Leaders of Millennium Tools:

Rebecca Gifford serves as the first Director of Millennium Tools. While still in college, Rebecca became deeply troubled by the urban poverty she witnessed on a daily basis and soon joined with creative leaders of a local church to walk the streets, visit the imprisoned and create a wide array of outreach projects. Frustrated by the limits of even the best outreach to bring about lasting change, Rebecca turned to community organizing. For nearly two decades, Rebecca has been dedicated to developing the united power of organized people to make changes in themselves and their communities. As an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation, Rebecca worked extensively in multi-cultural contexts. She has witnessed the remarkable capacity of people from many backgrounds to discover a common voice and a common vision. Today, she catalyzes a cross-sector team of visionary practitioners who share a passion to pursue excellence in community transformation among the world's poorest.

Grace Roberts Dyrness is the founder and president of the Institute of Transnational Research and Development, one of the community initiatives under the Institutes for Urban Initiatives based in Pasadena, California. She teaches part-time in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. Her areas of teaching and research are sustainable tourism, social context of planning, and the role of community and faith-based organizations in transforming society, with a particular emphasis on women and vulnerable children. She has engaged in extensive research and capacity-building projects in numerous countries around the world, especially Kenya, Tanzania, and the Philippines. She is a member of several local and international boards of organizations engaged in social justice and community empowerment.

Tom Hsieh is the CEO of SplinterRock, Inc. a technology consulting and brokerage firm. Prior to SplinterRock, Tom was an executive at EarthLink, Inc. where he served for over 10 years beginning from its early start-up phase. Beyond managing Earthlink's engineering and IT functions Tom was also responsible for creating EarthLink's Voice business and growing it to a $50M unit from 2005 to 2006. Tom received his Executive MBA from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management and his Bachelors of Science in Physics from Harvey Mudd College. As a skilled business entrepreneur, Tom has a deep commitment to producing responsible profit that results in maximum social impact. He has been active in numerous community transformation initiatives for the past 13 years and currently serves as an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Pomona and also on the board of directors for several local non-profits.

Francis Otim Odeng is the Coordinator of the Community Leadership and Development Programme at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda, where he teaches classes on leadership, management, and community development in addition to supervising students engaged in fieldwork. For 17 years, Francis worked in various capacities within local governments and urban councils of Uganda assuming responsibility for initiating and supervising various planning schemes, projects and programmes to meet the needs of the communities being served. Francis designed and implemented a multi-year consultation among 200 different leaders within Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to discuss specific recommendations for improving development outcomes of projects in the region. He has consulted with an array of local organisations and churches, focusing in particular on questions of evaluation and monitoring, capacity-building of leaders and programme evaluation. Francis earned a Master's degree in Development Studies from Melbourne University in Australia.

Byron Ramirez is an experienced business and organizational consultant with strong global roots and a deep passion for innovation and continuous improvement within all sectors of society. He possesses a professional background in strategy, management, operations, and finance. Currently, Byron is pursuing a PhD degree in Economics and Political Science from Claremont Graduate University, motivated by ongoing interest in political economy, international economic development, and sustainable development. Byron obtained his Master of Science degree in Advanced Management from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management. He is also an alumnus from CSU Polytechnic University Pomona (BS in finance) and the University of La Verne (MBA). He is a member of the American Management Association and the Strategic Management Society. Over the years he has volunteered with several organizations such as the March of Dimes, the American Red Cross, UNICEF, and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and served on alumni boards of universities where he has studied.

Karinn Sammann brings expertise in public health and business development. She co-founded DrugVoice, a consumer market research company, focused on bringing the patient's voice to healthcare leaders. Karinn also served as a strategy consultant for Accenture where she worked with leading healthcare and pharmaceutical companies to address a variety of strategic issues. She led a $1 million research initiative that involved seven major pharmaceutical companies and focused on defining a new paradigm for drug development. Karinn holds an MBA and a Master of Public Health from UCLA. Throughout her career, she has shown a commitment to cross cultural work and improving the conditions of persons living in poverty. She served on the Board of Latin America Mission and worked with Young Life Urban managing a jobs program for inner city youth. Karinn has lived in Kenya and traveled extensively in Asia, Europe and Central America.