Heather Ramsey, Director

Heather Ramsey is Director and co-founder of Women in Technology for the Middle East and North Africa. She has designed, initiated and managed international education and training programs for 15 years with a particular focus on programs benefiting women. Ms. Ramsey led the USAID-funded Women in Technology pilot program, which provided training to women in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. She designed and directed the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Global Initiative for Breast Cancer Awareness. Prior to joining IIE, Ms. Ramsey managed outreach programs to Eastern and Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, and MENA regions for schools. She also worked in Bucharest, Romania planning education programs at Casa Deschisa, a shelter for street children. In 1994, Ms. Ramsey earned a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a focus on gender and international development, and a Bachelor’s degree in French and Journalism in 1992. She has studied, lived and worked in several countries including Cuba, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland and Egypt.

Mary Karam McKey, Deputy Director

Mary joined IIE’s West Coast Center in July 2007 to work on the WIT and Komen Programs. Mary has extensive experience managing U.S. Department of State funded exchange and assistance programs. Prior to joining IIE’s West Coast Center, Mary was Director of Grant Programs at AYUSA International; headquartered in San Francisco, where she managed the organization’s U.S. Department of State sponsored high school youth exchange programs. Before moving to the Bay Area, Mary spent 10 years in Washington, DC where she worked in IIE’s DC office on the Humphrey Fellowship Program. While in DC, Mary also spent a number of years at AMIDEAST managing private and federally funded scholarship programs in the Middle East and North Africa. Mary started her career at the Arab American Institute as a community organizer. Mary has a B.A. from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, studied abroad at the American University in Cairo and holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from University of Texas at Austin. Mary manages the WIT program in Jordan and Iraq.

Heather Murphy, Program Officer

Heather joined the WIT program team in April 2008. Previously she was with Jewish Family and Children’s Services where she managed the citizenship program, assisted refugees and asylum seekers from the former U.S.S.R immigrate to the United States and raised awareness on the needs of the underserved in the Bay Area émigré community. Heather also served in the Republic of Kazakhstan with the United States Peace Corps working on non-profit sustainability, capacity building and community development. There she developed a series of business and community training workshops for regional NGOs and professional development seminars for women in rural villages. Heather holds a B.A in International Affairs from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and speaks Russian and intermediate German. In addition to her time in Kazakhstan, Heather has worked in Australia and Scotland and traveled extensively throughout Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. Heather. As WIT Program Officer, Heather manages the program in Morocco, Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen providing oversight of in-country program staff and partners, trainings and project implementation.

Shradha Balakrishnan, Senior Program Coordinator

Shradha grew up in New Delhi, India and spent 6 years studying and working in Japan before moving to the United States. She topped her class at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan where she completed her bachelors in Asia Pacific Studies. She went on to work at Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and led the firm’s global PR efforts from its Corporate Communications headquarters in Osaka and Tokyo. She organized press tours to Hungary, Germany, UK and India and revamped the internal newsletter. Shradha then decided to explore the non-profit world, embarking on an educational voyage with Japan-based NGO, Peace Boat. She visited over 20 countries around the world to deepen her understanding of global issues and their local impact, while honing her Japanese/English translating skills. She joined IIE’s Women in Technology team to get an insider’s perspective into the way educational non-profits operate and build global bridges of understanding. Sharadha leads WIT's communication efforts and manages the program in Oman. Shradha speaks English, Japanese, Hindi and Oriya. She is an active blogger as well as an accomplished Odissi dancer.

Lauren Blum, Senior Program Associate

Lauren joined the WIT Team in April 2009. Prior to joining WIT, Lauren worked on the International Scholarship and Training Programs Team at the West Coast Center assisting in the administration of various scholarship programs. She graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2008 and holds a B.A. in Political Science with an emphasis in International Relations. As an undergraduate, Lauren studied abroad for an academic year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Upon her return to the U.S. she was hired to work as a Peer Advisor for the Education Abroad Program’s (EAP) office at UC Santa Barbara. Working for EAP solidified her interest in the field of International Education, which in turn led her to IIE.

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