WISER International, a Duke University incubated 501c3 nonprofit organization with nationwide board member presence, has named Alison Drain of Johnston County as their new executive director.
Alison comes to the organization with 10 years of fund development experience and 15 years of program implementation and administrative leadership in nonprofit organizations.
Alison’s dream to empower girls through nonprofit work began during her undergraduate degree in communications at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and then continued as she pursued a Masters Degree in Social Work and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from West Virginia University. Her goal was to learn to implement community development efforts that created grassroots change for girls and women.
She became a Certified Fund Raising Executive in 2014 from CFRE International in order learn best practices in fund development when she realized that fundraising is the key to making big impact. She was able to take this exam thanks to scholarships from Clayton Women in Networking and the Chamber Women’s Business Network in Johnston County.
She has held roles such as the executive director of the West Virginia Women’s Commission, executive director of the Johnston Health Foundation and most recently, manager of development for the Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
WISER (Women’s Institute of Secondary Education and Research) International improves health, education, and economic outcomes for girls in Kenya, particularly those orphaned by AIDS. Starting in 2009 with a primary school program, WISER has now expanded to include a boarding school for 240 girls and partnered with UNICEF to provide clean drinking water to 5,000 people.
