Megan is an Obstetrician & Gynecologist currently practicing in Chicago, IL at Northwestern Medicine. She completed her residency in Washington, DC at Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center in 2015. Her passions include high risk obstetrics and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. She focuses her practice on comprehensive care of the body, mind and spirit to help patients become the best version of themselves. She strives to empower patients about their health in order to optimize health care and outcomes. The diversity of her training as well as her international experiences in Tanzania help to define her global perspective of women’s health and access to medical care. In September 2010, Megan traveled to Tanzania where she worked in both the hospital and remote clinic settings. By engulfing herself in the culture and participating in the care of undeserved women, she was able to identify specific needs of the surrounding population. Through collaborative efforts, new medical equipment, supplies and staff, a new women’s care clinic opened near Arusha to serve surrounding communities. The FFF is currently involved with several organizations focused on women’s health including the Worldwide Fistula Fund and Village Health Partners. She continues to advocate for women’s health and is interested in supporting programs that increase both awareness and access to health care.
About
Shannon is involved with the financial, business and strategic components of the foundation, influenced by her experience in investment consulting, finance, brand strategy and venture capital. Shannon assists in evaluating partner business models and offers economic and strategic guidance. Her primary interests lie in social entrepreneurship, sustainability, economic independence and financial fluency. Shannon’s passion for business strategy developed while studying Economics at Harvard University, and continued to grow in her role as a business consultant for ten years in Boston and Boulder. She currently works as a venture capital investor in Denver, Colorado after competing her Master of Business Administration at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, where her studies focused on entrepreneurship and investing. At her venture capital fund, Shannon invests in innovative healthcare technology companies that seek to improve patient care and positively influence community health. She brings her years of relevant business experience and strategic thinking skills to the Foundation, and is passionate about leveraging those learnings within the confines of the Foundation’s projects.
Derrik was a junior at Colby College in Waterville, Maine studying International Business. His travels to Tanzania in 2005 and 2010, and to Zambia in 2007, provided him the opportunity to establish relationships with village school children and safari staff. He assisted with the Zambian Water Well and School Desk Project. His passion for African big game hunting was centered on the preservation of a healthy eco-system and was part of the broader ecological perspective that drives the Foundation’s philanthropic activities.
Derrik traveled with his family extensively in Europe in 2002 and 2008, often times by bicycle. The stark contrast of Africa with Western Europe was not lost on Derrik. In 2010, Derrik spent a month in China as part of his Colby College education and traveled the entire breadth of the country from east to west focused on the economic engine of the country.
During his junior fall semester, Derrik choose to study abroad in Chile where he could continue to master Spanish. His fall 2011 semester required an independent study project, culminating work over several months. He chose to explore the battle to dam several rivers in the wilds of Patagonia in large part to provide low cost electricity to the many mines in the country. As he traveled into Patagonia to do his work, he lost his life on November 15, living as his always did, on the edge, in one of the beautiful rivers that make Patagonia magical.
Derrik is missed by many.
Katherine Flahive has a Master’s degree in nursing, specializing in women’s health and a Master’s of Divinity from Iliff School of Theology at the University of Denver. She has been a trauma touch therapist, mentor, spiritual director, retreat leader and has most recently developed a spirituality program to foster spiritual connections leading to wholeness. Her passion is in facilitating personal connections, empowering others, and helping to heal spiritual and moral wounds.
In 2007, Katherine took a trip to Ghana where she met with Chosen Souls, a local organization working to help support and rehabilitate street children. Katherine was able to meet with some of the children enrolled in the programs and was inspired by these young people and by the staff of Chosen Souls, to become involved. Katherine deeply understands the importance of responding to those who are less fortunate, are from diverse cultures, and enabling them to access support, justice and equality. She enjoys forming partnerships with those who have a clear vision of empowering women and children, especially girls. Her compassion for wholeness, health, education and justice empowers her to listen, learn and respond to the needs of others. She oversees the Foundation’s communication and administrative responsibilities.
Roger is the President of the Foundation. He plans strategically for the Foundation as well as manages its affairs. He has traveled extensively including Russia, Vietnam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and several trips to Africa as well as Europe. Roger’s first trip to Africa was a fundraising climb of Mt Kilimanjaro with Derrik in 2005.
In 2010, as part of he and Derrik’s trip to Tanzania, they investigated the health and education needs of young women in villages adjacent to the Selous Game Reserve. Another 2010 FFF project introduced high efficiency wood burning stoves in the Selous Game Reserve, which focused on reducing deforestation with associated significant positive health benefits.
Megan joined Roger and Derrik during the Foundation’s 2010 trip to Tanzania where she worked in an OB/GYN ward in an Arusha hospital for a month. Additionally, Michael consulted with political ministries and met with many NGO working in the areas of family planning.
Roger has two degrees in Petroleum Engineering and is active managing investments in the upstream oil and gas sector. He is an avid outdoorsman, mountaineering, skiing, biking, and running, as well as fishing and hunting internationally. He is a passionate steward of the land as well as an avid capitalist. As such the Foundation supports hunting and other ecological organizations and in 2010 began supporting glacier studies and efforts to preserve Patagonian wilderness.
Michael joined the Foundation as its Director of Public Affairs in June of 2010. Prior to his Foundation work, Michael worked on Capitol Hill for a Colorado Congressman, as well as volunteering on a U.S. Senate campaign, and was the Campaign Director for a local election in Chicago. He has traveled throughout Europe, Africa, Central America and extensively through the National Parks in the U.S.
Michael has worked to establish relationships with non-governmental organizations across Tanzania that focus on family planning efforts in the remote areas of the country. In 2010, Michael joined his wife Megan Flahive in Arusha, Tanzania before traveling to Dar es Salaam to meet with government ministries and non-governmental organizations headquartered in the country’s capital. This trip resulted in an ongoing relationship with Marie Stopes Tanzania, which provides family planning services through a system of vans that are able to travel to areas not otherwise afforded women’s health care.
Michael has spearheaded the Foundation’s involvement with solar well installations in Tanzanian villages.
Michael is an attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia.
Samuel E. Susanin is the newest member of the Flahive Family Foundation (FFF). A native Midwesterner and “flatlander,” as some Coloradan friends like to call him, Sam graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH where he studied Business Economics. During his time there, he met an economics professor whom engaged Sam to look outside his own world and into the lives and eco-systems of many people and places. Due to the support and guidance of role models, friends, and family, Sam has spent time in parts of Latin America and India, learning and engaging from those around him. His passions include small business initiatives, the challenges businesses of all sizes can face, and the importance of empowerment while undertaking both projects and relationships. Sam is thankful for a friend who taught him, “There is no time like right now.”
Currently, Sam works as an Investment Analyst on a commercial real estate debt platform for a Fortune 500 corporation. His role within FFF is to develop relationships with various organizations that may prove to be a solid partner with the Foundation.
Jean Jacques Ndayisenga was born and grew up in Rwanda, where he did his early schooling until grade 10. He was then admitted to the United World College, an international High School, with campuses around the world. He attended the campus in Costa Rica, and from there, went to Colby College in Maine. At Colby, JJ met Derrik Flahive and formed a friendship that has since allowed a few Rwandan students to access university-level education. He will never forget the time he and Derrik spent together on a trip to China.
JJ graduated from Colby College with an economics major and worked for Blue Shield of California in San Francisco as a financial analyst, before moving back to Rwanda in 2014. Upon returning home, he joined Rwanda Trading Company, a firm that exports coffee from Rwanda, as an Operations Manager. In July 2020, he was named Managing Director of the company.
While at Colby, JJ learned the value of serving others. He enjoys reading non-fiction books, and finds morning runs to be the best way to start his day.
