Sulaiman S. Wasty
Commenced his professional career at the Planning Commission of Pakistan where he served as Special Assistant to the Minister for Finance, and Planning and Development. Subsequently, he worked at the World Bank (Independent Evaluation, and Quality Assurance); and then became a Managing Director and acting CEO of G. William Miller Financial Integrity Services, LLC. Sulaiman’s visiting-teaching positions have included those at Cornell-in-Washington Program, the Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. He is a member of the panel of evaluation experts of UNDP and FAO. Has published extensively on ascertaining development effectiveness of external assistance policies of the international financial institutions in a variety of countries and regions. He was formerly an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute. His latest (2012) assignment was Team Leader of a United Nations’ several-member multi-disciplinary team to independently assess the impact of the UN agencies and other partners’ ongoing assistance to Iraq and its Kurdistan Region. Sulaiman holds a B.A. from the University of the Punjab; a B.Sc. Honors in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science; an M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University SAIS; and a Ph.D. in Economic Development Planning from Cornell University.
Bruce Zagaris
Bruce is a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Berliner Corcoran and Rowe. His practice includes, representation of foreign governments, and litigation. Mr. Zagaris was a member of the Law faculty at the University of West Indies and has worked on financial regulatory and enforcement issues with the Government of Barbados. In addition, he has worked with a few international organizations and CARICOM governments–focusing on international tax enforcement, AML due diligence, anti-corruption, financial regulatory matters, and cyber/white collar crimes. Mr. Zagaris is author and editor of the International Enforcement Law Reporter, six books, and over 80 articles on international tax and business law. He is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Swedish. Mr. Zagaris holds LL.M degrees from Free University (Brussels), Stockholm University, and a J.D. from George Washington University.
Ilir Zherka
lir Zherka is the Founder and President of Civica, a government relations and public affairs consulting firm. Ilir gained policy and political experience working in the U.S. Congress, on presidential campaigns, and as a political appointee. He also served as the executive director of four non-profit organizations. Ilir is a recognized leader having been honored by elected officials and organizations, including a “Ilir Zherka Day” proclamation in Washington, DC. He is the author of Winning the Inside Game: The Handbook of Advocacy Strategies. Ilir is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Virginia School of Law which is part of The Springer Women in Engineering and Science book series. She has co-authored two books on business ethics, cybersecurity, and global threats. The books, Business Ethics: A Guide to Surviving Storms, Challenges, & Ethical Risksand Ética Empresarial, were made available through the ISACA bookstore and were adopted by the Institute for Supply Management. Sanford also serves on several charitable boards and currently serves as Executive Director of ISSA-Los Angeles and as the incoming Executive Director of The Challenge Initiative at UCLA. Sanford previously served as a delegate to the APEC CEO Summit in Chile and as an advisor to the World Economic Forum.
Kenneth Barden
Kenneth Barden is a financial compliance and integrity professional with over 25 years of experience internationally. He has spent over 14 years working in the Asia-Pacific region, beginning as Legal Counsel for the Ministry of Finance for the Republic of Palau, where he advised on tax and banking policies. He led efforts to institute a modern banking system in Palau and created its first Financial Intelligence Unit.
Ken has worked in Indonesia, where he led several projects with the PPATK, Indonesia’s financial intelligence unit, and the KPK, the anti-corruption commission. Later, Mr. Barden spent three years working in Palestine, helping to establish its Financial Follow-Up Uni. Along with these projects, he has worked in over35 other countries on projects with the World Bank, the IMF, the UN, USAID, the
European Union and others on issues ranging from public financial management to business reform.
From 2011 until 2018, he was Senior Anti-corruption and Good Governance Advisor with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Most recently, from 2018 until early 2021, Mr.
Barden led the Compliance team at the Green Climate Fund, based in South Korea, where he and his colleagues implemented reviews to deter fraud and theft from climate change finance projects. Mr. Barden is a lawyer, admitted in two states in the US and in Palau and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.
Mansoor A.F. Kazi
Mansoor is Director of Realist Evaluation Inc. and Director of Program Evaluation Center at State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. Before moving to SUNY Fredonia in September 2017, Mansoor was at the University at Albany School of Social Welfare in 2013-2017, and until 2017 Research Associate Professor and Director of Program Evaluation Center at the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (SUNY), having come from the UK in September 2005 where he held a similar position at the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield for 14 years. He has extensive experience of evaluation of human services in the USA, UK, and Finland. He is lead evaluator of Chautauqua Tapestry System of Care and received the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services’ Administration (SAMHSA)’s Gold Award for Outstanding Local Evaluation in July 2010. His books include ‘Realist Evaluation in Practice’ (2003, Sage) and ‘International Perspectives on Evidence-based Practice in Social Work’ (with Bruce Thyer, 2004, Venture Press). At present, this realist evaluation approach is used extensively in the evaluation of the SAMHSA System of Care Grant in Chautauqua County ($9 million, 2008-2015; $4 million, 2015-2019) and in Rockland County’s Bridges SAMHSA Offender Re-entry Program, $1, 663,610; 2018-2022). Throughout Chautauqua County with the expansion grants to date, he helps agencies to use the data on ALL service users in a realist evaluation, to inform what works and for whom in a system of care. Data from schools, mental health and other services is analyzed quarterly in each county, and data analysis methods drawn from a combination of epidemiology and effectiveness research are used in naturally occurring quasi-experimental designs (e.g. including all school youth) and logistic regression models to investigate if the comprehensive array of services and supports are working to provide better outcomes for youth and families. He also uses the same approach in the city of Manchester. Mansoor was awarded the honor of joining the inaugural class of Fellows of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) at its 2014 Annual Awards Presentation in January, San Antonio. He was the founder and co-chair of American Evaluation Association (AEA)’s Social Work Topical Interest Group (2001-07; 2011-14; 2015 to date) and is currently the co-chair of Human Services Evaluation TIG. Mansoor’s education includes: (a) a BSc. (Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science; (b) an MASW from the University of Hull; and (c) a Ph.D. in Social Work and Realist Evaluation in Practice from the University of Huddersfield.
Margaret (Maggie) Buchanan
Maggie graduated from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with a Master of Business Adminstration, 2022, and from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy with a Master of Public Policy, 2022. She is the CEO and Founder of Residence, Inc., which provides a new insurance productdesigned to combat housing insecurity across demographics and income brackets.While living in Washington, DC, Maggie previously worked for Sharakpur on a research project focused on Cuba’s economic standing. She has also published research on poverty alleviation on Nigeria. She earned a Bachelor’s of Arts from Bentley University, 2016, with a major in Public Policy, a minor in Economics, and a minor in Business Studies. She specializes in domestic and international governments’ failure to provide housing security, which includes diagnosis as well as solutions and policy recommendations.
Sawsan Gad
Sawsan is a Geospatial Data Scientist with nine years of experience in sectors of Development Data, Disaster Risk Management (DRM), and Monitoring and Supervision for Fragile and Post-conflict Countries at the World Bank Group, UNDP, and the Egyptian Ministry of State for Administrative Development. Sawsan also actively engages with civil society. She is co-founder of HarassMap, an online platform for combatting sexual harassment. Her project was featured in the UNESCO 2020 Best Apps Created by Women for Women. Sawsan holds an M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis from the University of California, Irvine, and is a current Ph.D. student of Earth Systems and Geoinformation Science at George Mason University
Rana Al-Madfaay
Rana is a legal professional and public service administrator with more than two decades of international and Canadian experience across law, human rights, and government operations. Fluent in English, French, Arabic, and Turkish, Rana brings a global perspective and a deep commitment to justice, integrity, and excellence in public administration. Rana began her career as a lawyer in Damascus, where she represented clients in civil and international law cases and founded Madfaay Legal Consulting Firm, advising on complex legal matters and international humanitarian law. She later served as Legal Advisor and Communication Officer with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), acting as the organization’s official spokesperson in Syria and working closely with government institutions to promote the implementation of humanitarian law. Her dedication to human rights and democracy led her to the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, and earned her the National Peace Foundation Award and Honorary Citizenship of Louisville, Kentucky in 2008. Her career reflects a lifelong dedication to advancing human rights, effective governance, and ethical leadership—values that continue to guide her work in Canada’s public service.
Aiymgul Kachyke
Rana holds an LL.M. in Human Rights Law from the Catholic University of Lyon, France, where her thesis examined the ineffectiveness of international conventions against torture, and an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law at Damascus University.