Our Leadership - Conscience International

Our Leadership Team

Founder and President—James E. Jennings, PhDFor much of the last two decades, based on a belief that acting on conscience is central to our humanity, Dr. Jennings has responded to disasters and worked to improve health care delivery in some of the neediest and most hazardous places on earth.  He organized and led delivery of medical aid following wars and earthquakes in many places, beginning with the siege of Beirut in 1982, and including wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, and Gaza, as well as earthquakes in Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, India, Haiti, and Peru.  After the giant tsunami in the Indian Ocean, he helped staff medical clinics at Sigli and Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and built homes in Bansak, Thailand. 

Conscience International built 140 houses for earthquake victims in Haiti using an innovative method of recycling rubble, a program that was featured on Canada’s Discovery Channel.  In Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Conscience International medical teams have performed surgery, including spinal surgery for crippled children.  More recently, Conscience International teams have been engaged in responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan and Turkey, and to the famine in Somalia, as well as to the massive floods in Pakistan. 

In Iraq, before, during, and after the war US-led war, Dr. Jennings led medical and public health teams that trained hundreds of physicians and nurses in child survival methods at hospitals and clinics in Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul.  He has organized and led refugee and disaster assistance, medical aid, and health training programs in many other countries, including India, Jordan, Lebanon, Peru, Haiti, Turkey, Sudan, Iran, Syria, Ethiopia, and Pakistan.  He has also organized and led US Academics for Peace conferences in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Sudan. 

US Academics for Peace, a division of Conscience International, engages in peacemaking efforts in regions of conflict, particularly in the Middle East.  Dr. Jennings continues to advocate greater understanding of other cultures and increased humanitarian involvement in the developing world. 

Kurt Giebel, Controller

Kurt has been with Conscience International since late 2010, initially serving as a consultant providing accounting and tax services in an advisory role. He joined the staff as Comptroller at the beginning of 2013 taking a more active leadership role in financial support of leadership as well as providing support to program directors actively working on implementing programs with Conscience International.Kurt has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Eastern Kentucky University. He has a wide realm of experience in both corporate and manufacturing/process accounting for a variety of large companies. He also has experience in working with smaller companies and startup organizations providing finance, accounting and tax support for companies just getting started as well as those companies working to turn operating results into profitable operations.He has made significant contributions by introducing budgeting processes and financial reporting working with other leadership team members and program directors in working to help manage program expenses within budgeted levels as well as working to continue the effective and efficient utilization of donor contributions to accomplish the overall goals of Conscience International.

Jeremy Holloman, Program Director, Latin America and Caribbean

Jeremy Holloman is a veteran of the construction industry who has led Conscience International’s reconstruction efforts in Haiti since the devastating January, 2010 earthquake, building 152 houses in Port-au-Prince and Grand Goave.  He is an innovative pioneer in developing earthquake resistant shelter solutions using recycled rubble from the earthquake.  Previously he led relief and reconstruction work in Honduras and Nicaragua in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, as well as in El Salvador following the earthquake of 2001.  He has also worked in Chile and Guatemala.  His relief experience includes the construction of houses, civic buildings and schools as well as water, sanitation and educational projects.  He speaks Spanish and is conversant in French and Creole.

Cliford Gardner, Middle East Programs

Cliff Gardner is Senior Administrative Manager of Research in the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Prior to this position he was the Administrative Officer for the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University from 2007-2011. He has over thirty years of experience living, working and traveling throughout the Middle East and South Asia.  He is fluent in Arabic and conversant in Turkish and Urdu.  Previously he taught English in the USAID program for the Academy for Educational Development in Islamabad, Pakistan from 1986-1988. He taught and designed English courses for the USAID program at the American University in Cairo from 1989-1993. He was the founding director of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities’ Middle East Studies Program based in Cairo, Egypt from 1993-1996. He administered executive education programs at the Harvard Institute for International Development from 1997-2000. He has extensive experience as an administrator on development projects around the world and has over twenty years of proven experience in cross-cultural consulting, fund raising, grant writing and research administration. He has been actively involved in the following professional organizations:  NAFSA:Association of International Educators, Middle East Studies Association, The American Academy of Religion and the National Council for University Research Administrators.

Richard Sarker, Southeast Asia Program Director

Richard Sarker has extensive experience in administering aid and development programs in the Asia-Pacific region.  From 1976-1985 he was a Field and General Services Officer for the UN Development/World Food Program in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  Earlier he served for three years as Senior Office Manager for the Ford Foundation in Dhaka.  Later (1985-93) he was Program Administrator for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Bangladesh.  From 2008-2010 he was Global Representative for ELCA in India and Kuala Lumpur, with responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of health and development programs.  His background includes training courses in management, rural development, and emergency relief from the UNDP/WFP and World Vision.  He was educated at Dhaka University (BA) and London International College (MBA).  Richard speaks his native Bengali and is conversant in Hindi and Urdu.  He has traveled and worked in Europe and North America, as well as in other countries including Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Nepal, and Malaysia.

Senior Management Team

Other Program Directors
  • Doug Hanson
  • Philip Meinhardt
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