Who We Are

Nerea Aparicio, is a co-founder of All In and serves as a Principal as well as the Director, Rights & Governance. An attorney with over 20 years of professional experience in strengthening the rule of law and human rights including at the United Nations (in Switzerland, Guatemala and Colombia) and at the Organization of American States´ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), one of the main organs of the regional human rights protection system for the Americas. Previously, Nerea also served the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at an international development organization where she was responsible for designing and managing programs and initiatives focused on strengthening justice sector and legal and judicial education, as well as citizen-centered governance and anticorruption efforts. In addition to chairing All In’s board, Ms. Aparicio serves on the board of directors of a number of other organizations, including BeJust, Inc. a non-profit organization that focuses on advancing justice and human rights. She holds a Masters’ Degree in International Legal Studies (LL.M.) from the American University, Washington College of Law, (Washington D.C.) and earned her law degree from the University of Deusto School of Law (Bilbao, Spain).  Ms. Aparicio is a member of the Madrid Bar.

  Jack McCarthy has over 25 years of international development experience with subject matter expertise in conflict mitigation and management and peacebuilding. During a decade working for USAID, Jack headed key programs supporting war-to-peace transitions in Mozambique and Guatemala. In the 15 years since, he played a leading role in designing, implementing and managing over 30 major projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America where he has focused on improving governance, strengthening accountability and the rule of law, fostering successful transitions in fragile states and increasing resiliency among vulnerable groups and among war affected populations. Jack has taught graduate level courses on the interplay between conflict, security and development and has served as a member of the board for a leading international development firm. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, where he studied economic and political development as well as comparative law. Jack is a co-founder of All In and serves as Vice-President.

Clifford (Cliff) Brown has over 40 years’ international development experience, including at USAID as a Mission Director, Deputy Mission Director, Country Representative, and Regional Legal Officer. He was the Mission Director for Guinea-Sierra Leone; the Country Representative for Kyrgyzstan; and the Deputy Mission Director for Colombia. Cliff also served as Chief of Office of Democratic Initiatives in Nicaragua, managing a $45 million portfolio of activities to strengthen civil society there. Prior to that role, he held a series of postings as USAID’s regional legal advisor: for the Guatemala and Central American Programs, and for the Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (REDSO) in Nairobi, Kenya. Cliff has a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and serves as Senior Counselor for All In. 

Amy Saxton has over 30 years of international development experience, directing and overseeing all aspects of finance, administration and human resources.  Amy has led and implemented the administrative and financial systems needed to support a variety of international and domestic programs including relief and reconstruction, economic growth, health, natural resource management, renewable energy and agribusiness in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Before joining All In, Amy held senior management positions at Wellpass, Voxiva, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) and Marketing Resources and Development, Inc, Philippines. Amy holds a master’s degree in International Administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Rodrigo Velarde is an accomplished development professional, with a background in biology, communications, and sustainable development. He has over 18 years of experience working with a broad range of key actors at the nexus of pubic-, private-, and academic sectors to advance sustainable development while mitigating adverse socio-economic and environmental impacts on fragile ecosystems in the Andean-Amazonian region. Mr. Velarde has worked with indigenous people’s organizations, communities and other key actors from the Government and Corporate sector in the region to improve natural resource management, monitor socio-environmental impacts associated with investments, and mitigate adverse impacts associated with these.  Rodrigo also has considerable experience working with the private sector including on corporate social responsibility (CSR), multi-stakeholder engagement, strategic communications and negotiations, as well as for assessing socio-environmental impacts. Mr. Velarde has a graduate degree in Biology, is a native Spanish speaker, is a fluent English speaker and is proficient in Portuguese. 

Shannon Pettit, Corporate and Project Accountant: Provides independent financial accounting and institutional development services.  Ms. Pettit has expertise in Mark-to-Market accounting issues and accounting for derivatives and over the past decades has served in multiple roles for large private sector institutions as an Auditor, and as Director of Financial Reporting, including institutions such as PG&E Energy, Banner Aerospace, and Arthur Andersen (now Accenture).   Ms. Pettit has performed numerous internal control reviews, and has managed both internal and externally-led audit functions. Ms. Pettit holds a BA in Accounting from the University of Virginia.

Adriana Torres has more than 15 years of experience in performance monitoring, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), research, systematization and use of M&E tools, and capacity development in M&E. She has experience working with multiple donors and partners, primarily with USAID and focused on guidelines for M&E, learning, and knowledge management. Throughout her professional experience she has also work in Government of Peru entities, NGOs, and private companies, participated in multidisciplinary groups, and developed competencies such as: teamwork, active listening, personal initiative, organization of activities and human teams. High intellectual, analytical, organizational and planning capacity. She holds diplomas in Business administration and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of development projects by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and is fluent in Spanish and highly proficient in written and spoken English.

Jim Della-Giacoma is an analyst and strategic program adviser focused on evidence based policy reform and program design in fragile and conflict affected states. He has worked with a diverse group of donor, academic, and development institutions including the UN, International Crisis Group, National Democratic Institute, New York University, Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum at the Social Science Research Council, and Australian National University. With ICG, Jim led the organization’s analytical work in Asia, with a focus on Southeast Asia. As a senior advisor with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, he worked on citizen participation and elections across the globe. He was NDI’s Timor-Leste country director; served with the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor; and was a political affairs officer in the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations in New York. Jim holds a Master of Arts degree in Asian Studies from the University of New South Wales. Jim is a member of All In’s Advisory Group, and concurrently serves as a Conflict Analysis and Research Adviser. 

Julie Werbel is a leading expert on security and justice sector reform and countering violent extremism (CVE). She possesses recognized expertise developing U.S. government policies and strategies; designing and implementing development and defense programs; and engaging with donors and other international partners.  Her perspective is informed by extensive field experience in fragile and conflict-affected states in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.  Julie currently serves as a Senior CVE Advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  For more than a decade, she served as the Agency’s Senior Security Sector Reform (SSR) Advisor.  Previously, she was a Principal at DFI Government Services, a Washington, DC-based defense consulting firm.  She also served as the Program Manager and Director of Participant and External Affairs for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), a Department of Defense regional center that she helped to establish.  Her career includes service with the Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of State and business research for the New York-based Conference Board.  Julie earned an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and and is a member of All In’s Advisory Group.

Erika Kirwen has 17 years’ experience in governance, peacebuilding, statebuilding, and security and justice sector development in fragile and conflict-affected areas around the world. She has designed and managed programs focused on enhancing accountability between citizens and government; fostering ethnic and religious reconciliation; addressing the needs of returning internally displaced persons; supporting the reintegration of ex-combatants; and addressing social, political, and economic drivers of conflict. She has worked extensively with international donors, governments, and civil society organizations to promote demand-led governance, to address lack of empowerment and voice, and to promote cooperation between citizens and police. She has a master’s degree in International Public Policy from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, and was previously a Fulbright scholar in Cote D’Ivoire. 

Edward Rackley, PhD, serves as All In’s Senior Regional Advisor (Africa) and has nearly 30 years’ experience living and working in fragile states and responding to conflict-related emergencies on behalf of leading international institutions. He has extensive experience in in on sub-Saharan Africa, including the Horn, Great Lakes, Sahel and West Africa and possesses deep technical skill in conflict and political economy analysis, program development and evaluation, public sector reform and accountability, disaster response, humanitarian relief and emergency management, combatant demobilization and community reintegration, security sector reform and local governance, & civilian security. Dr. Rackley holds doctoral and master’s degrees in political philosophy from the New School for Social Research, New York. He speaks English, French, Kikongo and Lingala, with former fluency in German and Spanish.

Armando Valdés Velásquez, PhD is an expert in environmental sciences and conservation with over 20 years of experience in the design and management of basic and applied research projects in Biological Conservation, Capacity Development, Strategic Planning and Monitoring, and Evaluation & Learning. Dr. Valdés has considerable experience designing and implementing capacity building for conservation; university courses and academic programs; and facilitating conservation planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes at multiple levels (organizational, multi-institutional, national, regional).  He is also recognized for developing situational analysis and correspondingly robust theories of change in close coordination with a wide range of key actors including NGOs, government agencies, donor agencies and implementing partners based in Latin America and beyond.  Dr. Valdés is an Associate Professor at the School of Sciences and Philosophy at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), where he also serves in the Laboratory for Biodiversity Studies (LEB) and at the Integrated Development, Environment and Health Unit (DIAS) within the School of Public Health and Management.  Dr. Valdés earned in BSc and Master’s degrees in Biology, and completed doctorate studies in Zoology and Geography at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, Germany. In addition to native Spanish, Dr. Valdés has high proficiency in both written and spoken English and German, and in (spoken) Portuguese.