Beyond Good Intentions | What Really Works In International Aid?

Tori Hogan

Tori's expertise in humanitarian aid has developed extensively over the past seven years as she has traveled the globe working with aid organizations on four continents. Her experience ranges from large-scale refugee assistance programs in Kenya, Lebanon, and Somalia, to smaller grass-roots educational and child development initiatives in Uganda, Egypt, Togo, and China. Tori graduated with honors from Duke University in 2004 with a B.A. in Global Health & Human Development. She was selected for a Fulbright scholarship to Egypt where she completed a Masters Diploma in Refugee Studies from the American University in Cairo in 2005. After working with refugee children through the International Rescue Committee in San Diego for one year, Tori embarked on her round-the-world journey to produce the "Beyond Good Intentions" documentary film. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in International Education Policy at Harvard University.

Eric Scherch

Eric graduated from Duke University in 2004 with a BSE in civil engineering. While at Duke, Eric completed coursework in Graphic Design and Fine Arts and successfully created several visual media projects outside of his coursework. After graduating, Eric traveled around the world and worked at an orphanage in Nepal caring for 20 children ages 6-15 years old through Child Action Nepal. He currently resides in San Diego, where he works as a civil engineer in water and waste-water. Eric co-founded the local San Diego chapter of Engineers Without Borders and managed a potable water supply project in Southeast India.

Meredith Honig

Meredith graduated from Bennington College in 2002 with a BA in Film & Theatre Studies, and a minor in Education. While at school, Meredith explored the fields of filmmaking, playwrighting, cultural anthropology and education. In regards to education, she focused mainly on at-risk youth as well as mental and physically challenged adults and children. Acting as a volunteer for several of these populations, she employed various mentoring techniques that centered on storytelling. From this experience, she decided the best way to combine her interests in humanitarianism and the visual arts were to explore the medium of documentary filmmaking. Since graduating, Meredith has taken classes at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, as well as a programming internship with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC. In October of 2006 she joined Tori in Peru & Argentina to assist with the Beyond Good Intentions documentary. Currently, she is a Producer for Center Line Productions, a film/video, and multimedia production company located in Raleigh, NC.

Natasha Hanshaw

Natasha has a wealth of international experience having worked in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Over the past four years, she has studied and worked in international affairs and development, specifically international trade policy, economic development, and good governance. Most recently, she worked for The Evian Group at IMD business school in Switzerland, an international coalition of government, corporate and opinion leaders committed to trade liberalization and an open global economy. Prior to that, she worked for an international development consulting firm on an European Union private sector development project in Vietnam. She has an M.A. in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and an A.B. in Political Science from Duke University.

Kambria Hooper

Kambria currently resides in San Francisco and received her undergraduate degree and M.Ed. in Human, Organizational and Community Development from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the role of education in international community development, specifically in the realm of public health. Her previous professional experience includes quality improvement evaluation of crisis mental health services in New York, as well as evaluation of educational programs in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. In 2004, she began work at Stanford as an educational consultant and evaluation specialist for the Stanford Faculty Development Center’s course on professionalism, as well as a two-year, pre-clinical course at Stanford School of Medicine. Her future plans include working as an organizational development consult for Stanford Hospital while getting a Masters in Public Health.

Caroline Nobert

In 2007, Caroline graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.A. in International Studies. While completing her undergraduate degree, she traveled and studied in both Mexico and Spain, in addition to working as a teaching assistant in Costa Rica’s only school for hearing-impaired children. At home, she has continued to serve the international community through her work as a volunteer ESL teacher and by mentoring foreign university students. Caroline currently resides in Washington, D.C. and works as Assistant to the Editor at Foreign Policy magazine. Her future plans include a return to Latin America, where she will teach English in Chile during the upcoming school year.

Mika Kadono

Since graduating from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2003 Mika has been working as a Public Health Microbiologist in California. Through the field of Medical Anthropology she is continuing to explore the synthesis of microbiology, global health, human rights, and international aid. She has most recently returned from Cambodia where she was volunteering as a microbiologist at the Angkor Hospital for Children. Mika currently resides in San Francisco where she plans to attend graduate school in Medical Anthropology and continue her work in the international aid community.