Our People: Staff

Monique Cohen, Ph.D., is the Founder and President of Microfinance Opportunities. A leading international authority on the use of financial services by poor people, Dr. Cohen spearheads the groundbreaking “Global Financial Education Program” and developed the Listening to Clients” series, a visual and interactive market research for microfinance training toolkit. While previously with USAID, she led the “Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services” (AIMS) project, and she is currently co-directing an initiative on microfinance impact assessment supported by the Gates Foundation. She has published extensively on microfinance, microinsurance, and the informal sector.  She is currently on the board of the Microfinance Center in Poland.

Elizabeth McGuinness is the Senior Project Manager for Microfinance Opportunities. Formerly of Save the Children, Ms. McGuinness has extensive experience in AIMS client assessments, operational systems and MicroSave's market research for microfinance. Her areas of expertise also encompass women-focused poverty lending.

Jennefer Sebstad serves as Senior Advisor to Microfinance Opportunities' financial education, microinsurance, and impact assessment programs. Formerly of the Ford Foundation, Ms. Sebstad is a well-recognized exponent of impact assessment and client assessment in microfinance. Ms. Sebstad served as a key member of the AIMS team from 1994-2002.

Stephanie Fischer is Chief Operating Officer at Microfinance Opportunities. Stephanie has more than fifteen years experience in international development, research and consulting.  Prior to joining Microfinance Opportunities, Stephanie led the program team at GlobalGiving, served as the Worldwide Director for Safe Kids Worldwide and was Associate Director of Global Fellowship at Ashoka: Innovators of the Public.  

Kelly Gardner is the Director of Finance & Administration.  She has over twenty years of non-profit management experience, including six years as a consultant on financial, administrative and human resource systems.

Aideen Mannion is the Director of Financial Education.  Prior to joining MFO, Aideen spent more than 12 years in leadership positions on economic growth and sustainable development projects globally.  As both a senior program manager and Chief of Party, she has overseen and implemented financial sector reform initiatives as well as  directed programs aimed at enhanced competitiveness, capacity building, and  trade and investment.

Danielle Hopkins is the Technical Advisor for Financial Education at Microfinance Opportunities. Prior to joining Microfinance Opportunities, she designed and implemented a 10-hour financial literacy course and a 25-hour BDS course for Hispanic microentrepreneurs with the Economic and Community Development Institute.  She also conducted financial literacy courses for the Guaraní indigenous group as a Micro-Enterprise Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia.

Julie Lee is a Training Officer for Financial Education at Microfinance Opportunities. Prior to joining MFO, she directed academic programs for international students at a private language center in the US.  There she developed curricula, trained and supervised teachers, and advised students.  She has led training on teaching adults, microcredit lending, cultural sensitivity, and human trafficking.  She has worked in China, Italy, Nigeria and Zimbabwe where she taught secondary school English with the US Peace Corps.

Jessica Massie is a Training Officer for Financial Education at Microfinance Opportunities. She began her career as a teacher trainer and curriculum developer while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. She later trained teachers, mentored student research projects, and wrote curricula at the National University of Rwanda. Ms. Massie has previously held positions at the Microcredit Summit Campaign in Washington, D.C., and Mesilla Valley Habitat for Humanity in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Michael Ferguson is Senior Research Officer at Microfinance Opportunities.  Dr. Ferguson is an expert on qualitative field methods, and his areas of research include impact assessment, evaluation, market research, demand assessment, and microinsurance.  He is currently managing three large-scale Financial Diaries studies in Kenya and Central Malawi.  He holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan, where he specialized in Latin American culture and carried out extensive fieldwork in Peru. He has a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Craig Tower is a Research Officer and Market Researcher with the Impact Assessment Team.  He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and African Studies from Northwestern University, where he conducted in-depth field research on communication technologies in West Africa.   He also has extensive experience in domestic ethnographic market research and in teaching qualitative research methods.  Before turning to research, he provided technical assistance to farmers while in the US Peace Corps in Mali, and later led educational projects for two US-based alternative transportation organizations.

Bailey Butzberger is a Training/Program Officer for Financial Education at Microfinance Opportunities.  She holds a BS in Public Relations and Business and worked as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer in Cameroon with the US Peace Corps.  In that time, she trained local teachers working with adolescent girls in business topics, performed impact evaluations and capacity-building trainings at local microfinance institutions, and trained the first functioning Village Savings and Loan groups and trainers in the country.

Jessica Bachay is the Research and Program Assistant on the Impact Assessment Team at Microfinance Opportunities.  She holds a BA from Smith College with a degree in Economics and Latin American Studies and a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida.  Her thesis is entitled “Banking on Remittances to Mexico: Business Opportunities and Challenges”.

Kate Larson is the Project Assistant for Financial Education at Microfinance Opportunities. She holds a BA in Linguistics from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Dave Lesser is the Finance Assistant at Microfinance Opportunities. He holds a BA in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh.

Eva Louise Fowler is assistant to the president as well as research assistant to the Consumer Research Team.  She holds a BA from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and intends to pursue a career in microfinance.