The Board

The IACD Board of Trustees is a grouping of up to twenty individuals drawn from our global membership.  The Board meets approximately five times a year including for the AGM.

Collectively the Board of Trustees is responsible for the:

• development, implementation and annual monitoring of the IACD strategic plan;
• overseeing the work of the standing committees;
• maintenance and updating of the constitution;
• appointment of Board members, office bearers and committee chairs;
• establishment of ad hoc working groups;
• financial sustainability and probity of the organisation;
• annual reporting to funders and preparation of the Annual General Meeting and other general meetings as required.

Our Constitution is designed to ensure that the makeup of the Board reflects the regional representation of our membership.  

Trustees are elected to represent one of nine global regions:

• Europe, including the Russian Federation
• South Asia
• East Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Middle East and North Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Oceania
• Latin America
• North America and the Caribbean Islands

Trustees are elected for a three year term of office, and this may be extended for a further two, three-year terms. The Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are elected from within the Board. 

Daniel Muia

IACD Chair and Sub-Saharan Africa Trustee (Kenya)
[email protected]

Daniel is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Kenyatta University. His academic and research interests are Community Development and Empowerment processes:- community mobilization, development and empowerment, Human/child rights based development, Sustainable development, and governance processes. He is a trained gender trainer and undertakes gender mainstreaming and empowerment advocacy work. He has participated in community development programme/project evaluations both within and outside Kenya for national and international agencies. He has conducted research and published book chapters and journal articles.  Daniel is the current chair of the Association of Community Development Practitioners-Kenya, the Kenyan network of community development professionals.  

Daniel joined the Board of IACD in 2019 as a Regional Trustee for SSA.  In 2021 he chaired IACD’s first fully online World Community Development Conference from Nairobi. 

Holly Scheib

IACD Vice Chair and North America and Caribbean Islands Trustee (USA)
[email protected]

Holly is President of Sage Consulting and is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Holly has more than 20 years of experience in public health, social work, human rights, development, disaster, and advocacy with organizations across the world.  Her expertise is in transformative evaluation and participatory approaches, adapting scientific methodologies to fit the needs of specialized populations.  Her methods are institutionalized within Federal Ministries in the Government of Somalia and in the Tribal Law of Taos Pueblo, a Native American Nation within the United States.  She holds a PhD in International Health and Development and Master’s degrees in Public Health and Social Work.  Holly lived for many years in New Orleans, Louisiana, and remains closely connected to the pageantry and creativity of her home city.

Ciara Shanahan

IACD Secretary and European Trustee (Ireland)
[email protected]

Ciara is a professionally qualified community work practitioner with 23 years’ experience at local and national level as both a practitioner and community work educator.  She is currently Coordinator for the All Ireland Endorsement Body for Community Work Education and Training (AIEB) which develops, supports and promotes standards and quality in Community Work education and training at all levels and in ways that reinforce the discipline and enhance the outcomes for all involved, especially communities.

Committed to anti-racism, equality and human rights Ciara has worked in local and national Community Work organisations including Galway Traveller Movement and the National Traveller Women’s Forum.  Previously a staff member of Maynooth University she coordinated the part-time in-service undergraduate community work programme and practice placements for students.  Areas of current work include the promotion of the Community Work standards; support for workforce initiatives for community workers including pathways to professional qualifications and CPD initiatives to support an inclusive and diverse discipline.  Ciara is involved both personally and professionally in human rights and equality issues including as a member of the board of Domestic Violence Response and Community Work Ireland’s policy and practice subgroup.

Jean McEwan-Short

IACD European Trustee (Scotland)
[email protected]

Jean has more than thirty years of experience in community development, both as a community worker in Scotland, and as an academic at the University of Dundee. After a lengthy career in grassroots community-based organisations working predominantly with women in peripheral estates, Jean pursued an academic career in Community Education. She led programme development in community work in Dundee for over six years and prioritised an ‘academy without walls’ approach that embeds social justice, community participation, and community-led learning throughout the degree programmes. Jean has engaged community development principles throughout her academic career, developing live ongoing community development partnerships - her research and publications focus on community development. Jean is particularly interested in the power of community development as political process that strives for positive social change.

Sinéad Gormally

IACD European Trustee (Scotland)
[email protected]

Sinéad is Professor of Community Development and Youth and Deputy Head of the School of Education (Planning and Strategy) at the University of Glasgow. She is a qualified community and youth work practitioner and has worked in the UK and abroad with a range of communities and young people. Her current research falls into two categories. The first focuses on social justice and equality, analysing how youth and community practitioners can create positive social change. The second area of research focusses on the impact of violence and conflict on individuals and communities. Her academic teaching and research focuses on Community Development, Youth Work, Social Justice, Equality and Rights-based work.

Suet-lin Shirley Hung

East Asia Trustee (Hong Kong)
[email protected]

Shirley is currently Professor & Head and Director of the Social Work Practice and Mental Health Centre, Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University. By background, she is a social worker and community worker and was practicing community work for about twenty years before she joined the academia. She teaches community development, gender and social work as well narrative practice at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Shirley was the first Country Correspondent of the IACD. She is very proud to be a long term member of the Association and is keen to present the IACD to community workers and social work teaching institutions in East Asia.

Yu-cheung Chan

East Asia Trustee (Hong Kong)

Yu-cheung Chan, PhD, is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the Academy of Wellness and Human Development, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is a registered social worker with over 10 years’ experience in community social work in Hong Kong. His teaching and research focus on community work, community capacity-building, community economic development, social innovation and community-based participatory action research.

Meanwhile, Yu-cheung is a member of the Executive Committee of the Community Development Alliance (CDA, Hong Kong), which brings together practitioners, grassroots members and scholars dedicated to promoting community development practice and values. Notably, the Alliance implements a community economic development project to encourage grassroots members' (particularly carers' and young older adults') community and economic participation, support community capacity-building, and advocate for policy change.       

He has also contributed to various community projects, including community organising and advocacy in remote neighbourhoods, social capital development in public housing estates, and asset-based community development in rural areas.

Orlando Bustamante

Orlando is currently the Director of the Psychology and Clinical Psychology Programmes at the Salesian Polytechnic University of Guayaquil, Ecuador. He has 20 years of experience in mental health, psycho-social intervention, and community psychology. His focal areas are mental health, protection of rights, community service practices, and participatory approaches. Orlando is a university professor, former coordinator of outreach to society for the psychology programme, and coordinator of the master’s degree in Psychology. He is a PhD candidate in Psychology, with a master's degree in psychoanalysis with a major in psychoanalytic clinic, with a specialization in Social Sciences with a major in Psychoanalysis and Socio-Educational Practices.

Hunter Goodman

North America and Caribbean Islands Trustee (USA)
[email protected]

Hunter is an ABCD practitioner, trainer, and facilitator who embeds the principles and practices of asset-based community development in her commitment to uplift and inspire leadership within rural communities. Hunter is an Assistant Professor and Community, Workforce, and Economic Development Specialist at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. An innovative, collaborative leader and researcher, she is committed to building and supporting a shared mission and collaborative, strategic direction within education, the nonprofit sector, and the local community.  

Hunter is an active part of the Asset-Based Community Development practitioners’ network and a proud IACD trustee She is an alumna of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, a first-of-its-kind executive education-style partnership between the presidential centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson, dedicated to developing strong leaders.

Hunter earned her doctoral degree in leadership from the University of Central Arkansas and Master of Education degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. She lives in Fayetteville, AR with her husband and two sons.

Laurie Cook

North America and Caribbean Islands Trustee (Canada)
[email protected]

Laurie  is based on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada and has over 30 years experience in community development professionally, as a grassroots community organizer, researcher and scholar. She is a PhD Candidate in Educational Studies at Acadia University, and her research interests include: how meditative inquiry as an approach to learning could enhance community development practice, posthumanism, agential realism and post-qualitative inquiry.  She has a Masters in Adult Education specializing in Community Development from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Bachelor in Journalism (Honours) from the University of King’s College. 

Laurie is also a past President for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet), a spokesperson for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), owner of her own consulting firm called Chutzpah Consulting, co-founder of Flourish Community Development Consultants Co-operative, and is an active advocate for reconciliation with and reparations for communities affected by racism and colonization.  Laurie also lives with a mental ‘illness’ called Bipolar Disorder, and her experience with marginalization because of this helps inform her work. 

Fiona Miller

Oceania Trustee (Australia)

Fiona Miller is a strengths-based community development practitioner, workshop facilitator, creative conduit, passionate people person and the occasional poker of bears, co author and Illustrator.  Based in lutruwita/Tasmania, Fiona works across different communities, organisations and sectors by building relationships, creating spaces for meaningful conversations and leading from behind. Discovering what becomes possible when people’s strengths, stories and ideas are valued is fundamental to her work.
 
Working with the Jeder Institute locally and globally is by far the best practical life long learning opportunity.  Fiona brings extensive experience in community development, ABCD, creative/visual arts, placemaking, education, inclusion, local government and community-led disaster preparedness and recovery. She has a particular passion for working alongside young people and loves nothing more than watching  strengths-based, community-led impacts flourish. Her current work with the Tasmanian Youth Justice team helps communities explore local opportunities for connection, belonging and diversionary thinking to  keep youth out of the justice system.
 
As an ABCD practitioner and graphic harvester, Fiona uses creativity, visual storytelling, mapping, sense-making and data to help communities see their own assets and possibilities. She believes sustainable change grows from relationships, curiosity and doing things with, rather than for, people. “Chaos, brings curiosity, creativity and clarity….” We just have to look a little deeper, blend methodologies and practices and work better together.
 
Fiona brings energy, generosity, a healthy dose of cheekiness and a love of coffee, cake and a good conversation. She believes everyone has something to contribute—and that sometimes the best ideas begin around a table, with a little laughter and a lot of possibility.

Peter Westoby

Oceania Trustee (Australia)

From the age of 20, Peter has been on a journey of social practice, deeply shaped by dialogical and participatory community development. He's skilled in facilitation, teaching, key-notes, project work and consulting. He's worked in Australia, Vanuatu, South Africa, Uganda, Nepal, PNG, the UK and Netherlands. 

Peter has been a writer or co-writer/editor of 17 books and over 60 professional journal articles on community development. Some recent books include The Community Builder's Journal (a guide for citizens), and Transformational Community Development (Learning from a Humanist and Freirean Practice in Nepal). 

But more importantly, he loves reading, walking, sitting by a fire under the moon or stars, wandering daily in his local forest in Australia, being with friends, sipping a coffee at dawn, and going to bed about 8.30pm (yes, he’s a lark, not an owl).

At this present moment he is:
Director and senior social practitioner at Community Praxis Co-op
a part-time Associate Professor of Community Development, Murdoch University
and a Visiting Professor, University of the Free State, South Africa
Council Member of the Australian Participatory Community Development Institute.

Sonia Garcha

South Asia Trustee (India)
[email protected]

Sonia has 30+ years of experience in community development and entrepreneurship development with a focus on urban and rural women. Developing practices to strengthen the unorganised sector in India through various mentorship and entrepreneurship development programs across five states. Working with Vrutti in building capacities and developing best practices for  over 6,000 women fish vendors in Mumbai and Chennai.    

In 2018 Sonia won the Social Innovation award at the National Conference for Social Innovation for her work in “Digital empowerment of women: DigiShakti” which gained relevance during Covid-19. Her work in women’s empowerment with Forbes Marshall received recognition through the first Asia CSR award and the first Sandvik Asia CSR award. Sonia is a member of the CSpathshala committee, an ACM India education initiative and has supported implementation of The CSpathshala curriculum in over 600 rural schools in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. She was involved in four editions of CTiS (Computational Thinking in Schools), conference for teachers. She was also part of the organising team for the Tactile Accessible Computational Thinking (TACT) Grand Challenge. 

Sonia lives in Pune, India. She is married and has two lovely daughters. In her free time, Sonia bakes cakes, runs and practices yoga. 

Marlon de Luna Era

Southeast Asia Trustee (Philippines) 
[email protected]

Marlon is an Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology and Behavioural Sciences at  De La Salle University, Manila. Marlon has extensive teaching and professional experience in disaster resilience, solid waste management, community development, gender and local governance. Marlon had worked with the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development as Social Welfare Program Specialist for six years and served as Community Development Manager of a Resettlement Project with more than 300 family victims of Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

He was Program Associate of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) in Thailand, as Operations Manager of the Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CNDR) in the Philippines. He is the President of the Local Governance Training and Research Institution-Philippine Network, Board Member of the Philippine Sociological Society, Executive Vice President of the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines, Chairperson of the Board of the Values Orientation in Classroom Education (VOICE) and President of Dolce Vita Homeowners Association in Binan City, Philippines.

Marlon has an M.S. in Human Settlements Development (Urban Planning and Environmental Management) from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; and a Ph.D. on Development Studies at De La Salle University-Manila.

Abdul Hamidu Abdullahi

Sub-Saharan Africa Trustee (Nigeria)
[email protected]

Abdul is a senior lecturer with the Department of Local Government and Development Studies, Faculty of Administration at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Presently, his teaching and research work is on Community Development, Public Policy, Local Governance, Research Methodology and Gender studies.

His involvement in community development projects includes as an Assistant Research Fellow at the Center for Democratic Development Research and Training, (CEDDERT) and a producer of the radio program.

His volunteerism includes active membership of the following: Funtua Community College of Health Sciences and Technology; Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable Persons, Zaria; The Electoral College of Nigeria; Community Development Charter (CDC) and the Ward Integrity Companion (WIC) of his local Ward; Network of Society against Child Trafficking Abuse and Labour (NACTAL); and the West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA).

Janine Ward

Sub-Saharan Africa Trustee (South Africa)
[email protected]

Janine qualified as a Social Worker and has worked for 38 years in asset-based community development (ABCD), participatory capacity building, enterprise development and income generation, HIV/AIDS competence, project  management and fundraising.

Her ‘hands-on’ experience is derived largely from working independently for 12 years in rural Swaziland, establishing an NGO and developing sustainable community capacity-building programmes. She is a registered Trainer in Asset-Based Citizen-led Development (ABCD), the Micro MBA, CABSA’s Channels of Hope HIV Competence Facilitation, the Greenlight Movement tool and SEED Business Development Support BDS+ UNDP programme.

Janine now works independently and has relocated to the beautiful Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her consulting business is called S.P.A.C.E and it’s vision is to Spark Personal And Community Essence. Her passion is to come alongside and spark that potential into life, and support individuals or groups until they are strengthened to continue on their own. Most recently, she has partnered with the Love Cities Initiative, an exciting strengths-based initiative aimed at engaging towns and cities to take charge of their own development goals and mobilize available assets.