ISET-International builds climate resilience through program design, implementation, evaluation, and learning. We are an interdisciplinary and agile group of climate experts, practitioners, and researchers who deliver technical expertise and advisory services on climate change adaptation and resilience to diverse clients and partners. We are a registered US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with over 25 years in the international development arena. ISET-International has a portfolio across South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas, with staff and associates based worldwide. 

Leadership

Karen MacClune, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Colorado, USA

Karen joined ISET-International in 2009, after a decade of work in hydrologic consulting, and in 2018 became Executive Director. Karen provides thought leadership while actively engaging in project work in both the US and Vietnam offices. She is passionate about integrating learning across disciplines, scales, and cultures into practice and influence in climate change adaptation and resilience. She has served as scientific advisor for flood and water operations modeling, developed and facilitated training for resilience building, and supported decision-makers and practitioners to effectively address climate change challenges. Karen has a B.S. in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Colorado.

Ms. Ngo Thi Le Mai

Country Coordinator, Hanoi, Vietnam

Mai is ISET-Vietnam Country Coordinator, managing ISET-Vietnam work in Zurich, AFD funded and other projects. Prior to joining ISET, she worked for the Ford Foundation, Vietnam & Thailand, as Liaison Officer & Grants Administrator, and the Vietnam News Agency. She got a bachelor’s degree in English at the Hanoi University, Vietnam, and studied Business Administration and English at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Mai has extensive experience integrating international engagement work with the local and national context. Currently she works with national/provincial/city partners in Hà Nội,Huế, Bình Đinh, and Can Tho, and liaises with Vietnamese offices supervising ISET work in Vietnam.

Vu Canh Toan, Ph.D.

Technical Lead, Hanoi, Vietnam

Vu Canh Toan is a Technical Lead at ISET-Vietnam, bringing over 15 years of expertise in urban resilience, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, urban development, and governance. He seamlessly blends strong theoretical knowledge with hands-on practical experience, excelling in proposal development, project design, planning, and implementation. Before joining ISET, Toan has adeptly navigated both the private and public sectors, drawing from his time at the Eiffage Group in France and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam. He is dedicated to bridging the gap between research, practice, and policy to create meaningful, lasting impact. Toan holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from France and a Ph.D. in Urban Flood Governance from Australia.

Kanmani Venkateswaran, M.S.

MERL Specialist, Colorado, USA

Kanmani is a research and MERL expert with extensive experience conducting MERL for complex, multi-country development and climate resilience programs. She has published reports, case studies, and peer-reviewed articles documenting research and learning on what works and doesn’t work for building resilience; in doing so, she is commited to incorporating and elevating local voices and perspectives. Kanmani has also developed program-level MERL frameworks, and conducted global portfolio evaluations for grant-makers such as the Climate Justice Resilience Fund. Her country experience includes the United States, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Peru, the Philippines, and Zambia. Kanmani holds a Bachelors degree from Kenyon College in Biology and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado.

Tho Nguyen Anh, MSc

Program Officer, Hanoi, Vietnam

Tho has over 10 years of experience supporting the delivery of complex climate change resilience programs in Vietnam. She has been responsible for conducting studies for assessing climate change risks and vulnerability, assessing planning and development practices, and measuring flood resilience in the urban, peri-urban and rural contexts. She is involved in the management of a large portfolio of projects in Vietnam, where she provides support in project design, proposal development, research & learning, translation, event organization and dialogue facilitation. Tho holds an MSc in Environment and International Development of University of East Anglia, UK; and Bachelor’s degrees in English Studies and Finance and Banking from Hanoi University, Vietnam.

Atalie Pestalozzi, MA

M&E, Research, and Design Specialist, Colorado, USA

Atalie’s role is in M&E and research, often bridging the two with graphic design to make complex concepts more accessible to a broader range of audiences. In her MERL work, she primarily leverages qualitative methods, including Outcome Harvesting, to support evaluations, develop M&E frameworks for global programs, and produce applied research reports and case studies. Atalie has a Bachelors in International Affairs and Geography from the University of Colorado, a Masters in International and Development Studies (Environment and Sustainability) from the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland and draws from years of experience working in design and architecture.

Colleen McGinn, Ph.D.

Principal – MERL, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Colleen McGinn is a Principal at ISET International. She has 25 years’ work experience and specializes in coping and resilience, and applying disaster management perspectives to new global challenges like climate change and forced evictions. Dr. McGinn provides research and technical assistance to development and humanitarian agencies across Asia and beyond. As a social scientist, she also works widely on gender, disability, and social inclusion. One of her core niches is Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) for climate resilience, and she is recognized as a leading global expert on this topic. Prior to her distinguished career in research, Dr. McGinn spent many years managing emergency programs across Asia, Africa, and the Balkans. She has lived in Southeast Asia for 15 years.

Ms. Gulnara Valayeva, MAFM

Controller, Colorado, USA

Gulnara is a certified public accountant (CPA) who joined ISET in 2013 and now manages the agency’s finances and contracts. In addition to 20 years of experience in accounting, she oversees ISET’s contract compliance and supports project management. Gulnara holds an MA in Accounting and Financial Management. She is fluent in French, Russian, and English, and has worked in multinational companies in France and Russia.

Hoa Tung Truong, MSc

Technical staff, Hanoi, Vietnam

Hoa has over 10 years of experience in water resources modelling and GIS applications in land cover changes, natural resource and disaster management. She is well-versed in climate risk and vulnerability assessment or flood and climate-related risk management, participatory mappings.She is proficient in a wide range of geospatial analysis and water modeling software packages. She also conducts GIS and remote sensing analysis on climate change, biodiversity and conservation, water management and energy.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Hydrology and Environment from Hanoi Water Resource University and Master’s degree from KU Leuven in Water Resources Engineering.

Maya MacHamer

Principal – Community Resilience, Colorado, USA

Mia Chung, J.D.

MERL, Gender and Policy Specialist, Victoria, Canada

Mia specializes in MERL, policy, and gender analysis in the developing context. She has implemented, evaluated, and published on a range of development, climate change adaptation, and resilience programs. She has also drafted environmental legislation, developed community advocacy strategies, led a multi-country team to champion digital rights for environmental governance, and practiced energy regulation law for a leading Canadian law firm. Her country experience includes Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, and Canada. Mia has a dual B.A. in Gender Studies and Family Studies from the University of British Columbia (Canada) and a J.D. from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University (Canada).

Ms. Ngo Phuong Thanh, B.A.

Program Assistant and Multimedia Designer, Hanoi, Vietnam

Thanh is responsible for multimedia design and office administration in Vietnam. She supports program activities through graphic design, translations, reporting, accounting and processing logistics. Thanh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Tourism from Hanoi University, Vietnam. Prior to ISET, Thanh was Secretary to the Honorary Consul at the Consulate of Uruguay. She was also a member of the Attitude, Knowledge and Skills Vietnam Group, which focuses on improving the attitudes of young entrepreneurs toward society through community work.

Rachel Norton, Ph.D.

Knowledge & Learning Specialist, Colorado, USA

Rachel’s role is in research and knowledge, focusing on pulling together insights from different disciplines and perspectives to form coherent narratives that support learning on climate change resilience and adaptation. In this role, she employs qualitative methodologies to learn from disaster events across contexts, designs tools and indicators, and supports MERL for global programs. She has produced research reports, case studies, policy briefs, blogs, and peer-reviewed articles. Rachel has a B.A. in Geography/Spanish from Middlebury College, an M.S. in Environmental Studies, and a Ph.D. in Health & Behavioral Sciences from the University of Colorado.

Peter Backlund

Chairman of the Board and Associate Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability at CSU

Peter Backlund is Interim Director of Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability. His interests include the interaction of environmental, societal, and economic factors in sustainability; assessment of climate change risks, impacts, and response strategies; and use of scientific research for decision-making and public policy. Mr. Backlund has helped lead assessments of the effects of climate change on land resources, water resources, biodiversity, agriculture, and global food security. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Abraham Lincoln Honor Award.

Ajaya Dixit, Ph.D.

ISET-Nepal

Ajaya Dixit focuses on the challenges of building resilience across boundaries and at sub-national scales. He has studied and written extensively on water resources, transboundary water cooperation, flood management, wash services, and climate change adaptation. Since 2020 he has been curating South Asia Nadi Sambad (SOANAS), a digital platform aimed at promoting dialogues on water challenges across disciplines and geographies. He is a Senior Advisor at the Institute of Social and Environmental Transition Nepal (ISET Nepal), a visiting Professor of Practice at Kathmandu School of Law, and a Senior Fellow at SAWTEE, Nepal. His current research focuses on the locally contextualized transition of energy systems embedded in South Asia’s larger social and political structures.

Anna Brown

Founder and Principal of Aequita Consulting LLC

Anna Brown is an interdisciplinary expert with over 20 years of experience in human and environmental systems, focusing on climate and social equity. Currently a Senior Adaptation Advisor for USAID’s Climate Adaptation Support Activity (CASA) through Tetra Tech, she also founded Aequita Consulting LLC serving clients in clean and resilient energy systems, extreme heat planning, and adaptation philanthropy. Anna has worked across Asia, Africa, and North America, previously managing the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network at The Rockefeller Foundation and leading The Nature Conservancy’s North America Adaptation Strategy. She holds degrees from Brown University and MIT and serves on several boards.

Dipak Gyawali

Pragya (Academician), Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST)

Dipak Gyawali, Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, is Chair of Inter Disciplinary Analysts (IDA), a guest senior research scholar at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria, and former Chair of Nepal Water Conservation Foundation. His research interests lie at the interdisciplinary interface of technology-society which he examines from perspectives of Cultural Theory. A hydroelectric power engineer (Moscow Energy Institute) and a political economist (UC Berkeley, CA), he served as Nepal’s Minister of Water Resources and has chaired or served in advisory boards and review missions of various international organizations.

Fawad Khan

ISET-Pakistan

Fawad Khan is an expert in the economics of climate change and works on adaptation planning, evaluation of adaptation effectiveness, economics of adaptation strategies, and exploring factors contributing to resilience. Mr. Khan was part of the team that designed Local Adaptation Plans of Action, implemented across Nepal, and a member of the World Bank team that designed the municipal tier of government called Tehsil/Town Municipal Administration, implemented in Pakistan; both these initiatives are now enshrined in the constitutions of the respective countries. Currently, he is leading the development of district level Adaptation Plans for the Pakistan Ministry of Climate Change, supported by the World Bank/Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre.

Raj Pandya

Director, Thriving Earth Exchange, American Geophysical Union

Rajul Pandya is a Professor of Practice and the Executive Director of the Global Futures Education Alliance, a project of Teachers College and Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. His work focuses on how science and science education can be more participatory, how community engagement guides and enriches discovery and application, and how universities can better support communities as they advance shared sustainability and their own wellbeing.  Raj builds systems that invite all people—most especially people from communities who have been historically excluded —to learn and work together to build futures where people and nature thrive.

Dan Burger

Board member

Dan Burger is the health and resilience Program Director for the Gulf Research Program of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dan directs a portfolio of applied research, studies, projects, and other activities that seek to build the adaptive capacity of regional systems to the compounding effects of climate change, disasters and environmental quality on human health and community resilience. Dan’s career spans decades of public leadership roles that have focused on the advancement of intergovernmental and cross-sectoral resilience planning efforts, community capacity building, and public policy.

Seema Bhatt

Board member

Seema Bhatt is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and works on issues related to biodiversity, climate change and ecotourism in South Asia. Her particular focus of work is on strengthening the links between conservation of biodiversity and livelihoods of local communities. Seema has recently co-authored a book on Ecotourism Development in India published by the Cambridge University Press and is a Fulbright Scholar and the Honorary Vice President of the Ecotourism Society of India. Seema is at present with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in India, as the National Biodiversity Expert.