Holly Sue Hatfield
Executive Director
Holly Sue has led the evolution of Quiet Way from its beginnings as a small, short-term impact focused charity to a highly innovative, long-term impact organization. Recognizing the volume of poverty in Kenya, she recognized the need to improve entire systems to address the roots of poverty. Her passion to serve humankind started as a child and her approach was unconventional and intense from the start. Coupled with some smarts, this intensity paid off early, as she managed to skip the 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades! From acting as chairperson for QW’s unique Princess Festival fundraiser in Utah to living in Chile for 18 months as a volunteer running PR for another non-profit, she shines her skills where they are needed most. Holly Sue has been serving as Executive Director for Quiet Way since 2009. She has a B.S. in Business Administration/Marketing and a B.A. in Economics both from Utah Valley University. Overjoyed by her recent acceptance to graduate school, Holly will attend Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs to pursue a Master’s in Public Administration and Development Practices. Having a borderline obsession with separating fact from fiction by substantiating claims, her presence means that all Quiet Way programs are held to a higher standard—hers.
Michael Gray, M.P.A.
Director of Operations
Michael is a highly collaborative and passionate social entrepreneur with extensive experience consulting ventures in the base of the socio-economic pyramid (BoP) (a.k.a. social innovation advocate for people in poverty). Possessing a strong knowledge in cross-sector partnership development, impact evaluation, microfranchising, and economic development consulting experience, he provides strategic leadership for Quiet Way in scaling its operations and ensuring its water-resource management partnerships and systems have long-term impact. Michael also works for the innovative private sector consulting firm, Fairbourne Consulting, supporting entrepreneurship in developing markets of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
For over 10 years, Michael has developed and managed programs for the nonprofit, public, and private sectors in a variety of industries. Particularly in Africa, he has met and networked with leaders from civil and national governments, multi-lateral and bi-lateral organizations, and various local, national, and international NGOs. Since 2008, he has consulted organizations operating in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mali, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, and Kenya. This experience has enabled him to understand available resources in all sectors and know how to increase cross-sector collaboration, develop innovative and sustainable partnerships and models, and increase transparency. He has also held key program management and analyst roles with the International Affairs and Trade Team of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Romney Institute for Public Management, the National Middle East Language Resource Center, and the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance.
In 2006, he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Kuwait and conducted extensive research concerning the impact of technology on Arab youth. Michael has a BS in Middle East Studies/Arabic with an International Relations emphasis and a Master’s in Public Administration with emphases in Financial Management Analysis and International Development Management from BYU.
Nicole Styler, M.P.A.
Grants/Monitoring & Evaluation Director
Nicole is a graduate student in the Romney Institute of Public Management and passionate about effective and measurable development work. Growing up in Alaska, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, she has a great experience dealing with cultural nuances and working in new and challenging environments. As an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, she studied Linguistics with minors in Arabic and Spanish, which led her to travel for study, volunteering, or employment in Spain, Egypt, Ecuador, and Jordan. Some of her experiences included teaching career workshops in Mexico for LDS Employment Resource Services and tutoring refugees in Jordan for Relief International. Last year she completed field studies and site visits in Ghana, meeting with organizations from all sectors. After monitoring and evaluating compacts (grants) in Mali, Benin, Nicaragua, Honduras, Armenia, Georgia, Cape Verde, for the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, she gained valuable skills in designing and implementing impact evaluations. For the past year, she has also served as Grants Director for Brigham Young University’s Grantwell program and led its first evaluation team.
Nathan Hixson
Special Programs Manager
Nathan enjoys the variety that each day at Quiet Way brings and the numerous projects he has been involved with. He develops Quiet Way’s finances, acts as liaison to various partners, and monitors Quiet Way’s social media and water forum. He also provides support work for grant writing and research. Currently, Nathan is working on expanding Quiet Way’s access to funding through the Princess Festival’s school outreach program. He believes that collaboration is key to incubating innovative ideas and processes; this belief fuels his passion for sustainable solutions to complex developmental issues. Nathan is studying Business Management with an emphasis in finance at Brigham Young University and hopes to further his understanding of how business, government, and academia can work in concert to solve problems at the base of the economic pyramid. After returning from two years of volunteer church service in Albania, Nathan explored the various international development opportunities at BYU. He co-founded BYU’s Social Innovation Leadership Council where he coordinates discussion and project collaboration among development-oriented groups, grant suppliers, and professors. When free, Nathan can be found at the racquetball courts, dabbling in landscape photography, or obsessing over his music collection.
Jacob Wright, M.P.A.
Water-Resource Mapping/GIS Consultant
Jacob brings quality environmental resource mapping skills to Quiet Way. He completed his undergraduate education at Brigham Young University, earning a B.S. in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with a secondary major in Russian and a minor in Political Science. Upon graduation he accepted a position as the first GIS administrator for Garkane Energy, a rural power cooperative in southern Utah. He was instrumental in implementing GIS technology to map and track Garkane’s power assets. Jacob later earned his Master’s in Public Administration from Brigham Young University with a dual emphasis in Government Management and Financial Management Analysis. During graduate school, he worked with the Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel performing vital tax-policy research and conducting analysis for various state legislators. Excited about creating vital water-resource management tools for Kenya, he is dedicated to sustainability by building local management capacity in the process.
Megan Selin, M.P.A.
Vertical Collaboration Consultant
Megan supports Quiet Way’s financial operations planning and collaboration process. Megan earned her Master’s in Public Administration and Bachelors in Business Finance from Brigham Young University. She has work experience in process change management for the federal government at the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she was part of a team to streamline the grants management process. Megan also has several years experience in the legislative branch, which provided great experience learning internal management strategies of government processes and how to overcome bureaucratic challenges through implementing improved methods of communications and collaboration. She has also enjoyed being a campaign manager at the state level and gaining experience mobilizing communities and their resources. Megan enjoys using her political and grassroots knowledge to figure out how to advance social impact working with governmental partners. Recently, she organized a successful immigration debate during a legislative session where various immigration bills were discussed, which improved knowledge sharing and highly informed policy makers.
