Mercedes Adamoli, Liaison, NGO Relations (Bs As)
Mercedes was born and raised in the city of Tandil, in the interior of the Buenos Aires province. For the past four years, she’s been living in the capital, and currently she is writing her thesis to complete her degree in Political Science at the Universidad de San Andrés. Mercedes has worked as a volunteer in various projects for Compromiso Joven, experiences which reaffirmed her desire to continue her professional development in the nonprofit sector. In her free time, Mercedes likes to read and spend time with her friends, and every so often she goes back to her hometown to visit her family. Not particularly attuned to sports, when it comes time to relax, Mercedes prefers the theater, music, and musicals. Mercedes has worked with Idealistas.org since March 2007.

Anna Balok, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Anna was born in lovely upstate New York, received her bachelors degree in English from SUNY Geneseo, and studied abroad at Charles University in the Czech Republic. She taught English at a hogwan in Seoul, Korea for a little over a year, during which she learned how to work with children, and began to study Spanish and daydream about volunteering in South America. She moved to Quito, Ecuador and volunteered for five months with kids again—this time as part of a street outreach program—then returned to the United States to work and explore options for returning to South America. Later she took the journey by bus from Quito to Buenos Aires. There she wrote daily articles for an e-learning software company, which was her introduction to what can really be done with web 2.0 and cloud computing. She became inspired by the potential of collaborative online tools, and their power to move people into action. She began volunteering with Idealist.org and now works as part of the User Support Team. Anna enjoys five-on-five soccer, bike riding even and especially in the winter, Russian novels and mulled wine, finding ways to incorporate beans into every meal, and boring her writing group with multiple submissions of the same not-that-funny dystopian short story.

Put Barber, Senior Researcher (Seattle)
Put joined Action Without Borders in October of 2004 when the Nonprofit FAQ was added to Idealist. He has been the editor of the FAQ since its earliest years and worked with Cliff Landesmann (founder of the Internet Nonprofit Center) and Michael Gilbert (of The Gilbert Center) to design the user interface and add content. He founded The Evergreen State Society in Seattle to build strong nonprofits and strong communities in his home state of Washington and continues that work as a Senior Consultant to Executive Alliance. He serves on the editorial board for Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and is a frequent author and speaker on issues affecting nonprofit organizations in the United States. He's an avid amateur photographer; you can see some of his photos at http://putnam.smugmug.com.

Erin Barnhart, Director, Volunteerism Initiatives (Portland)
Erin grew up in Roseburg, a small timber town in southern Oregon, and got her B.A. in Geography at the University of Oregon in 1997. After volunteering for a year with AmeriCorps*NCCC in the central United States, she worked with a social change initiative in Portland, OR and earned an MPA in Public Policy and a Graduate Certificate in Not-for-Profit Management. From 2004-2005, Erin studied volunteer centers in British Columbia and the Yukon on a Fulbright Scholarship to Canada. She then returned to Portland where she began work on a Ph.D., joining Idealist in 2006. Erin serves on the founding board of the Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (ALIVE), the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Volunteer Administration (IJOVA), and the Oregon Committee on Volunteerism. She also co-hosts the Volunteers and Technology forum on TechSoup.org and chairs both the National Organizations Volunteerism Network (NOVN) co-convened by the National Assembly and AARP as well as the Effective Practices Workgroup of the Brookings Institution's Initiative on International Volunteering and Service. In addition to world travel and seeing every film directed by Woody Allen, Erin enjoys piña coladas, getting caught in the rain, and disappearing into the time/space vortex that is Powell's City of Books.

Meg Busse, Career Transitions Program Director (High School and College) (Portland)
Meg is a native (and ardent fan) of New Jersey. However, she's also enjoyed living in Philly, Boston, Washington, DC, San Francisco, NW Connecticut, and Seattle. Currently, Meg resides in Portland, OR with her best friend, Ian, and an unfortunate absence of dogs or cats. In just the short time she's been in Portland, Meg's fallen in love with its outdoor adventures, incredible bridges, amazing wine, and downtown food carts. In her pre-Idealist years, Meg enjoyed working as a middle school reading and writing teacher, a coach, and a writer and editor. In her free time, she has been a white water rafting guide, pet pig owner, competitive board game player, dark chocoholic, and long distance runner. Some of these labels still apply. She has one of the best interview stories ever, dreams of being Ira Glass someday, and is continually floored by Tom Waits, Edward Abbey, Bill Moyers, and Calvin & Hobbes. In regard to her role as the High School and College Coordinator, Meg effused, "Idealist immediately felt like home," and remarked that she's got big plans for her role in the Nonprofit Careers and Partnerships Team.

Amelia Byers, Director of U.S. Operations (NYC)
Amelia joined the Action Without Borders team in November 2005. Prior to working at Action Without Borders, she lived in Canada and worked in various positions in the private and nonprofit sectors. Her experience includes internal/external communications, community outreach programs, human resources, and event management. A self-described political junkie, she also enjoys reading, music, traveling, and exploring her new home in New York City.

Brett Carter, Programmer (Portland)
Forged in a secret government factory for robot drones, Brett became self-aware due to a software bug. Taking on an identity as an open source software developer to gain acceptance in a human-slanted world, Brett constantly fights with the existential dilemma of creating bug-free software even though he owes his existence to a glitch. He poses as a native Oregonian, pythonista, emacsator, gourmet cook-in-training, agile development advocate, and technical scuba diver, and resides in Portland, OR, a great town for robots.

Luisina Castiglioni, Media Relations Associate (Bs As)
Luisina joined Idealistas in July 2006. She was born in Buenos Aires and lives there with her family, and is a student of Communication Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. She began her studies with the conviction that communication is a fundamental tool for social transformation. Given her belief that the socialization of knowledge and collective reflection allow us to rethink reality in order to change it, Luisina takes part in communal spaces that enable forms of alternative communication. She feels that Idealist is a tool that boosts the possibility of an articulation of the popular sector in networks that allow for unified efforts and synergies on common projects. In 2002, Luisina added Anthropology to her studies, but the workload proved too heavy and she hopes to return to this field one day. She enjoys reading essays on philosophy, political economy, and any other topics that expand her understanding of the way the world works.

Josefina Costabel, Community Outreach Assistant, Idéaliste.org (Bs As)
Josefina was born in Buenos Aires, where she resides with her family. She studies Communication Sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Although she felt unsure about her chosen field at first, she's now convinced of the importance of communication and how she wants to use it. After several volunteer experiences in the social sector, Josefina is very pleased to work with Idealistas, since she's long been impressed by the organization's potential and she identifies with its activities. She loves languages and studied English and Portuguese before settling on French, which she did initially just for fun but now gets to use professionally on our French site, Idealiste. In her free time, Josefina always finds time to watch movies and also like to read, go out, and travel whenever possible. Although sports were never her thing, lately she’s been dabbling in tennis.

Douglas Coulter, Multimedia Producer (NYC)
Douglas joined Idealist in the spring of 2005 after, coincidentally, using Idealist to search for a job. Born and raised in Norman, OK, Douglas has a keen understanding of the U.S. highway system, gardening, and forklifts. Escaping his home for New York City in 2001, Douglas attended New York University where he earned a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. During his time at NYU he enjoyed the "cultural" opportunities afforded poor college students and participated in political demonstrations, groups, and research. He enjoys reading, writing, cats, and amassing a formidable music collection.

Luciana Danzi, QA Associate (Bs As)
Luciana joined the Idealistas team in April 2007. She is in the last years of her studies in Information Systems at the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), and is very anxious to graduate so she can fulfill her dream of going to study or work in Italy. Her dream isn't so far off-base, since in her childhood Luciana lived in Rome for five years with her whole family, fell in love with the city, and had the chance to visit marvelous countries like Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and, of course, many different areas of Italy. This childhood, full of special places, made her a very open person, ready to get to know new cultures and people, and longing to travel the world. Since Luciana wants to learn all she can about her field, she's very happy to have joined Idealistas, where she felt comfortable from her first week of work and hopes to continue developing her knowledge for some time to come.

Ami Dar, Executive Director (NYC)
Ami Dar is the founder and executive director of Idealist.org. Built in 1996 with $3,500, Idealist has become one of the most popular nonprofit resources on the web, with information provided by 90,000 organizations around the world, 70,000 visitors every day, and a staff of 60 in New York, Buenos Aires, and Portland. Ami is an Ashoka Fellow and currently serves on the boards of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Allforgood.org. He was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Peru and in Mexico, and lives in New York.

Kyle Dawkins, Token New Zealander (Portland)
Kyle came on board in September 2000 and we can't seem to get rid of him. Apart from being the token kiwi, he is also responsible for the back-end development of the site. Since graduating in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), he has spent some time in India, learned a few foreign languages, and acquired a Masters in Music (from McGill University, Montreal). Kyle now spends his free time snowboarding or dreaming about snowboarding.

Craig Dennis, Programmer (Bs As)
Craig is a nerdy hippie. Most of his professional life has been spent cultivating the professional nerdy side of his brain. In 2003 he realized his hippie side was being neglected and joined the Peace Corps and taught computers at a technical university in Guyana. After the Peace Corps experience, Craig bounced around a bit from Chicago, returning to his hometown of Tempe, AZ, and finally landed in New York. Craig has a serious crush on one of the employees here at Action Without Borders, and he finds it somewhat difficult to discuss himself in the third person. He is very excited to have obtained a job where he can both be a nerd and a hippie at the same time!

Joanna Eng, Web Editor (NYC)
Joanna joined Idealist in 2005 after graduating from Cornell University, where she received her B.A. in Anthropology with a concentration in Latin American Studies. After some adventures in Mexico, Nicaragua, and China, she has settled in Queens, New York, the most culturally diverse place she has ever been. She loves exploring the city by bicycle, dabbling in various areas of the arts, and making playlists and other kinds of lists.

María Etchebehere, Outreach Assistant (Bs As)
María was born during a bad storm in autumn 1985. Changing locations was one of her family's favorite hobbies: She moved 17 times and attended eight different schools, which gave her a taste for meeting new people and traveling. She likes to think of herself as a person who always seeks the new and unknown. María is currently studying psychology, but if there were parallel universes she'd also study philosophy, sociology, journalism, foreign languages, history, tourism, and a lot more. Reading, walking, and spending hours in front of peaceful landscapes are the things that keep her going. María joined Idealist in 2008 and she is very happy to work in such a good environment where she knows that her actions will help build a better world. Her fantasy: To be reborn in 1930s Paris and meet each afternoon at Café des Fleurs with Sartre, Camus, and Beauvoir.

Eric Fichtl, Editor (Berlin)
Eric joined Action Without Borders in August 2004 as our Editor. Growing up, he lived in several U.S. states, Switzerland, and Britain. He studied Latin American history at DePaul University and University College London. After improving his Spanish in Buenos Aires, he moved to New York City in 1998, where he worked in a variety of positions at the North American Congress on Latin America, a nonprofit publisher, and as an editor and reporter for Colombiajournal.org, a website about Colombia. After meeting in New York's tango scene, Eric and his wife Margarita spent a year living in her native Bulgaria, where Eric learned both to like feta cheese and how not to drive. In 2007 he completed a Masters in International Affairs at the New School, and as the year drew to a close, Eric and Margarita moved to Berlin, which promises to be their home for some time to come. Among other things, Eric enjoys reading, photography, travel, watching football (soccer), skiing, and vegetarian cooking.

Russ Finkelstein, Associate Director (Portland)
Russ joined the staff of Action Without Borders in August 1995 to help build this site and to train nonprofit and community-based organizations on how best to use the internet. After ten years in the New York City office he moved west to open an office in Portland, OR. Currently, he manages our work supporting those working in and seeking work in the nonprofit sector, including human resources professionals, graduate and fellowship programs, nonprofit career fairs, volunteerism, and the range of professional development trainings. Russ has a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) in Education and Nonprofit Management from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and his B.A. is from Connecticut College. He previously served as program director for the Higher Achievement Program, an educational and social enrichment program for inner city children in Washington, DC. Russ also serves on the board of the Nonprofit Sector Workforce Coalition and City Hall Fellows. In 2007 he was named a Selah Fellow.

Jung Fitzpatrick, Graduate Education Communications Coordinator (Portland)
Jung was delighted to join the team in February 2007 as a longtime beneficiary and advocate of Idealist.org's resources and services. She was born and raised in sunny Southern California, even graduating from a SoCal school, Scripps College, with a Bachelor's in Human Biology and as many concentrations as she could technically get away with: Asian American Studies and Spanish. During a junior year abroad in Quito, Ecuador, Jung's passions for travel, language, and community work were set aflame. After college, she lived in Seoul, South Korea for 25 months, teaching English, learning her mother's tongue, and in general, being a sponge. She returned to the United States and served two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA, bringing health insurance to all children in Mendocino County, CA with First 5 Mendocino and building capacity for ONABEN-A Native American Business Network, a nonprofit that supports Native American entrepreneurship. Jung is a bonafide yogabrat, can bake a mean batch of cookies, and in an age of rapidly changing communications technology, refuses to let the art of letter writing die.

Ana Clara Genta, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Ana Clara was born in 25 de Mayo, in the Buenos Aires province, and she moved to the city of Buenos Aires in 1999. She lives with her brother and a friend in the barrio of Palermo. Ana Clara studies Social Communication and just needs to bring her thesis to a close soon in order to get her degree. She’s very interested in developing her career in the social sector and for three years she has collaborated with several organizations in some of the poorest areas of Greater Buenos Aires. She joined Idealistas in July 2006 and is very happy with her work on the Outreach team. In her free time, she loves going out for walks in the city, spending weekends in 25 de Mayo (where her family lives), swimming, reading, and going to the cinema.

Rosario González Morón, User Support Director (Bs As)
Rochi is proud to be our first staff person working outside the United States. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently working on Idealistas.org. She will soon be concentrating her efforts on a local version of Idealistas.org called Idealistas Argentina. Rochi studied advertising at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires where she also qualified to be a teacher of the subject. She spent eight years working on online marketing and media in the corporate world. In 2002, while working at Discovirtual, the first online supermarket in Argentina, she began to volunteer as the communications coordinator for the Argentine nonprofit organization Res Non Verba on their website, Daunamano.org. This experience changed how she saw the world and led her to see that we all have a place where we can help—it is only necessary to find it. In her free time she likes to play all kinds of sports, travel, watch movies and, most importantly, cheer on the best football (soccer) team in all of Argentina: Racing.

Joe Grant, Coordinator, Nonprofit HR Program (Portland)
Joe joined Action Without Borders in September 2008 as Coordinator of the Nonprofit HR program. He was born in Oxford, England but moved to France at the age of six where he eventually earned a degree in International Management and Business with a focus on the nonprofit sector. In the past five years he was fortunate to work for several organizations around the world and travel to places such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar, India, and Nepal. In 2007, Joe rode his bike across the United States to spend some alone time on the saddle and enjoy the great outdoors. He's an avid long distance runner and seizes any opportunity he can to get out into the wilderness. He also enjoys reading, cooking, and blending up delicious smoothies while dancing to reggae music.

Celeste Hamilton, Community Outreach Coordinator (Bs As)
Celeste grew up in the first suburb of Levittown, NY. After 18 years of living among cookie-cutter houses, she realized there was more to explore and pursued her love of literature at Boston College and University College Dublin. Lured by the desire to help people and the prospect of having a pet monkey, Celeste joined the Peace Corps upon graduating. In Guyana she taught reading at a high school, dreamed of finding a baccoo (just ask—she’ll tell you all about them), and perfected her karaoke skills. From the equator she moved north to Chicago where she worked with gay youth and pretended to be a music journalist. Her time in the Midwest was brief; cacti and chili peppers drew her to the desert of Arizona where she found a job in HIV prevention. She later returned to her home state and began working with Action Without Borders. She’s now living in Buenos Aires, where she is working on media projects and facilitating connections between foreigners and local NGOs. Celeste is also a freelance journalist who has written about various subjects from dancehall to bowling, and is currently working on fulfilling her dream of becoming a Bollywood star.

Elise Hoffberg, Community Manager (Bs As)
Elise is originally from Southern California and has been living in Buenos Aires since September 2006. After graduating from New York University with a joint degree in Anthropology and Linguistics, she worked at a company that provides language services to the healthcare community in New York. Having studied French in Paris for a year during college, she was eager to learn a new language and culture, so after a few years providing language services to others, she moved to Buenos Aires to improve her own language services. She loves the city for its live jazz, abundant coffee, and relaxed culture. She joined the Idealist team in June 2007 and intends to make Buenos Aires her home for quite some time. In addition to constantly studying the language and culture, she takes classes in saxophone, stretching, and tango.

Audrey Jean, Volunteer Program Coordinator (Bs As)
Audrey is Belgian, but considers herself a "citizen of the world" after many years living abroad (in the United States, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru) to study, work, and volunteer in the social sector. She studied social work and sociology, and spent nearly five years leading international development projects in the fields of social economy and sustainable development in Africa and Latin America. Currently, she's studying graphic design and doing a training program in ecological economics. She's married to an Argentine with whom she's enjoyed nine entertaining years, sharing a love of gastronomy, travel, photography, family, and the environment. She's been in Buenos Aires for a year and is proud to have joined the Idealistas team in order to keep growing as a person and a professional. Audrey is an optimist who believes it's important to always give everything one's best effort.

Steven Joiner, Career Transitions Program Director (Mid-Career and Sector Switchers) (Portland)
Steven joined the Action Without Borders/Idealist Nonprofit Careers and Partnerships Team in February 2007 after his second stint in Japan. He was born on the U.S. East Coast and spent the first 12 years of his life in seven different cities before stopping for a while in North Carolina. After finishing a B.A. in Secondary English Education at North Carolina State University, he left for three years of life in Japan. Upon returning to the United States, he drove across the country three times during his "Reorientation Tour of America," fell in love with San Francisco, and went on to finish an M.A. in International Adult Educational Development at San Francisco State University. After two more years in Japan, he returned to wonderful Portland, OR to settle down... for now at least. Steve loves learning, cooking, reading sci-fi, watching movies, writing, and his super-cool black cat Fortuna. He is an avid fan of sumo wrestling and baseball, though he completely understands—yet also completely disagrees—when people think either or both are boring.

Hannah Kane, Senior Project Manager, Website and Multimedia Production (NYC)
Hannah joined the staff of AWB in the summer of 2003 as a Campus Organizer with the Idealist On Campus program. Previously, she had worked in various communities in Seattle, Boston, and Washington, DC to develop in-school and after school programs for young people, specifically focusing on the connections between community service, politics, and activism. She is grateful every day for the opportunity to work with the amazing staff of Action Without Borders and within an organization with such an inspiring mission. She wants to travel everywhere, and, when she's really honest with herself, she kind of wants to be a rock star.

Jason Kirtland, Developer (Portland)
Jason is a software developer, and in the past primarily built proprietary systems using free software tools and technologies. These days, he is an active author of and contributor to open source software and a minor community rabble rouser. He lives in Portland, OR, a town with a fabulous convergence of creative technical energy and good beer. He can be spotted at local tech events, out on the trails, or at a sidewalk cafe with his dog, Lupe.

Cecilia König, Human Resources Liaison (Argentina) (Bs As)
Ceci is a Workforce Relations professional, having graduated from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She started and developed her career working in various private sector firms, until 2008, when she decided to switch to the social sector and joined Idealistas as the Human Resources Liaison for our staff in Argentina. Her interests are diverse, including animals (she has a dog named Kin and a cat named Felicitas), music, sports, cinema, and the plastic arts.

Blaine Kusler, Nonprofit Job Sales (Portland)
Born in Iowa, Blaine spent much of his early years living in Iowa and California before going to high school in the wonderful city of Portland, OR. Upon graduating, he moved to Southern California where he began a technology career working with various companies such as Apple, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo. Heeding the call of a slower pace and greener pastures, Blaine moved back to Portland and achieved one his many personal goals by graduating from Portland State University in 2007. Upon graduating, Blaine worked as a Project Manager for the Port of Portland and at Inspiration Software before landing his role as Sales Specialist for Idealist. In his off-time, Blaine likes to stay as active as possible by biking, running, playing basketball, motorcycling, surfing, and harassing his 18-year old cat, Hobbs.

Anne Lind, User Involvement Manager (NYC)
Anne joined the Action Without Borders staff in September of 2006. After growing up near Albany, NY, she attended Connecticut College in New London, CT where she studied Sociology and Dance and participated in a certificate program in community action and public policy. She has traveled to Costa Rica on a volunteer program and spent a semester studying in northeastern Brazil. Some things that Anne loves include music, traveling, modern dance, New York City, and avocados. She thinks she is very lucky to be engaged in such important work with such an amazing group of people!

Ana Inés Loggia Bergero, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Ani lives with her family in Buenos Aires, the city where she was born. She's completing her degree in Communication Sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where she also serves as an undergraduate teaching assistant. Ani leads a youth group at her parish. She loves languages (for now, French, English, and a little Italian, but she plans to add Latin and another tongue to the mix soon). In her free time, she enjoys visiting exhibitions (her favorites involve photography), going out with her friends, reading, seeing movies, listening to music, and occasionally playing the guitar. She began her post with Idealist.org in January 2008 and while she's pleased to be working on something related to her studies, Ani is even happier that the work involves trying to build a better world, since she's sure this really is possible.

Chris Machuca, Graduate Education Events Coordinator (Portland)
Chris was born in the United States but was brought up in the Philippines. He would like to think that he was raised by the Jesuits as much as he was raised by his parents as he attended the same Jesuit University, the Ateneo de Manila University, all 16 years of his academic life. He discovered his talent for singing in third grade after joining and winning in an annual singing contest at his school. His love for performing led him to join Dulaang Sibol, the high school theater group that employs the stage to transform its members into men of passion and its audiences into people of action. He also became a member of the Bukas Palad Music Ministry, a nonprofit performing group that reaches out to Filipino communities throughout the world by composing, recording, and performing its own liturgical and inspirational music. Chris moved to Portland in 2006 and now enjoys listening to music from the 1960s and 1970s, thrift shopping on the eastside, and learning how to take pictures with his Holga camera. Chris was delighted to discover Portland's thriving nonprofit community. He feels that he is called to work in the nonprofit sector because of where he has been, where he is, and where he hopes to be in his life. He dreams of one day extending the efforts of Idealist.org to Asia and the Philippines.

Jeremy MacKechnie, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Jeremy is originally from New Jersey but prefers to lie and say New York City. He recently completed his degree in International Political Economy and Spanish Literature at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY. Junior year, he had the opportunity to study abroad in Buenos Aires and never quite got over the city. He knew he would be back after graduation before he left the first time and now that he is here, he finds it hard to imagine ever leaving. The city, for him, is a perfect cup of café and he enjoys the people, culture, and constant flow of action that the city has to offer. He's hoping to perfect his Spanish while down here and maybe even get started on learning a new language. In his free time, he likes reading, planning trips, and meeting new people. He joined Idealist in 2008 and hopes to be here for quite some time!

Hernán Massau Chorne, Communications Manager (Bs As)
Born in the cold winter of 1977, this strange character (once defined as a cultural scavenger) enjoys literature, philosophy from the street and the academy, long theological chats, yoga, meditation, and the simple, contemplative life amid nature. His most intriguing aspect, though, is his strange taste in music: everything from Indian classical to Mongolian chant, and from Uruguayan candobe to 1960s psychedelic folk. A graphic designer by trade, he ran his own design studio for five years until he tired of defining corporate images and decided to apply his knowledge to a better cause in the third sector. An idealist since birth, Hernán's interests include sustainable community development and permaculture. He is a yoga instructor and graduate of the Lonavla Yoga Institute, and in his free moments he plays the Scottish bagpipe and the sitar, and practices ninjutsu.

Ken Maupin, Systems Administrator (Portland)
Ken is a Seattle native who retreated south to Portland after earning an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of Washington. Once there, he earned a graduate degree in computer science at the Oregon Graduate Institute. He joined Action Without Borders in 2008 after 15 years as a system administrator and software engineer for internet service providers and software companies. An avid cyclist, ice hockey player, and motorcycle enthusiast, Ken enjoys sports involving helmets and two wheels. He is also a guitarist, animal lover, and supporter of environmental, animal rights, and social justice causes.

Juan Cruz Mones Cazon, Director, Idealistas.org (Bs As)
Juan Cruz started working at Acción Sin Fronteras in April 2004. Along with Matías Laurenz and Lorene Straka, he helped open the Buenos Aires office, where Idealistas.org, the Spanish version of the site, is now run. Juan Cruz coordinates our activities with nonprofit organizations and volunteers, and is the founder, with Matías, of Res Non Verba, the legal entity behind Acción Sin Fronteras in Argentina. Before joining our team, Juan Cruz finished his B.A. in Communication and his MBA at the Universidad Austral, and worked at Foster Parents Plan International, did two years of development projects with indigenous communities in Ecuador, and served as the IT & Web Manager at Greenpeace Argentina for two and a half years.

Kara Montermoso, U.S. Operations Manager (San Francisco)
Kara holds a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University and moved to New York City upon receiving a Fellowship with Common Ground—a position she found on the Idealist site! With a few other nonprofit experiences under her belt, a stint waiting tables, running through the streets of New York for the marathon, and her certification in Massage Therapy completed, she joined AWB in 2003. Kara has worked in various capacities throughout the organization and is very excited to be in a position where she gets to support the amazing staff that she works with everyday. In 2007, Kara headed back to her home state of California with her husband and daughter, where she enjoys beautiful weather year round and a little bit more living space to accommodate her many DIY projects.

Marina Noguera, Community Outreach Associate (Bs As)
Marina is a student of International Relations and Political Science at the Universidad de San Andrés and she joined the Idealistas staff in March 2006 as a member of the Community Outreach team. The many life experiences Marina has had made her realize that helping others is fundamental to her life, and she thinks her current work is the beginning of a long road toward being able to help many people. In her "free time" she dedicates herself to her biggest passions: music and sports. Although she was born and raised in the city of Buenos Aires, Marina also keeps the rest of her country close to heart.

Michel Pelletier, Developer (Portland)
Michel is a website developer for Idealist specializing in the Python programming language and Python-based web application frameworks. He tinkers, fumbles, tests, develops, and occasionally sets on fire new experimental technology that may end up one day being used by the Idealist community of users. He's not afraid to try out the hot new flavor-of-the-week webby 2.0 technology, but tends to focus on solving real problems with simple, proven techniques. His computer interests are Python, searching and indexing text in many languages, building solutions using, or reusing, the simplest possible tools, and inventing fun toy languages. His non-computer interests include hiking, sailing, amateur diesel mechanics, and playing with his two dogs, Minnie and Enzo.

Amy Potthast, Director, Service and Graduate Programs (Portland)
Amy started volunteering for the community theatre in Winter Haven, FL at age 11. Since then she’s volunteered or worked in over 16 nonprofits, schools, and government agencies throughout the United States, in France, and in China, including the ROSES mentoring project (Portland, OR); Primary Source (Watertown, MA); Peace Corps (Fuling, China); Notre Dame Mission AmeriCorps (Lowell, MA); and Clara Barton AmeriCorps*VISTA (Portland, OR). She studied creative writing at Carnegie Mellon and Chinese language and literature at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Amy joined the staff of Idealist.org during the late summer of 2005, and is the main contact for its year-of-service programs, public service careers podcast, graduate education programs, the Institute on Public Service Careers, and the Portland office internship program. She lives in Portland, OR with her husband and son.

Mario Roset, Liaison, Business Relations (Bs As)
In his childhood, Mario dreamt of being a doctor, an astronaut, or an architect—it was all the same to him, and his hopes changed from one week to the next. He always had so many interests that it was difficult to focus on just one thing. In the end, he got his degree in Administration from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, but he was more proud of the year he spent studying Film Direction and the postgrad he did in Creativity and Publicity in Barcelona. After school he spent five years building his professional experience in the world of mega-corporations, but he tired of it, quit, and packed a suitcase to go traveling in Europe. It was his hippie year, and it affected him profoundly. Mario traces his interest in the social sector from that period, during which he began volunteering with various organizations until arriving at Idealistas.org in July 2008—a key step in his life! Since returning to Buenos Aires, Mario has made great use of his free time: He started studying theater, piano, and Italian. Tennis is Mario’s true calling in the world of sport, although he’s seen by many as a rustic footballer who is always useful for his “surly” qualities as a defender.

Emmanuel Ros Ruiz, QA Manager (Bs As)
Although from the region of Avignon, France, Manu wasn’t born on the homonymous bridge and there were no people around singing and dancing: "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse on y danse... " After a degree in Electronics, Manu graduated as a Computer Science Engineer from the University of Avignon. Since then he has mainly lived outside his homeland, first in the United States, then in Spain, then in the United Kingdom, then in Argentina, then...? Manu first got involved in the "social sector" using IT for social integration in Barcelona and followed up on that work in Rosario, Argentina. Now, besides testing for Idealist, his interests include fair trade and local development.

Nadia Saah, Director of Special Projects (NYC)
Prior to joining Idealist, Nadia spent eight years with Discovery Communications negotiating licensing agreements for properties under the Discovery brands. She partnered with tech firms and directed business development across Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Part of her responsibility was to eat her weight in pepper crab while opening the Chinese market to Discovery content. After a brief and revelatory stint managing the Nintendo and Pokemon brands, Nadia awoke to the truth that while she was a "blond", her parents had emerged as refugees from Palestine in 1948. This yielded a sense of responsibility to marginalized people with quieted voices. She fled her corporate job in 2004 and spent a year incubating a Peace, Media and Culture program at the Gere Foundation, where she developed a mini-series called 4 Generations chronicling the parallel journeys of a Palestinian and Jewish/Israeli family from turn-of-the century Jerusalem to the present day. With Strategic Assessments, she continued to champion the Palestinian narrative and Arab Arts by consulting for clients such as Warner Independent and the Open Society Institute while traveling through the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel to meet with writers, historians, filmmakers, NGOs, and politicians. In 2006, she heard Ami Dar speak about his transformation while patrolling the Syrian border. Ami also mentioned that he could beat Nadia at ping-pong and so she joined Idealist not only to demonstrate why she was 1992 Northeast Regional Women's Champ, but also to spearhead some of Idealist's branding and messaging initiatives as well as donor outreach.

Julia Smith, Community Outreach Coordinator (NYC)
Julia hails from Cheverly, MD. The day she joined the Idealist team, her grandma found this site and began crafting a lengthy bio filled with gems from Julia's childhood, such as: "When she visited her Grandma Smith she loved to play Julia Child and together we made a production of preparing even simple meals. The Smiths are bookish, but far from boring, and Julia carried a book wherever she went." Happily, Julia has expanded her horizons since then. She spent her undergraduate years at Washington University in St. Louis, studied for a semester at the University of Cape Town, did a stint in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre, and staffed a youth conference in Uganda with Global Youth Partnership for Africa. She loves photography, summer, and really good jokes, and she was thrilled to find this gig through her My Idealist daily updates.

Scott Stadum, Experience Analyst (Bs As)
Scott graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2001 with a B.S. in Visual Communications Technology. He drove the 8,000 miles from Ohio to Minnesota, living briefly outside of Minneapolis for two years. At that time Scott helped job train the mentally impaired for the state of Minnesota. After two years in Minnesota, he went on to join the Peace Corps and served in Guyana from 2003 to 2005. While in Guyana, Scott was an IT volunteer with the World Wildlife Fund, promoting environmental causes through collaborations with organizations such as UN Volunteers, U.S.AID, The Wishbone Project/Smile Train, Iwokrama, and the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society. Post-Peace Corps, Scott moved to Washington, DC and wore a tie for two years while working in a cubicle for the FAA and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Scott joined Idealist in January 2008 and took off the tie.

Máximo Stephani, Web Development Coordinator (Bs As)
Máximo was born in Salto, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, a town about 200 kilometers from the city of Buenos Aires, but he's always lived in the suburbs of the capital. In his free time he loves driving with his wife, and sometimes with friends, to see beautiful places throughout Argentina's provinces. His passion for cars and his desire to travel land him in Córdoba every winter, where he watches the Rally of Argentina (part of the World Rally Championship). During the rally, he and thousands of other fans spend the nights up in the mountains, in temperatures as low as -7°C, waiting for the race to start so they can see their favorite cars pass. Max started with us in April 2005, a position he found through the Idealistas.org site. With no prior experience in the nonprofit sector, he applied for the job and has since been working in our Buenos Aires office, where (in Máximo's words) he "joined the spectacular group of people that make up Idealistas.org."

Georgina Sticco, Manager, Institutional Relations (Bs As)
Georgina grew up in the south of Argentina, some 1,500 kilometers from Buenos Aires. She now shares a home with her two brothers and her sister, all of whom headed to the national capital to attend university. A system engineer by trade, Georgina spent six years working in the private sector and teaching artificial intelligence. She loves to travel, and in 2005, while visiting a natural reserve on the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, she realized she could use her experience and contribute to society in a different line of work. These days, when not conducting studies on NGOs, coaching, and gender, she likes to fly (literally) in aerial acrobatics. Since August 2005, Georgina has been a part of the Idealistas team, which she joined after completing a course on International Cooperation in Madrid. She is convinced that the world can be a better place if people learn to understand each other's differences and to accept people as they are. Georgina tries to put this philosophy into practice in her home, and sometimes it even works!

Lorene Straka, Chief of Staff (NYC)
Two weeks after moving to New York in October 1999, Lorene met Ami on the subway. Three weeks after moving to New York, Lorene became an intern at Action Without Borders. Two months later, she was hired on as a program coordinator, doing administrative work and anything else needed to help an organization with a staff of three. Seven years after moving to New York from her hometown of Woodstock, VT, Lorene is delighted to still be working at Action Without Borders. In the early days, she developed the Kids & Teens website, oversaw the development of the Spanish, French and Russian versions of Idealist, and, in 2004, moved to Buenos Aires to help Juan Cruz, Matías, and Rochi open the first AWB office outside the United States. She returned to New York in May of 2005. Lorene graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1998.

Brendan Sullivan-Sariñana, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Brendan was born and raised in Upstate New York to Irish and Mexican parents. He graduated from Broome Community College and the LACAS Program at Binghamton University. While attending Binghamton, he was fortunate enough to engage in funded research in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His academic interests include Latin American social movements, economic theory, and subaltern studies. His personal interests include traveling, languages, literature, and sports of every kind. He has a healthy obsession with both Salma Hayek and Gael García Bernal.

Steven Ting, Operations Coordinator (NYC)
Steve joined the team in August 2005 after working with Ami Dar at Aladdin Knowledge Systems for almost nine years. He handles the accounting and he sees to it that the delinquent accounts are addressed. Steve's goal is to see accounting run like a well-oiled machine. He is a graduate of Parsons School of Design with an Associate's Degree in Illustration and spends his free time drawing.

Pabló Tiscornia, Coordinator, Idealiste.org (Bs As)
Until 2004, Pabló lived all his life in Paris. He studied Humanities and Sociology and worked as a teacher in a school and at an institute for immigrants. When he went on vacation to Buenos Aires, where he was born, Pabló decided to stay a while and discover this phantom place in his life. Following a year and a half spent teaching at the Lycée Français, Pabló joined Idealistas in May 2006. He still finds himself enchanted by the warm reception the team has given him and enthused by the work he’s doing to develop the French version of our site.

Tamara Ulla, Community Outreach Assistant, Idéaliste.org (Bs As)
Tamara lives on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, far from the pollution and traffic, but close enough to enjoy the city’s charm. The daughter of a translator, she was inculcated with a love of languages and culture, and as a result, she’s always ready to travel. Tamara studies International Relations and Political Science at the Universidad Católica Argentina, but rather than joining the foreign service, she wants to contribute to improving the world via other channels. That’s why she’s very pleased to have joined Idealistas, first as a volunteer and now as a member of the team behind Idéaliste.org. Tamara loves to read, watch films and TV series, and listen to music, ever ready to uncover new literary and musical paths. Always up for a cup of bitter coffee, Tamara also enjoys eating dulce de leche ice cream and trying dishes from around the world.

María Velasco, Idealistas.org Representative in Ecuador (Quito)
María is from Ecuador and began working with Idealistas.org at the end of May 2005. She has a B.A. in Sociology, and spent two years working on a support program for street children in Ecuador. Later, in New York, she did a Masters in Media Studies under the auspices of a Fulbright scholarship. During her last year in New York, María worked on video qualitative research and volunteered with Witness. In 2002 María returned to Ecuador and lived on the Galapagos Islands for two years, serving as executive director of Fundación Galápagos, an NGO that implements sustainable development projects combining ecological conservation with alternative employment programs for fishermen and local residents. In early 2005 she moved to Buenos Aires and began working at Idealistas, focusing on community relations and regional promotion. In August 2008, María moved back to Ecuador where she works as our organizational representative.

Scott Wilson, Digital Technician (Geneva)
Scott began working with Idealist.org in early 2001. He is a core member of the software development team where his primary role has been as maintainer of the site's hardware and software infrastructure and technical coordinator of development efforts. Scott is a Canadian citizen but has spent little time there of late; he's currently based in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is nurturing his love of winter sports. Scott holds a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and a Master of Arts degree in Music from Stanford University. He is very slowly nearing completion of his Ph.D. at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University, where he is researching the relationship between phased-array signal processing and the human hearing system. When not maintaining Idealist.org, his snowboard, or his cantankerous interactive art installations, Scott enjoys reading on alternative and renewable energy issues and hopes to make contributions to that field in the future.

Mayra Zak, Community Moderator (Bs As)
Mayra was born in Córdoba (Argentina) but has lived in Buenos Aires since an early age, hence the reason she calls herself a true porteña. She's currently studying International Relations at the Universidad del Salvador and finds herself particularly interested in migration issues and the environment; she firmly believes that thе decision to migrate should be made out of choice, not necessity. Despite her short work experience, she has worked for multinational companies long enough to realized that she does not like them and doesn't want to work at one again, at least not for a long time. She has recently convinced herself that she was surfer in a past life so now she can't wait to try her surfing skills (or lack of them) paddling some waves. She loves music (although she plays the guitar poorly), kissing and cuddling her dogs (and boyfriend), spending time with the family, and learning languages. Making nonsense lists is her preferred form of art, while checking what everyone's up to on all the different social networks she's part of is her number one guilty pleasure in the world. Her motto is ''think globally, act locally" which explains why she thinks she fits so well with everything that Idealist represents.

Yuting Bev Lien, Nonprofit FAQ Intern
Yuting grew up in the tiny town of Hockessin, Dela-where?, but she gets her kicks from living in foreign lands. She most recently returned from Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked with a pan-African team of social entrepreneurs to launch a secondary school called African Leadership Academy. Yuting earned her B.A. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton in 2006 and she strives to live out the university's motto: "In the nation's service and in the service of all nations." A b-girl (breakdancer) at heart, when she's not working you can find her rocking out to the likes of Curtis Mayfield and De La Soul. She speaks Mandarin and Spanish. During her internship she will be helping to improve the sections of the Nonprofit FAQ that address questions around development and fundraising. 

Marina Cardona, Content and Support Intern (Bs As)
Marina was born and raised in the sunny island of Puerto Rico. After high school she went to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, where she graduated with a Bachelors degree in Political Science in May of 2008. Marina considers herself a volunteer junkie and has volunteered in numerous nonprofit organizations both in the United States and abroad. Marina is currently in Buenos Aires enjoying the big city life, working in Idealist.org since the fall of 2008, and studying Business Administration at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa. In her free time Marina likes dancing, going to the movies, visiting art museums, shopping at local artisans’ fairs, sitting at a sidewalk cafe to have coffee and pastries while people watching, and dreaming of traveling the world.  

Talia Krevsky, Community Outreach Intern (Buenos Aires)
Talia was born and raised in New York City, but still gets lost in the West Village. She worked with 826 NYC's Superhero Supply Co. for several years where she tutored youth in writing and reading, and sold grappling hooks as a sales clerk. She proceeded to teach at the Bronx Zoo and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden within respective wildlife/environmental awareness programs, wherein she conducted puppet shows as Pablo the Python and weeded more galinsoga than she thought she would ever come in contact with. Talia is completing her B.A. within the Macaulay Honors College based at Hunter College, pursuing an interdisciplinary major studying the greater Middle East with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She feels that the Idealist mission is a key ingredient for something resembling world peace, and is deeply moved to be a part of the team.

Nick Richie, Media Intern (Portland)
Nick is a media intern who left Northwestern University for Kalamazoo College where he studied English, critical theory, and anthropology. He makes documentary films, studies development in Southeast Asia, makes noise music with a computer, and is usually pushing some kind of rock up some kind of hill. His tenderest feelings are reserved for Detroit, Burma, and dogs. He is always looking for a compelling distraction from the hooks and lures of graduate school application and meaningful alternatives to the Ph.D. sirensong. He joins Idealist with the hope of building web development chops while lending some of his media experience. What he wants most in life is the courage to irritate his neighbors by playing instruments loudly in his apartment.

Nicole Staudinger, Grad Fairs Marketing Intern (Portland)
Nicole was born and raised in the snowbound glory that is Vermont. Feeling the need to expand her cultural integrity, she studied abroad in Spain for two semesters and graduated from the University of Vermont with a Spanish degree and a concentration in Environmental Studies. Feeling the restless stir of wanderlust and upon realizing that Vermont was perhaps not the ideal location for utilizing her expertise, she decided to float west in search of more promising opportunities. A long-time Idealist beneficiary, she's excited to be part of the Idealist team! Nicole now resides in SE Portland and spends her time walking dogs, smelling roses, and continuing the eternal quest for the perfect breakfast joint.

Emma Tupper, Graduate Education Resource Development Intern (Portland)
Emma was raised in Seattle, WA, where she launched her career in community activism at the age of eight when she directed an Earth Day phone bank to invite her elementary school peers to the celebration. Since then, she has remained mostly on the West Coast with a few stints in France, Greece, and the ever-exotic South Dakota. Emma recently earned her B.A. in English Literature at Reed College. Taking one year off from school, she pursued both her interests in travel and political activism—she went to Indonesia, worked as a community organizer on two campaigns, studied and lived on a Greek island, and then spent a month in Peru. She now lives in a converted General Store in SE Portland where she tends to her vegetable garden and is hoping to make space for an art studio. During her internship at Idealist, Emma will research various graduate school programs and, with any luck, will be able to use the resources at Idealist to figure out what her next step is.