Special Development CounselGrameen Foundation USA
Myka serves as Special Development Counsel to the leadership team at Grameen Foundation, where she leverages her two decades of experience in international economic development, inclusive finance and livelihoods to broker strategic partnerships and support Grameen’s innovative cross-sectoral programs to enable the poor, especially women, to create a world without poverty and hunger.
She has consulted to CGAP/World Bank, USAID projects, SEEP, the European Microfinance Platform, United Nations Capital Development Fund, Chemonics International, ARD Inc., Grameen Foundation USA, FHI-360, The New York Public Library and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (a financial intermediary for underserved communities in the US), among others. Myka also currently guides the business development efforts of Ayani Inclusive Financial Sector Consultants and serves on the board of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) MRI Development Institute in the Philippines.
Myka spent six years at Freedom from Hunger, where she served in various roles including Vice President of Programs, Director of Microfinance and Health Protection, and Senior Technical Advisor—providing direct training and technical assistance to financial service providers in West Africa and Southeast Asia. She led a four-year project funded by the Gates Foundation to test innovative combinations of microfinance and health protection services on three continents, resulting in five pioneering models that have gone on to reach millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Myka has an MBA in Development Economics and Nonprofit Management from Columbia Business School and a degree in Linguistics from Vassar College. She has lived and worked in a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and currently resides in France.