Global Learning Portal Guest

Buff Mackenzie, a Senior Fellow at GLP’s alliance partner, the Committee for Economic Development (www.ced.org), works on outreach and partnership development for GLP.  He is currently expanding education alliances with civil society, teacher unions and higher education in Africa with a focus on bringing the voice, knowledge and problem-solving of the private sector to country education challenges. As originator of the Global Learning Portal teacher network concept, Buff played a similar support role with GLP when he served as an education advisor to USAID from 2003 to 2009.

Before joining GLP, Buff was Director of the USAID's Office of Global Education.  As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service at USAID, he previously served as Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, including leading humanitarian programs in Sudan, Somalia and Burundi while based in Nairobi, Kenya, and as Mission Director in Madagascar.  During his 29-year development career, Buff also served in Panama, Burkina Faso and Washington, DC with USAID and in Kenya and El Salvador with the U.S. Peace Corps.  Recognized by USAID through a number of individual and group awards, Buff was also the first recipient of the USAID Administrator's Award for Reengineering in 1997 for his 5-plus years of development contributions in Madagascar.

Buff has B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Public Administration and another in Planning from the University of Virginia. His outside interests include tennis, bike riding, reading, guitar and travel.