The People of Jodevi

Lovely Dhillon, the visionary CEO and founder of Jodevi Consulting, harnesses her extensive background in philanthropy, law, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurship to guide organizations through pivotal strategic decisions. With a rich tapestry of experience spanning decades, Lovely is renowned for her ability to provide insightful thought partnership, rigorous analytical prowess, and unwavering commitment to organizational missions and visions.

Before Jodevi's inception, Lovely played a crucial role as the first Deputy Director for Strategy, Management, and Evaluation in the US Program’s Advocacy and Policy sector at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she was responsible for overseeing a substantial $90 million portfolio, leading pivotal evaluation and measurement initiatives, and innovating grantee management systems.

Lovely's impact extended through her tenure at ORS Impact as Vice President, where she was developed the Strategic Planning business line and initiated the firm's work with businesses with social impact.

Her consultancy portfolio is studded with high-profile clients, including: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; The Malala Fund; The Four Freedoms Fund (a donor collaborative of foundations including, among others, the Ford Foundation, JPB Foundation, and the Emerson Collective); The National Fair Housing Alliance; Define American; The Rasmuson Foundation; Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice; The Carter Center; and The National Women’s Law Center.

Lovely’s legal career spans two decades, during which she championed legal access and innovation. She served as the Executive Director of the Law School Consortium Project, a national network of several thousand of community-based lawyers, which applied a social entrepreneurial approach to legal services and was awarded with the American Bar Association's prestigious Louis Brown Award by for innovation in legal access. Lovely also served as the Executive Director of the California Minority Counsel Program, a California-wide collaborative of corporations, law firms, law schools, and bar associations promoting equal opportunity in the practice of law.

A prolific author and speaker, Lovely has contributed to critical discussions and literature on diversity, equity, and inclusion, strategic learning, and the intersection of business innovation and social impact. Lovely is the co-author of Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future; Refining Theories of Change; and MLE chapter author in Amazon nonprofit best-seller Nonprofit Management 101. She is the founder of Seattle’s Network of Women and co-founder of Indus Women Leaders.

Lovely holds a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Political Science from Florida State University.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Lovely is an enthusiastic sailor, hiker, and football fan, embodying the spirit of an idealist with the strategic acumen of a seasoned business leader. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Lovely continues to inspire through her leadership, vision, and relentless pursuit of impactful change.

Beverly Parsons is President and Executive Director of InSites, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization. InSites works through inquiry-based evaluation, planning, and research to support learning, growth, and change in formal and informal social systems. InSites pays particular attention to how social systems attend to environmental sustainability, social justice, economic well-being, and community development.

Beverly served as president of the American Evaluation Association in 2014. She is a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation (University of Colorado) and a B.S. in Medical Technology (University of Wisconsin). She has certificates in Sustainable Business, Human Systems Dynamics, and Appreciative Inquiry facilitation. While at InSites, Beverly has worked with initiatives in education, health, social services, and environmental fields. She has been a consultant to several foundations, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

She has served as a consultant to foundations in Brazil and the South African Department of Education; conducted evaluations in China and Japan; and assisted teams in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in program evaluation and redesign of curriculum. She has been the principal investigator for two National Science Foundation grants. She specializes in evaluation designs for multi-site, multi-level, large-scale initiatives and using systems thinking and systems theories in research and evaluation. She has written and presented extensively on these topics. She has a strong background in quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Prior to InSites, Beverly was at the Education Commission of the States, a national interstate compact that assists governors, legislators, and state education and business leaders to improve education through leadership and policy. Previously she was at Education Northwest (Portland, OR) as Director of the Assessment and Measurement Program; worked on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; held university adjunct teaching positions; and was a physiological chemistry laboratory instructor (University of Wisconsin medical school). Beverly lives with her husband in Hansville, Washington and enjoys hiking and organic gardening.

Manami Kano is a consultant to non-profits and foundations on organizational and program strategy and development, funding collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion integration into organizational goals. In this capacity, she has advised foundations on their grantmaking strategies to focus on intersectional racial equity, organized a funder affinity group to advance DEI in journalism and media, and designed and helped launch a pooled fund, the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy which has grown to over $20M in commitments from 16 funders supporting over 50 organizations in 3 years. Manami facilitated the design of the Color Congress initiative, a participatory field-building fund supported by Ford and MacArthur Foundations and Perspective Fund for BIPOC nonfiction and documentary work.

Clients have included the Ford Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy, Democracy Fund, Firelight Media, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Knight Foundation, JB McClatchy Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, The Asian American Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Philanthropy New York among others.

Previously, Manami was the deputy director of the Global Media Program in the Global Policy & Advocacy division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Manami led the Foundation’s media grants and partnerships portfolio, funding journalism, storytelling and narrative projects in the U.S., Europe, Africa and India to increase issue salience of global health, poverty and education by elevating diverse voices and underreported stories. Throughout, Manami has been an advocate for equity in her staffing and grantmaking to reflect the communities served. In 2016, she established a $1M discretionary fund through New Venture Fund for Communication that focused on building trust with audiences that focused on diversity of stories, staff and leadership.

Manami previously spent a decade consulting and leading organizations in the nonprofit sector focused on racial, gender, economic and environmental justice and arts/culture. Manami was a National Urban Fellow, and holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a MPA from Baruch College.

Jana L. Carlisle, Ed.D., has spent more than 30 years seeking to improve public education through leadership positions in the not-for-profit, public, and philanthropic sectors. Her roles have placed her in two urban superintendents’ offices, a not-for-profit state-level advocacy organization, a not-for-profit national leadership development organization, a for-profit education reform organization, a major international foundation, and independent consultancies.

In these roles, she has brought together diverse internal and external partners and stakeholders to work for educational equity and access for all students regardless of their backgrounds; and to make educational success a right not an economic privilege. Through facilitation, collaboration, and common objectives, Jana has forged strong and lasting relationships among partners and stakeholders from businesses, colleges, universities, foundations, state and local agencies and governments, local communities, parents, and K-12 educators. 

Jana has served as Chief of Staff for Metro Nashville Public Schools and also as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief of Staff at New York City Leadership Academy.  She has deep experience framing and facilitating improvement processes and practices, helping others to plan and manage for change and successful implementation, and aligning organizational goals, objectives, and practices to strategic and operational results.

Jana has worked closely with stakeholders to examine, design, and implement the following:  small elementary, K-8, magnet, and high schools; equity projects; school support programs (e.g., nursing and SEL); use of data; training programs; site visits; board policies; state improvement and comprehensive school reform development/CSRD plans; school choice programs; facilities’ and program plans; grant applications; school improvement plans; strategic plans; budgets; family engagement strategies; program evaluations; labor-management agreements; leadership standards; and a variety of new practices.

Jana studied political science and international relations as an undergraduate major at Michigan State University’s James Madison College, public policy analysis with a focus on education as a Master’s of Science student at the University of Rochester, and educational leadership for her doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Mid Career Doctoral Program in Educational and Organizational Leadership. She is the author of the book Women Navigating Educational Leadership.

David Kaye is a senior business leader who has focused on Global eCommerce, Digital Marketing, Product Management, and Brand Development. He has a wide array of experience gained from living and working in the USA, South Africa, and Japan for notable brands such as Fitbit, Snap, Jawbone, Ogilvy, and Ring/Amazon. Over his career he has delivered 50+ cutting edge consumer electronics products to global markets and was responsible for delivering exceptional digital experiences to educate and delight millions of customers from across the globe.

Early in his career he worked for The Bar Association of San Francisco and has volunteered at non-profits including, San Francisco Public Library’s 'Project Read: Adult Literacy Program', St Joseph Centers' 'Code Talk Program', and at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco as an eCommerce Mentor.  

It is no longer enough to present great information to the visitor - you must create deep and meaningful relationships throughout their digital journey to reach and retain their interest. David is full of energy, optimism, and wise experiences and brings that to developing products and building memorable digital experiences, using analytics and testing, to meet the highest expectations.

In his spare time David works with E. Dale Erickson, a gifted San Francisco realist painter and The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, highlighting their work to save the planet's last 100,000 giraffe.

Olga Carries specializes in writing, editing, social media, and video editing. Olga has experience with companies such as Shutterstock and Vice as well as with boutique communication firms that cater to smaller sized businesses. Dedicated to issues of DEI and nonprofit social change organizations, Olga has worked with global nonprofit organizations such as Youth With A Mission, Clean Slate Living focusing on youth empowerment, and 514 Nepal (human trafficking). Many of the organizations Olga has provided communications expertise are geared towards the younger generation, with a focus on building self-worth, self-confidence, and purpose. Olga’s number one desire is for people to know their worth and understand their purpose in their own lives as well as the lives of those they impact. 

Sara Vaca builds her practice on her 15-year extensive experience in Results-based management in the private sector and in the Humanitarian sector. Her background is in Management, Masters's in Non-profit Management, and Masters’s in Evaluation. Sara is specialized in evaluating development programs, with relevant experience with Red Cross societies and UN agencies. She has a growing interest in other areas such as gender and advocacy and she researches and writes on how to bring innovation and transparency to the evaluation practice thanks to data visualization. Sara is the creative force behind Visual Brains and EvalYear.com. She secretly wishes to contribute to achieving a change of paradigm in evaluation by 2025… Sara is based in Toulouse, France.

Florentina joined Jodevi in late 2022 to focus on project management systems. She has been working closely with the CEO to streamline the project pipeline and monitor progress and implementation. Florentina is specialized in advocacy with donors and developing country governments, especially pertaining to health spending. Previously, Florentina worked for the Results Education Fund, where she provided program and strategic support to the ACTION for TB campaign. Prior to that, she worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation assisting in the grants management pipeline for developing countries, focusing on assisting these countries in scaling up investments in health and education, and promoting the role of civil society networks. 

Florentina holds a Master of Arts in International Commerce & Policy from George Mason University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Anna Maria College. She is passionate about early childhood development and education, reading, and arts. 

Sebastian A. Vivar's creative endeavours started at the confluence of architecture and computer art, disciplines that taught him the poetry of creating tangible and digital spaces. This vocation culminated in gallery installations that left viewers exploring the complexities of group and personal identities and understanding how viewpoints on worth vary simultaneously. After a decade of working at several of New York City’s Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue ad agencies, Sebastian returned to Europe to create identity campaigns using his penchant for condensing complex information into simple human narratives while straddling multiculturalism. At the heart of Sebastian's interests is a deep concern for environments, notably demonstrated through his pivotal stint with the Plastic Oceans Foundation, where he recrafted their digital experience to reboot the organization towards new milestones. But as a thinking artist who advocates holding multiple contrary thoughts simultaneously, he continues to explore the power of the web to alter the interior landscape of the self-sabotaging scripts we play in our minds.