Encompass Team

Kathy Callahan is an expert in non-formal, international education, HIV/AIDS, and advocacy with marginalized groups, and behavior change. She conducts training and eLearning for the World Bank’s AIDS in the Workplace Program. Workshops include: HIV Surveillance and M&E, Gender and AIDS, AIDS Strategic Communications, and AIDS planning for Sri Lanka, home care for People Living with AIDS. She is author of The Life Skills Manual, the Peace Corps’ primary tool in HIV/AIDS interventions worldwide.

Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas, President of ENCOMPASS, is a management expert with more than 15 years experience in marketing, evaluation and performance development. Her work has ranged from supporting organizational change in response to health reform to establishing marketing information systems to support corporate strategy, to conducting usability studies and analyses for large system intranets. Ms Catsambas has created and implemented an appreciative model for evaluating organizational and program performance that is nationally recognized. Ms. Catsambas holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Vera Connolly specializes in training, facilitation and project management, with over 23 years of experience in management, instructional design, and human performance improvement in both the public and private sector. She has developed e-learning modules on a variety of topics for international organizations and has designed and delivered innovative and interactive large group collaborative thinking sessions. Her experience includes creation of change management and professional development programs for large organizations. Ms. Connolly holds an MBA and M.S. in Nonprofit Management from University of Maryland University College.

Diane Gardsbane is a gender specialist with over 25 years experience in program development and management, strategic planning, capacity building, research and writing, and knowledge sharing. Her areas of expertise include gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS, education, women’s economic security, and disability rights, with a regional focus on Africa and Eastern Europe. Her work includes the development of a new HIV/AIDS Resource Toolkit for Peace Corps that will provide the core training materials for Volunteers globally.

Mary Gutmann, a behavior change specialist, has 30 years experience in healthcare policy development in a variety of cross-cultural environments. She leads grantee knowledge sharing and learning in international child labor (for the US DOL), was Country Director of the American Refugee Program in Sierra Leone. In Bosnia she was instrumental in the development of multidisciplinary programs in treatment and prevention of mental health problems in children and adult populations.

Patty Hill is an evaluation and planning specialist with 20 years of experience assisting organizations to better understand and measure their impact. Ms. Hill has focused on evaluation capacity-building and on the design and implementation of evaluation plans for a variety of organizations, both internationally with NGOs, and government and multilateral organizations, as well as domestically, with foundations, nonprofits and the federal government.

James P. Stansbury is a Senior Evaluator and Researcher with ENCOMPASS with over 15 years experience in social and behavioral sciences research. His background includes formative research, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and studies in health services research. He has led field and clinical projects in medical anthropology in Latin America and the United States, with articles on child nutrition, caretaking, chronic disease, health measurement and methods, as well as HIV/AIDS. He was awarded the PhD at the University of Kentucky, with an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Beeta Tahmassebi is an evaluation specialist with significant experience in analyzing and documenting the impact of international development efforts and leadership training initiatives. She is skilled in the use of online surveys, focus groups and individual interviews for data collection; and in the use of qualitative data analysis software. She is also proficient in the design of organizational knowledge management systems. Ms. Tahmassebi has worked with a variety of UN, NGO, governmental and private sector clients. She holds an MBA from Georgetown University.

Laverne Dees Webb, CEO of ENCOMPASS is a management and organization development expert with over 25 years experience in leading and managing organizations. She works with government and nonprofit organizations, communities and the private sector to plan and manage change, and to increase organizational competence, learning, and innovation. Her work in change management has won national and state awards. Ms. Webb has a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. She has studied whole systems change methods – Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, Open Space, and Total Quality Management – and has put them into action in client systems.