Alumni Advisory Group

Founded in January 2023, the Leir Institute’s Alumni Advisory Group (AAG) supports the Institute’s goals to develop policy-relevant research; grow the reach and impact of its work; and deepen its network of engaged practitioners, policymakers, grantmakers, and funders.

	Emily Butera (F04) Senior Strategist, Advocate, and Philanthropic Advisor Washington, DC	Emily Butera is a senior strategist, advocate, and philanthropic advisor on asylum, refugee, and migration issues. Since graduating from The Fletcher School, she has worked with a wide range of organizations, including the Women’s Refugee Commission, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Most recently, Emily directed the immigrant and refugee rights portfolio at Open Society-US, where she planned and oversaw strategies to drive pro-immigrant narrative and policy change and build the power of immigrant and refugee communities. Her work included designing OSF’s Afghan American Initiative and Black Immigrant Justice Fund. At the Women’s Refugee Commission, Emily developed and ran a successful national campaign that changed Department of Homeland Security policy to enable detained and deported parents to participate in child welfare proceedings and defend their custody rights. She has also served on several advisory boards, including the Detention Watch Network and the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare, and been a visiting practitioner at academic institutions including the University of Sussex (UK) and Duke University.
	Sandra Contreras (F01) Director of Impact and New Business Development, Glasswing International Bogotá, Colombia	Sandra Contreras is responsible for Glasswing International’s Impact and New Business Development team. She has over twenty years of experience in international development in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean. Sandra has worked with the Salvadoran government and leading international NGOs across a broad spectrum of fields including microfinance, positive youth development, mental health, and humanitarian assistance. Sandra holds a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A dual Salvadoran and French citizen, Sandra and her husband live and raise their twin teenage daughters and younger son in Bogotá, Colombia.
	Christabell Makokha (F21) Deputy Director Strategy Planning and Management (Ethiopia & Nigeria), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Nairobi, Kenya	Christabell is a strategist and development professional with over ten years’ experience in designing and implementing innovative, sustainable solutions that meet the needs of traditionally underserved and marginalized groups, including women, youth, and rural populations. Christabell is passionate about inclusive development and has a background in both strategy development and program implementation. She is skilled in strategy consulting, analytics, market research, management, and competitive intelligence. As the Senior Director of Innovation at CARE USA, Christabell led the Innovation team in identifying new sustainable solutions that increase impact and accelerate scale. She has previously worked with and led teams in other organizations in the development space, including Aceli Africa, IDEO.org, Mercy Corps, and Dalberg Advisors. Christabell holds a Masters’ degree in Global Business Administration from Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and AB & BE degrees in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering from Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.
	Beth McFadyen (F22) Nonprofit Advisor and Organization Development Consultant Boston, MA	Beth McFadyen completed her MAHA degree program at Fletcher in May 2022, satisfying a desire to better understand international development and the Central America context. She has served as both Board President and Governance Officer with nonprofit organizations based in Guatemala and in El Salvador. She is currently completing her second year of service on the Board of Directors of Cristosal, the leading human rights organization in Central America. Beth earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts and worked as a corporate trainer for many years. Beth's experience in board leadership, her business degree, and her first graduate degree in Organization Development and Training have led to her current work as a nonprofit consultant, focusing on board strengthening. Beth is married to fellow Jumbo, Jay McFadyen (Mechanical Engineering, 1989). They reside in the suburbs of Boston and are parents to four adult children and two dogs.
	Mario Patiño (F13) Head of Business Development, Latin America, International Rescue Committee New York, NY	Mario Patiño has over fifteen years of project and relationship management experience in challenging environments. He has worked in some of the most severe humanitarian crises with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Danish Refugee Council, and the United Nations. As a Head of Business Development, Mario supports IRC's business development efforts in Latin America, securing financing from institutional donors. In this role, he brings technical and operational experience, leading the delivery and scale-up of cash transfer and workforce development programs for refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrants. Before this, he worked with CCS Fundraising, where he helped nonprofits position their programs with new donors and reach their fundraising goals. He is passionate about generating action to promote social change and helping field teams obtain the resources needed to achieve scale, respond to client needs, and deliver more effective programs. Mario holds an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. in International Relations from the City College of New York. Mario is an avid runner and enjoys biking around Brooklyn, where he lives with his partner Amy and corgi Jasper.
	Dr. Xanthe Scharff (F06; F11) CEO and Co-founder, The Fuller Project Founder and Board Chair Emeritus, Advancing Girls' Education in Africa Washington, DC Bozeman, Montana	Dr. Scharff is the CEO and Cofounder of The Fuller Project, the global nonprofit newsroom dedicated to groundbreaking reporting on women. The team’s reporting has spurred the introduction of new legislation, large scale data releases, and has saved lives. Since its cofounding in 2015 from Turkey, The Fuller Project newsroom has won 16 industry awards and citations. Xanthe’s reporting has been featured in Newsweek, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and beyond. She was named among the top 40 under 40 by the Leadership Center for Excellence and was named Tufts Distinguished Alumna. She is the Founder and Board Chair Emeritus of Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa, a thriving nonprofit in East Africa. For visionary leadership around climate and gender reporting, the Helen Gurley Brown Trust awarded her a Genius Grant. She serves on the Board of Advisors of The War Horse, a nonprofit newsroom that covers the military. Xanthe is a former scholar at the United States Institute of Peace and The Brookings Institution and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Meridian Center Rising Leadership Council.
	Dr. Colleen Thouez (F99) Director and Founder, Refugee Resettlement Initiative, Senior Fellow, New School's Zolberg Institute Senior Visiting Fellow, SciencesPo Paris New York, NY	Colleen Thouez is a Senior Fellow at The New School’s Zolberg Institute, where she leads the Global Cities portfolio, and a senior visiting fellow at SciencesPo Paris, advising French cities and the Africa-Europe Mayors Dialogue on Growth and Solidarity. Since the onset of the war in Ukraine, Colleen co-founded Europe Prykhystok, a locally-led initiative connecting Ukrainian and European communities to support Ukrainian IDPs. Currently, this initiative focuses on organizing short-term getaways in France for hundreds of Ukrainian children. Colleen also founded the Refugee Resettlement Initiative at the National Association of System Heads (NASH) in the United States, mobilizing 15 public university systems and millions of dollars in resources for refugee resettlement. Previously, she was the inaugural director of the Welcoming and Inclusive Cities Division at Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she developed transformative projects, including the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), the Global Cities Fund for Pandemic Relief, the Africa-Europe Mayors Dialogue, and the University Alliance for Refugees and At-Risk Migrants. Prior to her work with OSF, Colleen held leadership roles at the United Nations for 17 years, where she championed adult education and international migration. As Head of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in New York, she trained 3,000 government delegates annually in international law and UN affairs. She also served as a special advisor to Sir Peter Sutherland, the first director of the WTO and the UN Secretary-General’s representative on migration until 2018. Her recent publications include “New power configurations: city mobilization and policy change” (2022) in Global Networks and “Cities as emergent international actors in the field of migration” (2020) in Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations. Colleen is Canadian and French and is the proud mother of three.