Freedom from Hunger is led by an expert group of staff.  The Leadership Team tackles important strategic issues, makes key decisions, and ensures effective coordination of the organization’s efforts.  Each team member’s considerable knowledge and experience, honed over years of work all over the world, significantly contribute to the quality and impact of our services.  Biographies of Leadership Team members are below.

• Dunford,  Christopher – President

• Kline, Sean – Director, Reach Global

• Porter, Beth – Vice President, Program Services

• Stack, Kathleen – Vice President, Program Development

• Thomas, Claire – Director, Communications and Public Outreach

• Vor der Bruegge, Ellen – Vice President, Program Initiatives

Christopher Dunford, President of Freedom from Hunger since 1991, is an international development specialist and non-profit organization manager with 30 years of experience in rural development, environmental assessment, public health education, poverty-focused microfinance, non-profit strategic planning, evaluation and monitoring, and assessment of food security and poverty.  Dr. Dunford, a United States citizen, has worked in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States with practitioners, technical assistance providers, and donors.  Dr. Dunford has been instrumental in developing and promoting Freedom from Hunger’s Credit with Education program strategy for adoption and adaptation by NGOs, credit unions and rural banks.  He provides strategic leadership for Freedom from Hunger, participates in program development with partner practitioners and leads development of partnerships with international development donors, advocates, researchers, and technical assistance providers.  On behalf of Freedom from Hunger, he is or has been a member of the board of directors of FOCCAS Uganda, CRECER (Bolivia), and InterAction.  He has spoken and written for the Microcredit Summit, the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, USAID, the SEEP Network, various international universities and journals regarding microfinance, public health and poverty assessment.  Dr. Dunford joined the staff of Freedom from Hunger in 1984, first as Director, Arizona Programs; then Regional Director, U.S. Programs; Director, International Operations; and Vice President for Programs prior to becoming President.  Before joining Freedom from Hunger, Dr. Dunford was a program officer for the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, as a member of the secretariat organizing the U.N. Conference on Desertification in 1977.  He then was a rural development and environmental assessment consultant for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Switzerland, for Resource Development Associates in the Sudan, for Development Alternatives, Inc. in Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Botswana, and for the University of Arizona Office of Arid Lands Studies in Arizona, Tanzania and Egypt.  Dr. Dunford has a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Arizona in Tucson.  He is a native English speaker and can conduct business in French and Spanish.     Back to top

Sean Kline, Director, Reach Global, joined Freedom from Hunger in September 2003. Mr. Kline has more than 15 years of microfinance, institutional development and research experience from Africa, Asia and the Balkans. He currently serves as global Director of Reach, a new initiative of Freedom from Hunger being launched in Mexico, West Africa and India. He also serves as deputy Vice President for Freedom from Hunger's international programs. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Mr. Kline founded and directed Prizma, a poverty-focused microfinance institution in Bosnia-Herzegovina now serving more than 20,000 clients. He now serves on Prizma’s Board of Directors. Prior to managing a microfinance institution to sustainability, he led research for the Aga Khan Foundation’s NGO Resource Centre on a saving and credit network serving the very poor in rural Sindh Province, Pakistan. He has also consulted for development organizations in India, Ghana, Uganda, Bosnia and Kosovo. Prior to his international work, Mr. Kline founded Avenir Technologies, a small enterprise providing market research and employee satisfaction tools for education and business clients in the United States, and analyzed emerging markets at Fidelity Investments. Mr. Kline holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies with a concentration in poverty and social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in International Development with a concentration on the informal sector from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Kline is a citizen of Ireland, Canada and the United States and speaks fluent English, moderate French and Bosnian-Serbo-Croatian.     Back to top

Beth Porter, Vice President, Program Services, joined Freedom from Hunger in 1999. She has over 15 years of experience in microfinance and organizational development in more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  As Vice President of Program Services, Ms. Porter leads the development of program strategy and oversees strategy implementation, primarily through managing service delivery to Freedom from Hunger service centers and partners around the world.  In addition to program appraisal, design and evaluation, she provides technical assistance and training in strategic and business planning, methodology development and product design, and improving organizational effectiveness and operational efficiency. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Ms. Porter worked as an independent consultant with UNDP,  The World Bank, Women’s World Banking, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Oxfam/UK, World Relief and other international and national nongovernmental organizations. Previously, she served as Save the Children/UK’s Credit Advisor in Vietnam where she built a successful microcredit program and launched a network of microfinance practitioners. Ms. Porter also worked in Senegal and Cape Verde for Catholic Relief Services where she was involved in microenterprise programming.  Ms. Porter serves on the board of directors of CRECER (Crédito con Educación Rural), a Bolivian microfinance institution, and has played a role in its transformation into an independent organization.  She has served on the faculty of the Microfinance Training Program for business planning and technical assistance courses.  She was an initial member of the investment committee of MicroVest, a debt and equity investment fund, and on the board of the Microdevelopment Finance Team, a public-private consortium championing an end-to-end system of microfinance services.  She holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University.  Ms. Porter speaks fluent French and is proficient in Spanish.     Back to top

Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Program Development, joined Freedom from Hunger in 1984.  She has 30 years of experience in international development, with expertise in program design, strategic business planning, microfinance, design of business and financial education for the poor, and training.  She currently provides strategic leadership and coordination for the development and implementation of Freedom from Hunger’s business plan.  In this role, Ms. Stack oversees the fund-raising activities of Freedom from Hunger including marketing, communications and public relations, and philanthropic and institutional fund raising.  She also manages Freedom from Hunger’s strategic alliance with Microfinance Opportunities for the design and training of MFIs in financial education.  Ms. Stack recently led a demand assessment for the design of USAID’s microenterprise development strategy for Nigeria and an evaluation of CARE India’s $10 million microfinance project for DFID.  She has had extensive experience in international program management and consulting with PVOs, for-profit firms and the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Ms. Stack is one of the co-creators of the Credit with Education methodology, and developed the strategy for linking Credit with Education to credit unions.  She has authored or co-authored numerous practical manuals, guidelines and articles on Credit with Education, integration of microfinance with credit unions, and business and financial education.  Ms. Stack provides technical assistance and training to financial institutions and NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  She was a founding member of the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network and served on the SEEP Board of Directors from 1994–1998.  She has been an instructor at the University of Southern New Hampshire’s Microenterprise Development Institute, where she taught organizational growth and transformation, and microenterprise training.  Ms. Stack holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Clark University and a Master of International Administration from the School for International Training.  She speaks fluent French.     Back to top

Ellen Vor der Bruegge, Vice President, Program Initiatives, joined Freedom from Hunger in 1988.  She is a public health specialist with twenty-five years of experience in international development. She is one of the co-creators of Credit with Education, and developed the education component of that methodology.  Ms. Vor der Bruegge plays a key role in the successful dissemination of Credit with Education through her development and testing of new education topics and through her design, coordination and implementation of training curriculum for field agents and other staff.  She is also leading Freedom from Hunger’s efforts to develop new strategies to sustainably reach the very poor with effective products and services.  Ms. Vor der Bruegge's extensive knowledge of non-formal, adult education and experience in providing hands-on training has hastened the transfer of the Credit with Education technology to a diverse clientele.  Ms. Vor der Bruegge has written and presented numerous papers, including testimony presented at the Sustainable Development Hearing of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Agriculture and Hunger, and has been a moderator and presenter at the 1997 and 2002 Microcredit Summits and at meetings of the American Public Health Association.  Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Ms. Vor der Bruegge worked as Project Director, Technical Support Officer, and Child Survival Coordinator for Project Concern International and as an operations research project director for PRICOR.  She lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for five years as a health trainer and community development specialist and has had many short-term assignments in Latin America, Africa and Asia.  She holds Masters’ degrees in public health from the University of Tennessee, in education from Memphis State University, and in medical technology from Emory University Hospital, and a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Memphis State University.  Ms. Vor der Bruegge speaks basic Spanish and Melanesian pidgin.     Back to top