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
Savannah Woodward Isla Recruiter
Savannah holds a Bachelor’s degree in Community Health from Western Washington University in Washington, U.S.A, where much of her research and program development focused on women’s reproductive health and sexual health education. Throughout her time at university, Savannah was active as a Peer Health Educator for Prevention and Wellness Services, which involved planning, facilitating, and evaluating programs emphasizing self-care, suicide prevention, and mental illness stigma reduction. She created and managed a number of social media platforms and enjoyed designing health promotional materials.
Savannah grew up adventuring in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. She joins Isla after completion of a self-designed internship with a grassroots NGO, Sahayatri Nepal, located in Kathmandu. During her time in Nepal she organized health education and empowerment programs for women in rural communities and taught sexual health classes in government schools. Her extensive experience in small restaurant management allowed her to assist in progressing Sahayatri’s budgeting and marketing.
A passion for connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and the need to learn new perspectives led Savannah to travel to a number of places, including a global health study abroad trip in Northern India; volunteering for a housing development project in Fiji; and educational experiences in Spain, France, Peru, and Morocco. She is excited to be a resource in connecting people to life changing opportunities. Savannah may be reached at info@isla-serve.org.
Savannah grew up adventuring in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. She joins Isla after completion of a self-designed internship with a grassroots NGO, Sahayatri Nepal, located in Kathmandu. During her time in Nepal she organized health education and empowerment programs for women in rural communities and taught sexual health classes in government schools. Her extensive experience in small restaurant management allowed her to assist in progressing Sahayatri’s budgeting and marketing.
A passion for connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and the need to learn new perspectives led Savannah to travel to a number of places, including a global health study abroad trip in Northern India; volunteering for a housing development project in Fiji; and educational experiences in Spain, France, Peru, and Morocco. She is excited to be a resource in connecting people to life changing opportunities. Savannah may be reached at info@isla-serve.org.
