UNSKIPPABLE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Chief of Staff and EVP of Strategy, Technology & Communications
- Chief of Staff to Catholic Relief Services
Annemarie Reilly is Chief of Staff to Catholic Relief Services President and CEO, Sean Callahan, and Executive Vice President for Strategy, Technology and Communications. As Chief of Staff Annemarie facilitates coordination and collaboration across the executive team and oversees cross-divisional strategic initiatives on the President's behalf. In her EVP role, Annemarie directs the agency's strategic planning, monitoring and reporting. She serves as Executive Liaison to the Board's Governance and Nominations Committee. Included in Annemarie's portfolio is leadership oversight for Marketing and Communications, Global Knowledge and Information Management, and the Office of General Counsel.
Alongside her over 7,000 colleagues around the world delivering programs and services that reach over 150 million people annually, Annemarie is committed to the agency's mission to provide opportunities for all people to live to their full God-given human potential in more just, equitable, and peaceful societies where humankind prospers in harmony with our natural environment.
In her three decades with CRS, Annemarie has served the agency in El Salvador, Haiti, Burundi, Liberia, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia. Her field experience includes roles as Country Representative, Regional Director and head of CRS' emergency response team. Based in CRS headquarters in the U.S. since 2006, Annemarie's headquarters roles have included a previous assignment as Chief of Staff and Vice President of Overseas Operations.
Annemarie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and French from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, with specializations in Economic and Political Development and Latin American Studies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
- Senior Technical Advisor, MEAL, Policy, Advocacy and Strategy
Dr. Dey brings a unique blend of project design, management, and analytical skills focusing on country-led interventions (often through negotiations with governments) in data, policy, monitoring and evaluation, and agricultural input systems. She has over 15 years of experience in data and regulatory reform analyses, and designing, managing large client and stakeholder-oriented projects. Prior to joining CRS, Dr. Dey worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) - Agriculture initiative, where she has been a key contributor to designing global data investments in the livestock sector, and spatial mapping programs in East Africa.
She co-led BMGF's Tanzania agriculture strategy, the M&E program for Agriculture initiative (a $2.2b portfolio), and provided leadership support in designing the foundation's partnership with the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA - PIATA). Passionate about turning data into information, Dr. Dey focuses on institution strengthening, and bridging gaps between evidence and impact. Born and raised in India, she speaks multiple languages including Arabic and Kiswahili. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, playing piano, and watching movies. Dr. Dey holds a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Clark University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Executive Vice President Mission and Mobilization
Job Titles:
- Public Relations Strategist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Global Chief People & Diversity Officer / EVP Global People Resources / Shannon
Job Titles:
- President, Xavier University of Louisiana
Job Titles:
- Executive Coordinator Socio - Pastoral Strategic Plan, Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar
Currently working as an agricultural technical advisor in the CRS Humanitarian Response Department, Ed is an agricultural economist with over 25 years of experience in the developing world. His work currently focuses on post-emergency livelihood recovery and resilience.
He has run agroforestry programs in Haiti, Comoros, Mali and Guatemala, and served as a regional agricultural technical advisor in Guatemala and Madagascar prior to his current position. He has led a number of studies ranging from value chain studies, livelihood assessments, post emergency market assessments, emergency response modality studies and Seed System Security assessments. Additional studies with S34D have examined the impacts of emergency seed provision and effects of seed fairs on both farmer participants and seed markets. He has been the prime developer of the Rapid Seed System Security Assessment toolkit in collaboration with the global Food Security Cluster. He currently lives on the family farm in Virginia with his wife, Sheri.
Job Titles:
- CRS HQ STAFF Member
- Operations Specialist
Emily Keast has over five years of experience in agricultural development and USAID project management. She has worked at CRS for 1.5 years and prior to joining the S34D team was an Operations Specialist for two projects, USAID/Libera Agriculture Sustainability Activity and USAID Farmer-to-Farmer.
Emily previously worked at The Kaizen Company where she provided support to USAID-funded projects that focused on organizational development, partnerships, and innovation. Additionally, Emily was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia where she facilitated agriculture projects focusing on food security and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. She then went on to support CRS' Farmer-to-Farmer Ethiopia project.
Emily has a master's degree in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She has a bachelor's degree in economics and environmental studies from Lake Forest College. In her free time, Emily enjoys running, following sports, and spending time with her family and dog, Poppy. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.
Job Titles:
- MEAL Expert
- MEAL Technical Advisor II
Gideon is a MEAL expert with extensive experience in many additional sectors, including youth, peacebuilding, governance. During his 19-year career, he has served as a Strategic Information and Knowledge Management Manager MEAL Manager for CRS Zimbabwe, provided regional level MEAL support to CRS Lesotho, and become an expert in the capacity strengthening of partners and staff. Gideon holds a Master's degree in development studies, BSC Honors in Psychology, and Postgraduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Executive Vice President
- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
- Chief of Party
Jason has over 28 years international and domestic development experience managing large, complex donor funded projects in both emergency and development settings. He has lived and worked in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay and Zimbabwe for various international agencies. Jason began his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later a Peace Corps Response volunteer in Paraguay, as well as a technical trainer for Peace Corps Paraguay. He began his career with CRS as an International Development Fellow in 2001 working on post-earthquake emergency reconstruction in El Salvador. He has extensive food security programming experience, having served as Deputy Chief of Party for a Food for Peace funded program in Honduras, and as the Emergency Program Manager for a Food for Peace project in Zimbabwe.
Jason comes to S34D as the Deputy Chief of Party/ Operations for the 4Children project, a $68m USAID/PEPFAR award focused on orphans and vulnerable children. Jason holds an MA degree in social and public policy from Duquesne University with a concentration in conflict resolution and peace studies, as well as degrees in psychology and criminal justice. He is currently working on his doctor of public administration degree at the University of Baltimore. Jason lives with his family in Paraguay where he enjoys playing chess, tennis and guitar.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Global Communications
Job Titles:
- Digital and Social Media Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
- Emergency and Resilience Seed Systems Advisor
Kate is a rural livelihoods and food security expert with over 25 years' experience of applied research and development. Her research includes work on emergency seed systems, mostly in African countries affected by climate change and climatic shocks, civil conflict and the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, as well as relief-style seed interventions relating to national subsidy programs and social protection schemes. Kate has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of London; her thesis provided an in-depth analysis of crop variability and farmer seed systems in Northern Sierra Leone.
Prior to joining CRS, Kate worked as an independent consultant, conducting evaluations and strategic reviews for various UN and USAID-funded programs and projects, encompassing seed systems, technology transfer, resilience, rural development, and research-for-development. She worked as a senior scientist for WorldFish in Zambia, where she served as country leader for a research-in-development program and conducted participatory action research on agricultural value chains. She previously worked as a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, based in Nairobi under a partnership with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Kate lives with her husband and son in a rural village on the southwestern coast of the UK, where she enjoys Cornish pilot gig rowing, gardening and country walks.
Job Titles:
- CRS HQ STAFF Member
- Food Security Professional
Kelly Collis is a food security and environmental professional dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. She joins S34D from USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, where she worked within the Food Security and Livelihoods Division providing review and support to the Division's budget and portfolio of awards, conducting research and analysis to inform climate, natural resources management, and DEI priorities, and leading resilience food security activity (RFSA) and DEI-focused career development working groups. She has also provided several years of program, communications, and administrative assistance to environmentally-focused organizations, including the Economics Center at the World Resources Institute and New Climate Economy Programme, amongst others. Kelly has also taught English in Gifu, Japan.
Building upon her Bachelor's in International Studies from Towson University, Kelly holds her Master's in Food Security from the University of Edinburgh, where she focused her studies on the nexus of agricultural sustainability and climate change. Kelly is passionate about data-driven action, organizational capacity-strengthening, and innovative solutions to promote agricultural development. In her spare time, Kelly enjoys hiking, singing, reading, and spending time with her family and cat, Tanoshii.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Executive Vice President, Charitable Giving
Mark leads a department of about 80 people charged with growing net revenue by identifying and supporting efforts that build relationships with current donors, and begin relationships with new donors. In partnership with the president and CEO, he provides leadership to all charitable giving efforts undertaken by the CRS Board of Directors and the CRS Foundation Board of Directors. He also serves as a member of CRS' Executive Leadership Team.
Job Titles:
- West and Central Africa - Regional Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Bishop of Little Rock ( AR )
Job Titles:
- Bishop of Victoria in Texas
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- Bishop of Monterey in California
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- Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore
Job Titles:
- Bishop Emeritus of Tucson ( AZ )
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- Bishop Emeritus of Savannah ( GA )
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- Bishop of Fort Wayne - South Bend ( in )
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Board, Catholic Relief Services
Job Titles:
- Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Brooklyn ( NY )
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- Bishop of Salt Lake City ( UT )
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of the CRS Foundation Board
Job Titles:
- CEO & Founder, Radius Living
Job Titles:
- CEO, Scheid Investment Group, LLC
Job Titles:
- Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Leadership Team
- President
- President & CEO of Catholic Relief Services
Sean Callahan is President & CEO of Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. He is a 34-year agency veteran who has held a wide variety of leadership roles overseas and at agency headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry
Job Titles:
- Senior Public Affairs Manager
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Regional Marketing Manager - LACRO
Job Titles:
- CRS HQ STAFF Member
- Global Grants Finance Officer
Sarah is joining the Global Grants Team after more than four years on the 4Children project as grant and compliance manager, and she will be supporting S34D in a limited capacity. Sarah's cumulative service of over ten years at CRS between 1998-present included working on the global grant, AIDS Relief, from 2004-2005. She is looking forward to working in a new capacity within Catholic Relief Services and supporting the important work of Changing the Way We Care.
Sarah has a BA in Political Science/International Studies from College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) and a MA in Victorian studies from the University of Leicester. She has over fifteen years of work experience in finance-related positions at CRS and in the for-profit sector, which was strengthened by additional coursework in accounting and finance. Sarah is a native Marylander who enjoys spending time with her family, reading, listening to music, following sports, and watching documentaries.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Representative
- Board of Directors
- Executive Vice President for Overseas Operations
As the executive vice president for Overseas Operations, Schuyler Thorup oversees programmatic activities in more than 110 countries, with a budget of more than $1.1 billion and a staff of approximately 6,500. He ensures the fulfillment of the agency's mission with a particular focus on serving the poor and marginalized, respect for human dignity, justice and peace, and partnership with local institutions.
Schuyler was the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 until 2012. During his tenure, he oversaw diverse humanitarian and development programs across 17 countries, including the agency's emergency response to Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake, which claimed more than 200,000 lives.
Schuyler was appointed CRS country representative in Armenia in 1997, serving until 1999, when he returned to the United States to work as a major gifts officer in the Southwest Region, based in San Diego. In 2003, Schuyler returned to Africa as the agency's country representative for Malawi, a post he held until he was named regional director in 2006.
Schuyler is married to Cecilia Damonte. They have two children, Natalia and Santiago. He is a member of the Catholic International Community-St. Austin's Parish in Nairobi.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
- Formal Seed Systems Advisor
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Ferris has been supporting the development, implementation and innovation of agricultural development programs for USAID, USDA, GFRAS, CTA, FAO, UNCTAD, DFID, IFAD, and the Work Bank. As the Global Director for CRS' Agricultural Livelihoods programs, Dr. Ferris focuses on supporting smallholder farmers along the pathway to prosperity, to recover from economic or environmental shocks, build their agricultural practices and grow into agipreneurs fully engaged and empowered in their value chains.
In addition to overall technical leadership of CRS in this area, Shaun's work also focuses on building the agro-enterprise capacity of field staff and creating opportunities to generate increased value at the farm level through new combinations of skills acquisition, technology, market opportunity identification, improve market information use, and improved trading relationships. Previous to working with CRS, Dr. Ferris spent 16 years with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research. Shaun holds a Bachelor's in Horticultural Science from Reading University, a Master's in Tropical Agriculture from Nottingham University and a PhD in Plant Physiology from Cranfield University.
Job Titles:
- CRS HQ STAFF Member
- Senior Technical Advisor
As a Senior Technical Advisor, she supports the design, implementation and monitoring of high-quality gender-sensitive and nutrition-sensitive agriculture programming. She co-developed CRS' Couple Functionality Assessment Tool as well as CRS's indicator that measure changes in women and girls in union decision-making at the project level but can be aggregated up to the institute level She co-developed several CRS' training manuals including CRS gender analysis toolkit, Integrating gender into Private Agriculture Service Providers, Women's Leadership for community members, garden toolkit, and agriculture fairs and vouches manual. She co-chaired 2 International Conferences on Integrated Nutrition. Valerie was also a steering committee member of the Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative. Prior to joining CRS, Valerie held several positions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) including Senior Program Manager for the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) and Program Coordinator of IFPRI's Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP). She earned her MA in Economics from University of Notre Dame and her BA in Economics and Sociology from Moravian College. She currently lives in Florida with her husband Barry and their 1 children - Berry and Cecilia