Strengthening Resilience Through the Education Sector
For January's theme month webinar, join us in exploring how education can be a tool for strengthening individual, household, and community resilience in times of crisis.
When education systems are themselves resilient, they are vital tools for strengthening resilience in areas affected by conflict and crisis. In this month’s webinar, we will hear voices from the field discussing how resilience has been incorporated in education programming. We will also explore highlights from recent research pointing to the increased importance of building resilience for individual children and youth, households, and communities in both stable and conflict-affected settings in USAID’s Resilience Focus Countries.
Meet the Hosts
Madeleine Smith, M.A. serves as a Resilience Integration Advisor on the Resilient Communities and Systems Division, Center for Resilience within the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) at USAID. In this capacity she focuses on the design and integration of resilience into USAID policies, strategies, and programs and provides technical support to field missions to advance resilience priorities across the agency. This includes working on the integration of resilience and education. Prior to joining USAID in January 2021, with support from USAID Malawi and the Center for Resilience, she served as a senior resilience advisor to the Government of Malawi and Development Partners to develop Malawi’s National Resilience Strategy (NRS). Subsequently, in her role with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) she served as a policy advisor to the Government of Malawi on strengthening systems to improve integration of food and nutrition security, resilient agriculture, and social protection policy implementation. Since 1997, Madeleine has developed her expertise in multi-sectoral resilience programming, food security, nutrition, livelihoods, social protection, and disaster mitigation, response, and recovery. Madeleine earned her master’s degree in Public Administration and International Management with technical focus on agribusiness, environment, and French translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California, and her BA in French, and minor in piano performance from Gonzaga University, in Spokane, Washington. Outside of work she is an accomplished pianist and yogi.
Wendy Wheaton, PhD. is a Senior Education Advisor for USAID’s Education and Youth Division in the Africa Bureau in Washington DC. Ms. Wheaton supports education programs, policy, and research across the continent with tailored support to South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo. She has over twenty years of experience in developing educational and protection standards, policies, guidance, programs, and technical response modalities in Africa, with particular expertise in conflict and crisis settings. As part of Ms. Wheaton’s time in USAID’s Education and Youth Division, she engages in the Interagency Working Group on Relief to Development Coherence and the Interagency Group on Education in Conflict and Crisis. Ms. Wheaton has provided thought leadership in the education sector in humanitarian settings by contributions to the Rapid Education and Risk Analysis Toolkit, the Education Sector’s Humanitarian-Development Coherence Paper and White Paper on Education and Resilience, overseeing research on Education and Resilience in Africa and developing a Toolkit on Building Resilience through Education. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Wheaton served as a Senior Director for Education and Protection at Plan International's US Headquarters and held previous positions at the World Bank, United Nations, and International NGOs over many years. While based overseas for 15 years, she worked primarily on education and protection programs for displaced children and youth who were associated with fighting forces and armed groups and conducted research on peacebuilding through education, adolescent psychosocial well-being, education in emergencies, GBV, and provided technical inputs to International Guidance on each of these topics. Having served as an Adjunct Faculty member of Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Center for over seven years, Ms. Wheaton delivered undergraduate and graduate level courses on humanitarian, development and peacebuilding perspectives with the education and protection sectors. She holds a BA at Rutgers College, and Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Massachusetts, Amherst with coursework from Harvard's Graduate School of Education.
Meet the Speakers
Katie Donohoe serves as the Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa. Her portfolio includes West Africa and Sustainable Development. She served as the Deputy Mission Director in Nigeria from 2019-2022 helping to lead a talented group of nearly Americans and Nigerians implementing a portfolio of over one billion dollars in assistance. Katie is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and has served in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Washington. A native of Rochester Hills, Michigan, Katie received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and Masters degrees from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the National War College.
Jennifer Sklar has more than 20 years of experience working in the field of international education as a practitioner and technical advisor, focused on the provision of education in areas of conflict. Jennifer is currently a Senior Advisor for education in crisis and conflict at USAID's Center for Education. Prior to USAID, Jennifer was an Education Director, responsible for the development of International Rescue Committee's global technical priorities in education and leading a team of technical advisors to improve the overall quality of IRC education programs in crisis and conflict contexts. Jennifer has lived in several countries with a focus on living in and regionally supporting education programs in the Horn and East Africa and Great Lakes. She has a Masters degree from Columbia University School of International Affairs and Public Administration.
Jean Lindor is Acting Education Team Lead in the USAID/Haiti Mission. Prior to this current assignment, he accumulated over 17 years of experience in project design and Management, Monitoring and Evaluation in education, health, and governance within a wide range of NGOs in Haiti and in the US. He holds a master’s degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in economics.
Mia Beers serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security and is also the USAID Resilience Coordinator. She oversees the strategic direction and implementation of the Bureau’s work around policy and analysis, resilience, country support, strategic engagement and communications, in support of the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future, along with other key REFS lines of effort. Mia has a 30-year career in the international humanitarian and development sector and is a member of the Senior Executive Service. Over the last decade at USAID, she headed a division of 150 staff in six locations around the world, focused on global policy, multilateral engagement, system leadership, local capacity strengthening, interagency coordination and training, public-private engagement, and strategic communications. Mia holds a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University and a MPA from American University’s Key Executive Leadership Program. She is a graduate of the MIT Seminar XXI Program and the Foreign Service Institute’s National Security Executive Leadership Seminar.