ActionAid USA welcomes new Executive Director, Heather Paul
Washington D.C. – ActionAid USA today announced the appointment of Heather Paul, PhD., to be its new Executive Director effective September 8, 2011.
“I am delighted to welcome Heather to ActionAid. She brings a breadth of experience in nonprofit leadership that will bring us closer to achieving our mission of working with poor and marginalized people to eradicate poverty by overcoming the injustice and inequality that cause it,” said Board Chair Jeff Whisenant.
Dr. Paul has over twenty years experience in nonprofit leadership, international development and social policy.
Paul comes to Action Aid USA after serving as CEO of SOS Children’s Villages -USA for the past six years. In this position she oversaw the American office of a Europe-based INGO with more than 540 Villages for orphaned and abandoned children in 130 countries. SOS Children’s Villages is a leader in the field of child rights and protection for children without parental care. Under Paul’s leadership SOS expanded its revenues by 500% and its visibility through strong corporate partnerships and support from celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Christian Bale.
Previously, Dr. Paul was Executive Director of SAFE KIDS Worldwide for ten years. There she built the foremost child safety organization in the U.S. with more than 300 state and local coalitions addressing major causes of unintentional death and injury to children, most notably traffic crashes. Dr. Paul created the nation’s largest child occupant protection program, still in existence. With support from General Motors starting in the mid-1990s, Paul transformed SAFE KIDS from a service organization into one of advocacy. In addition to distributing more than 1 million free child safety seats, SAFE KIDS coalitions changed child occupant protection laws in twenty seven states and expanded SAFE KIDS to thirteen other countries. During this time traffic deaths from childhood injury declined by 40% in the US.
Dr. Paul held previous positions as Vice President of the National Health Council where she focused on women’s health issues. She also was a Senior Researcher at the Federation of Community Planning in Cleveland, Ohio where she oversaw major research on low income women and children’s health status.
Dr. Paul has extensive international experience. She has reviewed SOS Villages and programs as well as SAFE KIDS initiatives all over the world. She also lived in the Republic of the Philippines where she assisted in anthropological fieldwork on rural women of the rice terraces, before returning to finish her doctorate in American Studies at the University of Maryland, with a focus on marginality in the social sciences. Dr. Paul has an undergraduate degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Master’s degree from American University. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum of Washington, DC and a Board Member of America’s Development Foundation.
Paul will attend the ActionAid Country Directors’ Forum in Ghana in September.
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in 50 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together. Together with more than 2,000 civil society partners worldwide, ActionAid works with and supports the poorest and most vulnerable people to fight for and gain their rights to food, shelter, work, basic healthcare and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. View the website at www.actionaidusa.org.