Jon Padgham joined in September 2008 as the Director of START’s Risk, Vulnerability, and Adaptation program. Prior to joining START, Jon worked at the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development on climate change adaptation initiatives. At the World Bank, he developed a study detailing where Bank investments are needed to build adaptive capacity in the agriculture sector. At USAID he managed adaption projects and helped to develop a guidance manual on climate change adaptation for that agency’s field operations. Jon received a PhD in soil science from Cornell University.

Mary Thompson-Hall joined START in 2015 as a program specialist working primarily on the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project, part of the broader Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in geography from the University of South Carolina where her research focused on intersections of conservation and development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, Mary worked with World Bank and African Development Bank experts on participatory adaptation fieldwork for the Zambian Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), and also co-authored a USAID commissioned report on gender and climate change adaptation. Most recently, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3) in Bilbao, Spain on topics relating to agricultural biodiversity and climate change adaptation.

Mariama joined START in June 2018 as Program Specialist leading a project on energy transformations for strengthening capacities for addressing complex sustainability challenges in West Africa. She previously worked for the Directorate of Green Financings and Partnerships in the Senegalese Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. Prior to that, she worked as post-doctoral researcher at the Institut des Sciences de l’Environnement, Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD), Senegal, where she coordinated the activities of the research unit. She was also an activity leader in the project One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) Senegal for which she supervised the training of local communities in surveillance, diagnosis, and biosafety and biosecurity. She holds a PhD in Climate Change and Biodiversity from WASCAL Graduate Research Program of Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Clay joined START in June 2018 as Administrative Assistant. Prior to this position, Clay was the Director of the Neighbor-to-Neighbor program at A Wider Circle, a non-profit program chiefly responsible for redistributing furniture donations to families experiencing poverty. He holds a BA in Public Policy from The College of William & Mary.

Cheikh Mbow served as START’s Executive Director from 2016 to 2019. He holds academic degrees from Cheikh Anta Diop University and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been on the academic and research faculty at Cheikh Anta Diop University and Michigan State University. He has worked as a Senior Scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and a Member of the Science Committee of Future Earth. Cheikh is a regional expert on disturbances of savanna vegetative systems, particularly the impact of bush fires and other land cover changes in rural areas. He has experience with above-ground in situ carbon stock assessments, vegetation inventory the use for carbon models, and the monitoring of vegetative communities.