Chance Briggs

'97 MPA

National Director for Mali

World Vision International

Chance Briggs currently serves as national director for World Vision International's operations in Mali. In this role, he manages a large development program focused on food security, maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and care, agricultural production and marketing, and disaster preparedness and response. He earned his Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 1997. He has also earned a Master of Education from Harvard University. Born and raised in Cortland, NY, he now resides in Mali with his wife, Renata Jagustovic-Briggs, from Zagreb, Croatia; and their son, Maxwell Briggs, a 5-year-old boy who was born in Islamabad, Pakistan.

As a relief and development worker, Chance has served for 20 years in the US, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Mozambique. He has been a program manager, head of office, assistant director, emergency coordinator, project director, relief director, program director, country representative, and country director. He served as a country representative for CRS in Nigeria and Albania and was a program director with World Vision International's operations in Pakistan and Mozambique. As a teacher, Chance lived and worked in Brazil, the People's Republic of China, and in the USA. For several years he led a program to send volunteer teachers to developing countries.

Chance also serves on the board of directors of Ethical Expeditions, an American NGO that is engaged in rainforest conservation in Indonesia. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish and gets by in Croatian, Mandarin Chinese, and Wolof, which he learned when he spent one year at the University of Dakar, Senegal, studying African Civilization & Literature.

He originally came to Maxwell in order to redirect his career towards US-based community development; however, through a Maxwell contact, he had the opportunity to go to Bosnia-Herzegovina as a volunteer election supervisor right after graduation-and those two weeks changed his life. He returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina two months later with his suitcases and a determination to find work.