Albert van Zyl
Van Zyl joined the IBP in August 2005 and is based at IBP-Cape Town. He works on revenue issues and the formulation of a medium term training and technical assistance strategy for the IBP. Van Zyl has consulted to finance ministries, NGOs and legislatures in Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Niger, South Africa, and Uganda and a range of non-African countries. Over the last three years he established and managed the macro-economic and budget offices in the Western Cape Government in South Africa. Between 1997 and 2002 van Zyl worked at the Budget Information Service (BIS) at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and directed it from 2000-2002. At BIS he focused on local government finance and social service issues. Van Zyl holds Masters Degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economy from the Universities of Stellenbosch and Bordeaux, France. He has published on a range of public finance issues including fiscal policy, social service finance, environmental issues and subnational finance.

Pamela Gomez
Pamela Gomez joined the Center's International Budget Project in April 2003. She is project leader for the Open Budget Initiative, a global research and advocacy project to promote increased public access to budget information, and accountable budgeting systems. Gomez previously worked as the Caucasus office director for Human Rights Watch, based in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Prior to this, she prepared country reports on the Caucasus for the Economist Intelligence Unit and covered international financial markets at AP-Dow Jones in New York. Gomez holds a B.A. in economics from Barnard College and a masters in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she specialized in international economics and Latin American studies.

Vivek Ramkumar
Ramkumar joined the the Center’s International Budget Project (IBP) in January 2005 and currently works as Project Manager – Grassroots Initiatives and Participatory Audits. He is responsible for developing IBP’s training agenda on expenditure monitoring methodologies as well as providing technical assistance to budget advocacy groups around the world, particularly those working at the grassroots level. Ramkumar recently developed a comprehensive guide to methods that civil society organizations are currently using to monitor government expenditures and accounts. He is also leading a groundbreaking effort to support the development of cooperative relationships between national audit institutions and civil society organizations to expand opportunities for public participation in audit processes. Ramkumar previously worked with the MKSS - an organization that pioneered the Right to Information movement in India. He also worked with a Mumbai-based non-government organization called SPARC, which is part of the Shack/Slum Dwellers International. Ramkumar is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Tom Zanol
Zanol joined the IBP in 2004 after several years with the Center's Legislative Department. He is the International Program Coordinator for the Civil Society Budget Initiative (CSBI), a grants program which provides financial and technical assistance to build the capacity of civil society organizations interested in engaging in applied budget work in low-income countries.

Harika Masud
Masud joined the International Budget Project in July 2007. As a Program Associate, she provides project management support to the Open Budget Initiative. She helps to identify and contract researchers and peer reviewers, draft routine correspondence and proofread project documents, and organize project-related meetings and training sessions. She is also involved in maintaining an accurate and up to date project deadline tracking system, and helping to generate periodic progress reports and final reports. Prior to working with the IBP, Harika worked with the National Employment Law Project and the World Bank in the United States and the Lahore University of Management Sciences and Kashf Foundation in Pakistan. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics and Social Sciences from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, and she holds a Masters degree in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Michigan.

Jennifer Sleboda
Sleboda joined the International Budget Project in July 2007. As an International Program Officer, she supports IBP's director and training team by working on donor proposals and reports, organizing international conferences and trainings, and assisting with financial administration. She also works with the training team on preparing training materials and providing assistance to IBP partners, and with the communications team on preparing materials for the IBP website and newsletter. Prior to joining the IBP, Jennifer spent four years in Tanzania working with the NGO Hakikazi Catalyst, where she worked on a participatory public expenditure tracking project using citizen scorecards to monitor how poverty reduction strategies are funded and implemented at the local level. She also produced a number of guides simplifying Tanzanian government policies which are used in advocacy, training, and civic education. She holds an MA in Women's Studies, with a concentration in Anthropology, from the George Washington University and a BA in Comparative Cultures from Hood College.

Manuela Garza
Manuela holds an MA in Anthropology from the New School from Social Research in New York; a Diploma in Gender and Politics in Latin America from ITAM, and a BA in International Relations from ITAM in Mexico City. In 2002 she worked for the development planning office of the government of Oaxaca in Mexico, doing research on budget related issues at the local level. She then became part of Fundar, Center for Analysis and Research, where she did research in education and poverty alleviation budgets and helped coordinate the gender budgets initiative. At the IBP she is program officer of Innovation and Partnership Development, working with groups in Latin America, Asia and Africa through the Civil Society Budget Initiative and the Central America Incentive Fund.

Iris Lav
As Deputy Director of the Center, Lav directs the Center’s state-level work on fiscal, safety net, and outreach programs and also directs the Center’s policy work on federal tax issues. She is the founder of the Center’s State Fiscal Project and has been instrumental in creating the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a network of U.S. state organizations working on state budget and tax issues. She is interviewed regularly and her work often is cited by the press, including The Washington Post, the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. In addition to her responsibilities at the Center, Lav currently serves as a member of the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission. Prior to joining the Center, she was associate director of public policy for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and a senior associate at a consulting firm. She holds an MBA from George Washington University and an AB from the University of Chicago.

Michelle Bazie
Bazie is the Deputy Director of Communications and Manager of On-Line Services. She manages a variety of media projects, including broadcast, print, and electronic press relations, coordinates distribution of Center reports to the media, and maintains the Center's database of over 3,000 press contacts. As architect of the web site, Bazie develops, designs, and maintains the Center's resence on the Internet. Bazie moderates all Center listserves and is currently working on technology and media strategies for the Center's International Budget Project.