Donna Vincent Roa

An internationally accredited business communicator (ABC) and certified development project manager (CDPM®), Dr. Donna Vincent Roa is the author of four books, including The Value of Water: A Compendium of Essays by Smart CEOs, and numerous industry articles. Currently, Donna is Project Director of the Partnerships Incubator, a global service hub set up to expand USAID's capacity for partnerships, diversify and strengthen its partner base, and help partner organizations work more efficiently with the agency.

Most recently, she was Chief of Party for the Securing Water for Food Technical Assistance Facility, an internationally-recognized and award-winning global, hybrid incubator-accelerator that served 40 innovators in 30+ countries in the water-agriculture space. In that role, she catalyzed social impact entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

Donna is a renaissance leader driven by causes and excels at managing high-stakes, social impact, and risk-taking organizations and projects. Her track record shows a relentless focus on results and innovative strategies that favorably impact the bottom line, operational efficiency, gender empowerment, and organizational culture. She is a driver of positive and disruptive change and brand transformations that outperform business objectives.

A resilient trailblazer in international development and a champion for social innovation, environmental issues, and the empowerment of women, Donna thrives in organizations that see the world through a social impact, environment, water, sustainability, agriculture, or public health lens.

Donna also serves as Managing Partner for Vincent Roa Group LLC, a Maryland-based publishing and communication firm. Prior to this, she led global communication at the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, served as a senior communication officer for an undersecretary-general at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, was a social scientist for the US Information Agency, and worked as a communication consultant for the World Bank, IMF, and UNICEF. She was also one of ten US Treasury Department-designated researchers who conducted research to support the first redesign of the 100 dollar bill.

She is past president of the largest US chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, has a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern Mississippi, was a Rotary Scholar, and was an Environment Commissioner for the City of Rockville, and has traveled to 45 countries for work and pleasure.

She lives in Gaithersburg, MD with her husband, Victor, her children Alex and Gretchen, and Sammy, a miniature long-haired dachshund.