Our board
David Conner serves as the Board Chair of Groundswell International and is Senior Director of Talent Development for Duke University’s Office of Alumni Engagement and Development. In this role, he is responsible for developing, championing, and executing training and professional development strategies, processes, and activities on behalf of Duke’s university-wide alumni and development community. A native of Pittsburgh, Dave completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) and received an Ed.D. in Adult Continuing Education with a concentration in Southeast Asian Studies from Northern Illinois University. He holds current certifications in both human resources (HRIC-SPHR) and coaching (ICF-ACC). Dave’s career has included work in higher education (extension & continuing ed.), international relief & development, fundraising consulting, and local church ministry & administration. Dave lived and worked in Thailand for 10 years and is fluent in Central Thai. He has also travelled for business or education to more than 25 other countries. Dave and his wife, Mary, have four children – all in various stages of young adulthood – and one grandson, Wes! They currently reside in Austin, Texas, where Dave continues to perform his role remotely for Duke.
Bhadra Sheela Durgabakshi serves as the Vice Chair of Groundswell International and also serves on its Program Committee. Bhadra has over 25 years of experience in international development. She has retired from the World Bank in budgeting and finance and has worked extensively in the Africa Region. Bhadra lived in Mozambique for two years, where she became interested in community development using sustainable solutions with locally grown products. Bhadra holds an M.Sc in Management with a specialization in Nonprofit and Association Management, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Bhadra worked as a journalist for a leading English language newspaper “The Island” in Colombo, Sri Lanka, before migrating to the United States.
Andrea Bohn is the Treasurer of Groundswell International and the project manager for the USAID funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Livestock Systems implemented by the University of Florida. With fifteen years of experience implementing agricultural development projects, Andrea designs responsive projects and manages the long-term and daily requirements that ensure these projects thrive. Through her ability to coordinate activities and connect actors, research for development initiatives become engaging platforms for knowledge sharing and for building sustainable capacity within individuals and organizations. Originally from Germany with experience living in Nigeria and Indonesia and having worked in many other countries including Bangladesh for shorter engagements, Andrea understands the complexities of working with partners and staff internationally. She is skilled in efficient and flexible management across borders and cultures, including management of knowledge, on-ground partners, and staff. After earning her Masters of Science in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University, Andrea focused on internationalizing higher education and curriculum reform, a strength that lends itself well to building knowledge across institutions and organizations worldwide. She later gained an Executive Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Tim LaSalle champions his science-based hope for a regenerative food system that will mitigate climate change by sequestering 100% of the current emissions and provide the most robust ecologically regenerative method to feeding a growing world population. Tim is currently the Co-founder and Co-director of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at Chico State University. LaSalle previously served as the first CEO of Rodale Institute, Executive Director of the Northwest Earth Institute, Executive Director of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, and he was consultant, advisor, and research coordinator for the Howard G. Buffett Foundation in Africa on soils and food security for smallholder farmers. While serving as a professor at California Polytechnic State University, he also started and operated his own dairy farm and became involved with the California Agricultural Leadership Program. As its CEO, he arranged educational leadership programs in more than 80 countries with heads of state, ministers, community leaders, and he personally became exposed to and a student of many of humanity’s global challenges.
Fatou Batta serves as Groundswell International’s Board Liaison for West Africa. Fatou is one of Groundswell’s co-founders and also the founder of Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD), Groundswell’s local partner in Burkina Faso. Until 2009, Fatou worked for over 15 years as the World Neighbors’ Area Representative for West Africa, overseeing all aspects of strategy, programs and management for the region. Prior to joining World Neighbors, she held several positions with the government of her native Burkina Faso, where she helped to develop family planning policy and planned and administered projects sponsored by international agencies. Fatou received her MPH from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. She completed her undergraduate work at School of Technical Education in Paris and holds a diploma in participatory development at the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University.
Cantave Jean-Baptiste serves as Groundswell International’s Board Liaison for Latin America and the Caribbean. Cantave is a Haitian agronomist and rural development practitioner with over 30 years of experience supporting rural development, agriculture and sustainability, as well as strengthening peasant organizations. He is also the Executive Director of Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL), Groundswell’s partner organization in Haiti. Before creating PDL, Cantave worked with Caritas (Gonaives and Hinche) from 1981 to 1991 as sustainable agriculture program coordinator, and then from 1995-2009 as the national director of World Neighbors Haiti. Cantave holds a degree from the College of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, State University in Haiti. He speaks English, Haitian Creole, Spanish and French. Since 2014, Cantave has attended the Opportunity Collaboration annual meeting which convenes global leaders to promote innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Karen Ansara and her husband Jim make grants (especially in Haiti) to address global health systems and the deep poverty that leads families to surrender their children. To inspire more international philanthropy, in 2008 Karen launched what is now the Network of Engaged International Donors (NEID Global), a learning and grantmaking community of 180+ philanthropists, foundations and impact investors. After the 2010 earthquake, Karen cofounded the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation, now the Haiti Development Institute (HDI). In addition to serving as Board Chair of NEID Global, Karen serves on the boards of MCE Social Capital, Women Moving Millions, Groundswell International, and Build Health International (founded by her husband), and as Board Emeritus for HDI. Karen is a graduate of Wellesley College (Pol. Sci.), Andover Newton Theological School (M.Div.), and the Non-Profit Management and Leadership Program at Boston University. Karen and Jim live in Essex, MA and have four young adult children.
Patricia Biermayr-Jenzano is a social scientist, specializing in the evaluation of gender studies, food security and food systems analysis. She has a Doctorate in Agriculture and Social Anthropology (PhD), and a Master of Science (MS) in Agricultural Extension both from Cornell University in New York, and an Agricultural Engineering degree from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work has deep roots in participatory research, as well as incorporating a gender perspective into agriculture and environmental conservation efforts. She has served as the Gender Coordinator for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) projects in Latin America, also as the leader of the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program of the CGIAR at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia and has performed as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations Organization for Agriculture (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada and the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) among development and research organizations. She is currently Adjunct Professor of the Center for Latin America Studies and the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Georgetown University in Washington DC.
Ndunge Kiiti is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and the Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Global Health, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, with over 30+ years in the international development field. She previously served as a Visiting Associate Professor and the Director of the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program at Cornell University in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Johnson College of Business. Prior to returning to Cornell in 2015, Ndunge was a Professor of International Development at Houghton College, in Houghton, NY where her work spanned mainly Africa and Latin America.
Ndunge’s work involves research, teaching, and service in communication, education, health, entrepreneurship, and development. She has served on the boards of MAP International, a global health organization (Brunswick/Atlanta, GA), the CORE Group (Washington, DC) and Jericho Road Community Health Center (Buffalo, NY). Ndunge has a PhD in Communication from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, which included a one-year study in International Health at the John’s Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Gopal Kumar Nakarmi serves as Groundswell’s Board Liaison for South Asia. Gopal has over 40 years’ experience working in Nepal and India to improve the wellbeing, food security, and livelihoods of marginalized populations, especially women and socially excluded people living in the remote areas. He holds a master degree in Public and Business Administration from Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu, the oldest university in Nepal, and a Certificate in Development Studies for Aid Administration from Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham, England.
Professor Ledermann joined the Elliott School in Fall 2017 as an Assistant Professor in the International Development Studies program at the George Washington University (GWU). Since 2022, he also serves as the Director of the Elliott School’s Global Capstone program and is an affiliate faculty member. He is an economic geographer with an extensive background in sustainable and agricultural development in Africa. He received his Ph.D. in Geography from Rutgers University, with his research assessing the impact of organic cotton production in Tanzania on sustainability, poverty and inequality. Prior to joining GWU, he worked for Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development in Switzerland, overseeing pilot projects across East Africa. He has published on sustainable food systems, resilience, and development financing. His current book (to be published later in 2025) is titled “How to achieve sustainable development? Local actions for global change”.
Barbara Adolph is a freelance international development consultant and a Senior Associate at the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK. She has over thirty years of experience working on agricultural research for development and natural resources management initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Her main interest is using transdisciplinary, systems-oriented approaches to address the complex challenge of feeding the world without destroying it. She has worked with civil society actors, research institutes, government department, development agencies and donors in over forty countries, to design, implement and evaluate agricultural and food system initiatives. Recent work include several field-based lesson learning studies / evaluations on land restoration and watershed management in DRC, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Mauritania, and a study for WWF on the environmental impacts of African food systems. Barbara holds a Master’s of Science in Geography from Bonn University (Germany), a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Hohenheim University (Germany), and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Open University (UK). Having lived and worked in Germany, India, France and Namibia, she moved to the United Kingdom in 2000, and now lives in London, (trying to…) practice agroecology on her allotment and home garden. She loves travelling – preferably on foot or by bicycle!
In Memoriam: Edwin Naylor, (Honorary Member), was Groundswell’s first Board Chair in 2009, and was instrumental in shaping our founding bylaws and governance structure based on principles of international partnership. He passed away in 2018 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Ed brought over 50 years of organizational management experience and passion for social justice and community development to Groundswell. His experience includes over 16 years serving as President/CEO of Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Washington, DC (1987-1995) and Executive Director/CEO of Lutheran Social Ministry of the Southwest, Phoenix, AZ (1978-1987). In 1995 Mr. Naylor retired to found The Naylor Group with his wife Sarah Naylor, offering consultation services to non-profit organizations from 18 states in the U.S. He helped to found the Verde Food Council, a collaboration of four food banks in the Verde Valley of Arizona. We are grateful to Ed for helping to plant the seeds of Groundswell International.