Santo Domingo – The global humanitarian network formally known as Batey Relief Alliance (BRA), which rebranded its international identity as Global Alivio in 2025, has rolled out a comprehensive governance overhaul as it nears the 30th anniversary of its frontline community-focused relief efforts, a move explicitly designed to scale cross-border program delivery and lock in long-term operational resilience for decades to come.
Following a unanimous vote to ratify updated organizational bylaws by the governing board, longstanding founder, president and chief executive officer Dr. Ulrick Gaillard will transition to the newly defined role of executive president, with the shift set to take official effect on January 1, 2027. Under the reconfigured operational framework, all on-the-ground field activities, local infrastructure deployment, and community-led programming will remain overseen by the core executive leadership team and BRA Dominicana, the organization’s local Santo Domingo affiliate, cementing the Dominican Republic as the central regional operations hub for all Latin American and Caribbean outreach.
To safeguard independent, accountable fiduciary oversight, all existing leadership positions on the international board – including chair, vice chair, treasurer, and secretary – will remain in their current posts, eliminating gaps in financial governance and regulatory compliance during the leadership transition period.
In his upcoming executive president capacity, Gaillard will redirect his full focus to high-stakes diplomatic advocacy, cross-border negotiation, and forging high-impact strategic partnerships with national governments, multilateral intergovernmental bodies, and major global corporate donors. He will also retain his longstanding post as the organization’s primary accredited representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a role that has enabled the group to shape global humanitarian policy for marginalized communities for years.
Board Chair Carol King framed the restructuring as a defining institutional milestone, noting that the carefully planned transition will honor three decades of accumulated on-the-ground expertise and program leadership while ensuring uninterrupted, seamless delivery of critical services for vulnerable populations across the Dominican Republic and neighboring markets.
Founded in New York City in 1997, the Batey Relief Alliance originally launched to confront extreme poverty and systemic gaps in healthcare access for residents of the Dominican Republic’s underserved batey communities, the residential settlements for sugarcane agricultural workers. Over its 28 years of operations to date, the organization has expanded its portfolio to include evidence-based programs spanning public health access, safe drinking water infrastructure, household food security, and women’s small business and economic empowerment, delivering life-sustaining support to more than 4.5 million people across four nations: the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, and the United States.
A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and holder of a Juris Doctor degree from Roger Williams University School of Law, Gaillard has steered the organization’s growth from a small local volunteer group to a globally recognized humanitarian actor since its inception. Over his tenure, he has spearheaded the design and rollout of dozens of cross-border public health and equitable economic development initiatives across Latin America and the Caribbean, and successfully mobilized more than $130 million in donor funding to support frontline community programs. The 2025 adoption of the Global Alivio international brand marked the first major step in the organization’s broader strategy to expand its geographic footprint and amplify its advocacy for marginalized communities on the global humanitarian stage.