Meet the Founders
Hadassah and Jessica have been working together for over a decade, establishing a deeply practiced collaboration that is itself a benefit for the clients they serve and the programs they create. Working across complex contexts around the world, they have built programs that opened doors and created opportunities positively impacting thousands of people and their communities. Their work is both complementary and convergent. Hadassah shapes program architecture while Jessica anchors strategic context. Both bring the full weight of their experience to every engagement.
Hadassah Galey
Hadassah is a strategist, systems-thinker, and program architect. With over 18 years of experience across nonprofit and for-profit sectors, she brings a results-driven approach to designing and leading complex initiatives in dynamic environments. She co-founded Three Pillars International because she believes that well-designed, people-centered programs not only amplify outcomes, but they also change lives.
Her expertise is in turning vision into reality. Hadassah specializes in the full arc of program development: scoping and prioritization, stakeholder alignment, resource allocation, and implementation that ensures programs are sustainable and impactful.
At the core of Hadassah’s work is a sharp analytical mindset paired with practical, on-the-ground experience. Hadassah is skilled at diagnosing root challenges, refining processes, and implementing solutions that improve both efficiency and outcomes. Clients value her ability to hold the big picture and the operational detail at the same time, and to keep teams aligned and moving through complexity.
Hadassah approaches every initiative with intentionality, designing holistic, people-centered programs that empower individuals and communities to thrive. Grounded in both strategy and the process of action and reflection through praxis, Hadassah believes in the transformative power of education. She is deeply committed to supporting individuals in achieving their full potential and fostering environments that enable stakeholders to thrive.
Hadassah is driven by a clear mission: to develop programs that perform, build partnerships that last, and expand access to opportunities that change lives.
Jessica Buchanan
Jessica co-founded Three Pillars International on the core conviction that a person's ability to think critically is essential to educational success, personal and professional growth, and meaningful engagement with, and on behalf of, one's community.
Her work has spanned 18 years of designing and implementing programs that have built resilient institutions at the national level, developed university staff capacity and curriculum, trained teachers, established career and learning centers, facilitated scholarships, and strengthened leadership skills for undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals at all levels.
She is adept at working in high stakes and unpredictable environments From post-conflict Iraq and Afghanistan to multi-government partnerships spanning the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia, Jessica has directed large-scale initiatives, navigating competing stakeholder priorities and cross-cultural complexity while bringing the highest levels of accountability. She has negotiated and managed multi-million-dollar budgets, established complex partner agreements, overseen technical platform design, and driven business development efforts across a portfolio spanning NGOs, higher education, and U.S. government partners.
Jessica is an analytical solver, partnership builder, and forward thinker. She understands not just the challenges but the source and nuances beneath them, and she is able to build a clear vision for moving forward. She brings the experience, the rigor, and the human insight to make investments count, for organizations and for the communities they serve.