Jennifer Gurbin Harley

Jennifer has 15 years of experience working in economic development. She has been a Senior Technical Advisor in Financial Services and Strategic learning for the past 4 years and has worked for clients including MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) and Mercy Corps. She has experience managing long-term projects as well as short-term consultancies for donors including the United Nations Development Fund (UNCDF), The MasterCard Foundation, the World Bank Group, USAID and the European Commission. She has a background in savings and loan product development, youth employment and skills building, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic learning initiatives. From 2011 to 2013 Jennifer was also a facilitator of SEEP's Youth and Financial Services working group during which time the group produced the interactive publication Understanding Youth and their Financial Needs. Her work was also published in the Enterprise Development and Microfinance journal.

Jennifer holds a Master's degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa, as well as Bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto. 

Julie redfern

Julie Redfern is a senior manager, advisor, and strategy specialist with over 25 years of international development experience.  She has lived and worked in over 40 countries. For over 17 years, Julie led MEDA’s Microfinance and Banking Initiatives, most recently as Vice President of Financial Services. 

She served as a Trustee on the Women’s World Banking Board (New York). Previously, she was Vice-President of MiCredito’s Board of Directors (Nicaragua), a Director of Sevis Finansye Fonkoze (Haiti) and a Director of Microvest, a private investment fund for MFIs based in Washington D.C. 

Prior to joining MEDA (1996-2013), Julie was a project manager for the SEEP Network, supporting the scale-up of micro-enterprise programs. From 1991-1995 she served in Lesotho, as manager of CARE International’s Rural Enterprise Promotion Project and as a small business volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps. She holds a Masters in Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts in Economics, two advanced certificates in credit union management and has advanced Spanish language skills.