Greg Van Kirk, Co-Founder
(New York)
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Alva Edison Greg Van Kirk is an Ashoka Lemelson Fellow, Ashoka Globalizer and was recently recognized as Schwab Foundation "Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012 (Latin America)" at the World Economic Forum. He is the the co-founder of The New Development Solutions Group. This includes Community Enterprise Solutions, Social Entrepreneur Corps and NDS Consulting. These are all ventures whose mission is to design and implement social innovation responses to long-standing development challenges. His team is now focused on expanding the reach of their award winning MicroConsignment Model globally. Greg was recently selected as a member of the Ashoka/Siemens Foundation Community Impact Development Group and the Clinton Global Initiative. He has served as an economic development consultant for organizations such as USAID, Chemonics, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, IADB, Water For People and Fundacion Paraguaya. Greg also contributes time as “Social Entrepreneur in Residence” and has recently worked with Columbia University, NYU, Marquette University, Indiana University, University of San Diego and Arizona State University. He is a senior advisor for AshokaU. He has taught social entrepreneurship at Columbia University and is currently teaching part time at NYU Reynolds. He is the co-founder of The Center for MicroConsignment at Miami University. Greg began working in rural small business development as a Guatemala Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. Greg worked in investment banking for five years before arriving in Guatemala. Two deals he led at UBS during this time won "Deal of the Year" honors from Structured Finance International magazine. Greg is a graduate of Miami University and currently lives with his family in New York City. You can see Greg's recent TEDx talks at UNC here and at BYU here.
Rebecca Pryor, Project Manager (New York)
"We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.“ - Roald Dahl
Beck Pryor is the Project Manager at The New Development Solutions Group, which includes Community Enterprise Solutions, Social Entrepreneur Corps and NDS Consulting. These are all ventures whose mission is to design and implement innovative responses to long-standing development challenges, including the innovative MicroConsignment Model (MCM). Beck received her undergraduate degree in May 2009 from Columbia University. Upon joining the New Development Solutions Group team, she spent 14 months in Guatemala working as a field consultant with local entrepreneurs. While there, Beck was also a field leader for organizational internship and volunteer programs and conducted market and industry research. Beck is currently working with co-founder Greg Van Kirk on increasing worldwide implementation of the MCM. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” - Dr. Seuss
Lydia began working in Guatemala as an Agro-Forestry Peace Corps Volunteer in Huehuetenango. As a volunteer, she helped to protect and reforest over 100 hectares of land as well as to start an income-generating development project in the community tree nursery that included building a 3,000 liter water deposit and starting a small rabbit farm. Using GPS and ArcView, she also created a map of the roads, schools, hospitals and meeting centers of the community she was serving. Before joining Peace Corps, Lydia worked as an intern for the non-profit MassEnergy Consumers Alliance in Boston, MA. While there, she helped to increase sales of their bio-fuel products. Lydia began working with Social Entrepreneur Corps in August of 2007 and currently serves as the Country Director of Guatemala. Lydia graduated from Union College (Schenectady, NY) in June of 2004 with a B.S. in Geology. Luke Burchell, Special Projects: MicroVenturing (Guatemala)
“We do one thing expecting this result, and expecting it right away, but what happens is beyond our imagination, and not necessarily on our watch.“ - Rebecca Solnit
Luke joined the CE Solutions team in 2009 after having lived for almost two years in highlands of Guatemala. In the same year he was given the opportunity to work as a regional coordinator and open up a new department to aid in the expansion of Micro Consignment. In 2011 Luke lead the first Social Entrepreneur Corps program in South Africa in order to develop an organizational presence in the country and scope out MCM opportunities. After a successful year official partnerships were formed in South Africa. Luke continues to manage these relationships from Guatemala travelling periodically. Luke’s responsibilities in Guatemala include heading the design and development of new wood burning stoves and aiding in the development and management of the MicroVenturing project.  Michelle Mullins, Field Consultant and Partnerships Manager (Guatemala)
Michelle Mullins graduated from the College of William and Mary with a B.A. in Government and Latin American Studies in January 2011. During her time at William and Mary, Michelle focused on economic development, educational policy,and human rights, and worked as the director of the Branch Out International alternative break program. She spent the summer of 2009 in Guatemala doing research on education policy in Patzicía, Guatemala on a Monroe Scholar research grant. She proceeded to intern with Social Entrepreneur Corps with a service grant from the Office of Community Engagement and Scholarship at William and Mary, and then spent five months working with and studying at the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria in La Plata Argentina. After graduating, Michelle returned to Guatemala to support Social Entrepreneur Corps ‘ work in Sololá. She is currently working on strategic partnerships for Soluciones Comunitarias in Guatemala. Anna Moccia-Field, Field Consultant (Guatemala)
"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?" - Garth Nix Anna Moccia-Field graduated in June 2010 from Princeton University with a B.A. in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, with a certificate in Latin American Studies. Following a stint as a field organizer in Vermont during the 2010 midterm elections, Anna brought her interest in grassroots activism to Central America as the web designer and social media publicist for a progressive political group during the 2011 elections in Guatemala. Former President of the Princeton Women's Rugby Club, she also founded the first women's rugby team in Guatemala. With a desire to continue working with local leaders in rural communities, she joined CE Solutions in March of 2012 as a field consultant. Krystal Werner, Field Consultant (Guatemala)
"And so it happened again, the daily miracle whereby interiority opens out and brings to bloom the million-petalled flower of being here, in the world, with other people. Neither as hard as she had thought it might be nor as easy as it appeared." - Zadie Smith Krystal Werner received her B.A. from New York University in 2008 with a degree in Social and Cultural Analysis. Her research interests in the cross-section of race, policy, and civic engagement in the built environment led her to volunteer in New York programs dedicated to social service, including the Vera Institute of Justice's Guardianship Project and the Funding Exchange. After graduation, Krystal worked for the government-run Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme in Nagano Prefecture, Japan for two years, where her responsibilities included teaching English in rural public schools and developing international exchange programs for the local community. Her time in Japan piqued Krystal's interest in international development, and in 2011, she moved to Nicaragua to work in community development and sustainable tourism in rural Masaya. She returned to the US to coordinate university programs for a Chiapas-based organization. In April 2012, she joined the CES team and found a perfect combination for her interests in development work, community engagement, and education! "I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next." - Steve Jobs
Maria Luz joined the Community Enterprise Solutions and Social Entrepreneur Corps team in 2008. She originally worked as a Regional Director in Guatemala and in 2009 assumed the position of Country Director in Ecuador, where she is currently leading the implementation of the MicroConsignment Model throughout the country. During her time with Community Enterprise Solutions, she has led consulting efforts for IADB (Paraguay), U-Specs (Guatemala), ETV (Argentina) and Ciudad Saludable (Peru). Prior to this, Maria Luz spent six months working with a local NGO in India to improve the communication and project coordination skills of local workers. She also worked for Ak'Tenamit in Guatemala, a grassroots organization focused on education and artisan promotion. In 2005, Maria Luz graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy, with a degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences with Development Politics. In 2007 she graduated from FOCSIV in Rome with a diploma in International Politics, Cooperation and Development. Maria Luz is fluent in Italian, Spanish, English and French. She currently lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Laura Kaplan, Field Consultant (Ecuador)
"Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on.” ― Muhammad Yunus Laura Kaplan is currently the field consultant for the Loja/Zamora region in southern Ecuador. After graduating from Tufts University in 2010 with majors in International Relations and Peace and Justice Studies, Laura was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant in Bogotá, Colombia, where she lived for 13 months, both teaching English, and working as the International Cooperation Coordinator for an NGO that supports the development of social enterprises in Bogotá's slums. Upon returning to the United States, Laura worked as a Project Assistant for the National Democratic Institute's Latin America and Caribbean team in Washington, DC. Laura is a native of New York, has worked with NGOs in Chile, Honduras, Israel, and Boston, and speaks fluent Spanish and basic Portuguese. Justina Loh, Field Consultant (Ecuador)
"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow." – Gary Haugen
Justina was born in Canada but grew up in Bolivia and Venezuela before moving back to Toronto for studies in International Development and Health studies at the University of Toronto. While there, she spent her summers volunteering in the areas of community development and HIV/AIDS prevention in Nicaragua, Brazil, Tanzania, and Nepal. After graduation, she moved to Mexico City for two years to direct an English school before joining CE Solutions in March 2012. She speaks English, Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese and currently works as a field consultant and regional coordinator in the Azuay region of Ecuador.
Aude's passion for providing and creating sustainable solutions to problems facing remote communities began while volunteering at an orphanage in rural southern India and interning for the International Rescue Committee resettling refugees in Atlanta. After raft guiding in West Virginia and graduating with a B.A. in Sociology, she promoted entrepreneurship while working in West Africa with the organization Tostan implementing non-formal education programs and while advising for the micro-credit organization Morfiss in Haiti. Aude (pronounced like Ode to Joy!) has been the regional coordinator for the Riobamba region in Ecuador since May 2012. “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney
Tim began working with Social Entrepreneur Corps in 2007 as a participant in the June 2007 program. Impressed with the work being done and enamored with Guatemala’s culture and people Tim stayed beyond the month long duration of the program. With the support of foreign and Guatemalan staff, Tim has climbed the ranks from intern to his current position as Country Director of Nicaragua. Since 2010, Tim has worked with community organizations and entrepreneurs in creating access to essential products, services, information and technologies throughout rural Nicaragua. Prior to joining the Social Entrepreneur Corps team, Tim received a B.A. in International Development from Clark University in 2006. Alanna joined Social Entrepreneur Corps in early 2012 to lead the launch of the MicroConsignment Model in the Dominican Republic and to collaborate with her current and former colleagues to spearhead a “Social Impact and Innovation Consortium” of initiatives across the border in Haiti. Prior to joining the team, Alanna worked with a global team piloting and mainstreaming the business-social Hybrid Value Chain model at Ashoka. She also served as a Peace Corps Community Economic Development Advisor in the Dominican Republic’s eastern mountains, consulting, training and designing models for several agrotourism, microenterprise, education, community-building, corporate social responsibility and USAID initiatives. Alanna is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she studied international development as well as Women’s and Gender Studies, directed a business, co-founded the Women Advancing Gender Equity (W.A.G.E) Fellowship, instructed at a Latino immigrant resource center, and interned for various nonprofits in DC and in Brazil. Dan Malin, Field Consultant (Dominican Republic + Haiti)
“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us." - John Steinbeck
After graduating from the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in 2009, Dan went on to work for nonprofit organizations in New York City and in Ecuador. He was leading service-learning trips in the Galapagos Islands when he learned that his Peace Corps application had finally gone through and they were sending him to the Dominican Republic. Dan spent two years serving as a Community Economic Development volunteer in a rural community east of Santo Domingo, where he taught business classes, managed an ecotourism project and helped a women's group to open their community restaurant. Fresh out of Peace Corps, Dan joined the Community Enterprise Solutions and Social Entrepreneur Corps team in November of 2012. back to top>>> 
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George Bucky Glickley, Co-Founder
(Florida)
Timothy Trusz, Country Director (Nicaragua)
