Dignity Aid Board of Directors – Introduction
Updated 7 Dec. 2024
Sean “Angus” MacKinnon
A veteran of humanitarian responses around the world, including Iraq, Pakistan, and Moldova, Angus is currently based in Kharkiv, Ukraine as a full-time employee of a large French non-governmental organization and has been an advisor for Dignity Aid International since its founding in 2022. He was born on the edge of the Alaskan wilderness in the 1980s, went to school in Africa and South Asia during his teen years, and maintained that wandering spirit throughout his life, first as an explorer and journalist in Mexico during the Zapatista uprising, then as an emergency responder during Hurricane Nargis in Myanmar, then an independent journalist in Southeast Asia during conflicts in Laos/Cambodia/Thailand, and now as a humanitarian worker across the world. Along the way, he has developed profound cultural and political insights which have fundamentally shaped the way that Dignity Aid International approaches its work in distributing humanitarian aid to people affected by war, natural disasters, and structural economic disadvantages.
Angus studied journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds a variety of professional certifications in the field of humanitarian aid. He is also an amateur DJ and once paddled across a lake in the middle of the night to try to meet a guerilla commander. His particular genius in building and maintaining relationships is one of Dignity Aid’s greatest assets, and the organization could never have come into being without his continual encouragement and expertise.
Diana Brown
One of Washington, DC’s leading lights, Diana is a careful student of human psychology and society and a wellspring of creative insights. Presently she serves as an associate director at a religious studies think tank and a co-host of The Soloists podcast, which discusses singleness, relationships, and dating from a spiritual angle; Diana’s previous work includes service as associate director and inter-religious coordinator at Georgetown University, as an adjunct professor at George Mason University, as a civil society entrepreneur, as a research analyst at multiple universities, and as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan.
Diana has master’s degrees in Sociology and in Public Relations & Corporate Communications from Brigham Young University and Georgetown respectively; English and Sociology were the focus of her undergraduate studies at Brigham Young. She has visited dozens of countries throughout the world and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, and if you have the chance to review any of her publicly available writing online, you will very likely find it to be as clever and profound as anything you have read in a long time. She joined the board of Dignity Aid International in the summer of 2024 and has already been a valuable contributor to our direction and strategy.
Abe Collier
Dignity Aid’s country coordinator in Ukraine, Abe Collier, has been a full-time humanitarian worker since the organization was established in 2022. Previously, he worked as a research analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, as a management consultant in the US branch of PwC Advisory, and as a research analyst at Brigham Young University.
Abe was educated at Brigham Young University in Philosophy and at the Paris School of International Affairs in International Public Management. He has volunteered teaching English or distributing humanitarian aid in many countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Greece, Moldova, and Ukraine. Since the founding of Dignity Aid, he has visited dozens of towns and cities across Ukraine to assess needs and distribute help. His work establishing our reputation among volunteers and humanitarian institutions in Ukraine, despite the challenges of an ongoing war, has been crucial to creating opportunities for the organization to continue growing into the future.