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Elaine Edgcomb has been Director of the Aspen Institute microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination (FIELD) since 1998. She co-authored, with Joyce Klein, Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the U.S. (2005), an examination of the state of the U.S. microenterprise industry after its first 20 years. She has also authored or co-authored numerous other publications for FIELD, including Scaling up Microenterprise Services, The Informal Economy: Latino Enterprises at the Margins and The Informal Economy: Making It In Rural America, and Improving Microenterprise Training and Technical Assistance. Ms. Edgcomb is also the author and editor of works on evaluation practice, institutional development, financial analysis, and on microenterprise strategies implemented both internationally and in the United States. Previously, she served as the founding Executive Director of the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network, an association of more than 50 U.S. and Canadian nonprofit organizations that support small business and microenterprise development in the developing world. As a consultant to the Aspen Institute's Self-Employment Learning Project, she had principal responsibility for guiding the project's case study research on organizational strategies and issues in U.S. microenterprise. Ms. Edgcomb’s international experience includes work with Catholic Relief Services, where she directed the planning and evaluation of socioeconomic development and relief programs in 13 countries in Central America and the Caribbean. With more than 25 years in international development, she has experience in monitoring and evaluating microenterprise programs, training management staff, and in developing practitioner-oriented materials to support program implementation. She serves or has served on the Board of Directors of the SEEP Network, Pro Mujer International and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. Ms. Edgcomb holds a Master's Degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in History and Spanish from Seton Hall University.
Joyce Klein is a Senior Consultant with the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. She has more than 15 years of experience in studying and supporting microenterprise and entrepreneurial development programs in the United States. As a private consultant with FIELD, Ms. Klein’s work has included co-authoring, with Elaine Edgcomb, Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the U.S. (2005), an examination of the state of the U.S. microenterprise industry after its first 20 years; managing the Welfare-to-Work Learning Evaluation, a five-year effort to evaluate 10 demonstration programs funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to provide microenterprise services to TANF recipients; and providing assistance to the MicroTest project. Other FIELD publications authored or co-authored include The Practice of Microenterprise in the U.S.: Strategies, Costs and Effectiveness; Entering the Relationship: Finding and Assessing Microenterprise Training Clients; and Microenterprise as a Welfare to Work Strategy: Two-Year Findings. Ms. Klein also has provided assistance to the CDFI Fund and CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development). She holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Economics from Boston College.
David Black is a Program Manager at the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program where he heads FIELD’s MicroTest program. MicroTest is a national program performance measurement and client outcomes tracking project for the microenterprise industry. Previously, Mr. Black served as Executive Director of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND), a community development intermediary, where he had primary responsibility for fundraising, management, grant- making policy and systems development. Prior to that Mr. Black was PPND’s Director of Planning and Evaluation during which time he developed systems for performance standards, grantee evaluation, programmatic grant-making and monitoring of program investments. Mr. Black holds a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh.
Tamra Thetford is FIELD’s Research Projects Manager for MicroTest at the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. With MicroTest, she oversees primary data collection and compilation, provides written data analyses and feedback on data use to MicroTest members, and designs and delivers trainings related to program performance and client outcomes. Additionally with FIELD, Ms. Thetford has conducted primary research and presented findings on the links between microenterprise and the informal economy. Ms. Thetford has coordinated a project funded by the Ms. Foundation’s Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development to both assess the performance of microenterprise agencies and social businesses, and monitor client-level outcomes. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, she was a Managing Associate for a consulting firm focused on international microenterprise and microfinance. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from American University.
Karlo Marcelo is a Research Associate with The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, focusing on working with MicroTest, a tool for quantifying the impact of U.S. microenterprise programs. Mr. Marcelo holds a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and was a 2002 Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow. Previously, he worked with CIRCLE, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland, producing quantitative and qualitative research analysis on youth civic engagement and the youth vote.
Ilgar Alisultanov is a consultant with the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. He has worked both in the consulting and university environments and has many years of experience in data analysis, statistical research, evaluation and teaching. While at Aspen, he has provided primary data analysis and research assistance for a number of projects including: MicroTest; the CDP data collection initiative; the Welfare to Work Learning Evaluation; the Sectoral Employment Development Learning Project; CDFI; and the Courses to Employment demonstration. Dr. Alisultanov has a Master’s Degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in Economics from American University.
Colleen Cunningham is Director of Grants Management and Publications for the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. She is responsible for publications and presentation materials design, production and dissemination. She also oversees the Program’s financial system controls and standards and manages financial activity on a day-to-day basis. Ms. Cunningham holds a B.A. in Art History from Syracuse University.
Paula Gray is the Program Coordinator with the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, where she is responsible for program support, customer service and on-and off-site meeting coordination. Ms. Gray has more than 10 years of experience in executive, project coordination, board and fund-raising support, as well as in office management and meeting planning. Previously she has worked with medical and international education associations. Ms. Gray has an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration.
Kirsten S. Moy is the director of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). She came to the Institute in 2001 after serving as project director for the Community Development Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative, a national research project on the future of community development and community development finance, an initiative incubated at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1998 when Ms. Moy was a Distinguished Visitor at the foundation. Previously, Ms. Moy served as the first director of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She also was senior vice president and portfolio manager at Equitable Real Estate Investment Management in New York City, where she was responsible for designing investment products to enable institutional investors, such as pension funds, to invest in affordable housing and other community and economic development projects. Her background includes: six years as vice president in charge of the Social Initiative Investment Department at the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States; serving as a program investment officer with the Ford Foundation; and positions as a management analyst at Equitable and Nabisco, Inc. Ms. Moy serves on the boards of Domini Social Investments, Community Reinvestment Fund and the NCB (National Cooperative Bank) Development Corporation. Ms. Moy has a M.S. in Operations Research from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Detroit.
Jackie Orwick is the Director of Information Systems for the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. Ms. Orwick manages all aspects of the format, usage and administration of EOP’s program Web sites. She coordinates program bulk e-mail communications and tracks Web-page traffic. She has also designed and conducted trainings on data collection tools. Ms. Orwick holds a B.A. in Management Studies from the University of Maryland. She also is the technical advisor to EOP regarding all aspects of computer and Web-related issues, recommendations for upgrades and troubleshooting.
Sinin Young is the Financial Management Associate for the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). She is responsible for accounts payable, timesheet data entry, and data management, and assists with grant reporting. In addition, she provides support for project data analysis and creation of PowerPoint presentations. Ms. Young has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.
