Staff Bios

Joan Shifrin cofounded Global Goods Partners in 2005 after serving as the director of community education and outreach at the Global Fund for Children (GFC), a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization that supports community-based education groups that expand opportunities for young people around the world. Before joining GFC in 2000, she served as project manager at Matthews Media Group, a social-marketing firm that develops and implements public education campaigns on health-related issues. Joan is a former marketing manager for an international financial-services division of Citicorp, Inc. She received an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Joan lives in Washington DC with her husband and two daughters.

Catherine Lieber Shimony is the cofounder and codirector of Global Goods Partners and the former director of grant making at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to help alleviate poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the world regardless of race, religion or nationality. At AJWS, Catherine oversaw more than 140 projects within grassroots community-based organizations in forty-one countries. Prior to her work with AJWS, Catherine was a United Nations Development Programme consultant, assessing economic programs in sub-Saharan Africa. She served as a consultant to the Americas Society and Council of the Americas and was their senior director for programs for seven years. Catherine was the senior program director for the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and an associate with the international headquarters of the YMCA. She received an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Catherine lives in New York City with her husband, son, and daughter.

Linda Barnett coordinates Global Goods Partner's school programs. She has more than 13 years of private sector sales and marketing experience. As a Director of Client Relations at The American Express Company, she helped develop an innovative Employee Financial Planning program, which was put into place in many Fortune 500 companies. Later she was Director of Sales and Marketing for Technimetrics, a New York based information services company where she worked both domestically and internationally with large corporations on their information and systems needs.

Kristen Beifus has been working with women’s groups along the Thailand-Burma border and India-Burma border for the past 7 years. She has been involved in the creation of locally led, income generation projects that enable women, who otherwise would not be able to access safe, reliable work, a way to earn needed income for themselves and their families. The income generation projects focus on development of the women participants with internships, skills trainings, and collaborative work. Kristen was one of the founding members of the Borderline Women’s Collective, Gallery and Tea Garden based in Mae Sot, Thailand. She received a BA in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and an MA in Anthropology of Development from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies with a focus on aid to refugees. She is working with Global Goods Partners, on the west coast, to support women’s groups to access fair markets while enabling opportunities for students to learn about the regions where these women live and the socio-political situations that have created the need for them to develop alternative livelihoods. Kristen is based in Seattle, Washington.

Cecilia Foxworthy is the Operations Manager for Global Goods Partners (GGP). With a background in product development and supply chain management, Cecilia works with GGP's global partners, providing technical assistance in product design, market readiness and logistical support. Before joining GGP in 2008, Cecilia had several years of design experience in the New York apparel industry. She received a Bachelor of Science degree at Virginia Polytechnic University, where she was also actively involved in several nonprofit endeavors.

Jeremy Hockenstein is a strategic advisor to Global Goods Partners and a strategy consultant for noprofit and private sector entities. A graduate of Harvard University, MIT Sloan School of Management, and a McKinsey & Company alumnus, Jeremy cofounded Digital Divide Data (DDD), a data entry and digitalization service company in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. DDD is an NGO that employs disadvantaged youth, people with disabilities, and abused women, and provides them with a first work experience, a stable income and skills training. As a business, DDD is building an export-oriented IT-enabled services sector in the local economy and is now the largest technology related employer in Cambodia. DDD has been recognized globally by the World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award and in Thomas Friedman’s book, ‘The World is Flat.’

Ms. Marks currently works as a Government Programs Executive on Capitol Hill with IBM in Washington, DC. Prior to joining IBM, Ms. Marks worked for 18 years at Dow Jones Newswires, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal Europe and CNBC as a chief correspondent and bureau chief in several European capitals. As a journalist, she has covered major news events, including the Persian Gulf War, the Northern Ireland Peace Process, European corporate reporting scandals, Russia’s accession to the Group of Eight (G-8), the transition to a single European currency as well as events at NATO, OPEC and the European Union. She has won several awards for journalism, created Dow Jones’ first training program for aspiring journalists and is the author of the Dow Jones style manual. Ms. Marks graduated with a Master’s Degree in International Relations in 1983 from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC and Bologna, Italy. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in History and Political Science.

Ivan Rebolledo is Advisor for the Americas, to Global Goods Partners. He is a managing partner of TerraNova Strategic Partners LLC, as well as president of the Bolivian-American Chamber of Commerce. He has served with the United Nations system in various capacities and countries: Office on Drugs and Crime; Department of Political Affairs; International Drug Control Programme and UNDP. He co-founded VentureMate.com, an internet start-up company that brought together entrepreneurs in search of capital and investors seeking private equity, via web-based platforms. Prior to joining the UN system, he consulted with the Inter-American Parliamentary Commission on Population and Development and was also Deputy Director, Latin American Affairs at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. He has a graduate degree in Latin American Economic and Political Development from a joint degree program with Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and NYU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, as well as a BA in Political Science from NYU. He has lectured and published articles on international drug policy, inter-American relations, hemispheric trade issues, Andean politics and economic development. He has appeared on the BBC, CNN International, CNN en Espanol, Radio France International, and other media outlets.

Tali Weinberg manages programs at Global Goods Partners. Prior to joining GGP, Tali worked as a consultant for American Jewish World Service. In 2005, she received a fellowship to spend a year in Mumbai, India working with a local group that organizes commercial sex workers to play an active role in HIV/AIDS intervention. Previously, Tali had worked as an international human rights advocate in Washington DC. She has done research on peace-building and economic development in both South Africa and Uganda. Tali has a degree in Peace Studies and International Development from New York University. She has experience in human rights advocacy, rights-based development, community organizing, and social justice education.