The Staff

Wendy Batson, Executive Director
Wendy Batson is a development specialist with extensive experience planning and managing rehabilitation and reconstruction programs for war-devastated countries.  She has worked for non-governmental organizations and the United Nations designing and implementing programs for refugees, internally displaced persons and persons with disabilities. She and her husband and four children lived in Laos from 1981 through 1984 overseeing war reconstruction projects in Laos and Vietnam for Quaker Service Laos & Vietnam and in Pakistan from 1989 until 1994, where she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supporting programs for Afghan refugees.  From 1996 through 2004, she headed up the overseas division of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF - now known as Veterans for America).  She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with her husband and youngest son, Zachary. 

Edmund Kenny, Senior Program Officer – Operations & Advocacy
Mr. Kenny is a finance specialist with experience in both the public and nonprofit sectors. Prior to working with Handicap International, Ed served as a Policy and Budget Analyst with the Maryland General Assembly and as a legislative intern in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also worked on disability and physical accessibility policy issues in the higher education sector. Ed completed a master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Maryland in 2006 and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Maryland earning a degree in Government and Politics and Leadership in 2002. Ed serves locally as a Commissioner on the Montgomery County Commission on People with Disabilities. He lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife Brooke. 

Rhonda Neuhaus, Making it Work – Project Manager
Ms. Neuhaus oversees implementation of the Making it Work initiative. As an attorney and development professional, Rhonda has worked on subject areas including human rights, advocacy, capacity-building and civil-society strengthening in international development programming.  Before receiving her legal education from the University of Maryland School of Law, Rhonda received her M.A. in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and she has experience working in the area of inclusive development and public relations at Mobility International USA. She was a consultant at BlueLaw International, providing human rights education and advocacy services related to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the Shafallah Center for Children with Special Needs in Doha, Qatar. She is an experienced trainer and facilitator and has delivered trainings in Peru, Nicaragua, Tunisia, Spain, Brazil and throughout the United States. Rhonda is a trained negotiator and mediator and is a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders, where she is co-chair of the Latin American sub-committee. She is fluent in Spanish and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. 

Beth MacNairn, Senior Program Support Officer – Institutional Funding
Ms. MacNairn provides a broad range of assistance to Handicap International program staff worldwide seeking institutional funding or implementing development or emergency response projects supported by U.S. donors.  She has served as a communications professional, project manager and teacher with nongovernmental organizations and institutions based both in the United States and abroad. Ms. MacNairn earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Rob Driscoll, Assistant Program Support Officer
Mr. Driscoll provides assistance to Handicap International staff seeking institutional funding or administering projects supported by U.S. donors. Before joining Handicap International in January 2010, Rob managed a poverty measurement project at the Microcredit Summit Campaign. He also worked as a program assistant at the National School Boards Association and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali. Rob earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is currently working on his M.A. in International Development at American University in Washington, D.C.

Zach Hudson, Director – United States Campaign to Ban Landmines
Zach Hudson is the director of the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs (USCBL), a coalition of approximately 500 U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations dedicated to a total ban on antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions. The USCBL is one of 90 country campaigns that form the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Previously, Zach was the program director for the Adopt-A-Minefield (AAM) and HERO programs, the two humanitarian campaigns of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA). As the AAM Program Director, Zach worked with the U.N. and other mine action partners to implement minefield clearance, survivor assistance and mine risk education projects throughout the world. Before joining UNA-USA, Zach also created and implemented a work force re-entry program in San Francisco designed to aid at-risk populations; worked for the International Red Cross in Bhuj, India, as a rescue worker in the aftermath of an earthquake; and lived in Dublin, Ireland, where he was the acting International Business Development Manager for Tax Back International. Zach has a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Vassar College and a master's degree in International Peace Studies from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Tatyana Gouthro, Administrative Officer
Mrs. Gouthro is Handicap International's Administrative Officer, specializing in human resources management, finance and budgeting for the nonprofit sector. Before joining Handicap International, Tatyana was an administrator for the International Committee of the Red Cross, working with regional delegations in Ukraine and Cameroon. She obtained a bachelor's degree in English and French in 1984 from Kiev State University of Foreign Languages and a bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics in 2004 from Kiev University of Economics and Law. Tatyana lives in Bladensburg, Maryland, with her husband Will.

Lea Radick, Communications Officer
Ms. Radick joined Handicap International in September 2009 after finishing an internship with ClimateWire at E&E Publishing in Washington, D.C. Before receiving a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2008, Lea spent three months at a reporting internship with The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she covered cluster munitions, among other topics. After graduating in 2003 from Denison University with a degree in English-Creative Writing, Lea taught English as a Second Language in Italy and in the United States before working as an editor for three health care journals in Bronxville, New York, and as a production editor with John Wiley & Sons in Hoboken, New Jersey. Lea lives in Washington, D.C.