The Amplio team welcomes Bea (center row, right) to our Zoom office
Amplio is delighted to announce that Bea Covington has joined our team as global partnerships director. “Bea brings a wealth of skills and experience that will allow us to develop strategic partnerships and help our partners achieve stronger results,” said founder and executive director Cliff Schmidt.
“Bea has developed numerous non-profit, government, and private sector partnerships; managed national-scale programs for USAID; and supported donor institutions with data-driven monitoring and evaluation. Also, she has extensively studied how to best serve smallholder farmers with access to education and information and then applied that knowledge in the field. We’re thrilled to have her join our team.”
A commitment to collaboration and community engagement
Bea’s expertise includes program development, economic impact analysis, and monitoring and evaluation. She has helped launch three start-up organizations (all of which are thriving today) and scaled and operationalized pilot programs to national levels. For her work in Afghanistan, she received awards and recognition from the US Department of State and USAID for her team leadership, expertise, and collaboration, which substantially improved the utilization of stabilization metrics.
Bea is committed to equity, community engagement, and stakeholder-driven processes. She said the Talking Book reflects her values.
“When I interviewed with Amplio, I immediately saw the value of the Talking Book as a tool for promoting education and inclusion in remote rural communities. I’ve worked in countries where women’s access to information and technology is severely constrained. The Talking Book makes it possible for women, in particular, to access information in a way that's convenient and safe,” Bea said. “Amplio’s global partners use the Talking Book to facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue, debate, and decision making. I also see a lot of potential for the Talking Book’s user feedback channel.”
Bea and her corgi companions, Zelda and Fitzgerald, explore the Washington shore.
Behavior change communication at the heart of extension work
Prior to joining Amplio, Bea was executive director of the King Conservation District in Seattle, where she led a team working with private landowners and farmers to support the adoption of conservation practices on private properties.
“Behavior change communication is at the heart of extension work, both domestically and internationally. Whether it’s private landowners in the U.S. who want to incorporate pollinator habitat gardens into their yards or nomadic herders in Morocco who need to change the way they harvest wood for fuel, providing access to timely and accurate information is critical. The Talking Book enables this. I look forward to seeing how many different places, and in how many different ways, we can use this exciting technology.”
You can contact Bea at bea@amplio.org. She looks forward to meeting you!
Bea Covington began her career in international development as a Peace Corps volunteer. She taught and developed teacher training programs in Morocco and Togo, and served as a regional curriculum advisor to the Togolese Ministry of Education. Bea holds an M.S. in Natural Resource Economics and an M.Ag. in Adult Education and Communication from the University of Florida. Connect with Bea on LinkedIn.