Since 2020, Metropolitan Group has significantly grown our capacity and offerings to meet the needs of our clients and stakeholders. We’re excited to announce that we have added an additional three impact-driven senior directors to our team: Erin Bloom, Laura Hanson and Delma Jackson, III.
Erin Bloom is a legal and policy expert with experience in peace negotiations, fragile and transitional states, and public safety and security. Erin is passionate about designing processes, institutions and frameworks that promote peace and stability where it is needed the most. She brings extensive international experience, including as counsel to the Syrian High Negotiations Committee with the Public International Law and Policy Group.
Laura Hanson is a natural facilitator, community-builder and problem solver. Laura believes in the power of community and human connection to drive transformative change. Her international experience includes work on disaster resilience and market systems development in South and Southeast Asia as a program director with Mercy Corps. Her domestic experience includes regional planning and research on disaster resilience in the Pacific Northwest.
Delma Jackson, III brings an intersectional approach to social justice work with an eye for organizational transformation. From workshops and lectures, to blogging, podcasting and occasionally pastoring, Delma challenges the narrative of the dominant culture by centering the storytelling of historically marginalized communities through various modalities. He brings a rich background in racial, social and environmental research, lecturing, writing and facilitating across the U.S. and internationally—including as a senior fellow at the Center for Whole Communities.
Erin and Laura are instrumental to our international work, which is expanding and deepening. Our recent clients include international development agencies, like USAID and GIZ, as well as foundations and NGOs with global programs. We recently released a five-country study on global migration narratives, which we conducted with support from Humanity United. Led by our sister company, Impacto Social Metropolitan Group, we work with coalitions of civil society organizations, supported by the Ford Foundation on Mexican and El Salvadorian campaigns, to combat corruption and impunity. In 2021, we launched a highly effective campaign to release women imprisoned in El Salvador for obstetric emergencies due to a country-wide abortion ban.
Delma is integral to building our Organizational Strategy & Innovation practice, which centers justice, equity and inclusion and guides our clients at moments of inflection, as well as cultural and organizational transformation. Our recent projects include a multi-year effort to help the USDA Forest Service grow a values-based, relationship-focused organizational culture that brings diverse communities together to find common ground in supporting nature to sustain life.