A team based at the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland is implementing this work with USAID's Microenterprise Development division under the Enabling Environment component of the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project (AMAP) and the FIELD-Support cooperative agreement, managed by the Academy of Educational Development (AED).

Core Team

Brian Beard, is the Lead Trainer and Help Desk Facilitator for the Poverty Assessment Tools project at IRIS. Mr. Beard oversees the implementation component of the project, including developing and updating training materials, conducting trainings around the world, providing technical support via the PAT Help Desk, supervising the development of an e-learning portal to enhance the available training materials, and serving as a liaison with the microenterprise community on the progress of the project. Mr. Beard also provides input on tool design.

Lucy Gillers is the Program Manager for the PAT projects at IRIS. She provides programmatic and administrative support to both PAT projects. She also tracks deliverables and ensures compliance with USAID policies and procedures. In addition to her work on the PAT projects, she is the Program Manager on projects supporting the institutional development of the Government of Southern Sudan, improving the business environment in Ecuador, and assisting in the implementation of CAFTA-DR in the Dominican Republic.

Ms. Gillers is an international development specialist who earned her Masters in International Development at American University’s School of International Service. She spent two years teaching English in Romania with the Peace Corps and has worked at various internationally-focused, non-governmental organizations.

Anthony Leegwater is Project Director for the Developing Poverty Assessment Tools II project. He monitors the procurement of suitable data, the selection of an accurate and practical tool, and the construction of the final questionnaires and data entry templates. He establishes project priorities, plans, and communications. Mr. Leegwater also provides technical advice to the Help Desk, PAT trainers, and other poverty assessment efforts at IRIS.

Prior to his work with IRIS, Mr. Leegwater held research and teaching assistantships at the University of Maryland, where he received an MA in Economics. He also worked at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where he maintained a model of the global economy and modeled economic shocks.

Margaret Richards is the e-Learning specialist at IRIS. She will be creating, testing and providing user support for an online “training of trainers” program for PAT implementation. She will also be involved in design and delivery of live PAT trainings and general development for the project website, povertytools.org.

In addition to her work at IRIS, Ms. Richards is an education consultant and trainer with several youth-focused nonprofits in the DC area, an adjunct mathematics professor at Trinity University, and a fitness instructor. She has an EdM in International Education Policy and previously lived and worked in South Korea and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Arthur Shaw is Program Specialist for the Poverty Assessment Tools project. He creates poverty prediction models, designs survey instruments, develops data entry templates, trains on tool implementation, and provides technical support to the project Help Desk. He also provides analytical support to other data-driven projects at IRIS, including a poverty outreach survey for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a study for USAID on the SME sector’s role in national economic growth.

Mr. Shaw holds an MA in Economic Development from Vanderbilt University. He is fluent in French.

Manfred Zeller is Professor of Rural Development Theory and Policy at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He was previously Chair for Socioeconomics of Rural Development at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and Director of its Institute of Rural Development. From 1993 to 1999 Dr. Zeller was a research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He led the IFPRI team in the development of the CGAP/IFPRI Poverty Assessment Tool. Dr. Zeller wrote the literature review and analysis of existing tools, directed original data collection, and contributed to tool research using this data and existing data sources. He also helped to design the testing methodology. For the current project, Dr. Zeller will oversee data collection in the field and provide the project with advice on tool methodology and other aspects of poverty assessment.

Advisory Panel

As part of the original Developing Poverty Assessment Tools project, IRIS assembled an Advisory Panel of some of the most respected and knowledgeable technical experts in the field of poverty assessment. Each Advisory Panel member bought specific strengths to the IRIS team, and each agreed to provide short term technical assistance to the project as well as providing general methodological input and review. The Panel included:

Stephanie Charitonenko, Financial Services Consultanat

Anil Deolalikar, Professor of Economics, University of California, Riverside

Chris Dunford, President of Freedom From Hunger

Laura Foose, Partner at Alternative Credit Technologies and Facilitator for SEEP Network's Poverty Outreach Working Groups and Social Performance Working Group

Carter Garber, Executive Director of IDEAS

Christiaan Grootaert, formerly of the World Bank

Syed Hashemi, Senior Microfinance Specialist at CGAP

Olaf Kula, Senior Technical Advisor and Manager, ACDI/VOCA

Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, New York University

Nina Nayar, Financial Services Consultant

Anton Simanowitz, Programme Manager for Imp-Act consortium at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex