Leadership

Sarah Bouchie

President and Chief Executive Officer

Sarah Bouchie became President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2024. In this role, she collaborates with Helen Keller Intl’s Board of Trustees, leadership team, and staff, along with partner organizations and global leaders, to advance Helen Keller’s mission around the world.

With nearly three decades of international development leadership, Sarah has sat at both sides of the table – as an implementer and advocate with prominent global nonprofits and as a leader of the philanthropic investments that shape humanitarian and development impact. Prior to joining Helen Keller, Sarah served as Chief Impact Officer at the LEGO Foundation. Under her leadership, the LEGO Foundation deepened its commitment to children in vulnerable circumstances, expanded its footprint, and more than tripled its philanthropic investments. Prior to her time at LEGO Foundation, Sarah has led institutional fundraising, advocacy, and program efforts for organizations including ChildFund International, CARE USA, Save the Children, and the Aga Khan Foundation.

Sarah has served on steering groups for the multi-lateral investment funds at Education Cannot Wait, the Education Outcomes Fund, and the World Bank, as well as serving as Vice-Chair of the Steering Group for the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies.

She is a mother of two creative, inquisitive daughters and lives in Harare, Zimbabwe with her family.

Shawn K. Baker, MPH

Chief Program Officer

Shawn Baker leads Helen Keller Intl’s efforts to support our world’s most vulnerable communities through strengthening food and health systems using scientifically proven solutions that are feasible, scalable, and equitable.

Prior to joining Helen Keller, Shawn was the inaugural Chief Nutritionist at USAID and first Director of Nutrition at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has more than 35 years of experience in global public health and nutrition, including 19 years at Helen Keller in previous roles and 30 years living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

While at USAID, Shawn chaired the Agency’s Nutrition Leadership Council and the US Government’s Senior Nutrition Champions group. He served for over eight years on the Technical Review Panel for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which he chaired until November 2014. He was previously chair of the Executive Committee of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, later serving as special advisor, and served on the board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition from 2013-2016. He was awarded the Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite du Niger by the Presidency of the Republic in 2001.

Shawn serves as Vice Chair of the Board of The Micronutrient Forum. He has a master’s of public health from Tulane University, with concentrations in international health and nutritional epidemiology and a bachelor’s of science in biology from the University of Miami. He is based in Dakar, Senegal.

Volkan Cakir

Regional Director, Eastern, Southern, and Central Africa

Volkan Cakir serves as Regional Director of Eastern, Southern, and Central Africa, providing management and program oversight to Helen Keller’s work in six countries – Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania – ensuring our programs operate with high standards to fulfill Helen Keller’s mission. He also provides management support to regional initiatives, such as the bouillon cube fortification.   

Volkan is a skilled health economist and manager, with almost 30 years of experience in health sector reform and has worked in more than 10 African countries over the past 20 years to create policy change that achieves better development outcomes on the ground. He has managed large and complex health programs and built effective working relationships with U.S. Agency for International Development and European Union missions, the World Bank, United Nations agencies, various global development funds, and host country counterparts across Africa. Volkan has MSc in economics and speaks English, French, and Turkish. He is based in Dakar, Senegal.

Fatoumata Diouf

Regional Director, West Africa

Fatoumata Diouf serves as Regional Director for West Africa, ensuring quality programming for children and families across seven countries – Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and Senegal.

Fatoumata brings a wealth of experience including strategy development, execution, and monitoring; program development and delivery; policy formulation; and advocacy. She has extensive experience interacting with high-level external stakeholders such as governments, multilateral agencies, parliaments, media, and donors. Prior to joining Helen Keller, Fatoumata was Regional Director at Sightsavers in charge of 13 countries in West and Central Africa.

She holds an MBA in strategy and is currently pursuing a PhD in health economics and policy at Lancaster University. Fatoumata is fluent in French and English and is based in Dakar Senegal.

Maura Fitzgerald

Chief People and Culture Officer

Maura Fitzgerald leads Helen Keller Intl’s People and Culture team, overseeing organizational design; learning and development; people operations; and talent management throughout the employee life cycle in support of our mission, values, and strategy. She partners with Helen Keller’s diverse senior leadership across the globe to cultivate a healthy and inclusive workplace culture where a positive employee experience ensures strong program outcomes.

Maura brings more than 20 years of experience working in all aspects of human resources management in the international nonprofit sector. She started with Helen Keller in 2011 and previously worked in the US section of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières for 13 years during a period of tremendous growth.

Susan Kotcher

Chief External Relations Officer

Susan Kotcher is a seasoned senior leader, creative fundraising strategist, and external relations expert who has built, restructured, and led high-performing teams for major international development organizations, as well as for national nonprofits.

Her transformative leadership at, most recently, the Rubin Museum of Art, as well as at Pro Mujer, International Rescue Committee, UNICEF USA, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Barnard College, significantly increased revenue; rallied new donors, media, and thought leaders; and strengthened brand awareness, positioning, and market share to advance these organizations respective missions.

Patricia Manyari

Chief Financial Officer

Patricia Manyari oversees all fiscal and fiduciary responsibilities of the organization. In her role, she ensures that Helen Keller Intl has strong financial and accounting systems in place in order to provide transparency, accountability and efficiency in all financial transactions of the organization. Patricia started at Helen Keller in January 2012. She brings 23 years of experience in financial management of international nonprofit organizations, implementing sound accounting practices and high financial standards, both in the field and at the headquarters level; and has extensive experience in compliance with various governmental regulations.

She comes to Helen Keller from the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) in Washington, DC, where she served as Director of Finance for over six years, three of them in Bogota, Colombia. At PADF headquarters, Patricia managed the organization’s annual budget of $55 million and monitored approximately forty projects in seven different countries in Latin America.

Other prior experience includes serving as Deputy Chief Financial Officer at CHF International’s headquarters in Washington, DC, for five years and as Vice President for Finance at PACT Inc.’s Washington headquarters for ten years, three of them in Peru.

Satish Raj Pandey

Regional Director, Asia

Satish Raj Pandey joined Helen Keller Intl in 2022 as Regional Director of Asia, supporting work in Bangladesh, Cambodia,  Nepal, and the Philippines. He works closely with the Country Directors and Chiefs of Party to ensure organization-wide planning, decision making, and efficient implementation of program objectives and activities across Asia.

Satish has more than 28 years of experience in public health, development, and humanitarian response program. He has managed large, complex programs; led program design and implementation; maintained donor relations; and supported business development.

Prior to joining Helen Keller, Satish worked as Chief of Party for FHI 360 in Nigeria for a large PEPFAR/USAID-funded HIV and tuberculous integration project. Prior to that he was Country Director for FHI 360 in Nepal while also leading the flagship HIV project as Chief of Party. Satish has also worked with UNICEF Regional office for South Asia and Asia Regional office of Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Nepal.