(Atlanta, Georgia – November 23, 2020) – CARE USA, the global poverty fighting organization today announced several new appointments to its senior leadership team.
Gloria Steele has been named Chief Operating Officer and brings with her a wealth of experience and success in leading and managing complex development and humanitarian programs spanning across Asia and the Pacific Islands, Europe, Central Asia and the Africa regions. Most recently, Steele served as the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) deputy assistant administrator and led the Bureau for Asia for nearly four years. Steele also held a top team leadership position with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) where she led high-performing teams working in food security and resilience, rural development, financial inclusion and gender and development. Steele also served as USAID’s deputy assistant administrator and led the Bureau for Asia for nearly four years. She will join CARE in January 2021.
“We are thrilled to have Gloria join the CARE family, at a pivotal moment as we celebrate our 75th anniversary and focus our energies to achieve even greater impact,” said Michelle Nunn, CARE USA President and CEO. “Her proven track record of confidently charting and achieving ambitious goals and transformational change will be critical as CARE strives to accelerate our impact around world.”
Lona Stoll was appointed as Vice President of Impact and Innovation, bringing more than 15 years of experience in global development organizations leading work in sustainable economies, agriculture, gender, and technology. Stoll’s career spans across organizations such as Millennium Challenge Corporation where she recently served as Deputy Vice President, Feed the Future, USAID, and the Foreign Agricultural Service.
Alongside these two new hires, two long-serving and experienced CARE leaders have recently taken on new and expanded roles.
Claudine Mensah Awute was promoted to Vice President, International Programs and Operations, and has been with CARE since 1998. Awute led a several strategic initiatives throughout the West Africa region, and she began her career at CARE as an Education Coordinator focused on Ghana, Togo and Benin. She served as Assistant Country Director/Program Director at CARE Rwanda and as a Country Director for Mali, Benin and Togo, and Nigeria, before serving as the Regional Director for West Africa.
Madhu Deshmukh was promoted to Vice President of Programs and brings more than 29 years of experience in global health, development and social justice. During her 13 years with CARE, Deshmukh successfully built and led a global HIV/AIDS team, built an Integrated Family Health Initiative in Bihar, India, acted as interim CEO of CARE India, and most recently led the CARE Member Partners (CMP) Program Partnerships function. She also served as the leader of the Health Equity & Rights (HER) team.
“I am confident our new program leadership team will help continue our transformation into a nimble and highly effective 21st century humanitarian and development organization,” said Nunn.
About CARE:
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. That’s why women and girls are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to confront hunger, ensure nutrition and food security for all, improve education and health, create economic opportunity and respond to emergencies. In 2019, CARE worked in 100 countries and reached more than 68 million people around the world.
For media inquiries contact:
Rachel Kent, Senior Press Officer CARE U.S.
rachel.kent@care.org or +1.516.270.8911