Isla Staff
Kathy Lynch Founder and Executive Director
Kathy works at the intersection of education, international development, and social-entrepreneurship, blending her skills and experience to generate sustainable long-term development outcomes. Kathy's international education experience includes study in Ireland, Germany, and the UK, all of which have informed her work in education abroad management positions at the University of Kentucky and Colorado State University. Her experience with sustainable international development began when she served in the Peace Corps in Mali. For two years, she lived in the village of N’Kourala in southern Mali and worked in the agriculture sector, integrating her support of food production with interventions with water, forestry, and health sector programs to advance community development through Peace Corps’ African Food Systems Initiative (AFSI). Through a World Bank ruralization program, Kathy introduced agricultural and appropriate technology techniques to elementary and high school students which led to a continuing education program that included women and farmers in innovative farming and health programs being offered at the school.
Kathy went on to work on the Cochran Fellowship Program’s Poland and Hungary desk at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. She coordinated in-country training programs and U.S. study-tours targeted to private agribusiness professionals, bankers, farmers, cooperatives, and other clients focused on the business skills necessary to work effectively in the new market economy. Next, she served for four years as Country Director of ACDI/VOCA’s Agribusiness Exchange Program, resident in Warsaw, Poland. As her family began to expand, Kathy shifted gears and earned her certification as a Montessori teacher. She went on to serve in a variety of positions, including teacher, mentor, board member, and eventually Director - with schools in Bulgaria, Kosovo, and the United States.
In 2007, Kathy founded Isla, marrying her interests in education and international development. Over a two-year period, she steered Isla towards a merger with the Foundation for Community Development and Empowerment (FCDE), expanding both the learning and development outcomes. She is delighted to return to return to Isla to provide leadership and growth at an important stage of the organization’s evolution. Kathy holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and an international teaching diploma from Montessori Center International in London, U.K. Kathy may be reached at kathy@isla-serve.org.
Kathy went on to work on the Cochran Fellowship Program’s Poland and Hungary desk at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. She coordinated in-country training programs and U.S. study-tours targeted to private agribusiness professionals, bankers, farmers, cooperatives, and other clients focused on the business skills necessary to work effectively in the new market economy. Next, she served for four years as Country Director of ACDI/VOCA’s Agribusiness Exchange Program, resident in Warsaw, Poland. As her family began to expand, Kathy shifted gears and earned her certification as a Montessori teacher. She went on to serve in a variety of positions, including teacher, mentor, board member, and eventually Director - with schools in Bulgaria, Kosovo, and the United States.
In 2007, Kathy founded Isla, marrying her interests in education and international development. Over a two-year period, she steered Isla towards a merger with the Foundation for Community Development and Empowerment (FCDE), expanding both the learning and development outcomes. She is delighted to return to return to Isla to provide leadership and growth at an important stage of the organization’s evolution. Kathy holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and an international teaching diploma from Montessori Center International in London, U.K. Kathy may be reached at kathy@isla-serve.org.
Blerta Avdili Program Coordinator
After living in the United States of America for twenty years, Blerta migrated back to Kosovo, her birthplace, in hopes of learning more about her heritage. She holds a degree in Human Rights and Structural Violence with a concentration in Cultural Anthropology from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. For the past eleven years, she has worked in three different continents for various not-for-profit and international organizations.
Growing up as a Kosovar refugee in Colorado, the only way she could make sense of her Ecotone identity was through learning about other cultures around the world. Curiosity has taken her on a wandering trip through canyons, mountains, cities, villages, lakes, oceans, and deserts in twenty-two different countries. However, her two most life-changing trips have been to Ute Mountain, Colorado, and Shirazi Kenya. Both trips shifted her mindset in further questioning mainstream development projects, as well as finding alternative and sustainable ways of helping to eradicate human suffering.
Wherever she goes, she takes with her a proverb that the indigenous people of America taught her: "We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." While in Shirazi, Kenya, she consulted rural micro-finance women-led organizations on adopting new strategies to increase profitability. Furthermore, she helped build the only clinic for women there. It was her internship in Kenya that prepared her to work with international institutions such as European Union Election Observation Missions and the International Organization for Migration. Furthermore, Blerta has defended and lobbied for various human rights in Kosovo- specifically for LGBTQ rights and gender equality. Advocacy work has paved the way for her to enhance her critical thinking, especially in learning the multiple layers of structural violence and how to break the chains of oppression.
Prior to joining Isla, she held the position of Director of Sustainability/ Co-Executive Director for Survivors Organizing for Liberation (formerly known as the Colorado Anti-Violence Program) in Denver, Colorado. There, she coordinated a youth-led project whose aim was to help racially disfavored LGBTQ youth break from the cycles of violence. She also led seventeen different grants as she continued grassroots campaigns and organized fundraising events.
Her current obsession is capturing abandoned towns and villages in Kosovo through photography. As a long-term project, she hopes to capture the attention of like-minded people in finding sustainable ways of regenerating human life in these ghostly places.
may be reached at blerta@isla-serve.org
Growing up as a Kosovar refugee in Colorado, the only way she could make sense of her Ecotone identity was through learning about other cultures around the world. Curiosity has taken her on a wandering trip through canyons, mountains, cities, villages, lakes, oceans, and deserts in twenty-two different countries. However, her two most life-changing trips have been to Ute Mountain, Colorado, and Shirazi Kenya. Both trips shifted her mindset in further questioning mainstream development projects, as well as finding alternative and sustainable ways of helping to eradicate human suffering.
Wherever she goes, she takes with her a proverb that the indigenous people of America taught her: "We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." While in Shirazi, Kenya, she consulted rural micro-finance women-led organizations on adopting new strategies to increase profitability. Furthermore, she helped build the only clinic for women there. It was her internship in Kenya that prepared her to work with international institutions such as European Union Election Observation Missions and the International Organization for Migration. Furthermore, Blerta has defended and lobbied for various human rights in Kosovo- specifically for LGBTQ rights and gender equality. Advocacy work has paved the way for her to enhance her critical thinking, especially in learning the multiple layers of structural violence and how to break the chains of oppression.
Prior to joining Isla, she held the position of Director of Sustainability/ Co-Executive Director for Survivors Organizing for Liberation (formerly known as the Colorado Anti-Violence Program) in Denver, Colorado. There, she coordinated a youth-led project whose aim was to help racially disfavored LGBTQ youth break from the cycles of violence. She also led seventeen different grants as she continued grassroots campaigns and organized fundraising events.
Her current obsession is capturing abandoned towns and villages in Kosovo through photography. As a long-term project, she hopes to capture the attention of like-minded people in finding sustainable ways of regenerating human life in these ghostly places.
may be reached at blerta@isla-serve.org
Carl Hammerdorfer Global Development Advisor
Carl is a valuable advisor to Isla. He discovered his love for international development working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. In the subsequent 25 years, Carl has led USAID-funded programs in Poland, the Baltics, Kenya, and Kosovo. He was also Chief of Party on a USDA-funded SME investment project in Tanzania and served as Peace Corps Country Director in Bulgaria. Carl’s expertise and interests range from higher-education management to entrepreneurship, SME finance, agriculture/agribusiness, cooperatives, and youth development.
Periodic stints in the United States have allowed Carl to pursue other professional interests, including
• Seven years building and leading an MBA in global sustainable entrepreneurship at Colorado State University, earning a #2 global ranking for impact.
• Building an incubator for nationwide purchasing cooperatives in the drywall, roofing, tools and fasteners, and leasing industries.
• Entrepreneurial ventures in advertising, charter air, web-based procurement, and digital afterlife.
Periodic stints in the United States have allowed Carl to pursue other professional interests, including
• Seven years building and leading an MBA in global sustainable entrepreneurship at Colorado State University, earning a #2 global ranking for impact.
• Building an incubator for nationwide purchasing cooperatives in the drywall, roofing, tools and fasteners, and leasing industries.
• Entrepreneurial ventures in advertising, charter air, web-based procurement, and digital afterlife.
