Oxfam America Senior Staff
Raymond C. Offenheiser
President
Raymond C. Offenheiser is the president of Oxfam America, a non-profit international development and relief agency and the U.S. affiliate of Oxfam International. Oxfam works to end global poverty through saving lives, strengthening communities, and campaigning for change. Since Mr. Offenheiser joined Boston-based Oxfam America in 1995, the organization has grown more than fourfold in size and has positioned itself as an expert on international development and global trade.
Mr. Offenheiser, who has worked his entire career in the non-profit sector, is a recognized leader on issues such as poverty alleviation, human rights, foreign assistance, and international development. Before joining Oxfam America, he served for five years as the Ford Foundation Representative in Bangladesh and, prior to that, in the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America. He has also directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in both Brazil and Colombia and worked for Save the Children Federation in Mexico.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Global Interdependence Initiative at the Aspen Institute, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Inter-American Dialogue. Mr. Offenheiser has served as an advisor for the Harvard University's Asia Center, the Hesburgh Center for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Mr. Offenheiser is a frequent commentator in the media on such issues as foreign aid, international debt, human rights, and global trade policies. He has appeared in programs on CNN, NPR, and the BBC, and has been a quoted source in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun and other major American newspapers.
Mr. Offenheiser holds a Masters Degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University and earned his Bachelors Degree from the University of Notre Dame. He speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese.
Stephanie Kurzina
Vice-President for Resource Development
Stephanie Kurzina joined Oxfam America in 1996 to lead the organization's fundraising programs and was promoted to Vice President in 2003. During her tenure, annual revenues have more than tripled from $12 million to over $45 million per year. Her major focus is to strengthen the Institutional Support and Individual Major and Planned Giving Programs, and to further enhance methods—including the Internet—of recruiting a broader base of members, donors, and supporters. Ms. Kurzina believes that a key factor to overcoming global poverty is the involvement of more US donors and supporters to increase Oxfam America's influence. Ms. Kurzina has led the planning and launch of its first major capital campaign for program growth and also serves as President of the Oxfam America Advocacy Fund, founded in 2004.
Prior to joining Oxfam, Ms. Kurzina was an Associate Director at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, Director of Development at New England Aquarium in Boston, and Director of Major Gifts at the Joslin Diabetes Center, where she directed a $45 million capital campaign. She has a Bachelors Degree in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, where she began her fundraising career in the University's New York Regional Development Office.
John Ambler
Senior Vice-President for Programs
Mr. John Ambler is the Senior Vice President of Programs at Oxfam America. Prior to this role, Mr. Ambler was the Regional Director for Asia at CARE USA based in Bangkok. He supervised and set strategic direction for CARE's relief and development operations for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan. He oversaw the largest budget in the CARE system and the work of over 5,000 CARE staff in Asia. Mr. Ambler provided strategic and conceptual direction for CARE's programs in rural development, development finance, urban poverty, HIV/AIDS, health, education, and nutrition. He also played a central role in that organization's effort to adopt a rights-based approach to development.
Before joining CARE, Mr. Ambler had spent nearly ten years with the Ford Foundation, as a program officer in Indonesia, as the Deputy Representative of the office for India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and as the Representative for Vietnam and Thailand. He also opened Ford's first office in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Prior to his tenure with Ford, he spent many years working in Indonesia on issues related to the organization of water management, a field in which he is a world-class specialist. He speaks fluent Indonesian as well as some Vietnamese, Burmese and German. Dr. Ambler received his B.A. from Stanford University, his M.A. from the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, and his Ph. D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University.
Jim Lyons
Vice President for Policy and Communications
Jim Lyons has a long professional career as an environmental policy professional. Before joining Oxfam he was the Executive Director of the Casey Tree Endowment Fund, a DC-based not-for- profit committed to restoring the city's tree canopy. He led the growth and development of this organization into one of the nation's largest urban conservation and ecological restoration NGOs. Earlier, Jim served in the Clinton Administration as Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the Department of Agriculture. The many highlights of his time in that position include drafting the conservation and forestry titles of the 1990 Farm Bill, co-chairing an interagency effort to develop the Clean Water Action Plan, assisting in the restructuring of the Department of Agriculture, promoting national conservation and environmental leadership at the USDA, and facilitating major land acquisitions for the national forest system. Jim has been teaching at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies since 2001.
Mark F. Kripp
Interim Vice-President for Operations
Mark Kripp is the Director of Finance for Oxfam America. He joined Oxfam America in July of 2005 after working most recently as the Vice President of Finance for Spryance Inc, a socially progressive organization in India. Prior to that Mr. Kripp was the founder and principal of EJE Associates Consulting. In this capacity he directed financial activities of multiple organizations, including corporations, foundations, and the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. Mr. Kripp has over 25 years of extensive and varied experience with all aspects of finance, and has brought the weight of that experience to bear in Oxfam America's operations department. In addition Mr. Kripp has served on the Board of Directors and various Board Committees of the Grant Foundation/Hospital Albert Schweitzer, American Leprosy Missions (Greenville, SC) and is currently Treasurer of the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School (Franklin, MA).