For Media Producers: Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps

Tjada d’oyen mckenna sitting in living space.

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

The Guardian

'The world's simply not noticing': 2024 likely to be the deadliest year for aid workers"


 

CBS News

Tjada joins CBS News to discuss the arrival of polio in Gaza and a polio vaccine campaign expected to get underway. 

PBS NewsWeekend

Escalating conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo fuels growing humanitarian crisis


 


Tjada i

“We are no strangers to human suffering — to conflict, to natural disasters, to some of the world’s largest and gravest catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years. The list goes on.

But as the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza.”

- Tjada and CEOs of leading humanitarian organizations in The New York Times


Recent statements

Sudan: Starvation Crisis Reaches Historic Proportions

World Humanitarian Day 2024 Marked by Severe Aid Access Constraints and Violence After Deadliest Year for Humanitarians

CEO Statement at Sudan Summit: Pledges must be disbursed immediately to avoid famine


“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
 

Interested in booking Tjada as a guest?