Our Organization

Senior Management Team

Kathy Spahn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Helen Keller International, is responsible for all operations, programs, finances, communications and public policy initiatives of HKI. Ms. Spahn works closely with the Board of Trustees, global leaders in public health, staff members throughout the agency, partner organizations, and HKI supporters in carrying out her responsibilities. Prior to joining HKI, Ms. Spahn was President and Executive Director of ORBIS, a global non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of blindness in the developing world. As President and Executive Director, she provided overall direction and management for this $30 million organization with four affiliates and five country programs, and a medical volunteer corps of 370. Prior to her work with ORBIS, she was Executive Director of God’s Love We Deliver, a New York-based AIDS service organization dedicated to combating malnutrition and hunger among people living with HIV/AIDS.

Ms. Spahn serves as Chair of the board of directors of InterAction. She is also a member of the boards of directors of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and The Bernadotte Foundation for Children’s Eyecare. She is a Founding Board member of both the North America chapter of IAPB and the Association of Nutrition Services Agencies (ANSA), and a founding partner of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control. She joined HKI in March 2005 and is located at headquarters in New York City.

Shawn Baker is the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa. Mr. Baker provides overall program leadership, grant development and supervision and is the principal contact with regional and sub-regional organizations. Regional Director since 1997, he has overseen the expansion from four to 13 country programs and a 20-fold increase in program funding and impact. He has led development of strategic regional relationships, particularly with the 15-nation West African Health Organization. HKI’s Africa headquarters were based in Niamey, Niger until 2001, and Mr. Baker served concurrently as Country Director for HKI-Niger until 2000. He oversaw relocation of the regional office to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2001 and then, following the outbreak of civil war in 2002, its transfer to Dakar, Senegal in December 2003. Prior to his role with HKI in Africa, Mr. Baker was Country Director for HKI-Bangladesh from 1994 to 1996. He joined HKI in April 1994 and is located at the Africa Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal.

Alix de Nicolay, Managing Director of Helen Keller International Europe, reopened the Paris office in 1998 with the two-fold mission of raising funds and increasing visibility. She is responsible for positioning, developing and managing the Helen Keller International brand in Europe, which includes: identifying individual, corporate and foundation donors; establishing corporate and institutional partnerships; and writing and submitting proposals. She also manages European-funded programs, establishes media relations, organizes special events and works closely with the Paris Board of Trustees. Mrs. de Nicolay was formerly in charge of development for the French-American Foundation in New York. She has previously worked for several French and American companies, UNICEF’s Special Events Section, and the Department of Information at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. She joined HKI in December 1998 and is located at the Paris, France office.               

 Nancy Haselow, Vice President and Regional Director for Asia-Pacific, was previously HKI’s Director of Onchocerciasis Programs as well as Country Director for Cameroon. She has also served with HKI as Country Director in the Philippines, Niger and Cambodia, and Director of the Vitamin A Technical Assistance Program. Ms. Haselow has over twenty years of public health and international development experience, fifteen of which have focused on the development, implementation and evaluation of nutrition and eye health programs in Africa and Asia. Ms. Haselow has provided technical assistance to other organizations and national governments to carry out surveys, undertake program assessments and evaluations, and to find innovative strategies for vitamin A supplementation, onchocerciasis control and other eye health programs including pilot testing an international ChildSight® strategy in the Philippines and the integration of vitamin A supplementation into the community-directed treatment with ivermectin in Cameroon. She joined HKI in 1989, and is located in the Asia-Pacific Regional Offices in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Jennifer S. Klopp, Vice President of Development and Communications, has been working in non-profit fundraising and communications for almost 20 years. She is responsible for the implementation and coordination of sustainable strategies that meet programmatic and organizational funding needs. She also creates and maintains the brand image and core messages of the organization and disseminates them through traditional and electronic vehicles. Immediately prior to joining HKI, Ms. Klopp was the Director of Development for the Horticultural Society of New York which offered educational, vocational, and therapeutic community outreach programs. Before that, she worked for Child Care Action Campaign, a national organization that advocated for high-quality, affordable child care and early education. Ms. Klopp joined HKI in August, 2004 and is located at headquarters in New York City.

Nicholas Kourgialis, Vice President for Eye Health, provides administrative and programmatic direction and oversight for HKI’s eye health programs worldwide. HKI’s eye health programs seek to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment due to cataract, refractive error, trachoma and onchocerciasis and also to support integrative education and rehabilitation efforts for visually impaired children. Eye health programs are currently conducted in over eighteen countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Mr. Kourgialis joined HKI in December of 2003. He brings over thirteen years of related experience to his work at HKI, having spent his career specializing in public health and social service interventions addressing the needs of disadvantaged children. He is based at headquarters in New York City.

Peggy O'Neill, Vice President of Development, Individual Giving, has nearly 20 years of non-profit fund development and management experience. In her current role, Peggy will focus primarily on the individual giving program, building and developing long-term funding relationships. She is guiding and leading the expansion and diversification of philanthropic revenue from individuals including; major gifts, planned giving, the annual gala and other cultivation events, a direct mail program and developing a corporate social responsibility program. Throughout her career, she successfully identified and solicited major donors; and stewarded relationships among major donors, direct mail and event donors, and corporations moving them up to increasing levels of support. She is also focusing on building and developing the systems and strategic alliances necessary to support this work. Previous to joining HKI, Peggy has program and fund development experience in two of our areas of work, blindness prevention and neglected tropical diseases -- as Director of Fund Development at the Institute for OneWorld Health, and previously as Director of Development at Seva Foundation. Prior to these roles, she was Vice President of Development at the Arthritis Foundation and was the Director of Corporate Relations and National Events at the Brady Campaign in Washington, DC. Ms. O’Neill joined HKI in June 2010 and is located at headquarters in New York City.

Victoria Quinn, Senior Vice President of Programs, has oversight for all of HKI programs. Dr. Quinn has more than 25 years of experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America designing and managing complex and large-scale nutrition and maternal child health country programs and regional interventions. She is a respected international expert on nutrition policy and advocacy, infant and young child feeding practices, micronutrients and women’s nutrition practices. She spent 16 years living and working in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, including working at UNICEF as Regional Coordinator of a multi-country nutrition policy, advocacy and surveillance effort, as well as numerous consultations for the World Bank, UNICEF, FAO, the Government of the Netherlands, and World Food Program on matters related to nutrition programs, food security and nutrition policy, supplemental feeding programs, and nutritional surveillance. In 1998, Dr. Quinn joined the Academy for Educational Development as Senior Technical Manager of Country Programs for the LINKAGES Project. In this role, she has championed a pragmatic approach to prevent malnutrition in children and women, the Essential Nutrition Actions, which uses behavior change strategies to improve infant and young child feeding, women’s nutrition and micronutrient practices. In 2001 she was appointed Director of the AED Center for Nutrition. She joined HKI in September 2006 and will be based in Washington, DC, traveling to the New York City headquarters on a monthly basis.

Lori Tiller, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, joined HKI in September 2007.  Ms. Tiller has over 25 years experience leading human resources and business operations. Prior to HKI, she served as the Vice President of Operations for the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), where she led a shared services division that included human resources and administration, legal, finance and accounting, information systems, publications, and meetings services.  While at ILSI, Ms. Tiller redesigned the human resources program; re-engineering and upgrading all functions, including payroll, staffing, performance management, employee relations, compensation, and benefits.  Prior to joining ILSI, Ms Tiller worked in the for-profit sector as Manager, Human Resources and Administrative Services for International Business and Technical Consultants.  Ms. Tiller has worked in higher education as assistant dean for student services at George Mason University, and in education.  She is based at headquarters in New York City.

Photography courtesy of Harold Levine.