Members
Amy Coughenour Betancourt is a results-oriented social sector leader with a track record of starting, leading and growing social impact organisations and bold new initiatives to empower vulnerable people and communities around the world.
Amy is the Chief Executive Officer of Cadasta Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Washington, DC founded in 2015 that uses innovative technologies and services to advance land and resource rights globally.
Prior to joining Cadasta in June 2018, Coughenour was the COO at the National Cooperative Business Association, CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) for nearly 7 years, leading a team of over 850 implementing food security, agriculture, and resilience projects in 20 countries. As Deputy Executive Director of the Pan American Development Foundation for 9 years, Coughenour led programmes and business development in over 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean working on remittances for development, community-led development, human rights, education, and other areas of human and economic development in the region.
She was the Deputy Director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) for 4.5 years, where she was editor of several policy publication series, managed operations and business development, and led innovative policy leadership initiatives on the Caribbean. After leaving CSIS, she served for 8 years as a CSIS Adjunct Fellow.
Amy holds an M.A. in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a B.A. in German from Central College in Pella, Iowa. She spent a year on a teaching Fulbright scholarship in Germany; lived and worked in Mexico, Austria, Costa Rica and Germany.
She has served on the board of Interaction since 2016 and is on Interaction’s Executive Committee. She is also on the board of Manna Food Center, a community organisation in Maryland focused on combating food insecurity and ensuring access to food for all.