Our Team
The Ivanhoe Development team is passionate about empowering nonprofits to do what they do best: serve their communities. We want to support you in your work and make it a priority to get to know your organization’s Mission, Vision, and Theory of Change. We understand it is difficult to support your staff, run programs, better your community, AND manage your development portfolio.
Founder
Michele Girard
Michele has been working with nonprofits for the past ten years funding, designing, and evaluating programs, training program staff, and supporting Senior Leadership teams in Minnesota, Colorado, D.C., Haiti, and Bolivia. Her passion for this work began at 20 as a Davis Projects for Peace Grantee, co-managing water provision programming in Haiti. She then worked for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Legislative Aide and U.S. State Department contractor designing educational programming for foreign delegations. When Michele was not skipping school to work with folks in the field, she attended the University of Maine for a B.A. in Public Policy and University of Minnesota, earning her Masters in Development from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In graduate school she was extremely fortunate to be a University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment Acara Innovation Fellow (that’s a mouthful). She is currently pursuing her MBA from University of Chicago with concentrations in Economics and Finance.
She most recently served as the Development Director for Little Earth, the only indigenous-preference Section 8 housing community in the Urban United States. She currently serves as a reviewer for private foundations, state and federal agencies.
Michele loves working with small nonprofits providing direct social services support.
In her free time you can find her trying to fly a plane, falling off a horse, choosing bad lines on a ski slope, or trying to fulfill her baking dreams of one day making Sourdough.
michele@ivanhoedevelopment.com
Aoife Ryle
Development Manager
aoife@ivanhoedevelopment.com
Aoife Ryle has spent the past decade in the nonprofit sphere, starting when she left a Bioengineering career to help increase educational equity and workforce access. Her experience as a first-generation immigrant to the United States helped shape her desire to create opportunity and space for marginalized individuals.
Aoife has 6+ years of program management experience including staff management, strategic planning, program design, evaluation, training, and grants management. She has developed program and evaluation plans for multi-year, multi-organization projects. Aoife has co-chaired an organizational DEIA committee and presented about equity at universities and conferences. A study about the impacts of programmatic work she co-led has been published in the Journal of Museum Education. Aoife is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Management from the University of Illinois Gies College of Business.
She most recently served as the Education Programs Manager at the Connecticut Science Center and currently serves on the City of Richmond’s Human Rights Commission.
Aoife believes that no task done to increase equity and access is too small or unimportant.
Outside of work, Aoife enjoys reading the nerdiest books, attempting to befriend her neighborhood crows, and trying to figure out how everything works.
Research and Evaluation Associate
An Garagiola
an@ivanhoedevelopment.com
An Garagiola, descendent of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, is a mother of three and an Organizational Development Consultant, working with organizations to integrate Indigenous management, development, research, evaluation, and data sovereignty practices into internal and external partnerships. As a Ph.D. student in American Studies and Project Manager in the Office of Native American Affairs at the University of Minnesota, her work shapeshifts at the confluence of research ethics and data sovereignty. Garagiola holds an Associate’s degree from Century College, bachelors degrees in Sociology and Women's Studies from Hamline University, and a Master of Public Policy degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Prior to coming to academia, An worked on lobbying and policy projects related to food sovereignty/insecurity, campus basic needs access, increasing the representation of Indigenous students in higher education, and making college a more successful experience.
An is passionate about designing plans which help systems become more equitable, sustainable, and accessible for people who institutions continue to marginalize.
Outside of work An can be found writing poetry, beading, hiking, and photographing trees in the evenings.
Graphic Designer & Development Associate
Dana Hoyes
dana@ivanhoedevelopment.com
Dana is a graphic designer and development professional who spent nearly a decade living and working in Washington, D.C. before pursuing a more creative career. She received her MA in Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University and a Professional Certificate in Graphic Design from Shillington Education in London. She has 7+ years of experience working in international diplomacy and project management in more than ten countries, including the design, implementation, and evaluation of six and seven figure U.S. Government grants. She is experienced in securing funding across sectors including government, corporations, and foundations.
At Ivanhoe Development, Dana is able to combine her interest in design with her passion for creating more equitable communities. With a foundation in program development and hands-on experience in strategic campaigns and visual narratives, she excels at merging strategy with impactful content.
Dana seeks to create designs that resonate deeply with people across cultures, evoke emotion, spark conversation, and challenge preconceived notions
When not working, she can be found traveling, cooking, perfecting her mezcal margarita recipe, and binging history and true crime podcasts.
Connor Liebman
Data Analyst
connor@ivanhoedevelopment.com
Connor Liebman serves as Ivanhoe Development’s Data Analyst, working to create Economic Impact Studies for social interventions, designing project management tools, and ensuring our clients are in the best position to tell their stories through data visualization. Connor has a robust background in business management and organizational innovation having previously successfully managed Ginger and Baker in Fort Collins, CO, where he honed his leadership and operational skills. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Organizational and Innovative Management from Colorado State University. Notably, Connor earned an International Business Certificate and was recognized as a Dean's List student for three consecutive years.
Connor is dedicated to creating innovative strategies that empower communities by ensuring access to essential resources.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Connor is passionate about outdoor activities, including hiking, fishing, and disc golf.
larissa@ivanhoedevelopment.com
Grant Writer
Larissa Pullen
Larissa serves as the team’s dedicated grant writer, leveraging her project management and writing experience with her passion for uplifting vital community work. After developing leadership and project management skills at a private consulting company, she refocused her efforts into the nonprofit space to help increase health equity and access to the arts. She has since written a variety of successful foundation and federal grant proposals for social service programs, and community arts initiatives.
She trained in grant proposal writing and program planning at the Grantsmanship Center in Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in English. She contributes her expertise as a grants review panelist at the Los Angeles Department of Arts & Culture and serves as a board member for the Claremont Forum’s Prison Library Project.
Larissa enjoys transforming project plans and data into compelling narratives that connect deeply and inspire action, balancing both emotion and clear logic.
Outside of work, she enjoys making messy art, exploring the desert, running long distances, and trying to understand the unconscious mind.
Our team sits on numerous boards and serves as reviewers for grants and programs to stay up to date on trends and best practices. We are proud to support the following organizations:
