Meet the New 2021-22 Open Gov Hub Member Council!
OPEN GOV HUB’S MEMBER COUNCIL IS AN 8-PERSON GOVERNANCE BODY MADE UP OF LEADING ACTIVE MEMBERS WHO REPRESENT DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS FROM OUR COMMUNITY.
The Council serves as a strategic braintrust that is responsible for deciding who gets to join the Open Gov Hub (by reviewing prospective new member applications), and provides input on how to best invest our resources to best fulfill the Hub’s mission and strategy.
Each Council member is nominated for a one-year term and also leads a different activity to foster collaboration, learning and resource sharing in our network. This year, we introduced 4 committees: New Member Development/Recruitment Committee, Programs/Events & Community Building Committee, Business Development and Operations Committee, Partnerships Committee.
Meet the team:
Cheri-Leigh Erasmus serves as the Global Director of Learning at the Accountability Lab, a nonprofit organization aimed at making governance work for people by supporting active citizens, responsible leaders, and accountable institutions. She has spent more than a decade in the international higher education and international development arenas. Through her work in leadership development, she’s conceptualized and implemented leadership and skills development curricula for emerging leaders geared for careers in both the private and public sectors. She oversees Accountability Lab’s learning and impact in her current position as part of a team working with young leaders to find innovative ways to hold governments accountable in 12 countries across Africa and South Asia. Cheri-Leigh is committed to finding new ways of using citizen-generated data to strengthen civic participation, especially related to the increased inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups. She serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Berrett-Koehler Foundation, is an Advisory Board Member for Auburn University’s Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Organizations and Community Governance, and is a Board Member at Embracing Diversity.
Colin Cook is the Finance & Operations Manager at Just Results and has been at OpenGov Hub for 3 years. Just Results is a development start-up focused on reducing bureaucracy by streamlining and digitizing complex administrative processes in developing countries. Before joining Just Results, Colin worked in regulatory and tax policy. Colin recently completed his Masters in Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University and has BS in Economics from Florida State University. You can find him playing basketball at the many outdoor courts around DC or playing board games with friends.
Elsa Peraldi is the Senior Manager, Integrity & Anti-corruption at Global integrity. She joined GI in July 2016 as a key part of the Africa Integrity Indicators team. She brings more than 10 years of experience in the sector, having worked on human rights and governance projects with Freedom House, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the World Bank, the government and State Congress of Coahuila and, most recently, the Natural Resource Governance Institute and Transparency International. Elsa brings expertise in various research methodologies and a significant breadth of issues, including human rights, accountability, freedom of information and transparency, extractives transparency, and the rule of law.
Emma Arcos (they/she) joined Open Government Partnership in October 2021 as the HR Associate, supporting operations and administration of the employee experience. They discovered their passion for HR in 2017 while managing WZBC-Newton, 90.3FM, an educational non-profit radio station, which broadcasts human rights news and experimental tunes. In addition to working at Open Government Partnership, Emma consults on HR projects for small businesses oriented towards social equity. They enjoy collaboration and cooperation, so they are always happy to connect at OGH. They hope to learn more about other Hubbers and their projects through their participation on the Member Council. They enjoy collaging, gardening, and cultivating an abundance perspective towards work, relationships, and relaxation.
Kathryn Alexander is a Senior Program Advisor at DG, supporting programming at critical stages of design, startup, and adaptive implementation. She focuses on promoting data use for improved service delivery in health and agriculture, including the design and delivery of data needs assessments and trainings to support data producers and users across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Kathryn works in several capacities on DG’s Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program, including leading country implementation in Ghana and advising the program manager on high-level strategy and coordination of cross-country work. Kathryn is also currently managing the Administrative Data-Driven Decisions (AD3) Program. Previously, she worked in Tanzania as a Peace Corps Volunteer and with the World Food Programme. Kathryn holds an MPA in International Development from Princeton University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
Kerstin Tebbe is the Founder of Collective Mind. She has 18 years of experience supporting networks and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Her passion for networks was ignited by 6.5 years (2008-2014) spent on the Secretariat for the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) where she coordinated an international technical working group, established a pan-African knowledge hub, and served as Deputy/Acting Director of the network. As a consultant from 2014 to 2019, Kerstin supported networks and multi-stakeholder initiatives — including the IASC Global Education Cluster, the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), the Whole of Syria Education Cluster, and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission — with strategy design, program review, knowledge management, capacity building, and facilitation. Kerstin founded Collective Mind in late 2019 after many years of independent study and research on networks. Currently based in Washington DC, Kerstin has lived and worked in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris, Nairobi, and Geneva. When she’s not thinking about networks, she’s dancing.
Roderick Gringer is the Community Coordinator at Feedback Labs. In this role, he curates live and virtual events to drive engagement within our community as well as oversees our communications efforts. Passionate about advancing equity in education, government, and education, Roderick seeks to apply an intersectional lens to every aspect of his life. Roderick attended Morehouse College, an all-male Historically Black College, and Oglethorpe University, both in Atlanta, GA, and has bachelor’s degrees in Communications and Policy. While at Morehouse, Roderick was awarded the Bonner Scholarship, a service-driven scholar program with the mission of perpetuating a culture of service on campus and the surrounding community. Prior to joining Feedback Labs, Roderick worked in Atlanta designing events, campaigns, and experiential marketing experiences for some of the world’s most iconic brands. In his spare time, he enjoys anything outdoors, traveling to destinations with historical significance, and enjoying live music.
Shelby Brown recently joined POGO as Operations Manager where she helps ensure smooth day-to-day functioning of the organization. She comes from CORE Group where she managed operations and membership, and has held previous positions across the spectrum of nonprofit operations and administration. She received her BA in International Relations and English from Syracuse University in 2013. She is originally from Rhode Island, and currently resides in Washington, DC.
