The Office of International Development Team:

OID Staff:

Ms. Mary Anne Walker is the Managing Director of Michigan State University's Office of International Development. She did her undergraduate work at Northeastern University and graduate work at Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (U.S. Foreign Policy) and American University (International Law and Organizations). She served as a Fellow to the United Nations University. After working 5 years with Sherin and Lodgen, a law firm in Boston, Walker joined US Agency for International Development's Europe and New Independent States Bureau. She worked on education and training programs, rule of law initiatives and finished her tenure with USAID serving as a Senior Democracy and Governance officer in Zagreb, Croatia managing projects that aided civil society development. Mary Anne joined Michigan State University in January, 2000 to start-up and manage the Office of International Development on campus.

Ms. Gretchen Sanford is the Assistant Director of the Office of International Development at Michigan State University. She served as the project director of the Education Reform program in Egypt, which worked with Egyptian universities to enhance professional development of teachers and develop mentoring, and induction programs for new teachers. Gretchen has extensive experience developing sustainable partnerships among university faculty, school administrators and the macro-school community. Gretchen has also administered and taught in a two year intensive Agricultural Business program at Michigan State University. Previous career experience includes work as a high school Agriscience and Biology educator at Lakewood High School. Her current research interests are the impacts of foreign aid on international development work conducted at Land Grant Universities and gender equity issues as they relate to the education of women.

Ms. Kathy Hull , Budget Specialist/Administrative Assistant, is a part-time member of the OID team. She is a Certified Public Accountant and has an accounting degree from California State University, Fullerton. After working fourteen years in a CPA and/or municipal environment, she left her position of Assistant Finance Director for the City of Seal Beach and relocated to Michigan. Using her experience in budgeting, finance, payroll and human resources, she will be developing the budget component of grant proposals.

Ms. Lynn Lee , Accountant/Administrative Assistant, joined the OID staff in November 2000. Ms. Lee holds an MBA in Finance from Western Michigan University and has nine years of experience working with various types of state and federal grants. Ms. Lee provides financial and administrative support for the office, assists with development of grant proposals and budgets and maintains the office database on faculty expertise.

Liaisons to OID:

Dr. Theresa Bernardo , the Liaison from the College of Veterinary Medicine, joined MSU in 1997 after a decade working in international development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Bernardo, with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and a Master of Science degree from Canada, brings more than 16 years of progressive experience in agriculture, health sciences and information technology to her work at MSU. In her present position as Director of the Information Technology Center, she motivates a team of 16 persons responsible for implementing all aspects of information technology (IT) for the College of Veterinary Medicine at MSU. She also consults on IT strategy with a Fortune 500 client and serves on the Board of Directors of an educational multi-media company. Dr. Bernardo is a Canadian citizen, qualified in veterinary epidemiology, with a decade of experience as an international public servant. While serving as Director of Agricultural Health (a.i.) for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), she was responsible for setting strategic direction for cooperation activities in the Americas in coordination with IICA's other technical disciplines and forged effective relationships with related international organizations. Previously, as information specialist, she worked with a colleague over the Internet to develop a global animal health information system that was adopted in over 100 countries. Dr. Bernardo has lived and worked in Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica and the USA and has participated in expert committees, working groups, missions and training courses in over 30 countries. Having pioneered Internet usage in a number of developing countries since 1988 she is intimately aware of the challenges in the field, but is motivated by the clear opportunity to benefit humanity thought the creative and practical application of information technology.

Dr. Dan Clay , the Liaison from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is Professor and Director of the Institute of International Agriculture at Michigan State University. He received a Ph.D. in 1982 from MSU in the areas of rural sociology and demography. His work in international development has for over 20 years focused on issues of food security, food aid impacts, household livelihood strategies, relief-development linkages, conservation investments, and household survey methodologies. Before joining the faculty at MSU in 1987 he worked as an International Technical Advisor with the International Statistical Programs Center (U.S. Census Bureau), where he coordinated numerous projects in Africa aimed at building capacity in the areas of data collection systems and applied policy analysis. Dr. Clay lived and worked in Rwanda as the MSU coordinator of Michigan State University's Food Security research program there during the crisis years1992-1995. Subsequently he became involved in Ethiopia, where he helped to develop a Market Information System (MIS) for use by farmers, traders, and disaster response agencies, and focused on issues of food aid targeting and long-term impacts on food security. Other countries in which Dr. Clay has maintained applied research, training, and outreach activities include: Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, and Zambia.

Professor Eric Freedman JD , the Liaison from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Acting Assistant Dean of International Studies and Programs. He received his master’s degree in resource development from MSU and his law degree from MSU. Before joining the faculty full-time, he spent 20 years as a newspaper reporter in New York and Michigan, winning a Pulitzer Prize. Professor Freedman has been a Fulbright senior scholar in Uzbekistan and has conducted training workshops for professional journalists in Central Asia. He also has MSU study abroad programs in Australia and the British Isles and serves as his college’s liaison to the Office of Study Abroad. His research interests include press rights and journalistic practices in Central Asia and media coverage of international environmental issues. In addition, his newspaper and magazine articles have taken readers from a Great Silk Road bazaar to lawn bowls in Fiji, from the Toronto waterfront to a crumbling castle in the Spanish Pyrenees, from the dying Aral Sea to London’s Fleet Street, and beyond. He is the author or coauthor of seven books, including the forthcoming John F. Kennedy in His Own Words.

Dr. Jeff Riedinger , is Dean of International Studies and Programs, OID Liaison from International Studies and Programs, and the Director of the Center for Advanced Study of International Development. Riedinger earned his doctorate in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and holds a law degree from the University of Washington. With over 20 years of international experience, Riedinger's work has focused on the political economy of redistributive agrarian reform, the role of non-governmental organizations in shaping and implementing agricultural and environmental policy, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, and the legal rights of indigenous populations.