After a nine-month-long recruitment and selection process, CoCoDA was fortunate to identify two excellent and highly qualified candidates to succeed Jim Mulholland as Executive Director of CoCoDA.

The selection process included candidate presentations with the CoCoDA Board and our partners in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and interviews with both the CoCoDA Board and Staff.

After a thoughtful consideration, CoCoDA is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Deborah Payne as CoCoDA’s Next Executive Director.  

Get to know the Next Executive Director!

Deborah Payne has maintained over twenty years’ experience in international public health and sustainable development. Deborah graduated from Berea College, with a major in Biology, then earned her Masters of Public Health at the University of Kentucky with a focus on environmental health.

She later joined the Peace Corps and served two years in Uganda with Katosi Women Development Trust focusing on water and sanitation education.

Deborah helped form the programing of MedWater, an organization based in Ecuador empowering communities to attain safe water and sanitation. Most recently employed with the Louisville Department of Public Health and Wellness, Deborah works in health policy, ensuring that health is a priority in local decision-making.

Read some of the messages from our partners in El Salvador and Nicaragua to the next executive director of CoCoDA

We congratulate CoCoDA for the selection process, which had the participation of the partners, which reinforces the strong commitment to continue building community together.  We believe CoCoDA has made an excellent choice, a capable person who is committed to CoCoDA’s mission and objectives.

— Alfredo Leiva
Association for Social Economic Development of Santa Marta (ADES, El Salvador)

We congratulate the election of the next director Deborah Payne, we know the valuable contribution that she will consolidate in CoCoDA in the coming years. And we must not forget to congratulate the current director, Jim for the great work developed in the last years.


— Freddy Flores
Nicaraguan partner

▶️ Listen to Deborah Payne, CoCoDA’s next executive director, talk about how she will work in coordination with the team, the board, and our partners, and the goals for the future of the organization.

Deborah Payne will become the first woman to assume the position of Executive Director at CoCoDA.

The Next Executive Director, Deborah Payne, will start working alongside the current Executive Director, Jim Mulholland, in October of this year and take over as the new Executive Director when Jim retires on October 1st, 2025.

Those wishing to welcome Deborah can do so at deborah@cocoda.org.