Hilary Jane Haddigan

Bossy from birth, this pub owners’ daughter grew up to be a citizen of the world. She ensures mission effectiveness for Heifer’s global programs.

“We’re working with real people trying to change their lives in challenging situations.” -- Hilary Jane Haddigan
“We’re working with real people trying to change their lives in challenging situations.” -- Hilary Jane Haddigan

Traveling from a civilized area of Zimbabwe into the remote area of the African country where she was to teach in 1990, Hilary Haddigan felt the terrain get rockier and the heat more oppressive. In every nook, there was a mud hut, a family settlement.

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“She already had international experience, and she had a heart — a real compassion — for the work we were needing to do. She was brilliant, and I could see that right away,” says Jan Schrock, daughter of Heifer founder Dan West about Hilary Haddigan.

At one point, a monkey crossed the road.

Self Portrait

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: April 1, 1964; Stockport, England

MY BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT TO DATE HAS BEEN completing the London Marathon, which was my first marathon.

GROWING UP, MY MOTHER WOULD DESCRIBE ME AS bossy.

ONE THING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: I’m shy.

I’M MOST COMFORTABLE WEARING jogging pants and a big T-shirt. But I do like to dress up and go out.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE IS either Gandhi or Sleepless in Seattle. Getting lost in a meaningless chick flick is nice.

MY FAVORITE FOOD IS Indian. I like the mixture of spices.

WHAT I MISS MOST ABOUT HOME: Sitting down with my friends with a pot of tea and chattering the afternoon away.

THE LAST BOOK I READ WAS The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.

ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Committed.

"I remember thinking, 'Oh wow, I'm in a really different place,'" recalls Haddigan, half a life later.

She was headed to a Catholic mission where she was to live with priests, nuns and others ministering to the community. Although her surroundings were primitive, she considered the place beautiful and couldn't believe she was privileged enough to work there.

"It was magical," she says.

What she learned from the experience was that everyone wants the same things in life.

"Everybody wants the best for their family, the best for their children. They want an education, they want to have fun, they want to be happy," Haddigan says.

The experience, her first outside her native England, gave her an appreciation for other cultures, as well as the challenges facing them.

As a "C-suite" executive at Heifer International, Haddigan has a unique title -- chief of mission effectiveness. She's responsible for managing, evaluating and quantifying the effectiveness of Heifer's programs around the world.

The organization, founded in 1944, works to end hunger and poverty here and abroad by providing livestock and environmentally practical agricultural training in communities where people struggle for reliable sources of food and income.

Funding that mission isn't easy, and Haddigan's position isn't your everyday development job.

The nonprofit sector is under increased scrutiny and suspicion from donors, Haddigan says, sitting in a conference room with an expansive third-floor view from Heifer's world headquarters east of Interstate 30 in downtown Little Rock. Where big donors once wanted more sophisticated reporting information, over at least the last five years, all donors have come to want more detailed data, she says.

"They're not just interested in the financial metrics, but they want to know if you're achieving what you say you would," says Haddigan. She was recruited by Jan Schrock, the daughter of Heifer founder Dan West. Haddigan's position was created a year ago.

"It's a title I've not heard anywhere else, so I'm very proud of my title," she says without a hint of arrogance.

More than power, she feels responsibility.

"We're working with real people trying to change their lives in challenging situations. So we've got to be sure that what we're doing is the right thing for them. There's kind of a moral imperative to do the right thing," she says.

She and her team of nearly a dozen, all working from Little Rock, strive to improve the organization's internal management and evaluation practices and externally help donors understand where their dollars are going -- the "felt impact." In a world where some global nonprofits seem to be spinning their wheels, Haddigan is turning Heifer into a results-based, data-driven organization with a clearer map for success.

Heifer's domestic work is centered on building and reviving local food systems. In Arkansas, the organization works with two farmer cooperatives: Foodshed Farms CSA of Little Rock, whose farmers produce certified organic and certified naturally grown fruits and vegetables; and Clinton-based Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative, a group of small-scale farms focused on pasture- and grass-fed meats.

THE 'ORGANIZER'

Haddigan is the middle child of five born to Margaret and the late Raymound Smith, who ran a pub, the George & Dragon. Her dad was fond of telling her siblings, "C'mon, we better get organized or Hilary will come along and organize us."

She went to the University of Liverpool and came out a biology teacher.

"I always wanted to be a teacher, that's all I'd ever wanted to do," Haddigan says. But after three years in the classroom, she knew the traditional role of teacher wasn't for her.

She was heavily influenced by the social justice teachings of her Catholic upbringing. Haddigan left England for Zimbabwe to teach through a Catholic lay missionary organization called Volunteer Missionary Movement -- sort of like the Peace Corps.

By then, the country had been independent for about a decade, which made school accessible to all children. But they had to pay for it and find a way to get there. For three years, Haddigan taught English to people who spoke the native Shona.

She tears up recalling how one of her students died of the flu because the road was washed away and the buses and ambulances couldn't get him to the hospital.

"I remember saying to some of the students, 'Why don't your parents complain to the counselors that the roads need to be better repaired,' and they said, 'Oh they're our elders, Madam, and we can't do that,'" Haddigan says.

That's when she knew she had to pull out. She wanted to jump in and fix things.

"I thought, 'That's not appropriate because this culture and these people will deal with it in their own way, and that's not mine to determine,"' she says.

She returned to London and eventually sought a master's degree in development from the School of Oriental and African Studies. There she learned that even sophisticated economists don't have adequate answers to global poverty and that her simplistic understanding of economics and development were "good enough."

She worked at Christian Aid in London before joining Heifer in Atlanta in 1999. Haddigan says she experienced a culture shock moving to the States that was as big or bigger than when she moved to Zimbabwe.

In Atlanta, she was regional director for the domestic program in seven southeastern states. Her arrival coincided with a new era for Heifer, Schrock says.

"She already had international experience, and she had a heart -- a real compassion -- for the work we were needing to do," says Schrock, now retired and living in Falmouth, Maine. "She was brilliant, and I could see that right away."

Haddigan is said to have an uncanny ability to think wide and deep, and connect all the dots in between. Her collaborative approach helps colleagues see things her way.

She moved to Little Rock in 2002 to take a job in the monitoring and evaluation department at world headquarters. Schrock was living in Little Rock then and recalls a conversation she had with her daughter, singer-songwriter Kate Schrock, after the pair had lunch with Haddigan. Kate Schrock and Haddigan are roughly the same age.

"My daughter said, 'Mom, watch out for her. She's going to go to the top. She's got everything that Heifer needs,'" Jan Schrock says. "That was quite a long time ago, and she nailed it."

Ben Wihebrink, director of operations for Heifer USA under Haddigan, said he believes she could be Heifer's chief executive officer someday. She's even-handed, organized and knows how to moderate a room, Wihebrink says.

"A lot of times there's strong personalities, especially when we have a senior leadership meeting and there's all the different chiefs in the room ... sometimes there's divergent views," he explains. "Hilary's always very good at making sure people are being heard, but also making sure that it's on topic and not necessarily shutting down healthy conversation."

Observers stop short of calling Haddigan a workaholic -- that's a term with negative connotations, they say -- but even she won't say how many hours she works per week.

"I'm not proud of the fact that I work a lot," she says. "I care about what I'm doing, and I want to do it well. And with setting up something new, it takes more than 40 hours."

RUNNING FOR SANITY

Haddigan thought she'd use the Little Rock job as a springboard for something else but ended up loving it and has made her home here. She and her writer-husband, Michael Haddigan, met while he was working as communications director at Heifer. He teaches journalism at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

They married in November 2007 in Little Rock. It's her first marriage and his second. Their family is completed by a rescued mutt, Sally. A friend says Haddigan would have been a great mother if the timing had been right.

"I don't think she has any regrets," says friend and former Heifer colleague Katherine Lu of Little Rock. "She has a very full, lovely life without kids."

Her marriage is one of intense love and respect.

"She is a genuine person. There's no pretense. She says what's on her mind," Michael Haddigan says. "She's always learning, curious, dead honest and has a tremendous heart."

One of the things that impressed him most -- and still does -- is that she can relate to people from all backgrounds and experiences. She rarely gets discouraged and when she does, she's quickly back on her feet, forgetting moments later that there was ever a blip.

There was no formal proposal. The couple were on their way to visit her family in England when she turned to him and said, "You are going to marry me, aren't you?"

At home, they share duties -- she does the grocery shopping and cooks one week, and he takes over the next. When she's not traveling, they rise about 5 a.m. daily and drink their coffee together while watching the TV news. Hilary goes to work between 8 and 8:30 a.m., and most days Michael doesn't see her until after 7 p.m.

"She works like a very hard-working reporter," says Michael, who was once a state desk reporter for the Arkansas Gazette.

Hilary Haddigan is a runner, she says, for sanity's sake.

"I'm not always good at keeping up with it, and I can really tell the difference when I let it go in terms of my mindset," she says.

She has completed five marathons, the most recent being the New York City Marathon in November.

"I'm not an athletic person. I am an example of 'If you follow the program, you can do it,'" she adds.

She doesn't listen to music while running, relying instead on her running buddies to keep her entertained. Lu trains with Haddigan but doesn't race with her. In conversations while running, they have what they call "the running version of the story," Lu says.

"What that means is 'My answer includes all the minutiae that no one else wants to hear, but we have a lot of time to kill, so here we go,'" Lu explains. "We help each other work through personal issues, professional issues, life decisions."

Haddigan and her husband go canoeing when they can, preferring the Buffalo River, particularly the stretch from Ponca to Kyles Landing. She says it's an effort to get away, but the minute they launch, she knows it's worth it. In fact, canoeing was one of their first shared activities.

She jokes that on the river with Michael is the only place she'll take orders.

"I sit at the front and do what I'm told," she says, laughing. "And he keeps us upright."

NAN Profiles on 06/26/2016

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