Randa Wilkinson

Background

About Randa Wilkinson

My professional career has come full circle. Beginning with Peace Corps as a volunteer working with care givers and malnourished children in Mauritania, West Africa, through 17 years in France and 8 years in Indonesia followed by my position as Training Director for the Positive Deviance Initiative, my experience has leveraged these many opportunities. With short term assignments to Haiti, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Uganda and Jordan, Turkey and Egypt I have strengthened my professional skills in facilitation, organization, management and networking. I am now back at Peace Corps as Country Director. After four years in Comoros, I am now the Country Director for Peace Corps Lesotho. Before my current position with Peace Corps, I worked with WHO Emergency Response Team at their regional office in Cairo to support efforts to aid Syrian refugees access proper health care in their new host countries. I also attended the World Health Assembly in Geneva - creating and facilitating the booth on Attacks On Health Care. Previously, I worked with UNDP in Amman, Jordan to organize and manage the Resilience-building and Innovation Marketplace for the Resilience Development Forum. My work with the Positive Deviance Approach has focused on training, facilitating and implementing initiatives to address issues including; childhood malnutrition, goiter, teen violence, school attendance, maternal and newborn survival, child brides, social isolation for people with mental health diagnosis. Other experience includes- Emergency relief work in Aceh, Indonesia after the Tsunami- Nutrition technical adviser for a USAID funded Maternal and Newborn project in Indonesia Specialties: Positive Deviance Approach, Nutrition programming, partnership and network building, liaison with Ministry of Health, emergency response, monitoring and evaluation.