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James Gilling, regional vice president, East Asia and Pacific, has 35 years of experience in social and economic development in low- and middle-income countries. He has overseen Australian aid programs worth hundreds of millions of dollars and managed large teams of Australian and overseas staff, including as head of the Australian aid program in Indonesia. James has worked for United Kingdom (UK) and Papua New Guinea governments as an agricultural economist. He has also worked as a consultant economist with Oxford Policy Management in the UK and was an economic analyst with the Office of National Assessments in Australia.

Catherine Hersey, a senior associate, is a seasoned health services researcher and project manager with over 15 years of experience in both Medicare and Medicaid. Her research areas include the implementation and evaluation of accountable care organizations and other alternative payment models, maternal health, substance use disorder, meaningful use of electronic health records, and hospital-acquired infections. Hersey also has experience in quality measurement and improvement. In addition, she has experience in both quantitative and qualitative analyses and managing large and complex projects.

Julio Pacca is a psychologist and innovative leader with more than 20 years of experience in health care. He focuses on HIV and AIDS; maternal health; adolescent health; and health systems strengthening. Pacca has worked with donors such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations, the World Bank, bi-lateral Scandinavian donors, and the William and Flora Hewlett, Goldman, and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations.

Diane Paulsell is an applied social scientist with more than 20 years of experience designing, conducting, and overseeing mixed-methods policy-focused research, including national multi-site studies. She has also led rapid cycle learning and program improvement efforts with a variety of human services programs and a foundation-funded research program on family supportive services. Her areas of expertise range from early care and education to parenting, family engagement, youth development and family supportive policies and programs, including nutrition.

Shelly Spoeth brings more than 25 years of strategic communication and social marketing experience to tackling complex health and social issues.  She  worked for a decade with pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients while at public relations firms including Ketchum, FleishmanHillard and Cohn & Wolfe. She then worked as a consultant for government and nonprofit clients, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on behavioral change challenges ranging from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19. Spoeth has implemented, evaluated, and managed dozens of projects that improved health outcomes. Her capabilities include formative research and digital outreach.

Dr. Fiona Mactaggart is a multi-disciplinary technical advisor with more than 10 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL); infectious disease control; and public health. As a co-lead of Abt's MERL portfolio, she draws on complexity theory and scientific methods to help clients test what works, discover why it works, and provide timely evidence-based recommendations to inform important decisions about policy and practice. Mactaggart contributes to business development, programme delivery, and thought leadership. She works in five key areas: monitoring (e.g., design of digital tools and visualisation platforms) research (e.g., cross-sectional survey design), evaluation methodologies (e.g., contribution analysis), learning (e.g., portfolio level evidence-informed strategic decision making), and cross-cutting MERL capabilities (e.g., adaptive management and GEDSI). Mactaggart has worked extensively in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Elizabeth Giardino’s evaluation and technical assistance work on housing, community development, asset building, and government innovation policies and programs promotes opportunity and healthy outcomes for people across the U.S. Giardino specializes in leading teams, strategic planning, and relationship building, and has proven expertise in incorporating community-based participatory research into technical assistance engagements.

Alan McCagh has more than 20 years of experience in complex program management and technical oversight for government institutional strengthening, economic development, community development, democratic governance, and in the law and justice sector. A former senior Western Australia police officer, Alan has expertise in institutional strengthening of the police, courts, and prisons. He also has experience with grant-making facilities to improve community access to legal aid, policy dialogue, research, and crime prevention.

Jessica Gillmore is an international and community development professional with more than 20 years of experience working in Asia and the Pacific. She has expertise leading teams and managing complex donor programs across a diverse range of sectors including health, gender and women’s empowerment, community-driven development, education, governance and law and justice. She is highly skilled in program design, strategy development, research and evaluation and building stakeholder relationships with government, non-government, civil society and private sector organisations.

Nassim Díaz Casado is the chief of party for the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) in the Dominican Republic (DR). He is an expert in project management with extensive experience in health systems, strategic management, and international development programs in the health sector. Diaz has more than 15 years of experience working as a project director for multilateral organizations, including the World Bank and International Development Bank. He has been chief of party of the USAID- Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project in the Dominican Republic and country program manager for the USAID-SHOPS Plus project, in addition to consulting with international organizations and public and private entities on health and social security systems.