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Global Interdependence Initiative
CONTINUOUS PROGRESS Better Advocacy Through Evaluation
 

Who We Are

Continuous Progress Strategic Services is David Devlin-Foltz and Josh Weissburg.

David Devlin-Foltz
DDFDavid Devlin-Foltz directs the Global Interdependence Initiative (GII), a policy program of the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. The GII promotes the US public’s engagement in shaping this country’s role in addressing global issues like poverty and environmental deterioration. Since 1999, Devlin-Foltz has directed GII’s efforts to strengthen advocacy on global issues by commissioning and helping organizations to apply tools for effective message framing, planning and evaluation. Continuous Progress Strategic Services builds on GII’s Evaluation Learning Group and its consultations with foreign policy advocates, foundations, and strategic communications specialists. Devlin-Foltz brings to GII and CPSS some twenty years of experience in funding, managing and evaluating public education, international exchange, and constituency building efforts in southern Africa and the United States.

Before coming to the Aspen Institute in 1993, he worked for the Institute of International Education, the School for International Training and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Devlin-Foltz was responsible for Carnegie’s South African human rights grantmaking from 1984 to 1988, and continued to evaluate projects and proposals for Carnegie for several years thereafter. Devlin-Foltz also devised Carnegie’s strategy for building public understanding in the US of international development issues.

A Peace Corps volunteer at the National University of Rwanda from 1979 to 1981, Devlin-Foltz has also taught or managed programs in France, Spain, and Zimbabwe. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and holds graduate degrees from the Sorbonne and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He took his hyphenated name on marrying the former Betsy Devlin; they are the proud but occasionally perplexed parents of two fine young men.

Joshua Weissburg
JSWJoshua Weissburg is the Project Associate for the Global Interdependence Initiative at The Aspen Institute. He provides fresh ideas, research, planning, and other support and coordination for the Initiative’s programs, which look for innovative ways to communicate global issues to the American public. Weissburg writes for the Initiative’s Exchange, an online group comprised of 800 CEOs, communication directors and advocates from the development, security, business, and environmental communities. His accomplishments at the GII range from planning and facilitating high-level dialogues aimed at specific global challenges to consulting on strategic evaluation and planning projects. He is a weekly contributor to Chasing the Flame, a blog that features perspectives from global politics and culture thinkers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power and Culture Project founder Allan Buchman.

Weissburg has a strong interest in the way social entrepreneurs are changing the business climate in developing markets; his articles on related subjects have been published in The American and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is an advisor and consultant to Renew LLC, an investment strategy and risk assessment firm that helps socially and economically-minded investors channel investment into promising businesses in emerging economies. Weissburg is a member of the Aspen Institute Venture Fund Committee and serves as a Director of the National Board at Bardoli Global, a social enterprise dedicated to empowering historically underserved student leaders of color to embark on life-changing international exchange and study abroad programs. Before coming to The Aspen Institute in the fall of 2003, Weissburg spent several months at Qorvis Communications, a public relations firm representing governments around the world. Weissburg graduated with honors from Wheaton College in Illinois with a degree in international relations and a specialization in economics. Joshua Weissburg is married to Rebecca Miller, his proudest achievement by far.

Featured Project

The Advocacy Progress Planner: an online "logic model" for planning your advocacy effort

The Advocacy Progress Planner was designed to give you and your team an at-a-glance look at the ingredients of advocacy efforts. It can guide you to clarify the elements of your own campaign: goals and impacts; audience; what you bring to your campaign; the activities and tactics you're planning for; and benchmarks along the way to your goals. As you click on your choices in each area, you will see your campaign strategy come into focus. And you’ll get some clues about how to gauge your progress and make improvements.

As you and your colleagues ask and answer these tough questions, you can improve your model - and your advocacy. When you're ready, you can print out a PDF of the customized logic model with your notes, or click a link to get an individual URL you and your team can use to revisit the logic model. Visit the Advocacy Progress Planner now at planning.continuousprogress.org.