Hi! My name is Omar Hopkins and I am a professional in the economic development space. I have a background in Engineering and Social Sciences and have spent most of my career navigating between these disciplines. I invite you to check out my professional profile on LinkedIn but in summary I have worked in the private, non-profit, and government sectors. While most of my career has been working internationally, I have worked in the United States and am exploring opportunities to return.
I am a democratic and inclusive leader with 25 years of experience able to bring together troubled teams and to remediate struggling projects. Addresses complex multifaceted interdisciplinary problems throughout the project life cycle from development to implementation to evaluation in challenging environments. Systems thinker using quantitative and qualitative data to identify root causes to wicked problems that avoid “fixes that fail”; utilizes systems methods and tools to integrate diverse technical and stakeholder views. Ability to focus on key drivers for economic growth and poverty reduction.
My professional experience has been especially focused on infrastructure systems, institutions and particularly utility organization, and inclusion issues including how to expand services to the poor and ensure that the projects I work on provide employment opportunities to women in a field heavily dominated by men.
This goal of this blog to help distill my education and experience into tangible observations, celebrate successes, and reflect on lessons learned. I am passionate about the roles, and interplay between, systems methods, project management and especially Agile tools, and behavior change strategies. These are critical tools in creating transformational impacts at scale in a sustainable that positively impact poor and disadvantaged communities.