Contributor

Andrew MacCalla

Director, International Programs and Emergency Response at Direct Relief

Andrew MacCalla is the Director of International Programs & Emergency Preparedness and Response at Direct Relief, the largest privately funded non-profit aid organization in California and the 9th largest in the country. Direct Relief works to provide essential medical resources to people around the world affected by poverty and humanitarian crises and has projects in 81 countries. Andrew spent two years living in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake as the coordinator of Direct Relief’s response – the largest humanitarian effort since the organization was founded in 1948 – managing on the ground efforts and collaborating with more than 100 health facilities and the Ministry of Health to distribute over $275 million worth of essential medical materials. More recently, Andrew has also been on the ground overseeing the response to emergencies like Hurricane Sandy in New York, the tornadoes in Moore Oklahoma, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Syrian refugee crisis, the earthquake in Ecuador, Cyclone Winston in Fiji, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean. Andrew studied Philosophy at University of California, Santa Barbara and has a Master's Degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of Melbourne. He has written numerous articles for the Huffington Post and The Sacramento Bee. Andrew is also the co-founder and CEO of Recycle Haiti, LLC, a social business with over $2 million in revenue that was formed as a sustainable solution to Haiti’s plastic waste and large unemployment problem.