Shannon Alexander

Shannon Alexander is a Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Mercy Corps, where she leads the agency's global Resilience Initiative. Under this initiative, Mercy Corps responds to humanitarian crises with an eye to the long term, helping families and communities become less vulnerable to shocks and stresses. Resilience requires a multi-sector, systems-level understanding of the root causes of vulnerability, so development strategies can support and build the capacity of communities to cope with disturbances, adapt to changing conditions, and enable learning, innovation and ultimately, transformation. Ms. Alexander is responsible for Mercy Corps' integration of resilience thinking across its technical sectors and establishing regional hubs to put theory into practice for on-the-ground impact. Mercy Corps' Regional Resilience Hubs are focused on East Africa, West Africa and Southeast Asia. Ms. Alexander combines her private-sector experience working in the US and Europe, with 20 years of experience in the Development field. She started her development career in Romania, where she was Chief of Party for a business development program. She has a MBA from the University of Oregon, where she also received her bachelor's degree.