Our Founder

Samantha A. Neilson is a seasoned international development strategist who has spent countless years overseas in multiple capacities within the international development sector. She was tired of seeing large gaps in the sector and felt the more she traveled the less development she would see in her work and actually countries were less part of the change that was occurring on their soil. She wanted something different and new. Samantha began NSESA upon realizing that her unique skillset, experience, and personal strengths filled a gap that could immensely benefit businesses and organizations globally. She has a desire to help black and minority run businesses and organizations and equip them with the tools that NSESA provides to help them acquire public funding in order to run more efficiently and effectively, and create lasting, sustainable, positive change. She seeks to equip her clients and positively impact the way they work, adding jobs while increasing revenue. Samantha loves that she can support black businesses and other minority-run businesses to be excellent in the sector that they may never have known existed or how to access in the past.

Samantha holds an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!!) and a Master’s Degree in Public Health through a joint program from Eastern Virginia Medical School and Old Dominion University. She is a proud member of the African Diaspora who is from Ghana and Liberia. Over the last decade she has lived and worked on projects across the Caribbean, African continent, the Middle East and South East Asia and is currently based in Washington DC with frequent international travels. She has acquired and managed over $85 million USD in development funds within her career.

OUR TEAM

At NSESA we are client focused. We operate with a handful of collective consultants that are brought on to projects based on subject matter and client centered outcomes. What does that mean? It means if a client is interested in focusing on Evidence-based communications, we have a specific consultant for that. If you’re interested in strategies and workshops you most likely will work with our proprietor… If you’re interested in proposal review, we have someone else for you. We have a core team of 6 individuals whom put together have over 60 years working in development with key specializations, and have worked with widely known organizations and agencies such as the United Nations, IMC, USAID, the State of Maryland and more. We match our staff to your needs.