Cecilia Ciepiela-Kaelin

Cecilia Ciepiela-Kaelin is a senior economic development expert and sustainable urban planner working to solve the complex challenges of equitable socio-economic development and climate resilience. She has over 28 years of private and public sector experience designing, planning, and managing international development programs and delivering technical assistance in over 45 countries. Cecilia has worked with local governments, civil society and the private sector on economic development, inclusive planning and public service delivery in developed, emerging, transition and post conflict countries. Cecilia served eight years at USAID, as Project Development Officer for Bosnia (USAID/W), Private Sector Officer for USAID/Moscow, and Senior Economic Advisor to USAID/Iraq and USAID/Yemen. She also served for three years as technical advisor (institutional contractor) to USAID’s Office of Strategic & Program Planning (SPP) in the Bureau for Policy & Planning (PPL) on development and management of ProgramNet to support internal capacity building and learning around the Program Cycle. As Project Development Officer she designed over $230 million in USAID projects in Albania, Bosnia, the Caribbean, Iraq, Russia, and Yemen, from concept to procurement. During her career, she has advised the Panamanian opposition to Noriega; designed a $30m White-House mandated reconciliation program in Bosnia; negotiated partnerships with Russian regional governments; and designed and implemented USAID’s first SMS-based market information systems. She was Vice President at a Fortune 500 company where she served as Project Director for a $25 million USAID/Colombia Public Policy Project, which provided technical assistance to the Government of Colombia to implement the ambitious reform agenda of the first Santos Administration, including land reform, decentralization, access to finance, and implementation of the Victim’s Law. More recently, her work has focused on local governance, public service delivery, education and crime and violence prevention. She has been working with the cities of Bogota and Cali on education initiatives based on a proven collective impact model from the US facilitating a share vision, evidence based decision making, collaborative networks and backbone organizations. She recently completed AISD recently completed a 10-year review of a project implemented by International City/County Managers Association (ICMA) to strengthen municipal crime and violence prevention in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. She led the USAID/Barbados design team for a $60 million regional youth crime and violence prevention initiative, which integrated evidence-based decision making, youth empowerment, and juvenile justice reform under a community-based model that addresses individual, family and community risk and resilience factors. Cecilia holds a Master in Sustainable Urban Planning from George Washington University, a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Spanish from Williams College (MA). She grew up in the Philippines and Panama and speaks fluent Spanish. Cecilia is an NCAA All-American swimmer.