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Our Dedicated Crew

Meet our team members and learn how they're making an impact!

Rachel Zelon

President & CEO

Rachel Zelon has been working in the field of humanitarian assistance and development for over three decades. Rachel was a founding member of HRI in 2009. Her energies have been focused on child protection, promoting the rights of children, and working towards a world where children’s rights include having access to all basic needs. Her leadership has resulted in the promotion of expanded access to critical nutrition, clean water, decent sanitation, health care, and education for vulnerable children living in extreme poverty. In recent years, the scope of her work has expanded to include the fight against child trafficking into institutionalized care in Haiti. Rachel has her Masters Degree in Social Work.

Jennifer Jones

Vice President of Advancement

Jennifer has worked in international development and organization management since 2003. She is regarded for growing nonprofits through partner development, fundraising, grant and foundation partnerships, communications, volunteer and internship management, and more. She has coordinated and led mission teams for nearly 20 years. She's also improved and expanded development projects and monitoring and evaluation in the field. She's worked with local and federal law enforcement and other agencies to identify and serve victims of child and sex trafficking in the U.S. and abroad and is credited for opening a successful rehabilitation home. Jennifer has been with HRI since January 2028.

Kim Goering

Chief Accounting Officer

Kim Goering has been a private practice accountant for over twenty years. She completed her accounting degree at Kansas State University in 1992. She was born and raised in Kansas, but moved to Oklahoma in 2007 with her husband and family. She has three grown children andfour grandchildren. She is passionate about her faith, her family and serving others in whatever way she can. She especially enjoys her ministry opportunity to work with non-profits and churches to assist in their accounting needs. She is really looking forward to her expanded role with HRI as she feels that caring for orphans is an outward show of her love for God. Owning a private practice involves most of her time, but in her spare time, she loves to quilt. Many of her quilts are donated to nursing homes or other non-profits and churches.

José Eguigure

Senior Advisor on Management & Partnership Engagement

José is a strategic thinker and a bridge builder between stakeholders. He is a senior strategy and management expert with more than 15 years of experience in international development. With an extensive career in both field and leadership roles with Global Communities and the Honduran National Human Rights Commission, José has led efforts on climate change, economic growth, youth, and public health with partners such as USAID, United Nations, Global Fund, and World Bank in the Latin America region. He spent 2019-2020 as Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard University at the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he earned a Master in Public Administration degree and a Certification in Management, Leadership and Decision Sciences. He also holds a Master’s degree in Project Administration from Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana and a BS in Socioeconomic Development and Environment from Zamorano University. José is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

Dewi Rosal

Regional Program Manager, Altiplano

Dewi Yazmin Rosal Afre has a degree in Social Work with a master's degree in Management for Sustainable Development and Specialization in Public Policies and Gender. With more than 15 years of experience contributing to social development in Guatemala, she received a diploma of Specialization in Gender and Development from Guatemala Foundation, Circle of Gender and CUNOC. Dewi’s experience includes serving as Governance & Sustainability Specialist at Action Against Hunger; Project Coordinator in Development; Independent Consultant; Regional Coordinator of Education for Employment & Learning; Equitable Access to Alternative Basic Education & Job Training for Youth; Regional Technical Assistant for USAID “Leer y Aprender Project” with Plan International; Maintenance of Drinking Water Systems & Basic Rural Sanitation; Quetzaltenango Environmental Strengthening & Operation & Health Education in Administration; Technical Assistance Inclusion of Indicators of Gender, Reproductive Health, Multiculturalism & Population Dynamics in the Integrated Management of Water Resources; and more.

Tania Paredes

Delivery and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer, Guatemala

Coming soon!

Dr. Alex Belneau

Interim Country Director, Haiti

Coming Soon!

Success Stories!

Our Board of Directors

Unique perspectives making a huge impact.

Latest Causes

Brian Worley, MD

Board Chair

Dr. Worley is a Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Disorders physician in private practice. Born and raised in Oklahoma, he completed his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Oklahoma. Following this he entered active duty in the U.S. Army and completed his Internal Medical, Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Sleep Disorders training at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX and remains Board-Certified in all of these specialties. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army he entered into private practice in Tulsa, Ok. In addition to a very active private practice, Dr. Worley develops, designs, and manufactures numerous medical products many of which are currently being used throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Worley is married to Kay Worley, M.D., a Neurophysiology Neurologist and has three children.

Dan Hensiek

Board Treasurer

Dan Hensiek is a native Oklahoman and a founding Partner of Architecture 9 PLLLP, which specializes in providing design and construction over-site of Public Schools for the State of California. Dan is a 1994 graduate of Oklahoma State University with degrees in Structural Engineering and Architecture. Additionally, Dan has a Masters of Business degree from Phoenix University. His interest in public school construction, especially in impoverished communities is one of the leading reasons for his interest in HRI. In his spare time Dan enjoys collecting art, working on his antique car and his never-ending house construction project.

Fr. George Eber

Board Member

Fr. George is the Presbyter of St. Antony Orthodox Christian Church (Antiochian Archdiocese) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has held this position since 1981. Fr. George is a 1980 graduate of Oral Roberts Seminary and a 1968 graduate of Bucknell University. Fr. George served in the United States Army and in Viet Nam as a combat officer with the 25th Infantry. He was born in Vermont, raised in Buffalo, New York and lived in Colorado Springs before moving to Tulsa. He has a strong interest in counseling and loves to sail and build. He and his wife Claudia, and three dogs, live in an eco-friendly home they have been building. Fr. George and Claudia have two sons who live and work in the Tulsa community.

William Sage

Board Member

Bill Sage has worked with and for both governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies including the United States Agency for International Development, the International Rescue Committee, Catholic Charities, Church World Service, the International Catholic Migration Commission and International Orthodox Christian Charities. He served as Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University for nearly a decade and previously served as Senior Consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in New Delhi, India. He has a BA in Political Science and a Masters of Public Administration. He is currently an Independent Consultant.

Julie Barnett

Board Member

Julie Barnett has worked in the technology side of health care for the last 20+ years and has a degree in business and management. She currently works for OU Health as the Director of Enterprise and Vended Applications. In support of the mission and vision of Oklahoma’s leader in patient care, education and research, she is accountable to help provide compassionate patient and family centered care for everyone in the community. Julie and her husband have two children, five grandchildren and enjoy gardening and tennis.

Renee Vendetti

Board Member

Renee Vendetti has been a grants management specialist and consultant for more than two decades. Her contracts included Tetra Tech ARD, University of Arkansas, Feed The Children, ARD, and others. She has experience working in 24 countries managing contracts, developing manuals, writing legal documents, managing policy and procedure oversight, and more. Her largest grant she managed was a $55 million USD grant portfolio. Renee graduated from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Accounting and then from the University of Arkansas with a M.S. in Agricultural Economics.

Allan J. “Alonzo” Wind

Board Member

Mr. Wind is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), having worked off and on with the Agency primarily overseas on diplomatic assignments from 1990 to 2019 in Peru, Nicaragua, Angola, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and South Africa\Southern Africa Regional. In this role he provided oversight to U.S. government foreign aid development and humanitarian assistance, and supported U.S. Ambassadors as their senior development officer on multiple U.S. Embassy Country Teams. He previously worked as the Global Programme Coordinator for the International Save the Children Alliance Secretariat and as a Country Director and Health Sector Coordinator for different nonprofit private voluntary organizations including CARE and PLAN International in a range of countries including Ecuador, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom. He began his career as a Rural Public Health U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1980-1982. He graduated from the University of Chicago and is originally a New Yorker, although he currently resides in Fairfax County Virginia.

Sergio A. Porres

Board Member

Sergio A. Porres is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Air Force with service in Latin America, Africa and Europe with extensive history working for the US Department of State and four US Embassies. He has 26 years of leadership, program management, and administrative experience including international development, working with grass roots initiatives, encouraging community involvement to maximize resources, establishing local working relationships, and working with other cultures. He has over two decades of experience working in cross cultural environments, managing local professional staff in many capacities; proven success in empowering team members through shared participation, implementation, evaluation of programs; over 13 years of experience, managing, analyzing, and designing international development programs with government and non-government partners; experience in managing community participation, technical assistance and capacity development security, good governance, sanitation, health, education, and emergency response infrastructure; demonstrated ability to manage programs including personnel training, evaluations, administration, logistics, financial management, safety, and security.

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