InterAction officially announced the selection of Alicia Phillips Mandaville as the new vice president of global development practice. A former chief strategy officer for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Mandaville was chosen to head InterAction's global development team after an extensive leadership search.

Through her years working with the public and private sector, Mandaville led numerous initiatives in partnership with civil society development actors in Africa, Latin America, and Eurasia. In her new position, she will lead InterAction's efforts to support the non-profit development community by advancing best practices in established sectors, promoting clear learning in emerging and complex practice areas, and strengthening the voice and role of civil society in global policy debates.

Mandaville began her career at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), designing and implementing USAID and NED programs and eventually moved to the governance knowledge management team. After NDI, she spent nine years with MCC's policy team, eventually leading it as the managing director and then the chief strategy officer. Directly prior to joining InterAction, Mandaville was the vice president of Amida, a data-technology company where she led the launch of a data platform and managed teams building data applications to facilitate impact investing, combat illicit financial flows, and improve trade policy analysis.

Upon the announcement of Mandaville's selection, InterAction President Lindsay Coates said, "We are honored that Alicia has joined InterAction. She brings invaluable experience from her time working on innovative data technologies with public and private sectors. Her energy and passion for global development will amplify our members' efforts in vital areas such as accountability and private sector engagement."

First Person: A Quick Q&A with Alicia Phillips Mandaville

How did you get your start in global development?

I talked my way into an administrative internship in the 90's and was fortunate enough to be eventually hired to work with civil society groups and the democratic opposition in Serbia when they overthrew Slobodan Milosevic. Once you've seen a transition like that, it's hard to look away. I've followed the angles I am interested in ever since (economics, accountability, human rights, technology), but global development is always at the core.

What top trends are you seeing in global development? What are your thoughts on these trends?

Complexity—whether you are looking at the evolving role of non-state actors, questions of social and democratic accountability, the nexus of development and humanitarian work, or asking how to bring new technologies to bear for improved outcomes, I think the development community sees the undercurrent of complexity and fragmentation. That's one of the reasons I think InterAction's convening role is ever more important. We can understand more holistically when we put our heads together.

What are your top priorities in this new role at InterAction?

InterAction has a broad, diverse membership, which is a real base of strength from which to engage complex development issues that are constantly evolving. My priorities are to focus on leveraging diversity for learning, to stay focused on the practical steps, and to actively seek out opportunities to work across disciplines. The world's largest challenges don't fit in clean categories, so if we want to make the word a better place, our work can't either.