Our team

Katherine Lucey, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Katherine Lucey is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Solar Sister. After a 20 year career as an investment banker with expertise in the energy sector, Katherine retired from banking and turned her attention to finding a sustainable solution to the energy poverty that causes suffering to a quarter of the world’s population.  Katherine determined that a practical, grass-roots, locally generated solution was needed.  In addition to Solar Sister, Katherine has served as Chief of Operations for Arzu, Inc., a non-profit organization working to empower women in Afghanistan by providing employment and social benefits. Katherine is an Ashoka Changemaker.  She currently serves on the board of Solar Light for Africa, a not-for-profit corporation that brings solar energy to rural communities in East Africa, as well as several local charitable committees supporting education and the environment.  She holds an M.B.A. from Georgia State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Georgia.

Neha Misra, Chief Collaboration Officer
Neha Misra is an Energy Economist with extensive experience in the closely intertwined areas of energy security, climate change and human development. She is passionately committed to women empowerment and community mobilization for scaling innovative applications of solar power to address the energy access challenge in developing world. Neha has worked with The Energy and Resources Institute in India and the U.S. She served as the North America focal point for the Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign, a commitment with the Clinton Global Initiative to bring light into the lives of one billion people by replacing kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices. In this role, Neha helped build key partnerships, undertake education & outreach to diverse stakeholder groups and raise funds to light villages across India. Neha holds a Master of Business Economics degree from the University of Delhi, India and a Bachelor of Science (honors) Physics degree from St.Stephens College, India.

Gina Porto Spiro, General Counsel and Director of Girls’ Empowerment Program
Gina Spiro is an international finance attorney and development professional with extensive experience in global transactions, corporate and project management, policy analysis, and international relations. Most recently, Gina served as the Senior Director of Corporate Policy and Planning in the Office of the CEO of the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation. In this capacity, she advised the CEO on corporate strategy and communications, organizational change, personnel issues, official travel, and agency policy and procedures. Prior to her public service, Gina was a transactional attorney in the private sector. Gina represented institutional lenders and investors in connection with the development, financing, construction, and operation of domestic and international infrastructure projects, primarily in the energy sector, and also represented energy trading companies in transactions involving the purchase, sale, storage, exchange, transportation, and processing of oil and natural gas. Gina received her B.A. in American Studies magna cum laude from Fordham University and her J.D. cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Fordham University School of Law. She is a member of the bar of the State of New York and of the District of Columbia.

Evelyn Namara, Program Coordinator, Uganda
Evelyn Namara is the Program Coordinator for Solar Sister. She brings a strong background in information technology and systems management. Prior to Solar Sister, she was a systems administrator for Orange Uganda and a systems engineer for Linux. She has a Bsc of Computer Science from Makerere University in Kampala, and an Associate degree from Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology (UICT) and a Diploma in Information Technology (Science), Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology (UICT).

Mary Nankinga, Regional Coordinator, Central District, Uganda
Mary Nankinga is the Regional Coordinator for the Central District in Uganda for Solar Sister. Prior to Solar Sister, Mary worked for the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University. Mary has a Bachelor of Secretarial Studies and a certificate in Computer from Makerere University.

Juliet Alyek, Regional Coordinator, Northern District, Uganda
Juliet Alyek is the Regional Coordinator for the Northern District in Uganda for Solar Sister. Juliet brings a strong community development background to Solar Sister’s team as well as a background in health care and administration.

Lilliane Arukut, Regional Coordinator, Eastern District, Uganda
Lilliane Arukut is the Regional Coordinator for the Eastern District in Uganda for Solar Sister. Lilliane Arukut brings a strong community development background to Solar Sister’s team and is playing a critical role in grassroots liaison with Solar Sister entrepreneurs and Team Leaders. Lilliane is a graduate of Kumi University.

Board and Advisors

John H. Forsgren, Director
John Forsgren has been a leader in finance and corporate management. He has 35 years in large corporations in the field of corporate finance, most notably as Vice President and Treasurer of Sperry Rand Corporation, Vice President and Treasurer of The Walt Disney Company, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Walt Disney Europe, Managing Director, Chase Manhattan Bank, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Northeast Utilities, and Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Financial Officer, Northeast Utilities.   Mr. Forsgren is currently serving on the following Boards of Directors- The Phoenix Companies, CuraGen Corporation,  Trident Resources, Inc., and Duke Energy Corporation.  Charitable activities have included the following: Georgetown University,The Nature Conservancy, and Solar Light for Africa.  Mr. Forsgren has a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University with a major in Economics, an MBA from Columbia University, and a Master’s Degree in International Finance and Management from University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Michael S. Kendall, Director
The Ven. Michael S Kendall is the Archdeacon Emeritus of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He served that Diocese as Archdeacon from 1984 to 2008. During that time he was also Archdeacon of Mission and had responsibility for Diocesan Mission Partnerships in Africa, China, Korea, England, India, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. He served as the President of the Council of Churches of the City of New York and Chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Council of Churches of the State of New York. Pior to serving as Archdeacon he was the Rector of St, James the Less in Scarsdale, New York and St. John’s Waterbury, Connecticut.  He is currently the Secretary of the Advisory Council to the Anglican Observer to the United Nations.  He was educated at Earlham College, Worchester College Oxford and the General Seminary.

Peter DiCampo, Creative Media and Storytelling Advisor
Peter DiCampo is a documentary photographer whose goal is to contribute his work to a dialog on international development. He launched his freelance career while also working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Ghana from 2006-2008.  His current long term project, Life Without Lights explores the varied social and economic implications of global energy poverty and raises questions on energy’s future. The work earned him the top prize in the British Journal of Photography’s 2010 International Photography Awards and additional awards in the 2011 PDN Photo Annual and the 2011 Anthropographia Awards for Human Rights.

Sarah Kasule, Advisor
Sarah N.M. Kasule is Director for the Mother’s Union of Uganda.  Prior to her current position, she was Family Life Programme Officer, Mother’s Union, The Province of Uganda.  Sara is a teacher by profession with a diploma and a first class degree in education as well as a master’s degree in education administration and planning.

Proscovia Njuki, Advisor
Proscovia Njuki is a Provincial Director of the Mother’s Union, The Province of Uganda.  She was the first woman to earn an engineering degree in East Africa.  She is the founder of the Association of Women Engineers, Technicians and Scientists in Uganda (WETSU).  She remembers being teased about her choice to study engineering. “I was one woman in a class of 40 men at university.” When she reported to Nairobi University, most lecturers and students were excited to have her, except for one lecturer who was irritated by her inquisitiveness. When she asked questions, he would retort, “Women! Why are you in this class?” Now retired, Njuki feels that the greatest reward for having made this decision is it has opened doors for women into the engineering field. I am so proud when I see many girls at the technology faculty. And they are doing well,” she enthuses.

Rob Passmore, Advisor
Rob Passmore has spent 20 years working in both commercial and social enterprises. He has worked for organizations including Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising as Deputy Managing Director of their European Internet Division. He has served as Commercial Director of openDemocracy.net, where he was responsible for securing over $6m in funding from foundations, including the Ford Foundation, to help move the organization towards self funding. Rob is now the CEO & Co Founder of an online marketing agency, www.equals3.co.uk. As part of the advisory board of Solar Sister, his role is to leverage his rapid business development experience to help accelerate growth and scale of the model.

Greg Van Kirk, Advisor
Greg Van Kirk is an Ashoka Lemelson Fellow and the-co founder of The New Development Solutions Group. This includes Community Enterprise Solutions, Social Entrepreneur Corps and NDS Consulting. These are all ventures whose mission is to design and implement innovative responses to long-standing development challenges. He, co-founder George Glickley and their team are now focused on expanding the reach of their innovative “MicroConsignment Model” globally. Greg was recently chosen as a select member of both the “Ashoka Globalizer” and Ashoka/Siemens “Social Business Development Group”. He is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. Greg began working in rural small business development as a Guatemala Peace Corps volunteer in 2001. He has served as an economic development consultant for organizations such as USAID, Chemonics, Columbia University, VisionSpring, Soros Foundation, Church World Service, OneRoof, Fundacion Solar, Fundacion Paraguaya, IDB and Water4People. Greg worked in investment banking for five years before arriving in Guatemala. Greg also works part time as “Social Entrepreneur in Residence” at Columbia University. Greg recently published the article “The MicroConsignment Model: Bridging “The Last Mile” of Products and Services for the Rural Poor” in Innovations Journal. Greg is a graduate of Miami University.

Hellen Wangusa, Advisor
Hellen Wangusa is the Anglican Observer at the United Nations. Previous to her present position, she served as the United Nations’ Africa coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals. A native of Uganda, she worked as the National Women’s coordinator for the Anglican Church of Uganda and was responsible for developing national programs, fundraising, and managing a staff of 27. From 1997-2004, Wangusa was coordinator and one of the founding members of the African Women’s Economic Policy Network (AWEPON), a faith-based women’s organization in Africa that also coordinates the UN’s Millennium Campaign for Eastern Africa. On March 9, 2007, Wangusa was a keynote speaker at the TEAM (Toward Effective Anglican Mission) Conference in Boksburg, South Africa.