Advisory Council

HELP's Advisory Council provides our staff and Board of Directors with further insight and perspective. The diverse membership of our board includes business professionals, graduate students, professors, and development practitioners. All members of the advisory board have a rich history with HELP as former staff, volunteers, country directors, board members, donors, or partners.

Jay Porter

Jay Porter is a U.S. diplomat and political officer for the U.S. State Department. He began working with HELP International in 2000 when he served as the first Country Director in El Salvador. He continued working with HELP International for four years helping oversee several programs throughout Latin America. Jay received his J.D. from the University of Utah, where his studies focused on international law and human rights. He worked with the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda compiling evidence and testimony for the Judges' Chambers, working on groundbreaking legal issues regarding rape as a war crime and aspects of genocide. Jay's current work for the State Department involves analyzing political issues including human trafficking, human rights, and religious freedom issues. He received a MBA from the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and a B.A. in International Studies from Brigham Young University. Jay and his wife have three children.

Christopher Migumu

Christopher B. Migumu attained his PhD in education from Brigham Young University. He is currently a senior lecturer and head at the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Media of Makerere University Kampala Uganda. His research interests are on comparative international development education, higher education, contemporary curricula issues i.e. HIV curriculum integration, assessment of learning and evaluation, teacher education and Open Education resources. He founded a curriculum and education research consultancy that can be accessed at www.ccoed.org. He has also operated for 22 years the Mukono Town Academy – a private secondary School in Uganda. For over a decade, Christopher has also participated in and supported international development efforts and numerous study abroad programs.

Roger A. Dixon

Roger is currently the Assistant Director of the MPH program at BYU where he teaches public health administration, field epidemiology and project management classes. He works with the Kennedy Center at BYU to sponsor public health internships with NGOs and multi-lateral international organizations in Bolivia. He spent many years working in Latin America and the Caribbean with the Pan American Health Organization, the regional office for the World Health Organization (WHO). He also worked with the USAID as Hurricane Reconstruction Project Manager for rebuilding health facilities and infrastructure in Central America and as a consultant with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He now lives in Highland with his wife Deanne. They have five children and eight grandchildren.

Mindy Jensen

Mindy graduated from BYU in 2003 with a degree in International Development and Latin American Studies and has had a passion for serving and teaching the poor since she visited Russia at age 14. After working with Laubach Literacy in Guatemala, Mindy joined the HELP team in 2004 as the Assistant Programs Director and has been actively involved ever since. She now serves as a member of the HELP Board of Directors. Mindy has been married for eight years to a very supportive husband, Russ, and is the mother of two rambunctious boys, Corbin(4) and Cody(1½).

Sarah Carmichael Parson

Sarah Carmichael Parson is originally from Toronto, Canada.  She moved to Provo, to pursue a master’s degree in comparative and international development of education (CIDE) at Brigham Young University. While completing her degree Sarah became involved with Warner Woodworth and helped start and then manage the Wave of Hope project (Empowering Nations' 2005 tsunami project). Sarah became the executive director of Empowering Nations in the fall of 2005 and after completing her degree, she continued her work as director while also working full-time at Utah Valley University as the Director of the Equity in Education Centre which promotes diversity and equity as well as raises awareness about violence and abuse in the UVU and greater community. Sarah has led projects for Empowering Nations in Thailand, Ghana and Kenya. Sarah married Christopher Parson while at BYU and after the birth of her son Jacob was thrilled to become a stay at home mom.  In 2009 Empowering Nations merged with HELP International and Sarah is now happy to serve on HELP's board of directors. Sarah ultimately believes that one person can make a difference and that teaching and empowering people to help themselves is the only way to create lasting change.

Doug Wendt

Douglas Wendt was a HELP International Country Director in Guatemala 2007. Since his time in country Wendt has remained actively engaged in the development world. Wendt continued his undergraduate study of Sociology at Brigham Young University with a minor in International Development as well as Marriage, Family Development. He graduated in 2009 as the Valedictorian of the Sociology department. While an undergraduate student, Wendt worked as an in-office intern for HELP international focusing on development and microfinance programs. He also continued to work with an orphanage that had partnered with HELP in Guatemala. Wendt did project evaluation for NGOs such as Ascend in Bolivia. Wendt is the Program Director for the Tipping Bucket. He partners with other NGO’s to help them strategize social media campaigns directed toward fundraising.

Trevor Buit

Trevor S. Buit, (B.S. & B.A.) earned his degree in Psychology from Arizona State University before deciding to attend film school. Graduating in 2005 with his degree in Motion Graphics and Visual Effects, he then moved up to Utah to be with his family. Coming from a military family he has traveled fairly extensively and enjoys seeing new places. Trevor has worked with many non-profits providing motion-graphic promotional videos. Trevor has helped in this capacity with HELP International since 2009.

Joan Dixon

Mike Poelman

Jeff Tanner