interned during the budget appropriations for the chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, Rep. Vernon Sykes (District 34), in the Ohio House of Representatives. She has assisted with the development of more than 30 proposals and the management of multiple programs in a number of conflict-affected and post-conflict countries such as Colombia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Her programs and proposals have included the areas of governance, civil society, advocacy, community engagement, service delivery, women and youth empowerment, and education. In addition, Lindsay is a part-time public relations assistant for the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center and prepares promotional materials for multicultural programming. She graduated with a dual B.A. in International Relations and Communication from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, where she also led teams in crisis simulations and participated in seminars as part of the Garfield Institute for Public Leadership. She has studied French, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese and traveled on academic study trips to South Africa, Lesotho, Turke,y and Greece. Contact: lkuhn@icma.org

Michael Kunz, Director, Africa Programs  

Michael Kunz joined ICMA in June 2011 as Senior Governance Advisor for RAMP-UP (East, West, and North). Previously, he served in senior capacities managing complex development assistance projects promoting good governance and private-sector development in Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia through programs funded by USAID, the World Bank, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the European Union, and the Mellon Foundation. Michael has served as the chief of party on a number of USAID projects, including the Azerbaijan Civil Society Project, which included local governance strengthening and public financial management components. As the regional director for Counterpart International, he oversaw a diverse portfolio spanning nine countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Following the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic, Michael co-designed and managed the Czech Economic Development Certification Program, which set up 12 local economic development offices and established standards for industrial parks and industrial park financing. In the United States, he served as the executive director for the Edmonds (Washington) Alliance for Economic Development, a public-private partnership in a town of 40,000 in the Greater Seattle area. Michael holds a master’s degree in international relations from Tufts University Fletcher School and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Washington. Contact: mkunz@icma.org

Lisa Lau, Program Manager

Prior to joining ICMA in July 2010, Lisa Lau worked in the international field in Washington, D.C. for four years.  She worked at World Links, an international education nonprofit, where she helped manage several programs in Asia and Latin America. She later moved on to the World Bank to be the publications manager for the Agricultural and Rural Development Department. There, she managed the editorial and production process of key publications that were disseminated to the field offices and the international development community. Besides chasing after authors and managers to hand in their manuscripts on time, she coordinated and participated in a Department Training on Fisheries and Aquaculture in Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she almost fell in a lobster cage while trying to document the training. She has also conducted research and has had various work experience in Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, and China. She graduated from Brown University with a double major in Anthropology and International Relations and attained her master's degree in International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She speaks Cantonese (mother tongue),  Mandarin, Spanish, and basic French. Contact: llau@icma.org

Josephine Lee, Assistant Program Manager

Josephine Lee joined ICMA in early 2012, bringing experience in international and domestic educational programming and policy advocacy. Most recently, she interned for both the Institute of International Education headquarters in New York and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Asia Pacific Monitoring and Evaluation unit in Bangkok, Thailand. In both roles, she provided research and programmatic support for government capacity building initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier, Josephine was involved as a teacher and programmer in various cross-sector initiatives; areas included English education in under-served rural areas of South Korea (Teach and Learn in Korea), HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania (Support for International Change), and higher education access and retention for immigrant communities in Los Angeles (Learn to Be Foundation; University of California, Los Angeles). She holds a Master of Science degree in International Educational Development from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Literature with a minor in Global Studies from the UCLA. She is fluent in English and Korean and has basic skills in Spanish and beginning Swahili. Contact: joslee@icma.org

Joseph Lombardo, Director, CityLinks Program  

Joseph Lombardo joined ICMA in February 2012 with more than three decades of experience in international development, including 22 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As the CityLinks Program Director at ICMA, Joe oversees a USAID-funded program that creates partnerships between cities in developing countries and cities in the United States to help strengthen the resiliency of local governments and vulnerable populations that face the interrelated challenges of climate change, food security, and water and sanitation access. Joe has held senior management positions with USAID, international development NGOs, and local governments in the United States. His areas of expertise include urban and regional development; decentralization policies; local government management; conflict and stability operations; international development policy; strategic planning, project development, and performance management policies and systems; operational and program management assessments; organizational change management and capacity building; curriculum design and training; strategic gaming and simulations; and public-private partnerships. He is knowledgeable in the full range of program areas encompassed in the fields of public management, including development and municipal finance, education and workforce development, and building local organizational capacity for sustainability. In the course of his assignments as a private consultant and his work in senior positions with USAID, Joe has worked in more than 25 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. His work with USAID earned him numerous honors and performance awards. He has a B.A. degree in sociology and psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a master of science in educational psychology and statistics from the State University of New York at Albany, and a master of regional planning with a concentration in international development policy, planning, and management from the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. He is fluent in English and Spanish. Contact: jlombardo@icma.org

Carlos Loría-Chaves, Governance and Economic Advisor

Carlos Loría-Chaves joined ICMA in 2010, bringing more than 25 years of experience working at the local and national levels in his home country of Costa Rica and elsewhere in Latin America and Eastern Europe. In his work he has conducted, designed, and implemented programs to strengthen transparency and public finance, support economic reforms, and promote efficient and effective government management. He has served for many years in technical positions providing support to the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly and has more than 10 years of experience working on USAID-funded policy reform, municipal development, public budget analysis, and fiscal programs. Carlos formerly served as Chief of Party for the USAID/Guatemala Decentralization and Local Governance Program (2005-2008). He has a B.A. degree in Economics from the Universidad de Costa Rica and an M.B.A. degree with a major in Finance from the Universidad Interamericana in Costa Rica. He has been short-term consultant for ICMA since May 2009, serving as Regional Program Manager on the USAID-funded Municipal Partnerships for Violence Prevention in Central America program and as the Governance Advisor on the Communities Youth-at-Risk program in Panama. He also provides support to the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility Program to improve the creditworthiness of municipalities in Costa Rica and Argentina, among other business development tasks. Carlos is based in Costa Rica. He speaks Spanish and English. Contact: cloria@icma.org

Brooke Moore, International Recruiter

Brooke Moore began working with ICMA in May 2012, bringing nine years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Before coming to ICMA she worked on the recruiting team doing international proposal recruiting for FHI 360, a nonprofit human development organization, and before that she helped recruit full-time international volunteers for Catholic Volunteer Network’s 200 member programs. Brooke holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and a certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of D.C. Brooke’s interest in serving the international world started with a three-month trip in 2004 to Haiti, where she volunteered with special needs children. She returned to Haiti for six months in 2007 to teach English at a boarding school near Port au Prince. Brooke has visited 17 countries and hopes to continue seeing the world and learning about other cultures. She speaks moderate Spanish and Creole. Contact: BrookeMoore@ICMA.org

Before joining ICMA in September 2012, Eva Travers worked in the international field for six years. During that time she served as a program manager and proposal writer with an economic development consultancy that fulfilled donor-funded projects in Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Asia. In 2010-2011 she spent some time in Afghanistan implementing a portfolio of USAID and World-Bank-funded projects aimed at local capacity building, community development, and infrastructure improvement. In addition, Eva has two years of experience in technical writing in the area of international labor law and benefits. She designed employer’s country manuals for Afghanistan, Russia, Lebanon, and Kazakhstan covering the primary aspects of existing social security systems, applicable labor laws, and current benefits market trends. She obtained her master’s degree in linguistics from Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, Russia) and also worked for two years as a translator before coming to the United States. She speaks fluent Russian and English. Contact: etravers@icma.org 

Sandra Tripp-Jones joined ICMA International in November 2009, bringing substantial experience as a trainer/educator and public sector administrator in the United States and internationally. Her responsibilities include business development, proposal preparation, training development, and project oversight. Before joining the staff, she undertook assignments for ICMA in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Iraq. She has conducted local government needs assessments and designed and delivered training and Training of Trainers programs. Among her assignments was a five-month contract in Iraq as local government advisor under the CAP III program, with responsibility for the startup of a local government training program with 6 full-time and 17 part-time national training staff; development of curriculum and training modules; Training of Trainers for all national training staff; and training of 32 local Iraq government councils and their mayors. The curriculum included experiential training in leadership, negotiation, strategic planning, including visioning, communication, partnering with community groups, media relations, and council meeting procedures.

As a city administrator before joining ICMA, she managed a full-service city of 90,000 with an annual operating and capital budget of $200 million, 1,100 employees, and 10 departments and served as executive director to the Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency. In addition to her responsibilities with ICMA, Sandra is the executive vice president of Sentient Systems, Inc., which provides consulting and training services to public sector organizations in the areas of strategic planning, organization development, community involvement, management skills, performance review, and leadership development. She has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a master of public administration degree from the University of Kansas, and certificates in training of trainers (Continuing Education for Public Officials) and negotiating sustainable agreements (Harvard University Kennedy School). She speaks English (native) and Spanish (fluent). Contact: strippjones@icma.org

Ziauddin Zia, Chief of Party, CAWSA

Ziauddin Zia is chief of party for ICMA's USAID-funded Commercialization of Afghanistan Water and Sanitation Activity (CAWSA) program. Previously, he served as deputy chief of party for the Regional Afghan Municipalities Program for Urban Populations (RAMP UP) and as chief of party for the Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP). His professional career includes experience in strategic planning, general management, project management, human resources and administration, training, quality management, and local governance. He has held positions with the Afghanistan Justice Sector Support Program (U.S. Department of State), the USAID Local Governance and Community Development project (working with a private consulting firm), the United Nations Development Program’s Afghanistan National Development Strategy project, the Ministry of Finance on the UNDP-funded Making Budgets Work and Aid Coordination (MBWAC) project, and FINCA-Afghanistan, a microfinance institution. He also served fourteen years with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Training Agency (META), United Nations Mine Action Program for Afghanistan, where he developed training materials and delivered training in management and mine action related activities and assumed progressively responsible positions, serving as deputy director of the agency. He holds an MBA degree in general management from Preston University in Peshawar, Pakistan, and a “mini MBA” in general management for senior managers with a focus on strategic thinking and planning from Cranfield University, Swindon, U.K. An Afghan national, he is fluent in Dari, Pashto, Urdu, and English. Contact: zzia@icma.org