THE GCY TEAM

US TEAM

Abigail Falik, Founder and CEO

Abigail has dedicated her professional life to creating new opportunities for young Americans to learn about the world. Through work as an educator across the US and throughout the developing world, Abigail developed a passion for using education to promote global social justice and poverty alleviation.

Her vision for Global Citizen Year grew from over 10 years of experience in education, international development and social enterprise. She spent four years at NetAid where she designed and launched a program which empowers high school students to mobilize their peers in efforts to end global poverty. Today, the program is a flagship initiative of Mercy Corps. A recognized expert in Global Citizenship Education, Abigail has served as a strategic advisor and consultant, and has published in leading journals.

For her work founding Global Citizen Year, in 2009 she was awarded the Draper Richards Fellowship for entrepreneurs who are using innovative solutions to create significant social change. She is also a recipient of the Mind Trust Fellowship for education entrepreneurs who are developing system-changing strategies to tackle education’s greatest challenges. In 2008 she was named a Rainer Arnhold Fellow and a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow.

Abigail holds a B.A. and M.Ed. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Deborah Agrin, Chief Operating Officer

Deborah is committed to providing youth the opportunity to explore cultures and countries across the globe. Her own experience living, traveling, and working abroad has taught her the transformative power of authentic experiential learning. She is excited to bring her deep knowledge of both international education and non-profit management to programs that foster leadership, social entrepreneurship, and cross-cultural understanding.

Deb previously served as a Senior Education Program Associate at Asia Society, working to promote international education in the United States and expand opportunities for experiential learning abroad for American faculty and students. She also served as part of the core design and implementation team for a new network of internationally themed U.S. middle and high schools. Prior to Asia Society, Deb provided support for international students interning and working in the United States at the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE).

Deb holds a MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, a M.A. in International Education from New York University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University.

Nicole Orillac, International Program Director

Nicole is passionate about the idea of fusing private and public sector boundaries and using interdisciplinary approaches to bring about innovation and positive social change. This passion drove her to live and work in four different continents and accrue a wealth of cross sector management experience that she now brings to the role of developing and growing our international programs.

Moreover, her experience as an Acumen Fund Fellow and working with leaders across the world convinced her of the value of a structured “bridge year” experience in building leaders with the self-awareness and skills needed to lead the changes that our societies around the world need.

Nicole spent last year as an Acumen Fund Fellow in India, where she worked with the management team at a start-up hospital chain delivering affordable care to develop a strategy for rapid scale up. Prior to this, Nicole worked as a researcher for Plan International, and spent over three years in management roles at Frito-Lay Central America.

She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from the HEC School of Management in Paris, and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics.

Wil Keenan, Communications and Technology Manager

Wil is passionate about entrepreneurship, social enterprise and organizational development.  While in college, he co-founded a company that sells clothing and accessory products made by Ugandan artisans with a purpose of facilitating micro-savings and investment for its artisan team. His experience also includes volunteering in organizations around the world, interning at Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, and consulting for a health care system based in Nashville, TN.

Wil holds a B.S. from Vanderbilt University with a major in Human and Organizational Development.

Graham Saunders, Program Associate – Operations and Development

Graham brings his enthusiasm for youth, education, and social change to the Global Citizen Year team.  He recently pursued these interests at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he received a Masters in Anthropology and Development Management.  His studies focused on the intersection of culture and international development, and his dissertation research investigated the local politics of national education reform in Uganda.  Graham’s further experiences include interning at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, leading a research project for the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and consulting to Private Education Development Network (PEDN) in Kampala, Uganda.

Graham also holds Bachelor degrees in Philosophy and Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

David Glasgow, Program Associate – Recruitment

David comes to Global Citizen Year with a passion for education, civic engagement, and grassroots organizing. He recently returned from Venezuela, where he served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Prior to his time abroad, David worked as a field organizer on the Obama presidential campaign in Missouri and as a legislative staffer in Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Mike Honda’s Washington D.C. offices. He also brings his experience teaching and tutoring at UC Berkeley, the University of the Andes in Venezuela, and public schools in the Bay Area and Washington, D.C.

David holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley. While in graduate school, David earned Division I All-American honors and served as captain of the track and field team.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM

Anta Gueye, Program Manager – Senegal

Anta joins Global Citizen Year with a fellow-like experience, having left her native Senegal to move to the US where she spent nearly 14 years learning how to apply development concepts and community participatory approaches to fuel social change, human development and seek social justice. Anta spent the majority of her professional life in Florida focusing on public health and policy, working with the Department of Health on health equity and disparities reduction for underserved populations. After a rich experience in the US public, private and nonprofit sectors and countless volunteer hours with local NGOs in Senegal, Anta decided to move back to her home country and participate fully in the development of a global movement. Her joining GCY could not come at a better crossroads in her journey and she feels she has simultaneously found her professional and personal homes.

Anta holds two bachelor degrees in Economics and International Studies from the University of North Florida, and a Master’s degree in International Development Studies from The George Washington University.

Shannah Metz, Program Manager – Ecuador

Shannah is who she is today, in large part, because of the experiential-learning opportunities she had in her late teens and early twenties in El Salvador, Israel, Mexico, and Ecuador. Over the last nine years, as she worked on international development, human rights, educational, and environmental management projects throughout Latin America, and mostly in Ecuador, Shannah continually confronted – and continues to confront – the same questions about social justice, sustainability, and global citizenship that were posed to her on those study abroad experiences. For this reason, she is very excited to join the GCY team this year and bring its program to Ecuador – a country she loves dearly – to facilitate a unique and powerful experience of working, questioning, learning, and living that will position the Fellows to propose innovative solutions, from the local to the global, to critical challenges that face our communities today.

Shannah is motivated to share her deep knowledge about, and intimate appreciation for Ecuador with the GCY Fellows. She brings a breadth of technical and practical experience, having worked with indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities through local Ecuadorian NGOs as a Program Coordinator and educator, as well as for international institutions as an expert consultant in the human rights, environment, and higher education fields.

Shannah holds a B.A. and M.A. in Environmental Anthropology from Stanford University.

Tony Pandola, Program Manager – Brazil

Tony comes to Global Citizen Year with an ardent belief that intercultural exchange is the crucial first step towards worldwide empathy and understanding. Having worked as an international travel guide for five years, he is well-practiced in facilitating such exchanges, and understands what it takes to make them meaningful and positive experiences for all involved.

Tony’s experience living and working as a guide in over a dozen countries on five continents has developed his ability to quickly adapt to new surroundings, and teach others how to do the same. His specific passion for Latin America and Brazil comes from his university studies in Latin American History, as well as almost a decade of work and travel in the region.

In 2009, he worked in Northern Thailand, assisting with development projects in the local hill tribe communities. Much of his time was also spent working with high school graduates from the UK, preparing them for a year abroad teaching English to Thai students.

Tony holds a B.A. in History from the University of California, Davis.