The Board and Staff

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
• South East 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. 

Anna Clarke

European Trustee (Northern Ireland) and IACD Chair
[email protected]

Anna qualified as a community work practitioner in the late 1980’s, and began her professional career in Liverpool, as a neighbourhood community worker, followed by roles in cooperative enterprise development, and immigration support work with refugees and asylum seekers.

Moving to Northern Ireland in 1996, Anna managed an EU-funded Peace and Reconciliation programme before taking up the role of Community Development Learning Coordinator with a non-profit organisation working with rural communities across Northern Ireland.  After 10 years Anna worked on a freelance basis for several years undertaking learning design, training, and facilitation, community-based action research, community, and stakeholder engagement, strategic programme planning, design, and impact evaluation. Anna now splits her time between working with the All-Ireland Endorsement Body for Community Work Education and Training, and NIACRO a regional non-profit that supports the rehabilitation and reintegration of people with lived experience of the criminal justice system. 

Particular areas of professional interest include; Community Development standards and workforce development.  Anna holds an MA in Human Rights and Equal Opportunities and an MSc in Community Planning and Governance.

Michelle Dunscombe

Oceania Trustee (Australia) and IACD Vice-Chair
[email protected]

Michelle is based in Darwin (Larrakia Country), and  is a community development practitioner, facilitator, and trainer. She is a Gunditjmara woman with English and Scottish heritage.  She currently serves as the Program Manager for Bidwern Bujt Uni, a collaborative effort between Mimal and Warddeken Land Management in Arnhem Land. Michelle's diverse educational background, including a Grad Cert in International and Community Development, along with Adv Dip in Community Leadership and Development, and Cert IV in Governance (Community Boards) and Training and Assessment, equips her with a comprehensive skill set for her role.

Her passion lies in regional and rural communities, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, fostering leadership capacity, resilience, and community-led projects. Michelle's extensive experience spans various sectors, including local and state governments, community foundations, private, and non-profit sectors.

As an ABCD Institute steward, Michelle leverages asset-based community development and participatory leadership practices to support community development initiatives. She's adept at disaster preparedness and recovery, drawing from her hands-on experience and professional expertise. Michelle's relocation to Darwin underscores her commitment to Indigenous community development in Australia, as she continues to drive positive change in her new role.

Holly Scheib

North America and Caribbean Islands Trustee (USA) and IACD Secretary
[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.

Dawn Brown

European Trustee (Scotland) and  IACD Treasurer
[email protected]

Dawn’s background is in community-led local development, supporting people to be the best they can be, and enabling community groups to grow and achieve great things. Having been involved in community development for over 25 years, initially starting in social inclusion partnerships in Aberdeen, and then a rural organisation in Aberdeenshire, Dawn now works for the Scottish Community Development Centre. She has a particular interest in governance, rural issues, community action planning, community resilience and sharing good practice. Dawn is also a member of the CLD Standards Council for Scotland, and an active member of the People Powered global network for participatory democracy. In 2023, she completed her MEd in Community Learning and Development.

Away from work, Dawn is an avid reader, loves learning, and enjoys unwinding watching rugby, travelling or walking her Border Terrier, and is involved in the Parent Council for her son’s school, and is also a trustee of a local charity with a focus on supporting children, adults and families with additional support needs.

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.

Ciara Shanahan

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 European Trustee (Scotland) [email protected]   Dr Jean McEwan-Short 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 European Trustee (Scotland) [email protected]

Orlando Bustamante

Orlando is currently the Director of the Psychology and Clinical Psychology Programmes and he has 20 years of experience in mental health, psycho-social intervention, and community psychology. His experience focuses on 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, coordinator of the Masters in Psychology at the Salesian Polytechnic University in Guayaquil. He is a PhD candidate in Psychology, with a master's degree in psychoanalysis with a mention in psychoanalytic clinic, with a specialization in Social Sciences with a mention in Psychoanalysis and Socio-Educational Practices.

Hunter Goodman

North America and Caribbean Islands Region 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 Region 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. 

Cissy Rock

Oceania Region Trustee (Aotearoa New Zealand)
[email protected]

Cissy is a qualified sociodramatist who is committed to community-led development processes, combining systematic thinking with grassroots doing. Cissy loves working with people, finding ways for all to have a voice and to fully participate in meetings, communities, and organisations. Her approach is collaborative, dedicated and passionate. Cissy addresses symptoms of inclusion, exclusion and patronisation, working within the dynamics of systems in ways that develop and build social cohesion.

She is not afraid to give her opinion, to make a stand for social justice, or roll up her sleeves to help make things happen. With over 20 years experience working alongside communities and with government, integrity is at the heart of her work. Cissy set up Community Think in 2015, to stand in her belief that together we do make a difference. Through Community Think she has been involved in campaigns, place-based community organising, community engagement processes, supervision of people working in the community sector, workshops and facilitation.

Cissy lives in Petone in Lower Hutt, Aotearoa New Zealand and enjoys drinking coffee, eating cinnamon brioche, traveling and building connections wherever she goes.

Rituu B Nanda

South Asia Region Trustee (India)
[email protected]

Shining light on others and learning from the wisdom of communities guide Rituu’s life. She is working towards appreciation and deep listening. Rituu has spent 15+ years working on community ownership, Monitoring and Evaluation, participatory action research, facilitation, knowledge management, equity, and behaviour change across the globe. She moderates an online community of practice where you will find more than 2100 blogs on community work  http://aidscompetence.ning.com

Currently, she provides support to the Global Fund for Children’s  India-based partners, on participatory MEL. At the Institute of Social Studies Trust, Rituu moderates gender and evaluation online community of practice. She is a facilitator for ‘Freedom Rising’ a movement-building initiative. Rituu is pursuing her second master’s degree in Evaluation and holds a certification in Public Health. 

Sonia Garcha

South Asia Region 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 Region 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.

Daniel Muia

Sub-Saharan Africa Region 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. 

Abdul Hamidu Abdullahi

Sub-Saharan Africa Region 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 Region 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.

IACD STAFF

IACD employs one part-time member of staff.

Jessica Sinclair

Administrative Officer based in Scotland
[email protected]

Jessica Sinclair joined IACD as Administrative Officer in late 2022 and is based in Dunblane, Scotland. She is a Dutch national who has lived and worked in several countries including Spain, Mexico, Mongolia and Mozambique. Before moving to Scotland in late 2021 she lived in Argentina for 11 years.

Jessica holds an MS.C in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) and has dedicated her career to working for non-profit organisations focusing mainly on women’s and children’s human rights. She is a director of Ojos de Cielo, an NGO based in San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentine Patagonia) that provides food and extracurricular activities for underprivileged children in the region. Jessica is fluent in Dutch, English and Spanish, speaks basic Portuguese and has worked as a freelance translator for many years next to her NGO work. In her free time she enjoys cycling, hiking and swimming.

www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasinclairuk