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Eric Reading serves as Abt Global’s first Chief Climate Officer. He is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a background in geography, economics, and urban planning and more than 25 years of experience in water, energy, natural resources, land use, and agriculture. He has worked with national and local governments and the private sector in dozens of countries on policy, finance, and institutional reforms for more sustainable systems.

Michael Witt brings more than 33 years of experience as a statistician specializing in survey design and survey data analytics. He has more than 27 years of managing staff at the administrative and project level. Mr. Witt has worked with government clients in fields ranging from energy to healthcare.

Dr. James White, a registered nurse and Collaborative Specialist in Global Health (CSGH), is a senior health specialist with a focus on infectious disease and global health security (GHS). He has over 20 years of experience that includes delivery of emergency response programs in emergency and fragile settings, pandemic preparedness and response, health systems strengthening, and public-private collaboration for GHS. White has worked in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America assisting in both acute outbreak response and preparation for health emergencies. He also represents Abt as a technical expert on external GHS and pandemic preparedness working groups. His clients have included the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the Canadian International Development Association (CIDA) (now Global Affairs Canada).

René Nutter is the U.S. Food Security & Agriculture Client Account Lead. She has more than two decades of experience helping further food security and education in women and children. From studies with Yale, Harvard, and the Gates Foundation to a long and successful partnership with the USDA Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), she has led large data collection studies and evaluations, provided technical assistance, and helped train the next generation of researchers.

Dr. Fiona Mactaggart is a multi-disciplinary technical advisor with more than 10 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL); infectious disease control; and public health. As a co-lead of Abt's MERL portfolio, she draws on complexity theory and scientific methods to help clients test what works, discover why it works, and provide timely evidence-based recommendations to inform important decisions about policy and practice. Mactaggart contributes to business development, programme delivery, and thought leadership. She works in five key areas: monitoring (e.g., design of digital tools and visualisation platforms) research (e.g., cross-sectional survey design), evaluation methodologies (e.g., contribution analysis), learning (e.g., portfolio level evidence-informed strategic decision making), and cross-cutting MERL capabilities (e.g., adaptive management and GEDSI). Mactaggart has worked extensively in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Hecht is an environmental economist with more than 19 years of experience in economic analysis, policy analysis, and research. His primary areas of expertise are in environmental economics, cost-benefit analysis, regulatory economics, and decision analysis. Dr. Hecht is an expert in estimating the monetary value of “non-market” benefits, such as improvements in environmental quality, public health, safety, and security. Dr. Hecht has over 10 years of experience in the economic analysis of climate change and in evaluating the costs and benefits of climate change mitigation measures.

Mbuso Jama has more than 17 years of experience as a Monitoring Evaluation Accountability Research and Learning expert (MEAL and MERL). His work has involved humanitarian, rehabilitation, and development efforts in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Partnership countries. His experience ranges from designing MEAL systems for adaptive management to impact evaluations. He has worked on projects funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), United Nations, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Canadian International Development Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, European Union, and European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Dr. Isabel Ana Nhatave has over 20 years of experience implementing STI/HIV/AIDS; family planning; maternal, newborn, and child health; and cervical cancer programs with a focus on health system strengthening. Dr. Nhatave has worked with national, provincial, and district-level governments and with local health facilities to build health system capacity, including health service management, human resources for health, supply chain management, and quality improvement processes. She has successfully advocated for the establishment of technical working groups and quality improvement and management committees and directorates across health areas within the Mozambique Ministry of Health.

Clifford Lubitz is the Chief of Party for the Abt-led USAID-funded health and nutrition activity in Tajikistan, Healthy Mother, Healthy Baby (HMHB). He has 20 years of experience leading efficient and impact-oriented cross-sector programs and initiatives. Lubitz’s expertise includes managing complex health, nutrition, and education programs in collaboration with host governments and the donor community in more than 30 countries.

Caroline G. Staub, Ph.D., is an analytical and strategic international development professional with 10-plus years leading programs in climate change adaptation and resilience, environmental science, natural resources management, sustainable agriculture, and food security. Her work tends to address finite, fragile, and/or remote geographical settings. She has extensive experience leading cross-functional, multi-cultural teams, trainees, and public/private partnerships in support of projects that incorporate critical thinking and capacity building to inform course corrections and ensure accountability and sustainability.