Rani Parker
President at Business-Community Synergies- Claim this Profile
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English Native or bilingual proficiency
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French Full professional proficiency
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Tamil Native or bilingual proficiency
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Bio
Katherine Heller
Working with Rani was a fantastic opportunity to learn from a highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and committed manager. When working with Rani, I found her to always be working at the highest standards; she is committed to supporting highly effective corporate-community engagement, built on nuanced understanding of both community and corporate needs and goals, and she has the expertise and experience to help companies and communities reach these goals.
Dan Mistler
I had the pleasure of working with Rani for the first few years of my career, and I have benefitted ever since from her guidance and mentorship. Rani brings the highest degree of technical expertise to her engagements, as well as a tremendous ability to cut through noise and unearth the most critical elements of a problem. She is a savvy partnership builder who can both develop strategy and drive activities on the ground with an eye to the bigger picture. She approaches complexity with a priority to listening and understanding, and she can communicate deftly with business decision-makers at the highest levels of an organization.
Katherine Heller
Working with Rani was a fantastic opportunity to learn from a highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and committed manager. When working with Rani, I found her to always be working at the highest standards; she is committed to supporting highly effective corporate-community engagement, built on nuanced understanding of both community and corporate needs and goals, and she has the expertise and experience to help companies and communities reach these goals.
Dan Mistler
I had the pleasure of working with Rani for the first few years of my career, and I have benefitted ever since from her guidance and mentorship. Rani brings the highest degree of technical expertise to her engagements, as well as a tremendous ability to cut through noise and unearth the most critical elements of a problem. She is a savvy partnership builder who can both develop strategy and drive activities on the ground with an eye to the bigger picture. She approaches complexity with a priority to listening and understanding, and she can communicate deftly with business decision-makers at the highest levels of an organization.
Katherine Heller
Working with Rani was a fantastic opportunity to learn from a highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and committed manager. When working with Rani, I found her to always be working at the highest standards; she is committed to supporting highly effective corporate-community engagement, built on nuanced understanding of both community and corporate needs and goals, and she has the expertise and experience to help companies and communities reach these goals.
Dan Mistler
I had the pleasure of working with Rani for the first few years of my career, and I have benefitted ever since from her guidance and mentorship. Rani brings the highest degree of technical expertise to her engagements, as well as a tremendous ability to cut through noise and unearth the most critical elements of a problem. She is a savvy partnership builder who can both develop strategy and drive activities on the ground with an eye to the bigger picture. She approaches complexity with a priority to listening and understanding, and she can communicate deftly with business decision-makers at the highest levels of an organization.
Katherine Heller
Working with Rani was a fantastic opportunity to learn from a highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and committed manager. When working with Rani, I found her to always be working at the highest standards; she is committed to supporting highly effective corporate-community engagement, built on nuanced understanding of both community and corporate needs and goals, and she has the expertise and experience to help companies and communities reach these goals.
Dan Mistler
I had the pleasure of working with Rani for the first few years of my career, and I have benefitted ever since from her guidance and mentorship. Rani brings the highest degree of technical expertise to her engagements, as well as a tremendous ability to cut through noise and unearth the most critical elements of a problem. She is a savvy partnership builder who can both develop strategy and drive activities on the ground with an eye to the bigger picture. She approaches complexity with a priority to listening and understanding, and she can communicate deftly with business decision-makers at the highest levels of an organization.
Credentials
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Master Gardener
University of Maryland ExtensionJan, 2011- Oct, 2024 -
Online Instructor
University of Maryland University CollegeJan, 2004- Oct, 2024
Experience
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Business-Community Synergies
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United States
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Business Consulting and Services
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1 - 100 Employee
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President
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2004 - Present
• Founder of research and advisory services firm specializing in corporate-community investment and engagement across diverse corporate, government, NGO, donor and community stakeholders in natural resource extraction contexts. • Internally, provided vision, organizational and technical leadership, inspiration and strategy to facilitate positive outcomes and to expand the financial base and programmatic impact of the firm through its decentralized, network-based structure. • Externally, developed and maintained large corporate clients such as Chevron, BG Group, Rio Tinto, over a ten-year period, advising senior management on community investments and social risk management. Complemented corporate funding with international donors such as USAID, the World Bank Group and university-based partners, such as the London School of Economics.• As consultant, currently leading impact assessment of stakeholder engagement in Uganda. Identified and managed multi-national teams of experts from corporations, universities, local organizations and international organizations for projects in the U.S. and 19 countries.• Managed grants for Chevron by special request because of our financial transparency and high levels of accountability.• Provide community investment advice to all corporate clients. Projects cover a range of activities including strategy development, planning, capacity building in stakeholder engagement, participatory methods, funding and monitoring funds, social performance guidelines, social risk identification and management, impact assessments, coaching and mentoring corporate personnel, and advice to senior management.• In an open competition, BCS was one of very few small businesses recognized among the top 100 minority-owned businesses in the Mid-Atlantic States.
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United States Agency for International Development
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India
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1 - 100 Employee
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Consultant
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2004 - 2006
USAID/Angola Mission: Helped identify lessons learned from experience of alliances with the oil industry; assessed opportunities for future public-private alliances to advance development goals; and developed a plan for such alliances in the future. USAID/Kosovo Mission: Identified potential for public-private partnerships in USAID’s core work areas in Kosovo. Led discussions and helped conceptualize USAID’s role in helping revitalize electricity generation in Kosovo; assisted in developing a strategy to attract private investment to support and complement efforts of other international donors.
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Business for Social Responsibility
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United States
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Business Consulting and Services
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1 - 100 Employee
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Consultant
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Feb 2004 - Dec 2004
Lead consultant on project to better understand and manage socio-economic impacts of extractive business operations on local communities, to assist the mining industry to identify opportunities for optimizing its contribution to sustainable community development, and to integrate approaches into core business practice. Focus cases included Antamina, Peru, and Cortez Gold in Nevada, U.S. Lead consultant on project to better understand and manage socio-economic impacts of extractive business operations on local communities, to assist the mining industry to identify opportunities for optimizing its contribution to sustainable community development, and to integrate approaches into core business practice. Focus cases included Antamina, Peru, and Cortez Gold in Nevada, U.S.
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George Washington University
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United States
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Banking
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1 - 100 Employee
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Ph.D. Dissertation Research,
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Feb 2004 - Dec 2004
Two case studies:1. Rio Tinto's partnership approach to engagement with indigenous populations in diamond mining in Canada.2. Anglo Gold's community investment strategy in communities surrounding a gold mine.Research demonstrated the benefit of direct corporate-community engagement and investment rather than corporate-community investment through third parties, such as NGOs. Two case studies:1. Rio Tinto's partnership approach to engagement with indigenous populations in diamond mining in Canada.2. Anglo Gold's community investment strategy in communities surrounding a gold mine.Research demonstrated the benefit of direct corporate-community engagement and investment rather than corporate-community investment through third parties, such as NGOs.
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Save the Children
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United States
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Political Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director, Woman/Child Impact and Chief Advisor
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1994 - 2000
• Managed multi-million dollar, multi-country long-term grants, including staff and budgets, aimed at organizational change in favor for greater gender equality and systematic measurement of program impacts. Provided oversight to programs focusing on cross-cutting themes such as child rights, women’s empowerment, partnership building, impact assessments and advocacy, in technical and operational departments of Save the Children programs. • Conceived of and established teams of local field-based staff from 20 countries world-wide to build organizational and community capacity to conduct social impact and gender analysis in programs. An independent evaluation concluded that the Initiative measurably institutionalized the incorporation of gender analysis is the organization’s proposals, programs and evaluations in 30 countries. It received the President’s Award for best teams and InterAction’s award for gender integration in programs. • Created program of small grants to test field-based innovations with potential for more effective development. These included areas such as health, education, local economic development and women’s and children’s human rights.• Managed award-winning demonstration programs, which emphasized partnership building, women’s empowerment, child rights and participatory impact evaluation as means to sustainable community development. • Advised collaborative of American organizations and University of Colombo, and co-developed design of curriculum for new multi-disciplinary diploma course on leadership and conflict resolution.• Led Save the Children’s efforts to align program operations with human rights standards, especially advocacy for the conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Co-authored child-centered Gender Policy of the International Save the Children Alliance, and provided oversight to its implementation at Save/US.
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Consultant
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1993 - 1994
The World Bank - Authored paper on gender analysis and its integration into the Bank's project cycle for Asia Task Managers.USAID - Gender specialist on team evaluating a major project of the Office of Women In Development.Girl Scouts of the USA - Capacity building and leadership training for youth from the U.S. and African countries. The World Bank - Authored paper on gender analysis and its integration into the Bank's project cycle for Asia Task Managers.USAID - Gender specialist on team evaluating a major project of the Office of Women In Development.Girl Scouts of the USA - Capacity building and leadership training for youth from the U.S. and African countries.
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Coordinator, Better Life Options for Girls and Young Women
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1991 - 1993
- Designed and coordinated implementation of a participatory evaluation system for impact assessment of integrated projects for young women.- Organized and coordinated implementation of first Youth Leadership Fellows program facilitating exchange of program strategies among African, Asian and American youth leaders.- Developed gender awareness and analysis curricula and conducted training for "Women In Management" and "Institution Building" training courses for managers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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Salvation Army World Service Office
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United States
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Non-profit Organization Management
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1 - 100 Employee
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Planning and Evaluation Coordinator and Regional Coordinator for South Asia
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1990 - 1991
Planning and Evaluation Coordinator• Initiated and coordinated development of a participatory system for monitoring and evaluation of global program on human and organizational resource development. A unique feature was the inclusion of children’s perspectives in the framework.Regional Coordinator for South Asia• Provided technical assistance in using participatory methods for assessment of large non-formal education programs, to strengthen organizational systems and to increase overall effectiveness of development programs.• Provided training and technical assistance to members of The Salvation Army (India and Bangladesh) in all aspects of development program planning and management, including dealing with work-place diversity and ethnic conflicts in South Asia, team building, leadership skills, and needs assessment.• Initiated new programs in community-based training, substance abuse and micro-enterprise development. Also initiated training to address workplace diversity for senior management.
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Save the Children US
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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700 & Above Employee
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Program Associate/Intern
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1989 - 1990
• Created a practitioner’s technique for gender analysis, presented technique at international conference (Cairo 1989) and trained development workers in its use. Authored Guide, published by United Nations Fund for Women. Remains among the most widely used field-based, self-administered gender analysis tool in many countries. • Advocated for and facilitated shift of credit services from catering largely to male clients toward female clients. • Created a practitioner’s technique for gender analysis, presented technique at international conference (Cairo 1989) and trained development workers in its use. Authored Guide, published by United Nations Fund for Women. Remains among the most widely used field-based, self-administered gender analysis tool in many countries. • Advocated for and facilitated shift of credit services from catering largely to male clients toward female clients.
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Economist
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1985 - 1987
• As technical advisor to training division, designed and demonstrated alternative participatory approach for teaching estimation methodology to state analysts. Authored a handbook and technical paper for their use in data review and to conduct follow-up research.• Represented office on teams developing systems for the collection of employment and wage data for use in longitudinal studies, and on reconstitution of the Standard Industrial Classification codes. • As technical advisor to training division, designed and demonstrated alternative participatory approach for teaching estimation methodology to state analysts. Authored a handbook and technical paper for their use in data review and to conduct follow-up research.• Represented office on teams developing systems for the collection of employment and wage data for use in longitudinal studies, and on reconstitution of the Standard Industrial Classification codes.
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U.S. Peace Corps
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Philanthropy
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1 - 100 Employee
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Peace Corps Volunteer
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1982 - 1984
Education volunteer, teaching high school English. Education volunteer, teaching high school English.
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The Rockefeller Foundation
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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300 - 400 Employee
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Assistant to Associate Director for Agricultural Sciences
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1981 - 1982
Assisted with various agricultural research project, including a plant gene storage center in China. Assisted with various agricultural research project, including a plant gene storage center in China.
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Education
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1987 - 1989
The Fletcher School at Tufts University
MALD, international economic relations and human rights law -
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The George Washington University School of Business
Ph.D., Corporate Community Investment
Community
