Jodie Fonseca

Jodie Fonseca currently serves as Chief of Party for the Progresa con Educación activity in Honduras. Progresa con Educación works with the Honduras Ministry of Education to strengthen the individual, social, community, and institutional bonds that reinforce high aspirations and mutual accountability—making “home” in Honduras a place where all youth, including the most marginalized, can envision a bright future. Funded by the USAID, this five-year (2022–2027) activity aims to strengthen education outcomes for over 300,000 students in grades 6-9. In the Chief of Party position, Dr. Fonseca oversees all aspects of activity implementation, technical quality assurance, external representation, monitoring and evaluation, and operations functions.

Previously at RTI, Dr. Fonseca served as Senior Education Advisor from 2022–2023, providing technical assistance and managerial leadership to international education projects and initiatives. In this role, she served as the Project Manager for USAID’s Kenya Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity, a nearly nine-year initiative that reached over 10 million students nationwide. Dr. Fonseca also served as Chief of Party for USAID’s Early Grade Reading Program II (EGRP II) in Nepal. EGRP II was a two-year (2020–2022) program of technical assistance to the Government of Nepal to improve children’s reading outcomes in primary school, grades 1-3. In this role, Dr. Fonseca was responsible for coordinating interventions in teacher professional development and support, local government capacity strengthening for education planning, and COVID-19 response activities in the education sector.

Dr. Fonseca has extensive professional experience in international development. Prior to EGRP II, she was the Chief of Party for USAID’s Nepal Early Grade Reading Program from 2019–2020. Before joining RTI, she served as Project Director for the LEARN Project—a program that tested accelerated school readiness models for marginalized ethnic minority children in Laos, implemented by Plan International. Dr. Fonseca also worked with Save the Children in the role of Africa Education Advisor, providing technical support to education, early childhood development, and orphan and vulnerable children programs across 13 countries.