December 5, 2018 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs George Ingram, Lester Munson, and Tessie San Martin.
The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network offers its sincerest thanks to Stephanie Cappa, Deputy Director & Senior Policy Advisor, for her four tremendous years at MFAN and her leadership in foreign aid policy reform.
Stephanie Cappa joined MFAN in 2014, bringing with her more than a decade of professional experience on Capitol Hill, in the private sector, and at nonprofits. Prior to MFAN, she worked as foreign policy, national security, and appropriations advisor to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), leading efforts to improve U.S. foreign assistance, including programs for clean water and sanitation. She has also led international development policy for InterAction, and worked as a strategic and communications consultant at Freedman Consulting, LCC.
Ms. Cappa has been instrumental in sharpening and elevating the coalition’s policy voice and advancing MFAN’s priorities with the administration, Congress, and the broader aid effectiveness community. In January, she will be joining the Government Relations team at the World Wildlife Fund, the leading organization in wildlife conservation and endangered species, where she will work on U.S. international conservation policy and continue to advocate for MFAN’s core vision of locally-owned, sustainable development.
“MFAN would simply not be the effective coalition it is today without the work of Stephanie Cappa,” said Tessie San Martin, MFAN Co-Chair and President & CEO of Plan International USA. “She has been instrumental in the coalition’s policy direction and has truly shaped the reform conversation in the community.”
“Stephanie’s leadership on MFAN’s issues is clear. She works with passion and energy to advance core principles of effectiveness, advocating for transparency, accountability, and country ownership,” said Lester Munson, MFAN Co-Chair and Principal at BGR Group.
“To say that Stephanie Cappa has moved the needle on U.S. foreign assistance reform would not be an overstatement,” said George Ingram, MFAN Co-Chair and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Stephanie has been the policy mind behind the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and has played a role in the community’s proudest policy successes in the past four years.”
MFAN will sincerely miss the leadership of Ms. Cappa as the coalition continues to advance country-owned, transparent, and accountable U.S. foreign assistance.
