Ms. Catherine Hamlin is the Environment Office Director in USAID/Brazil. She most recently served as Feed the Future/Agriculture Team Leader for USAID/West Africa based in Accra, serving as lead interlocutor for USAID with regional partners such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) focused on food security and agricultural development.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Ms. Hamlin also served in the Philippines, El Salvador, Washington, DC, and Angola. In these posts, she managed democracy and governance programming, including judicial reform, strengthening prosecutorial and juvenile justice, promoting anti-corruption initiatives aimed at improved transparency and accountability in government. She also supported democracy programming such as strengthening electoral systems and aiding the development of constitutional consultations and drafting in Fiji. She led the anti trafficking-in-persons portfolio in the Philippines, heading the design and launch of initiatives aimed at supporting both enforcement and aid to TIP victims. In Angola, Ms. Hamlin oversaw agriculture, finance sector reforms, elections, workforce development, conflict mitigation, local governance, and economic growth programs. She served as an observer in four elections, co-managed public-private partnerships of USAID with companies including Coca-Cola and Chevron, and assisted in negotiations and structuring of development credit guarantees for small and medium banks in Angola.
Born and raised between Knoxville, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Hamlin holds a B.A. in Sociology from James Madison University, and a M.S. in Environmental Studies from Ohio University. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and some French. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Hamlin worked in social services (Native American boarding school in South Dakota, 4-H program in Georgia, Center for Immigrants and Refugees in Phoenix, Arizona) and environment and natural resource management (revegetation management in Grand Canyon National Park, wildlife biology technician in Klamath National Forest, ecotourism guide in Costa Rica and Manaus, Brazil). She is joined by her South African husband Stephan and her two teenage children, Dexter and Iona.