For Media Producers: Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps
As Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna leads a global team of 6,000 humanitarians who provide immediate relief to save lives and livelihoods and work to create transformational change in more than 40 countries. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer of CARE, where she oversaw the organization’s programming and global operations, and as Chief Operating Officer of Habitat for Humanity International. Tjada’s career has spanned the private sector, government and the social services sector.
Tjada can provide expertise and commentary on the biggest international issues making headlines - including humanitarian crises in Gaza and Sudan, the global impact of the war in Ukraine, climate change as the biggest threat multiplier to conflict and poverty to refugee crises and conflicts spanning Mercy Corps’ 40+ countries of operation in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Tjada is also a recognized authority on food security and hunger. She is currently the only African American woman at the helm of an international aid organization. She can speak about issues of colonialism and white saviorism in the humanitarian aid and development sector, and of gender, racial and ethnic diversity in C-Suite leadership. She can join interviews virtually or in-studio in Washington, DC. To book Tjada as an interview guest, please contact Lynn Hector at lhector@mercycorps.org.
Click here for Tjada’s full bio, and connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“There is unimaginable suffering happening in Sudan. The amount of displacement to other countries in the region, violence against women and children, sexual violence, and now a relentless grip of hunger. It’s baffling that the world has been letting this go on.”
- Tjada on BBC Newsday
Tjada in the news
Recent statements
“The global food security crisis is a window into the types of multi-factor global challenges we will likely face repeatedly if conflict goes unchecked, climate impacts increase in severity, and new global health security issues unfold. The international community and U.S. government must not only meet this moment by providing adequate humanitarian assistance to address acute food insecurity today, but by investing in and reorienting our assistance modalities to prepare vulnerable communities to weather these future shocks.”
- Tjada at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing on global hunger amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, May 11, 2022