Our Team

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Hilda is a finance and operations professional with extensive experience in the non-profit sector. She currently is the Finance Lead of an international NGO in Kenya, where she oversees financial strategy, compliance, and operational management. She has held similar roles at Norwegian Refugee Council, DanChurchAid and Cordaid spanning over 20 years.

Hilda is also an active member of the Association of Women Accountants of Kenya (AWAK) and is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya.

She has served on several Boards, including AWAK, The Cradle, Women Empowerment Link (WEL) and Young Women Leadership Institute (YWLI). She has been actively involved in initiatives aimed at empowering youth and fostering local partnerships.

As the Chair of HODI’s Board, Hilda brings expert financial governance and strategic planning, and provides overall oversight and guidance.

Said Jillo is a hotelier by profession. He joined Kenya Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), a government parastatal, in 1974 and served in several game lodges. He managed Meru Mulika Lodge between 1974 and 1990, Mt Elgon lodge between 1990 and 1993, and Marsabit Lodge between 1994 and 1998.

Said was appointed and later elected as the chairman of Kenya Red Cross, Marsabit branch in 2006. In this capacity, he served communities in Marsabit during multiple disasters such as ethnic conflicts and droughts between 2006 and 2014. 

He has since served as a member of the Land Control Board, as a member of the council of elders and as a village elder. He has been on the Board of HODI since 2015.

Halima Shuria is a seasoned peace practitioner and development consultant with over three decades of experience in humanitarian and peacebuilding work across Kenya and Somalia. She currently serves as the Executive Director of CamelBell Limited, a consultancy firm focused on conflict transformation and community resilience.

She has worked with Oxfam GB and USAID’s Transitional Initiatives for Stabilization (TIS) program, where she provided strategic guidance on pastoralist development and regional peacebuilding.

Halima is an expert on conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding methodologies and is affiliated with the Wajir Peace University Trust.

Catherine Gicheru is an International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Knight Fellow and founder and head of the Africa Women Journalism Project (AWJP). Catherine was the first woman bureau chief and first female news editor of the Nation Media Group and the founding editor of The Star daily. She co-founded East Africa’s first budget and public finance fact-checking and verification initiative, PesaCheck.

She is a member of the Media Development Investment Fund board, is an advisory board member of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford, the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications and the British Council’s Future News Worldwide program. She is also a member of the IWMF Online Harassment advisory board. Catherine advised on the Open Society Foundations’ Fiscal Governance Program and the ICFJ’s State of Technology in Global Newsrooms survey. She is a jury member for the WAN-IFRAAfrica Digital Media Awards and served on the European Journalism Centre’s MoneyTrail jury.

Catherine is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a Reuters Institute Journalism Fellow at Oxford University and a 1992 IWMF Courage in Journalism award winner.

John Kisimir is a seasoned communications and community engagement expert with over two decades of experience in humanitarian response, public health, and conservation. 

He currently serves as the Risk Communication & Community Engagement Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Kenya. 
He served World Vision for 11 years, where he held various leadership roles in communications and advocacy. He has worked across Africa in complex settings including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia.

He currently also serves on Boards of the Conservation Alliance of Kenya and Ten Thousand Villages. John brings a unique blend of storytelling, strategic communication, and grassroots engagement to our Board, helping bridge the gap between our communities at all levels.

Noor joined HODI in 2014 as a communications liaison officer, before working as the program coordinator for four years. His current role involves the day to day running of the organization, fundraising and representing the organization in important forums.

Tesso has been with HODI since 2015, when she worked as a field officer in our community conversations project. She used a motorbike to reach remote communities around Hurri hills for one year, before returning to Marsabit to work as a project officer on two of our projects. Tesso has an all round experience with our projects and is now a senior member of staff.