Rebuilding sustainable communities for children and their families after disasters

Nazar Jamil Abdulazeez has served as adviser to the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs in the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq since May, 2006.

He has experience in post-crisis development programs, especially in Iraq, having managed or supervised many projects and research programs in Iraq for international NGOs and local authorities in addition to participating in developing strategic planning programs for international and local NGOs.

He has organized and managed numerous conferences, seminars, and training workshops for the local authorities and for civil organizations in Iraq. He has participated in conducting assessments and evaluations of projects and programs in Iraq for UN agencies and international NGOs. He has also managed networks and groups for children's rights issues with local authorities and for local and international NGOs.

A few years ago, he received an award for gallantry from Princess Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, for his work in Iraq for the organization Save the Children as well as two certificates of appreciation from the Kurdistan regional government and civil society organizations in Iraq.

He has studied both inside and outside of Iraq, including in Europe, in the fields of human rights, children's rights, global impact monitoring, transitional justice, decision making, financial analysis, and communication skills.

In addition to his work for the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal affairs, Nazar Jamil Abdulazeez is a consultant for two local NGOs in Iraq and has consulted for the UN agencies UNICEF and UNOPs.

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Grace Oyebola Adetula, an International Expert on Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Youth and Children Matters, was seconded by the Nigerian Government to the Commission of African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from July 1998 to March 2005, where she was responsible for the establishment of the Drug Control and Crime Prevention Unit of the Commission of the AU. She retired in November 2005, and now works as a consultant on Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Children and Youth Issues with Freedom Foundation, (www.freedomfoundationng.org) an NGO that focuses on Rehabilitation, Education and Empowerment of the vulnerable group of the society

Realizing the important role of the continental organization in policy and advocacy, and also considering the many relevant programmes and activities that the AU has to carry out, Mrs. Adetula led efforts to mainstream components of drug control and crime prevention into the various programmes and activities carried out by the African Union Commission. These include, but are not limited to, resolution and management of conflict, trafficking in persons and child labour, agriculture, women’s issues, economic issues, children and youth matters, money laundering, terrorism, corruption, population, health, labour and social affairs, and doping in sports. She was also responsible for formulating policies, monitoring and coordinating drug control and crime prevention programmes and activities among the 53-member States of the AU.

Mrs. Adetula obtained an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Biology, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, in 1969 and 1970 respectively. In 1990, she benefited from a Training Fellowship by the British Council for ‘In-service Teacher Education and Change in Schools’ from New Ham College, University of Cambridge, England.

She embarked on a teaching career in secondary grammar schools in Ibadan and Lagos. She rose steadily to the position of a Vice-Principal in an all-male school, and later became Principal of several secondary grammar schools including co-educational ones in Lagos before she was posted to serve in the Ministry of Education.

She transferred her services to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 1991 as an Assistant Director where she rose to become the Director of the Drug Demand Reduction Department in 1993. Some of her achievements include the successful co-ordination of the development of a Master Plan on Drug Demand Reduction Programmes for Nigeria, as well as Preventive Drug Abuse Education Curricular targeted inter alia at Nigerian educational institutions right from Primary to tertiary educational institutions. As already noted, she has since retired from the service of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Mrs. Adetula has, in the course of her duties, organised, supervised or attended no less than seventy five seminars, workshops, symposia and conferences across the globe. She is also an active participant in no less than fourteen professional and voluntary societies. She also organized the First AU Ministerial Conference on Drug Control in Africa, which was held in Yamoussoukro, Cote D’Ivoire in May 2002; and the subsequent one that was held in Mauritius, from December 14 to 18, 2004.

Some of her publications include: “Preventive Drug Education Curricula in Nigerian Schools, and Life Skills Education in Schools,” WHO, Geneva, 1992; and, Women Trafficking, Drugs and Crime; Challenges within the context of War and Conflict ( a paper presented at the Third meeting of African Union Women 's Committee, Tunis - Tunisia, 24 - 25 April 2008. Furthermore, she has served as a resource person on “The Impact of Alcohol and Drugs on The Spread of HIV/AIDS among the Ex-Child Soldiers” (a paper presented at a Workshop on HIV/AIDS and its impact on Ex-Child Soldiers/Captives in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Kampala, Uganda from February, 21-22 2008);“Drugs in Conflicts: The Challenges of Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of Female Ex-child Soldiers in Africa” at a Workshop on the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of female Ex-Child Soldiers/Captives in the Great Lakes Region, Kigali, Rwanda from December 6-7, 2007; and on “Women Trafficking, Drugs and Crime: Challenges for African Parliament” at the Conference on the Popularization and Implementation of the Solemn Declaration on Gender and Equality in Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from October 10-12, 2007.

Rajaa Al-Khuzai, the first woman physician in Diwania in 1968, was born in Iraq in Diwaniya City and is married with grown-up children. She graduated from Baghdad University, College of Medicine, M.B.CH.B. She earned her Ph.D from the University of London and became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, M.R.C.O.G., 1977. She is a post-doctorate Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, London University 2005 with subspecialty on operative Laparoscopy in Gynaecology.

She was the Head of Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology from 1977 to 1990. She was the director of Maternity & Children Hospital-Diwaniya (1990-1992), the first Woman Hospital Director in Iraq. During 42 days of the Gulf War I she performed 22 Caesarean section on candle light with no morbidity or mortality. She was the Head of the Department of Gynecology (1992-2002), Maternity & Children Hospital - Diwaniya. She served as the Head of Department of Gynecology, Diwaniya Medical School (2002-2007). She was formerly a member of the Iraqi Governing Council (2003-2004) and the Head of the Civil Society Committee, Drug Control Committee and a member of Health & Education Committee, Iraqi National Council (2004-2005), elected member of Constitution Drafting Committee (2005-2006), member of Iraqi Medical Union, Iraqi Fertility Assembly, Iraqi Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assembly, International Woman's Forum-Texas, International Arab Woman's Forum-London, Global Museum for Woman-San Francisco.

She published many papers; "The rise Incidence of Prolactinaemia as a cause of infertility after the Gulf War", "The Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices, study of 15years in Diwaniya maternity Hospital", "The side-effects of Long acting Contraceptive Injection, study of 10- years", "Study on the increase of congenital abnormalities in children born after the Gulf War 1991", "Comparative study of performing operations without giving antibiotics". She also translated a book on Sexually Transmitted Diseases from English to Arabic.

She was the Head of the Supreme Commission of Woman's Health (2005) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University Sulaimania-Iraq. She is the founder of Iraqi Widows Organization in Diwaniya in 2004, National Council for Women (2004). She started the Microcredit program for the Widows, sponsored and monitored by the World Bank. She got the Award for Leadership Excellence by the Global Institute For Leadership Development, San Diego (2005).

She trained hundreds of junior doctors, supervised many post-graduate doctors, examiner and co-examiner in Baghdad Medical School, Kufa Medical School and Diwaniya Medical School. She participated in 204 Medical Conferences inside Iraq and outside Iraq.

She has visited the woman's shelter in Amman, the military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, met with soldiers injured in Iraq. In cooperation with the Spanish troops in Diwaniya, she introduced internet to the general Teaching Hospital & the maternity & Children Hospital in Diwaniya. She succeeded in sending 278 children with Cancer to be treated in Spain's Hospitals. She visited Calgary University-Medical School -Canada, the University of Montreal, the James Baker's University in Houston, Health Centers in Madrid, all of which supplied Diwaniya with 5 ambulances and one mobile hospital and incubators for premature babies.

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Tutty Alawiyah is the Rector of As-Syafi’iyah University in Jakarta, Indonesia. She was formerly a Minister for Women’s Affairs in two previous governments in Indonesia.

She was elected as the President of the International Muslim Women's Union (IMWU) at its 4th General Congress and Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in May 2007. She is also the President of the Council of the National Forum for Majelis Ta'lim (Badan Kontak Majelis Taklim), a Non-Governmental Organization of Islamic Study Circles with mostly female members. The NGO has millions of members throughout Indonesia.

In addition, Dr. Alawiyah served as a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia (MPR) from 1992 to 2004. She has been involved in local politics as a member of the Consultative Council of the Betawi Community and the General Secretary of the Mamdani Community (2001-2006).

She is also one of the founders of As-Syafi`iyah Islamic Learning Institution, which consists of three units: Education (from kindergarten to University); Social Activities, which has, since 1978, been educating hundreds of orphans from all parts of Indonesia, including the late Tsunami Victims from Aceh; and, Da'wah activities, such as radio and BKMT organizations.

She has published many articles. These include, Education for a Better Life with Islamic Ideals; Women, Leadership, Opportunities and Challenges in Indonesia; Promoting Gender Responsive Approach to Public Policy and Government; The Role of Scholars in the Intelligence of the Nation’s Life; Criminology from an Islamic point of view; and, The Challenging Era of Reformation and Globalization. She has also written over 14 books on religious topics as well as women and children’s issues such as, Orphans & Challenges (UIA press); and, Women in Islam.

Dr. Alawiyah obtained her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the Islamic State University in Jakarta, Indonesia. She speaks fluent Indonesian, Arabic and English.

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Astier M. Almedom is a Professor of Practice in Humanitarian Policy and Global Public Health and Director, International Resilience Program (IRP), Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University. Her professional activities include the following: Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, Geneva (Independent Board Member, 2006-8); Society for Applied Anthropology (Sustaining Fellow, 2002-); Editorial advisory board member, Waterlines (2001-); African Health Sciences (2003-); Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2003-); Society for Medical Anthropology (Sustaining Member), American Anthropological Association (Member). Her research interests are Human, institutional, and ecosystem resilience with particular reference to public health; indigenous knowledge and historical narratives; self-determination and nation building; and, Africa (East, North-east, and West), UK, USA.

Professor Almedom has published extensively. Her most recent articles include the following: “Resilience research in the context of contemporary humanitarian policy and public health practice,’ African Health Sciences (2008, forthcoming); “Resilience is not the absence of PTSD anymore than health is the absence of disease” (co-authored with Glandon, D.), Journal of Loss and Trauma 12: 127-143, 2007; . Almedom, A.M., Tesfamichael, B., Mohammed, Z., Mascie-Taylor, N., Alemu, Z. (2007) Use of ‘Sense of Coherence (SOC)’ scale to measure resilience in Eritrea: Interrogating both the data and the scale. Journal of Biosocial Science 39: 91-107; Almedom, A.M. (2006) Re-reading Eritrea’s short and long-rigged history 1941-1952: Back to the future? Nordic Journal of African Studies 15: 103-142; Almedom, A. M., Tesfamichael, B., Mohammed, Z.S., Muller, J., Mascie-Taylor, N., Alemu, Z. (2005) “Hope” makes sense in Eritrean sense of coherence, but “loser” does not. Journal of Loss and Trauma 10(5): 433-451; Almedom, A.M., Tesfamichael, B., Mohammed, Z.S., Mascie-Taylor, N., Muller, J., Alemu, Z. (2005) Prolonged displacement may compromise resilience in Eritrean mothers. African Health Sciences 5: 310-314; Almedom, A.M. (2005) Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence. Social Science and Medicine 61: 943-964; Almedom, A.M. (2005) 'Resilience’, ‘hardiness’, ‘sense of coherence’, and ‘posttraumatic growth’: All paths leading to ‘light at the end of the tunnel’? Journal of Loss and Trauma 10(3): 253-265; Almedom, A.M. (2004) Factors that mitigate war-induced anxiety and mental distress. Journal of Biosocial Science 36: 445-461; Almedom, A.M., Tesfamichael, B., Yacob, A., Teklehaimanot, K., Debretsion, Z., Beyene, T.,Kuhn, K., Alemu, Z. (2003) Examining maternal psychosocial well being in Eritrea: Application of participatory methods and tools of investigation and analysis in ‘complex emergency’ settings. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 81: 360-366; Almedom, A.M., Brensinger, E., Adam, G. (2008) Resilience discourse as a counter narrative to vulnerability and social suffering. in Living Through Intended and Unintended Suffering: War, Medicine and Gender, Edited by Hannah Bradby and Gillian Lewando Hundt (in preparation); Almedom, A. M. and Glandon, D. (2007) Social Capital and Mental Health: An updated interdisciplinary review of primary evidence, In Kawachi, I., Subramanian, S. V. & Kim, D. (Eds.) Social Capital and Health Springer; Almedom, A.M. and Gosling, R. (2003) The health of young asylum seekers and refugees in The United Kingdom: Reflection from research. In Allotey, P. (Ed.) The Health of Refugees: Public Health Perspectives from Crisis to Settlement Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 169-184.

Professor Almedom earned her BA (Hons) and MA in human sciences, and D.Phil. in biological anthropology at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Ghina Al-Sewaidi was originally from Iraq, born in Baghdad. She left Iraq in the 1970’s for schooling in Europe. She studied in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. She is a holder of two Bachelors of Law degrees from both the U.K. & Canada (LL.B.) and a Master in Petroleum Law (L.L.M.) from the University of Dundee in Scotland. Her educational background includes Administrative and Immigration Law. She is presently practising in Toronto (Ghina Al-Sewaidi Professional Corporation) concentrating on refugee law and protection. She is fluent in English, French and Arabic. She was Counsel for precedent setting case in the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada on the issue of “Statelessness” and the availability of protection (See: Thabet v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (C.A.), [1998] 4 F.C.21). She was educated at the following institutions: York University (Certificate in Dispute Resolution, September 2003-April 2004); Bar Admission Course (London, Ontario, called to the Bar in 1993); University of Ottawa (LL.B. Graduate, 1991); Dundee University, Scotland, UK (1988, Petroleum and Environmental Law LL.M; Diploma,1986, International and Comparative Law); University of Buckingham, England (LL.B., 1985); University of Lille, France (Diploma, 1982, French Civil Law); Concord College, Shrewsbury England (A-Levels, 1982); and Ecole Brillantmont, Lausanne, Switzerland (O-Levels).

Ghina’s professional memberships include the following: Past Chair for the CBAO Young Lawyers Committee (Southwest Region); Past Council Member of the Canadian Bar Association, Ontario; Vice President of the Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario (2005); President of the Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario (2006); President of the Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario (2007); Present Secretary of the Canadian Arab Network (CAN); Member, AJEFO (Association Des Juristes D’Expresssion Francaise De L’Ontario); and, Member: Criminal Lawyers Association. She is a Guest lecturer at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario and, the University of Montpelier, France. She is involved in projects such as “Breaking the Cycle of Violence” dealing with problems of abuse against women in the community; “Children and the Rainbow” in cooperation with the Children Aid Society helping children arriving from war-torn countries; and, “Access, Equity and Human Rights” (AEHR) project dealing with newcomers to Canada.

Adenrele Awotona is the founder and director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters. He is a former Dean of the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Before then, he was at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he served as the Dean of the School of Architecture and at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom where he was director of graduate studies in architecture and urban design as well as director of the Center for Architectural Research and Development Overseas.

His fields of technical expertise include sustainable community-based planning, post-disaster reconstruction and architectural design methods. He has been a principal investigator (or co-PI/researcher) on major projects funded by various agencies. These include the Boston Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Education, the British Government Department for International Development, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, the United Nations Development Program, and, the European Union. A stream of publications has, therefore, emanated from his work. Similarly, through research, consultancy and teaching, he has professional experience in many countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and the Caribbean.

Adenrele Awotona's publications include: Tradition, Location and Community: place-making and development (edited with Necdet Teymur, Avebury, 1997); Reconstruction after disaster: issues and practices (edited, Ashgate, 1997); Housing provision and bottom-up approaches: Case studies from Africa, Asia and South America (edited, Ashgate, 1999); Proceedings of the International Conference on 'Rebuilding sustainable communities in Iraq: Policies, Programs and Projects' (edited, College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2007). Furthermore, Adenrele Awotona has been an external reviewer/examiner of over 200 masters' and doctoral dissertations internationally.

In public and community service, Prof. Awotona was a former member of the Design and Planning Selection Board of the City-Parish of East Baton Rouge. He was also an Educator/Coordinator of Seminars (on community development, etc.) at the annual American Institute of Architects National Conventions for several years. Similarly, he has been a member of the U.S. National Architectural Accrediting Board’s program review team internationally. He is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Academic Leader, the national newsletter for academic deans. At the global level, he is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. He was a Director of Studies for British Council International Seminars (Reconstruction after disasters) in the United Kingdom, a technical consultant to the British Council Committee for International Cooperation in Higher Education, and, an Associate Adviser to the British Council on various aspects of the built environment.

He has been named an outstanding intellectual by the International Biographical Center (IBC), Cambridge, United Kingdom. His profile appeared in the IBC reference book 2000 Outstanding intellectuals of the 21st Century.

John W. Barbee is currently a civil society consultant who has most recently worked for Counterpart International in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has held various posts, including Central Asia IOM Regional Representative for disaster mitigation and with Counterpart International since 1994. His work for Counterpart includes Country Director for Tajikistan, Consultant/Advisor in Iraq and Consultant for project development for Iraq. Mr. Barbee has also worked as a civil society specialist for USAID/Iraq. In the '60s he served in the Peace Corps as a Volunteer in Afghanistan and subsequently served with the PC staff in Afghanistan, Washington and Malawi (Africa). His specializations include community development programming, conflict mitigation, training, and local capacity building.

Barbee has two master’s degrees, one in Education and Training Technology from the Educational Technology Center at Catholic University of America, and the other in Counseling Psychology from the University of Northern Florida. He earned a BA in Business from the University of Northern Colorado. Mr. Barbee’s spoken languages include Tajiki, Dari (Afghan Farsi) and Chichewa.

Saswati Ghosh Belliappa has Master’s degrees in Geography and Urban & Regional Planning and works in the areas of social development; urban poverty; participatory and inclusive planning, monitoring and evaluation of development programs; and institutional strengthening. She has undertaken over 50 consulting assignments and has served as Team Leader / Project Manager on large-scale assignments involving multi-disciplinary teams and diverse stakeholders, funded by agencies such as USAID, JBIC, UNDP, ADB and World Bank.

Awards received include a Gold Medal for Best Thesis at the School of Planning, CEPT, Ahmedabad, India; Best Thesis Award out of all schools of planning in India from the Institute of Town Planners, India and Gold Medals for First Position in the Secondary and Higher Secondary (Arts) Examinations of the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, India.

Ms. Belliappa is currently working with a US based consulting firm, Wilbur Smith Associates (WSA) Inc. as its Regional Practice Area Leader, Environmental and Social Development (Asia) and is based in WSA’s office in Bangalore, India.

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Robert Bachelder is Minister and President of the Worcester Area Mission Society (WAMS), an agency of the United Church of Christ. In the 1980s, Worcester suffered from the steepest rate of manufacturing job loss of any of the nation’s major metropolitan areas. WAMS developed an integrated, asset-based approach to community renewal that creates new sources of neighborhood, social, and human capital. The effort was informed in part by a participatory model of community planning pioneered in Kenyan villages by Egerton University, and it was augmented by conferences that brought together Kenyan and Worcester activists. WAMS’ programs were the first in the United States to be recognized by the National Council of Churches for ‘best practice public ministry’.

Bob Bachelder was educated at Dartmouth College and Yale University, has been a trustee for a wide range of institutions, and writes on the subject of ethics and economics. A recent article calls attention to the excessive commercialization of outer space, a phenomenon that hinders access by developing countries to satellite data that is critical for sustainable development and crisis management. He is included in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.

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The Rev. Paul Block has been a pastor in the South Bronx for seven years. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School in 1997, Paul attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA, part of the Graduate Theological Union in the Bay area. He returned to the East Coast in 1999 to complete his internship at Transfiguration Lutheran Church in the South Bronx, whose ministry has been chronicled in “Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey through the South Bronx” by the Rev. Heidi Neumark. In 2001, Paul received his first call at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Bronx.

The following year, he married the Rev. Theodora N. Brooks, an Episcopal priest from Liberia also serving in the Bronx. After serving Bethlehem for three years, Paul returned to Transfiguration Lutheran Church, which serves a community that remains in the poorest congressional district in the country. Founded primarily by Puerto Rican Lutherans in 1940, Transfiguration is now a bilingual, multicultural congregation. Paul is active in community organizing through South Bronx Churches, an Industrial Areas Foundation-affiliated organization. Paul and Theodora have two children, Miles-Erik and Isaiah.

Michael Carroll is the Founder and current President of Romanian Children's Relief and their Romanian partner charity, Fundatia Inocenti. In January 1990, Mr. Carroll was one of the first photographers to travel to Romania after the fall of the communist regime. He first went to Romania with AmeriCares to investigate a reported pediatric AIDS epidemic. His stories written and photographed for the Boston Globe and New York Times led directly to the formation of the Romanian Children's Relief organization. Mr. Carroll has worked as a volunteer for Romanian Children’s Relief for 15 years. His story was recently featured in the April, 2007 edition of Notre Dame Magazine. His photographs of Romania are also currently appearing on the Boston Children’s Hospital Website “Dream.”

Since 1990, Mr. Carroll has traveled extensively throughout Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Ukraine, Czech Republic writing and photographing for American and European publications (The Boston Globe; The New York Times; People; Fortune; and Reader's Digest). Since 1980, Mr. Carroll has also worked as a Freelance photographer and media design consultant specializing in corporate and editorial photography with clients including The Boston Globe; The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; Time; People; Golf & Travel; Travel & Leisure Golf; Newsweek; Business Week; Money; and Fortune. His corporate clients have included Disney; Compaq; Malden Mills; Beth Israel Hospital; University of Massachusetts Medical Center; Boston Children's Hospital; American Express; and General Motors Corp.

Mr. Carroll is a 1968 graduate of Notre Dame University. He and his wife, Joan Peterson, a Special Education Teacher, live in Pepperell, MA.

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Beryl Cheal's academic work includes a BA, Education, University of La Verne; MA, Early Childhood Education, University of Washington; MS, International Studies, University of Washington; International Trauma Studies Program, Columbia University. She is an educational administrator, consultant and trainer. As a former teacher she has taught Head Start, elementary school, preschool and child care staffs as well as college and university students.

Her disaster response has included: working with children after 9/11, New York City; working with Kosovo refugees, Toronto, Canada; directing a preschool system in refugee camps for the United Nations; developing emergency management plans for children’s programs, and; training preschool and public school staffs in working with children after disaster. She served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Moldova.

Ms. Cheal has published the book Developing an Emergency Management Plan: A Workbook for Programs Working with Young Children and a series of booklets on What You Can Do With Your Children after Disasters. She also authored the DVD/Video "Helping Children Cope with Frightening Events: What You Can Do!," a staff development film, and has developed a curriculum, "Developing Programs for Young Children that Help in Healing After Disaster."

Currently she makes her home in Seattle, Washington.

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Justin Dargin is a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs- Harvard University, where he researches energy policy in the Persian Gulf region. Specializing in international law and energy law, he is a prolific author on energy affairs. He is a co-founder and director of the non-profit International Institute of Ideas (Interintel) which seeks to address the concerns of global energy poverty and sustainable development by providing developing communities access to inexpensive energy supplies. During his graduate legal studies, Justin interned in the legal department at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, where he advised senior staff on the implications of European Union and American law in multilateral relations. Justin was also a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where he studied Middle East gas issues, and based on his research authored, "The Dolphin Project: The Development of a Gulf Gas Initiative" (OIES Press 2008)

Justin is trilingual, fluent in Spanish, English and Arabic, and has been active in a multitude of energy issues involving Latin America and the Middle East.

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Jeanne-Aimée De Marrais is the Director of Save the Children’s US Emergency Programs.  She has served in a variety of capacities for the organization, including as Team Leader for Save the Children’s response to the southern California wildfires and Hurricane Katrina.  For nearly three years before this disaster response, De Marrais was the Director of External Affairs and Resource Development for Save the Children’s U.S. Programs division, serving children living in impoverished rural communities across the United States, including in Central Appalachia, the Mississippi River Delta, the southwest and California’s Central Valley. 

Prior to joining Save the Children, De Marrais worked for the Maryland Legislature’s Chairman of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families, serving in both his legislative and political offices.  In that role she helped create and implement a large, multi-dimensional legislative agenda strategically designed to improve disadvantaged children’s and families’ wellbeing.  The agenda included a results-based school readiness initiative and was focused on ensuring that programs funded by the legislative and executive branches serving children and families were results-based, collaborative and effective.  Before working in the public sector, De Marrais taught middle school in Colorado and in the inner city.  De Marrais started her career working in international healthcare for the Pathfinder Fund.  She holds degrees from Tufts University and Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health

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Cecile de Milliano is currently a Marie Curie PhD research fellow in the Humanitarian Action and Conflict Studies Network (HUMCRICON) at the University College Dublin (UCD, Ireland). She holds a degree in Master of Science and a degree in Master of Arts in Humanitarian Action. Her master in science was completed in 2005 at the faculty of ‘Social and Behavioural Science’ at the University of Groningen. She participated in a research project for the Dutch Ministry of Education at the University of Helsinki (Finland), and therefore specialises in gender equality.

Ms. De Milliano’s strong interest in theories and concepts on natural and man-made disasters, was the reason for choosing for the masters in ‘Humanitarian Action’ (NOHA) in 2005. This international master’s degree was pursued at three different universities in the Netherlands, Ireland and South Africa and allowed her to focus on policies of humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction.

She gained practical experience through an internship at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe in 2006 and through a position as project manager at Streetwise Direct Dialogue - a fundraising organisation for NGOs in the Netherlands in 2007. Thereafter, over a 7 month period Ms. de Milliano performed an evaluation for a network of eleven organisations, on the definition and affects of child participation in an informal urban settlement in Ecuador.

Finally in March 2008 Cecile de Milliano started her PhD research which aims to get a deeper understanding of the perceptions of children on their vulnerabilities and coping strategies in natural disasters.

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Julia A. Demichelis is an urban planner with more than 25 years experience leading disaster preparedness, response and relief programs with the public sector, private industry and civil society leaders. Extensively engaging front-line stakeholders as primary decision makers, Julia has assessed, redesigned and re-directed investments to improve effectiveness of institutional partners’ roles in a wide variety of crises: urban and rural natural catastrophes of all sources and scales, as well as protracted complex emergencies with state and non-state actors. Combining her skills in land use assessment and planning, social and community profiling, political negotiation and conflict transformation, and institutional development with her passion to deconstruct, untangle and re-weave relations and resource networks amidst the competition of interests, Julia has successfully embraced and resolved a plethora of tenacious issues in the theatre of disaster.

Having adapted her planning tools to reshape national and community entities in thirty countries inherently vulnerable to and/or divided by disaster threats or incidents, Julia practices her core principles to respect those whose primary ownership, power or identity is at stake, to build solutions from within their socio-political framework and according to their vision, and to respect the rule of law and the legitimacy of authorities. She has fostered fruitful civilian-military partnerships to address an assortment of disaster and development challenges in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, Slovenia; Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Zambia; Marshall Islands; Morocco, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestine; and USA.

In Morocco for more than two years, Julia has pioneered a multi-sector advisory and technical assistance approach to the parliament, to strengthen its constitutionally-mandated capabilities in representation, oversight, and legislation.

She earned a M.U.P. from the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, 1991, and a B.S.B.A. from Georgetown University School of Business, 1981. She was honored by the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, Ellis F. Lawrence Medal, 2007; University of Oregon Planning Public Policy and Management Department, Distinguished Alumnus, 2006; and the Sergeant Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarianism, National Peace Corps Association, 1999. She has authored numerous case studies, technical articles and reports. Julia is a member of the League of Women Voters in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, and of Women in International Security.

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Angela Devlen is the co-founder and President of Mahila Partnership, a grassroots women’s organization committed to issues related to education, community and disaster management. Angela is a passionate advocate for humanitarian, healthcare and woman’s issues, working on several projects including prevention of violence against women, gender issues in disasters, grassroots education & community development projects. She has been involved in supporting fundraising, relief and recovery efforts following disasters since 1990 with several years leading emergency management & business continuity in Boston-based non-profit healthcare systems.

She is also the Emergency Management Coordinator at Caritas Christi responsible for program management, strategic planning, grant management and education development. She is one of the founding board members of BCPWHO, has served on several boards and developed academic programs in emergency management. In 2005 she was named on the list of the Top 300 Women Leaders in New England. She is a regular speaker at venues in Canada and the US and has published several articles. She was the co-recipient of an award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a program developed to increase community resiliency and served as an Expert reviewer for a ProVention Consortium grant funded initiative on hospital preparedness in Kyrgyzstan.

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Michael F. Donlan is an experienced attorney and an Adjunct Professor and Research Affiliate at UMass Boston. He is an individual legal practitioner and a Member of the Bar for Massachusetts, Federal District and U.S. Supreme Courts. His principal legal career was with the Boston law firm of Rich May for which he served as Managing Partner and head of its Energy, Real Estate and Public Sector Departments.

He holds a Juris Doctor Degree from Harvard Law School, and a B.S. Degree from College of the Holy Cross (majoring in Physics and Economics).

He received highest recognition from Best Lawyers in America - Energy (Woodward and White); Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale-Hubbell); Red Book (counsel qualified for tax-exempt financings); and was recognized by Massachusetts Bar Association for achievements in regional conflict resolution.

His legal experience has specialized in i) industrial, commercial and mixed-use development — principally as lead counsel, including pioneering of new concepts of public/private, planned-unit developments; ii) in energy development, principally as lead counsel for all sources of energy development — gas, oil and electricity, domestic and international; and iii) extensive public service, including representing the Governor of Mass. as appointee to the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA").

He provided pro bono legal service to Nobel Laureate John Hume of Derry, Northern Ireland, providing both legal and negotiating services.He formed and served as Chairman of Boston Ireland Ventures (in collaboration with both UMass Boston and the Director of the BRA) to provide a self-help economic project for the cities of Galway and Derry as part of a cross-border peace initiative (1987-1994).

He has served University of Massachusetts in multiple roles for three decades – as Trustee, Visiting Fellow and now as Adjunct Professor in the College of Public and Community Service and, in addition, as Research Affiliate to the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters.

He has authored contributions to and edited several specialized volumes i) on Public Utility Deregulation, Published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education - (\MCLE 410 pp.; 1999); (MCLE 297 pp.; 1997); and (MCLE 636 pp.; 1996).; ii) Real Estate Development in Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (MCLE 88 pp.; 1998); and iii) Weapons of Mass Destruction and Public International Law, New England Journal of Public Policy, Special Issue on War, Volume Two, p. 189 (2005).

Kai T. Erikson is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies at Yale University. He will be a Keynote Speaker at the conference.

He is past president of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Eastern Sociological Society. He has been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a Visiting Scholar of the Russell Sage Foundation. He is the author of Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance, which won the MacIver Award of the ASA; and of Everything In Its Path, which won the Sorokin Award of the ASA. He is the only sociologist to ever twice win the top award of the Association for the best book of the year. His latest book is entitled A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community. His research and teaching interests include American communities, human disasters, and ethnonational conflict. He has been Master of Trumbull College, Chair of the American Studies program at Yale, editor of The Yale Review, and Chair of the Department of Sociology. Some of his publications are: Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance, Revised Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon (2004) [1966]; A New Species of Trouble: The Human Experience of Modern Disasters. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. (1994); and, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. New York: Simon and Schuster (1976).

Abstract

Nichole Fiore was on a Fulbright Fellowship during the 2006-07 academic year in Budapest, Hungary. While in Budapest, Nichole researched the social and economic mobility of the Roma population in Hungary by looking at governmental welfare programs offered by the Hungarian government and the European Union. During the Fulbright Fellowship, Nichole was affiliated with the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission, Central European University, and the European Roma Rights Center. In 2006, Nichole received her MA in Economics with a focus in Economic Development from Fordham University in New York. She also holds a BA in Sociology and Economics from Fordham University. Her presentation is based on her research findings from the Fulbright Fellowship.

Currently, Nichole is an analyst at Abt Associates working on domestic housing and homeless issues.

Jane O’Brien Friederichs is Dean of Social Sciences and Professional Studies at MassBay Community College in Wellesley Massachusetts. She also currently serves as Regional Representative for the Northeastern region of OMEP. Her doctorate, in Comparative and International Education from the University of London, and was a study of the impact on Hong Kong school children of the socio-political changes involved in decolonization with out independence.

Her career as an educator has been in four institutions of higher education in four different societies. Each of these experiences contributed, from different cultural perspectives, to an appreciation for the essential relationship between the nature of the community and the quality of life of its members.

Originally from Boston MA, her teaching career began at the Chinese Universe of Hong Kong where she served as faculty in the Department Education. Six years in Hong Kong was an immersion in a complex and effective community – a community sustained by shared values and a willingness to cooperate to overcome obstacles. Following four years in Germany as faculty in Educational Psychology with the University of Maryland, she served as faculty and later administrator at Richmond International University in London. Richmond is an institution which is truly multicultural and international. Students from over 100 countries, with no national group in the majority, led to reflections on methods of building community and of sustaining the valuable elements the community. Dr. O’Brien Friederichs has presented at numerous international conferences and published on the intercultural and multicultural classroom, technology and culture, and well as the impact of socio-political change on schools.

Abstract

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, is a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University. She was educated at Bryn Mawr College (AB, 1971) and Columbia University (MS, 1971; MD 1978). She is a board certified psychiatrist, having received her training at New York Hospital-Westchester Division (1978-1981) and Montefiore Hospital (1981-1982). She has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health. From her research, she has published Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It (2004), and The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place (1999). She is a co-author of Rodrick Wallace’s Collective Consciousness and Its Discontents: Institutional Distributed Cognition, Racial Policy and Public Health in the United States (2008). She has published numerous articles, book chapters, and monographs. She has received many awards, including inclusion on “Best Doctors” lists and two honorary doctorates (Chatham College, 1999, and Bank Street College of Education, 2002). Her work in AIDS in featured in Jacob Levenson’s The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS in Black America. Her current work focuses on the connection between urban function and mental health.

Contact Information:

Mindy Fullilove, MD
NYSPI
1051 Riverside Dr., Unit 29
NY, NY 10032
212-305-4734
212-305-4868
mf29@columbia.edu (e-mail)

Abstract

Alvaro Gallardo is professor of Economic Thought at the Colombian School of Engineering and Andes University. He has worked on social policy issues related particularly to displaced population for the advisory office CODHES and he was the coordinator of social and productive insertion area for population who has been detached from the irregular armed organizations in a project sponsored by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) and the European Union. He has worked as a consultant for a foundation dedicated to non-partisan research in the fields of economics in Colombia (FEDESARROLLO). Also, he has worked as a consultant with the Colombian’s Fiscal Control Office (Contraloría General de la República). He is a member of the Research Center for Development and the Observatory of Economic Thought at the National University of Colombia.

Mr Gallardo has a BA in economics from the National University of Colombia. Currently, Mr. Gallardo is finishing his Masters studies of Philosophy at Javeriana University and is working in Academic Planning for the Francisco Jose de Caldas University.

Abstract

Humberto García is Associate Professor of Economics at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogotá-Colombia. He works for the Economics Department and also for the Humanities Department in the field of Afro-Colombian History. He has worked as a consultant with the Colombian’s Fiscal Control Office (Contraloría General de la República) and with the Colombia’s Ministry of Education in the area of education expenditure. He is involved in the minorities rights movements trough his affiliation to an Afro-Colombian Grassroots Group (Colectivo de Estudantes Afro-Colombianos – CEUNA), which dedicates its efforts to study human rights inequalities facing Colombians of African descent. His work with the Research Center for Development at the National University of Colombia deals with the study of social and economic policy issues, specifically those concerning minority’s inequalities.

Mr. García holds a Master of Economic Sciences from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and a BA in economics from Universidad del Rosario. Mr. García joins the Regis College faculty as 2008-2009 Fulbright Exchange Lecturer in “History of Latin American Development.”

Abstract

Tiffany M. Gardner is the Director for the Legal Program and Special Project for Hurricane Katrina at the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI). She has a background in human rights advocacy and corporate law. She has worked on human rights issues and grassroots organizing throughout Africa, Southeast Asia and the United States.

Ms. Gardner has published several articles on issues of social justice and global inclusion. She co authored an article entitled "Human Rights Based Approaches in State Development Programming" in Education and Poverty in an International Context that was published by Columbia University Teachers College. She most recently published an article entitled "Race and Federal Recognition in Native New England" in Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country published by Duke University Press, which discusses the racially discriminatory practices of the federal acknowledgement process for Native communities in the U.S. Her most recent publication is entitled "The Commodification of Women's Work: Theorizing the Advancement of African Women."

She is a former associate at the New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She received a BA from Yale University, a JD from New York University School of Law and a LL.M. in human rights law from Columbia University Law School.

Abstract

Shelby Grossman is a graduate of Emory University. She works with the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Shelby spent a year working in Liberia with Global Rights, an organization that supports local human rights groups. She has reported on the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor from The Hague and on Liberia diaspora communities in the US. Her work has been published in Minnesota Christian Chronicle, Afridigital.net, and elsewhere.

She blogs about Liberian politics from www.shelbygrossman.com and can be contacted at shelbygrossman@gmail.com.

Abstract

Chester Hartman, an urban planner and author, is Director of Research for the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (where he was founding Executive Director from 1989-2003) in Washington, DC, and Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Sociology, George Washington University. Prior to taking his present position, he was a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Harvard and served on the faculty there as well as at Yale, the University of North Carolina, Cornell, the University of California-Berkeley, American University, and Columbia University.

His books include: Mandate for Change: Policies and Leadership for 2009 and Beyond (Lexington Books, forthcoming Jan. 2009); Housing Urban America (Aldine, 1973; rev. ed 1980); The World of the Urban Working Class (Harvard Univ. Press, 1973); Yerba Buena: Land Grab and Community Resistance in San Francisco (Glide, 1974); Housing and Social Policy (Prentice-Hall, 1975); Displacement: How to Fight It (National Housing Law Project, 1982); America’s Housing Crisis: What Is To Be Done? (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983); The Transformation of San Francisco (Rowman and Allanheld, 1984); Critical Perspectives on Housing (Temple University Press, 1986); Winning America: Ideas & Leadership for the 1990s (South End Press, 1988); Housing Issues of the 1990s (Praeger, 1989); Paradigms Lost: The Post Cold War Era (Pluto, 1992); Double Exposure: Poverty and Race in America (M.E. Sharpe, 1997); Challenges to Equality: Poverty & Race in America (M.E. Sharpe, 2001); Between Eminence & Notoriety: Four Decades of Radical Urban Planning (Rutgers University Center for Urban Policy Research, 2002); City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco (University of California Press, 2002); A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda (Temple University Press, 2006); Poverty & Race in America: The Emerging Agendas (Lexington Books, 2006); There Is No Such Thing As a Natural Disaster: Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina (Routledge, 2006); and, Pathways to Hope: An Agenda for Justice, Peace and the Environment (in preparation, Lexington Books, 2008).

His articles have appeared in The Nation, Social Work, Virginia Law Review, Journal of the American Planning Association, University of Wisconsin Law Review, Progressive Architecture, The Utne Reader, The Village Voice, Encyclopedia of Social Work, Social Policy, Society, Dissent, Mother Jones, Planning, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Housing, The Progressive, Land Economics, The Gerontologist, Shelterforce, Clearinghouse Review, The Urban Lawyer, Journal of Urban Affairs, Public Welfare, Vanderbilt Law Review, Social Work, Journal of Public Health Policy, Seton Hall Law Review, Housing Policy Debate, University of North Carolina Law Review, The Encyclopedia of Housing, Civil Rights Journal, The Journal of Negro Education, Souls, and numerous other academic and popular journals and newspapers.

Dr. Hartman is the founder and former Chair of the Planners Network, a national organization of progressive urban and rural planners and community organizers.

He serves/has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Negro Education, Journal of Urban Affairs, Housing Policy Debate, Urban Affairs Quarterly, Housing Studies, and is a former Board member/Secretary of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

He has been a consultant to numerous public and private agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Stanford Research Institute, Arthur D. Little, California Rural Legal Assistance, the Urban Coalition, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Legal Aid Society of New York.

Abstract

Stephanie Hartwell, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Sociology Department at UMASS Boston. She lives in Milton, MA and is interested in public policy response to social problems, mental health services research, and social justice.

Her representative publications include:

• Hartwell, Stephanie W. “More of a Danger to Myself: Community Re-entry of Dually Diagnosed Females Involved in the Criminal Justice System,” in Anderson, Tammy (Editor), Neither Villain nor Victim: Toward an Empowered Approach to Women and Drugs, Rutgers University Press, 2007.
• Hartwell, Stephanie and Paul Benson. “Social Integration,” in William R. Avison, Jane D. McLeod, and Bernice A. Pescosolido (eds), Mental Health, Social Mirror, New York: Springer Publishing, 2007.
• Hartwell, Stephanie W., Sarah Kuck Jalbert, and Karin Orr. 2006. "Persons With Mental Illness Post Prison Release." Law Enforcement Executive Forum. Vol. 6(3):181-190.

Abstract

Mahmood Hosseini was born in 22 December 1960 in Kashan, Iran. He started his academic studies in 1978 in Civil Engineering Department of Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran, where he got his M.Sc. Degree in Structural Engineering in 1986. He continued his studies and got his Ph.D. Degree from the Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering in 1991, as the first Ph.D. graduated from an Iranian university in ‘engineering field’. He joined academia in the same year and started teaching and research work in the field of Earthquake Engineering and related areas, including Lifeline Earthquake Engineering and Earthquake Risk Management. He attended Cornell University, USA, since June 2001 to September 2002 to spend his sabbatical leave, and taught two courses there as well.

Up to now, he has authored or co-authored more than 130 conference papers, around 30 journal papers, about 10 research reports, and 5 books, monographs, and conference proceedings. He is presently an associate professor in the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), and a Board Member of Center of Excellence on Risk Management there. He serves as the Editorial Boards Member to a few scientific journals, including the International Journal Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (JSEE), published quarterly by the IIEES. He is also a member of several Engineering Associations and Societies to which has been serving as the vice-director, treasurer, or board member.

In addition to academic works, he has been engaged in ‘engineering work’ since 1984, as either design engineer or technical inspector, and has the experience of working as the Project Manager in one of the regional programs of UNDP in Central and South East Asia with regard to Disaster Risk Reduction.

Abstract

Ashfaq Ishaq has more than thirty years of experience as entrepreneur, educator, researcher, manager, and civil sector leader. He began his professional career at the World Bank, where he analyzed industry projects, conducted seminal research on entrepreneurship, and co-authored Success in Small & Medium Scale Enterprises, Oxford University Press (1987).

As associate professor of economics at the George Washington University, he and a political scientist invsestigated the statistical relationship between military expenditures and economic growth in the Middle East region. Their findings published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 1987 are part of the recommended readings in Middle Eastern studies at major universities.

During the 1990s, Dr. Ishaq served as CEO of USA International, Inc. – a project development and consulting services company. He chaired business conferences on private provision of public services and regularly contributed to publications such as Institutional Investor, Infrastructure Finance and Finance & Development.

In 1997 he founded the International Child Art Foundation to bring about a creativity revolution seeded in children. He developed the award-winning Arts Olympiad -- the world’s largest and most prestigious art and creativity program for children. He established program partnerships with ministries of education and cultural institutions in nearly 100 countries, negotiated an exclusive license from the U.S. Olympic Committee to use “Art Olympiad” and related marks, and secured support from some of the world’s most creative companies, including Adidas, Disney, Faber-Castell, LEGO, and Yahoo! He organized the first-ever national children’s art festival in the U.S. history, and quadrennially he hosts the World Children’s Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

In response to the Asian tsunami, he organized a Healing Arts Program to transfer the knowledge and experience gained from the treatment of the child survivors of the 9/11 tragedy and other recent disasters to help the tsunami child survivors. Later the program was expanded to help child survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Ishaq’s pioneering work on the development of creativity to foster peace was published in the U.K.’s leading medical journal The Lancet in 2006. His keynote address on prosperity and peace to the International Society for Education through the Arts was published by UNESCO’s Laboratory at the University of Melbourne in 2007. His writings have also appeared in the National Association of State Boards of Education’s State Education Standard and the International Public Relations Association’s Frontline bi-monthly. Since 1998 he has served as publisher and editor of ChildArt quarterly magazine. Nearly 23,000 creative children and individuals subscribe to his monthly newsletter, Sketches.

Dr. Ishaq has won awards for his visionary leadership and philanthropy, including the prestigious American Muslim Achievement Award. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University, Masters in Public Administration from the University of Punjab, and BA in economics and statistics from Government College, Lahore, Pakistan. He serves on several boards and is scientific committee member of 2008 CyberTherapy Conference. He is member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of the Visual Arts, and is senior advisor to the Business Council for International Understanding.

Abstract

Yasamin O. Izadkhah is an assistant professor in the Risk Management Research Centre, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), where she has been working since 1990. She is also a Research Consultant in Resilience Centre at Cranfield University in UK. In relation to her research activities, she has traveled widely to more than 25 countries around the world and has certificates in various academic courses related to Disaster Prevention issues. Her main field of interest includes children and disasters, risk education and training, school safety earthquake education, disaster awareness and preparedness, disaster communication, and gender issues.

She is the author/co-author of more than 60 research papers presented and published in national and international conferences, bulletins and academic journals. She has contributed in various joint projects with UNDP, UNESCO and UNICEF. She is the author of booklet “Earth, Science and Safety,” a joint project of IIEES, UNDP, and UNESCO. She is also the co-author of book Guidelines on Earthquakes and Safety for Kindergarten Teachers, published last year.

She has experience in major earthquake situations such as Izmit, Gujarat, Bam, and the Asian Tsunami. Yasamin also lectures in Disaster Education, School Safety, Public Awareness and Disaster Case Studies in UK and Iran. Yasamin is the Executive Director of the Journal of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (JSEE).

Abstract

A. Josephine has a B.Sc in Mathematics, a Master’s degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication, an M.A in Social Work, and an M.Phil in Social Work. She is involved in research and consultancy in the field of education, disability (in particular, autism) and urban poverty. Currently, she teaches at the Department of Social Work, Stella Maris College, Chennai, India.

Abstract

Rama Kashyap has a Ph.D in Social Work, was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence with the Clark University, Massachusetts, USA 1992-93.

Her career includes 18 years as Professor of Social Work, University of Madras, Chennai; and 7 years as Gender and Social Development Advisor, Danida, Royal Danish Embassy, New Delhi; Advisor- Gender and Community, United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), New Delhi; Programme Advisor-Social Equity, United Nations Team for Tsunami Recovery (UNTRS), Chennai.

She is currently Advisor to Cognizant Foundation (CF), a dedicated CRS wing of the Cognizant Technology Solutions on preparation of the Strategic Plan for CF and lives in Chennai, India.

Alisa Klein is a public policy consultant specializing in the prevention of, and response to sexual violence; sexual violence in and after situations of disaster; sex offender-related public policy; and restorative justice. She serves as the as the lead researcher and writer for the National Project to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Violence in Disasters; as the Public Policy Consultant to the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers; and as a researcher, writer, and public policy analyst and advocate for other organizations working on the prevention of interpersonal violence.

Alisa recently completed a six-year term as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center; is an Expert Panelist for the Sexual Violence Prevention Project of the International Association of Forensic Nurses; and served as a faculty member to the national training series of the Rape Prevention and Education project of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Violence Prevention.  She has written numerous publications on various aspects of interpersonal violence prevention including the 2008 book, Sexual Violence in Disasters: A Planning Guide for Prevention and Response. Alisa has presented workshops, plenary addresses, and trainings on preventing and responding to sexual abuse, creating strategic public policy plans for sexual violence and child maltreatment prevention, public health prevention, effective public policy for sex offender management, preventing and responding to sexual violence in disasters and their aftermath, and using the tools of restorative justice to prevent and respond to interpersonal violence.

Alisa has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Abstract

Diane Levin is a professor of education at Wheelock College. She has taught early childhood education and human development courses for over 25 years.

An internationally recognized expert, she helps professionals and parents understand and deal with the effects of violence, media, and commercial culture on children.  She is the author or coauthor of seven books including: From Conflict to Peace Building: Lessons from Early Childhood Programs Around the World; The War Play Dilemma: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know; Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom; and Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture.  Her new book, So Sexy So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood (Random House/Ballantine) with Jean Kilbourne, will be released in August 2008.

Levin has consulted for the ACT Against Violence Program at the American Psychological Association and for Consumer Report's annual toy review article.  She co-wrote “The ‘So Far' Guide for Helping Children and Youth Cope with the Deployment of a Parent in the Military Reserves” and has developed a violence prevention training course for childcare providers in the state of Maine.  She organized a service-learning program in Northern Ireland for Wheelock students which explores how to promote healing in communities affected by conflict and violence.

Levin has been an Advisor for four PBS Parents' web site guides, including “Understanding and Raising Girls,” “Talking To Kids about War and Violence,” and “The Parents Guide to School.” She is a co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), which works for an end to the commercial exploitation of children and Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment (TRUCE), which helps parents deal with the impact of media and commercial culture on their children.

Abstract

Barbara Lewis, Associate Professor, is the Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black History and Culture at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where she holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Africana Studies and English. As a theatre historian, she has published on lynching and performance, minstrelsy, and the black arts movement of the sixties. As a playwright, her work has been presented at festivals and on professional stages nationally and internationally. As a Francophone scholar, she co-translated Faulkner, Mississippi by Edouard Glissant, which was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1999). Dr. Lewis has taught at City College, Lehman, and New York University. Prior to being named Director of the Trotter Institute, she was Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of Kentucky.

Abstract

Evelin G. Lindner is a social scientist with an interdisciplinary orientation. She holds two PhDs, one in medicine and a second in psychology. She is the Founding Director and President of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS, a global transdisciplinary network of academics and practitioners who wish to promote dignity and transcend humiliation. Details of her personal background and work are to be found on their web site.

Lindner is the recipient of the 2006 SBAP Award. Her book Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict was published by Praeger/Greenwood in 2006, and honored as Outstanding Academic Publication in the 2008 list of the journal Choice.

Lindner designs her life as a global citizen in order to be able to develop HumanDHS globally. She teaches as guest professor wherever her path leads her on all continents, among others, at universities in Norway (University of Oslo, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim), the Columbia University Conflict Resolution Network in New York, and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris. She has taught, for example, in Japan (International Christian University, and Rikkyo University, Tokyo), Israel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), Australia (Queensland University), or Costa Rica (United Nations-mandated University for Peace).

Lindner began with her work on humiliation in 1996/1997, with her doctoral research on the genocidal killings in Rwanda (1994), and Somalia (1988), on the backdrop of Hitler Germany. She defended her dissertation entitled The Psychology of Humiliation: Somalia, Rwanda / Burundi, and Hitler's Germany in 2001. Since then, she has expanded her studies, among others, in Europe, South East Asia, and the United States. She is currently building a theory of humiliation that is transcultural and transdisciplinary, entailing elements from anthropology, history, social philosophy, social psychology, sociology, and political science.

In 2001, Lindner set out to develop Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS). This network has since grown to ca. 1,000 invited members from all over the world, with the website enjoying more than 80,000 page views (of average two minutes) from 183 countries during the year of 2007.

The HumanDHS members believe that the sustainability of social cohesion and ecological survival requires a focus on human dignity, implemented with a mindset of cooperation and humility, rather than disrespect and humiliation. HumanDHS researchers and practitioners attempt to create public awareness for the destructive effects of humiliation, and to promote alternative approaches that generate and embody human dignity and respect.

The central human rights message is expressed in Article 1 of the of the Human Rights Declaration, which states that every human being is born with equal dignity (and ought not be humiliated). At the current point in human history, this ideal requires concerted action to be implemented, not just in the field of legal regulations, but in every sphere of human life, including architecture and the way we create our built environments. After disasters, communities are prone to suffer violations of dignity in numerous ways; however, disasters also offer a chance to implement novel solutions that highlight attention to human dignity as never before.

Abstract

Heather Marsh is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is currently in the process of finishing her M.A. Thesis. Marsh has been, and is, a Teaching Assistant for undergraduate “Intro Sociology” courses, as well as courses in Stratification and Theory. She is involved with the Graduate Student Forum, writes for her Department Newsletter and has served on Awards Committees. Before attending Maryland, she worked as a law clerk for Rawle and Henderson in the Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Department. Marsh has also worked as a research assistant in the areas of sustainability, methodology and ethics, and the intersection of community and technology during her time at both Boston College and St. Lawrence University, where she received her B.A. in Sociology in 2003.

Her interests are in theory especially as it relates to the areas of science and technology studies, social geographies, sex and gender and the sociology of knowledge.  Her recent work has explored the “greening of technoscience” in the form of green buildings to understand how sustainable buildings have become ontological sites that have material affects.  Current research focuses on the expanding discourse of green architecture and design to explore questions surrounding healthy bodies and healthy communities. Marsh’s presentation at the conference will highlight preliminary findings pertaining to her qualitative study of Greensburg, Kansas, and the ways in which the community was able to pull together after a devastating tornado to draft and implement the “Green Initiative”: a blueprint for how to build a better and more livable town.

Abstract

Scott McCallum, former Governor of Wisconsin, is President and CEO of the Aidmatrix Foundation. He has over 30 years executive experience leading strategic and operations planning, media, marketing, and government relations. He served as Wisconsin Governor, and is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and consultant.

McCallum is the President and CEO of the Aidmatrix Foundation. Aidmatrix Foundation is an international nonprofit organization sponsored by some of the world’s leading technology corporations that leverage world-class solutions from the business world and apply them to the NGO world. Aidmatrix goal is to get the right aid to the right people at the right time. Aidmatrix functions as a bridge, a linking pin between for the for-profit and nonprofit worlds – with systems that open lines of communication between donors, nonprofits, their partners, volunteers, and people in need. Through partners and technology, Aidmatrix processes over $1.5 billion in aid annually, with over 35,000 users worldwide. Aidmatrix offers multi-lingual solutions, serving the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Governor McCallum is a Senior Fellow with the Discovery Institute, a think tank based in Seattle, WA. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and has been an Executive-in-Residence at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He also teaches Executive MBA marketing classes at Sun Yat Sen and Harbin Universities in the Peoples Republic of China.

McCallum earned his B.A. from Macalester College and a M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

He sits on several boards of directors. He has served on numerous Presidential Commissions.

Eileen McHenry is the Executive Director of Romanian Children’s Relief. During her 12 year tenure, RCR has been awarded two USAID grants and was selected as the “Best Practice in Foster Care” at the Romanian National Child Welfare Conference in 2003.

Through strategic partnerships and well-developed volunteer programs, RCR leverages its $250,000 annual income to support and mentor 22 Romanian staff and 400 volunteers serving more than 500 children in foster care, institutions, and those with special needs.

Ms. McHenry joined RCR as a volunteer after adopting her oldest daughter from Romania in 1990. She took over as part time paid Executive Director in 1998. She has also worked in Special Education since 1993, first as a trained Parent Advocate for Special Education in New York State. Later she served as Chairman of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council for the Northborough-Southborough (MA) school district. For three years she coordinated the “Understanding our Differences,” special education interactive training and awareness program for 4th grade students, teachers and parents.

Ms. McHenry started her career as a Marketing Manager for Reed International (now Bertelesmann) and worked in Public Relations at Fidelity Investments. She earned a B.S. in Public Relations from Syracuse University in 1982. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Southborough, MA.

Sarah E. Moten, Ed.D., is Chief of the USAID Africa Bureau Office of Sustainable Development, Education Division. The Education Division is comprised of the Africa Education Initiative (AEI) and Basic Education core programs. As Division Chief, Dr. Moten manages a team of education professionals that provides guidance and technical assistance to 21 African bilateral education programs which provides $175 million per year. She is the manager for President Bush’s Africa Education Initiative which will provide $600 million of funds to support Africa’s education programs in teacher training, working with marginalized populations, textbooks and learning materials development and production, and the provision of girls’ scholarships. HIV/AIDS mitigation and prevention, and parent and community participation in education are cross-cutting themes. In addition, Dr. Moten manages a $30 million School Fees Program that works with countries to develop a holistic approach to education to provide access and opportunities for children to stay in school until completion of high a school.

In 2007, Dr. Sarah Moten was appointed by the Director of Foreign Assistance and Administrator of USAID to be the Deputy Coordinator of Basic Education, Department of State which over four years will provide $525 million.

Dr. Moten was Director of International Affairs at the University of the District of Columbia; an International Affairs Consultant; Special Assistant to the President Emerita for the National Council of Negro Women; Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Refugee Assistance (Department of State); and Peace Corps Country Director in Swaziland, Kenya and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Moten has expertise in the areas of Diplomacy, Education, Refugee Affairs, Population Issues, Women and Children Issues, Economic Development and Environmental Policies. She has traveled extensively and has spoken to audiences in many countries. Sarah Moten has an earned Doctorate from Clark Atlanta University and Honorary Doctorates from Elizabeth City State University, Chicago State University and University of Massachusetts Boston.
In 2008 Dr. Moten received The Medal of Freedom from The Foundation for Democracy in Africa and Swarthmore’s Worldwide Award for Women in Education and Government.

Abstract

Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu is a trained sociologist and an international lawyer with expertise in the area of gender, human rights, humanitarian assistance, and post-conflict management. She received a postgraduate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), Boston, Massachusetts, USA. As an adviser with the Social Transformation and Programmes Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, England, she leads the Secretariat’s work in the area of gender mainstreaming into democracy, peace and conflict policies, and programs with member countries. In October 2005, Elsie addressed the United Nations Security Council at the Open Debate on “Women, Peace and Security” on the challenges and contributions of women in conflict and post-conflict environments.

Prior to joining the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2004, Elsie worked with the United Nations from 1996 in various capacities on legal, gender, and development issues. She served with the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women in New York, investigated rape, sexual assault, and other war crimes with the UN Tribunal for Rwanda, and consulted for other UN agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on issues of gender-based violence, violence against women, peace-building, and post-conflict management. In addition, she also served with three UN peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia and East Timor.

Elsie practiced law in Nigeria as well as serving with the banking industry. She has written many articles and contributed to publications including the UNDP Human Development Report; African Development and Governance Strategies in the Twenty-first Century, a book on strategies for development in Africa; and the most recent, Mainstreaming in Conflict Transformation: Building Sustainable Peace. She is currently working on Inclusive Democracy? Women’s Political Representation and Participation in the Commonwealth. Elsie has lived and worked in at least four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Lisa Orloff is the Founder and Executive Director of World Cares Center. She has taken her experiences as a spontaneous unaffiliated volunteer during the September 11 relief efforts and created an organization that addresses our nation’s most valuable yet underutilized resources: everyday citizens.

As a spontaneous unaffiliated volunteer Ms. Orloff created an impromptu supply chain running from the Jacob Javits Center to triage units around Ground Zero using available resources, a map from the telephone book and her personal cell phone. To fill the unmet need of necessary supplies, Ms. Orloff managed over 300 other spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers and supported official responders working in collaboration with the NYPD, the Army National Guard, and a host of other agencies. She emerged as a liaison between community volunteers and government agencies, most notably FEMA and OEM, working together on community-focused long-term recovery initiatives.

Taking from her 9/11 experiences and subsequent all-hazards responses, Ms. Orloff remains committed to supporting national initiatives that enhance community-led response and recovery efforts in areas affected by disaster, and developing community-based programs that fill the gaps in available support for emergency managers and emergent community responders.

Ms. Orloff has keyed World Cares Center’s growth from a grassroots volunteer-led effort to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with national preparedness and recovery initiatives. She is an established international speaker on spontaneous volunteer management, responder self-care, community preparedness initiatives, and building resiliency within disaster-affected communities. Ms. Orloff is a member of the UN WHO Mental Health Committee, Representative of World Cares Center associated with the Department of Public Information of the UN, the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, NYC-VOAD, NVOAD, NOVA’s National Community Crisis Response Team, and the Advisory Boards of Citizen Corps and the WTC Health Registry, and the International Association of Emergency Managers. She is also a board member of My Good Deed. Ms. Orloff is a graduate of the Institute for Not-for-Profit Management’s Executive Level Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. She is a recipient of the Mayor’s Voluntary Action Award for her service during 9/11.

Abstract

Katherashala Ravi is the Dean of Academics at the JSPM’s Babasaheb Naik College of Engineering, Pusad, Dist.Yavatmal, which is affiliated with the Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Maharastra, India.

He earned a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Structures from Kakatiya Universty, Andhra Pradesh, in 1985; a Master's degree in Housing from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, in 1988; and a Ph.D. from the Department of Architecture and Planning at the University of Roorkee, Uttaranchal state, India, in 2000.

His fields of technical expertise include estimating and costing; building, planning, design and drawing; building construction; transportation engineering; sustainable community-based planning; post-disaster reconstruction; and structural design methods.

In public and community service, Prof. Ravi is the ex-president of the Rotary Club of Pusad and ex-president of the Theosophical Society of India, Pusad Lodge. He has also served as an educator/coordinator and steering committee member of National Seminars for teaching staff and students.

Dr. Ravi will be making a presentation at the conference on his findings on how the aged, especially women, and children who were orphaned by different types of disasters are being assisted in rebuilding their lives.

Abstract

Russell K. Schutt, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he has also served as Chair and Graduate Program Director and where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Since 1990, he has also been a Lecturer on Sociology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, where he conducts research on mental health services and psychiatric disability. His primary research foci are organizations and work, mental health services, and legal processes; he is also an expert on the application of social science research methods. His research on organizations and work has focused on subjective reactions to work and the organization of work in settings ranging from mental health, public health and public welfare agencies to homeless shelters, vocational rehabilitation programs and the construction trades.

His research in mental health services has examined the effects of the social environment on neurocognition, the housing preferences of homeless mentally ill persons and their correspondence to clinician preferences, and influences on housing loss. He is the author of a leading social science research methods text, Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research, now in its 5th edition, and three coauthored derivative versions for other disciplines. He is also author of Organization in a Changing Environment: The Unionization of Welfare Employees, coeditor of The Organizational Response to Social Problems, and coauthor of Responding to the Homeless: Policy and Practice. In addition, he has authored and coauthored more than 50 journal articles and book chapters on homelessness, mental health, organizations, law, and teaching research methods.

His recent research projects include a National Cancer Institute-funded study of community health workers’ orientations to cancer clinical trials, co-directing a multi-method investigation of case management in the Massachusetts Women’s Health Network program, leading a large expert panel charged with improving that program, and studying long-term effects of housing experiences among persons with chronic mental illness. His recent scholarly articles have focused on the impact of housing, vocational, and service options on the functioning of persons diagnosed as severely mentally ill and on the housing preferences and recommendations of homeless persons and service personnel. He has also studied decision making in juvenile justice and in union admissions, processes of organizational change; media representations of mental illness; and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Russell Schutt completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University.

Abstract

Mark Sloan joined the staff of the Harris County (Texas) Judge’s office in February of 2002. He is the Director of Community Emergency Response in Harris County Judge Ed Emmett’s office. He oversees various projects relating to homeland security initiatives, including numerous grant applications, community preparedness and training programs, and coordinates outreach activities for the Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management.

As the Director of the Harris County Citizen Corps, an innovative, award-winning citizen preparedness initiative, recognized as a National Best Practice, he coordinates all aspects of the program. Working with a team of County technology experts, he developed one of the first websites devoted to the sharing of citizen preparedness volunteer opportunities and tracking of volunteer hours. The site links users to the most helpful and informative websites on citizen preparedness throughout the country. Since 2002, over 4,337,000 individuals have visited the website (www.harriscountycitizencorps.com) and over 4,950 have completed the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course.

During the Katrina relief effort at the Astrodome Mark was assigned to the Unified Command to coordinate the volunteers. During the 21 days over 60,000 volunteers received various assignments that helped over 65,000 evacuees from New Orleans. On September 9, 2005, Mark was recognized for his efforts by ABC Nightly News as the Person of the Week, and at the 2006 National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, he received the Special Award; Texas’ Response to Katrina Evacuees, for leadership and coordination.

Mark received “The Presidents Call To Service Award” in September of 2007 recognizing the accomplishments of the Harris County Citizen Corps and for coordinating the volunteer response during the Katrina relief effort. He is a member of the San-Jac All-Hazards Type III Regional Incident Management Team and serves on the advisory board of ‘Ready Houston!’ which is committed to teaching individuals and families, houses of worship, non-profit organizations and small businesses how to be more disaster resistant.

He also served as the chairman of the Harris County Department of Education ALERT Task Force. The goal of this initiative was to strengthen and improve school/campus safety (crisis) plans by identifying and utilizing partner resources to implement emergency response and crisis management trainings emphasizing mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

In 2003 he worked closely with the Super Bowl XXXVIII (38) Executive Host Committee to coordinate County resources as needed for highly successful weeklong celebration.

Mark served as a Director of Homeland Security & Special Projects on the staff of Harris County Judge Robert Eckels from February 2002 to March 2007.

Abstract

Gregory D. Squires is a Professor of Sociology, and Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Woodstock Institute, the Advisory Board of the John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center in Chicago, Illinois, and the Social Science Advisory Board of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council in Washington, D.C. He has served as a consultant for civil rights organizations around the country and as a member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. He has written for several academic journals and general interest publications including Housing Policy Debate, Urban Studies, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, New York Times, and Washington Post. His recent books include Insurance Redlining (Urban Institute Press 1997), Color and Money (with Sally O'Connor - SUNY Press 2001), Urban Sprawl (Urban Institute Press 2002), Organizing Access to Capital (Temple University Press 2003), Why the Poor Pay More: How to Stop Predatory Lending (Praeger 2004), Privileged Places: Race, Residence and the Structure of Opportunity (with Charis E. Kubrin – Lynne Rienner 2006) and There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina (with Chester Hartman – Routledge 2006).

Abstract

Asgedet Stefanos is currently a Director of Community Studies Program (Online BA Degree Completion), and also the Human Services Program at the College of Public and Community Service. Professor Stefanos' teaching, professional service, and scholarship are in the fields of education and African Studies, including with each a specialized focus on women's issues.

Professor Stefanos received her Doctorate degree in Educational Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. She is an Associate Professor in Critical Education and African Studies in the College of Public and Community Service, at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. At UMB, since 1989, she has been teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, focused on education and development; gender and national politics; race, class, ethnicity and culture. She has developed and taught over 25 courses during her career at UMB. She has played a leading role in developing curricula within CPCS, including the Training and Development Concentration. Since 1993, she has also been affiliated with the Women Studies Department in the College of Liberal Arts, including teaching an online course, Educating Women: Cross Cultural Perspectives. She has also taught at Harvard University, Northeastern University, and Smith College. At UMass Boston, she has been honored often by students and the University for her outstanding mentoring and teaching.

Her professional activities include numerous presentations, colloquia, and consultations, nationally and internationally, in her fields of interest. Most recently, she was an invited presenter/participant at the Oxford University Roundtable on Women's Rights and Freedoms. Dr. Stefanos is the author of articles, journals, and book chapters focused on gender equity and nationalism, women and economic development, and multi-cultural education. Her article "Women and Education in Eritrea: A Historical and Contemporary Analysis," which was originally published by Harvard Educational Review in 1996, was subsequently included in a book, International Education in the Millennium: Towards Access, Equity and Quality, (Benjamin Piper, Sarah Dryden-Peterson, Yong-Suk Kim, eds., Harvard Education Press, 2006). The editors believe that this chapter adds to the book's mission to provide new contributions to enhance the research on international education in developing countries' and the current literature and policy debates about educational development.

Abstract

Diana Suskind, Ed.D, is an Associate Professor in Early Childhood at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and a RIE Associate (Resources for Infant Educarers). In 1979, she received a Doctorate in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois. She has been an Associate Professor of Education at Cal State LA and the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Diana has been both a practitioner and consultant for early childhood at schools; infant care centers and communities in Nepal, Thailand, Israel, Germany, Nigeria, Cape town, Romania and the U.S. She has studied with the late Magda Gerber, founder of RIE, at the Emmi Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary and has brought the RIE approach around the world. During the summer of 2003 Dr Suskind was a Fulbright Senior Specialist for New Zealand early childhood community. Summer 2004, Dr Suskind lectured and consulted at the Wenzhou Medical School /Taizhou Hospital, Linhai, China and at the Shanghai Children’s Hospital and Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Second Medical University. She created Parent-n-Me Classes at the Shanghai Pedong New Area Care Hospital for Mother and Children.

Again as Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2005, the University of Udine, Udine, Italy, sponsored Suskind. Fall 2006 Diana spent her sabbatical in Nepal “Helping Hands Nepal” Katmandu and Khandbari (Sabbatical) Co-author of “Baby Dancing”, donated 1000 English/Nepali version to Nepali young children in rural Nepal. Dr Suskind introduced learning centers for the Nepali children in elementary school settings and at HEMS School, Kathmandu, Nepal (summer 2008) witnessed HEMS Parliament, created HEMS Olympics and the first Parent-toddler class at HEMS School

Dr Suskind was the keynote presenter at FAEYC Annual Conference in Fairbanks, Alaska (2002) and for the Infant Toddler Specialist of Indiana (ITSI, 2007). She received the Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient, Onondaga Community College, Syracuse, New York (Humanities 1966).

Websites:

• http://falcon.fsc.edu/~dsuskind/
• http://www.freewebs.com/riebaby/
• http://www.fsc.edu/educ/caringfor.html
• http://www.tzhospital.com/tynews/news-1122.htm

Abstract

Denny Taylor is Professor and Doctoral Director of Literacy Studies at Hofstra University. She began teaching in 1968 in the East End of London; there were forty three children in her first kindergarten class. She has been continuously engaged in ethnographic literacy research since 1977 and she was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2004. She has written nine books and published forty articles and chapters on literacy in family, school and community settings.

Dr. Taylor is also the Director of the International Center for Everybody’s Child at Hofstra University which provides emergency support for teachers and children in the aftermath of catastrophic events, supports international educational projects, and maintains an international network of teachers, doctors, social workers and mental health professionals to provide support for teachers working with children in crisis. Her ethnographic research currently focuses on the impact of catastrophic events on the lives of children and the social response of the educational community to mass trauma. Her fieldwork includes research in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. She provided first response support in the Gulf Region in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One of her most recent publication "The Kate Middleton Elementary School: Portraits of Hope and Courage" is published by Scholastic provides support for teachers who are first responders following a catastrophic event. She can be reached via e-mail at taylor.d@att.net.

Abstract

Maya Thomas has a PhD in Psychology and works in the areas of policy development and strategy planning related to disability and rehabilitation, particularly community based approaches; Evaluation of disability programs, Capacity building and training of planners and managers of disability programs. She has 106 Indian and international publications and was an invited speaker at 28 international conferences. Dr. Thomas has undertaken 129 consulting assignments spread over 20 years in Asia, Africa and Europe, of which 29 assignments were on policy development and strategy planning, 46 assignments on capacity building and training of planners and managers, 38 assignments on evaluation of disability rehabilitation programmes, and 16 assignments were related to knowledge enhancing activities. She is the Editor of the Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal; an Honorary Research Fellow, University College London, Centre for International Child Health, Institute of Child Health, UK.; Strategic Advisor on Disability Issues, CORDAID, Netherlands; Member of the Editorial Committee for the World Disability Rehabilitation Report, WHO, Geneva; Member of the Management Board of Action for Disability, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K; and Member - South Asia, in the General Assembly of The Leprosy Mission International, UK. She is on the Editorial Boards of three international journals; Member of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychology and the Indian Psychiatric Society.

Michelle Tracchia, a member of the University of Massachusetts at Boston's Undergraduate Student Senate, Vice President of the Model United Nations Club, and Research Recruiter for the Honors magazine LUX, will be spending her 2008 summer months at the University of As-Syafi'iyah in Jakarta, Indonesia. Whilst there, she will be working with Dr. Tutty Alawiyah at her orphanage. Dr. Alawiyah is a former Minister for Women's Affairs in two previous governments in Indonesia and the Rector of the University of As-Syafi'iyah.

Michelle will be making a presentation at the November conference on her findings on how the children who were orphaned by the Asian tsunami in Aceh are being assisted to rebuild their lives.

Abstract

Tracie L. Washington is a very proud native New Orleanian, with deep roots in Louisiana. Tracie graduated in 1985 from Carleton College, and was the recipient of a Title IX Fellowship at Drake University, where in 1986 she was awarded a Master of Public Administration degree and elected to Pi Alpha Alpha. She moved to Austin, Texas and in 1989, Tracie received her juris doctor from the University of Texas School of Law.

For over sixteen years Washington has maintained a general civil practice concentrated in education law, civil rights, and labor and employment law, including both traditional labor management relations and counseling and litigation in connection with disputes between employers and individuals in the non-union setting. She has served as general counsel to the Austin, Texas transit system and to the New Orleans public school system.

Since 1989, Washington has authored numerous papers and traveled throughout the country speaking at seminars on important issues of employment law, including "Managing Leaves," "Tiptoeing through the ADA and Worker's Compensation Minefields," and "Diffusing Disaster: Prevention and Management of Violence in the Workplace." In addition, she has authored the "Employment Law Desk Reference for Financial Institutions."

Post Hurricane Katrina, Washington's practice has focused on protecting the civil rights of individuals affected by this national catastrophe. Since returning from Texas, where she and her son evacuated until December 2005, Tracie has been counsel in several cases involving the rights of New Orleans Katrina survivors, including Kirk vs. City of New Orleans and Ray Nagin, litigating the rights of all New Orleans home-owners to constitutionally guaranteed notice and opportunity to be heard prior to their houses being bulldozed; Powell vs. Quality Inn Maison St. Charles, litigating the rights of evacuees living in hotels funded by FEMA to adequate notice prior to eviction; Lott vs. Orleans Parish School Board, litigating the rights of returning New Orleans public school students to immediate re-enrollment and admission to publicly funded Orleans Parish Schools; McWaters vs. FEMA, intervention on behalf of Louisiana FEMA hotel residents, seeking a restraining order against FEMA from evicting Louisiana evacuees on February 13, 2006; ACORN et al. vs. Kathleen Blanco, Governor - State of Louisiana, litigating the voting rights of New Orleans evacuees and their right to equal access to the franchise as promised by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the U.S. Constitution; and Anderson vs. Jackson, suing on behalf of public housing residents fighting for their rights to return home. In addition, Washington has served as counsel to immigrant workers in the New Orleans area on advocating worker justice issues.

On March 13, 2006 Washington began service to the NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, as director of the Gulf Coast Advocacy Center. She is involved in a wide range of community activities, including the Junior League of New Orleans, Trinity Episcopal Church, the Carrollton Boosters, and the Omicron Nu Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority. She has one son, Jacob Matthew, a very precocious 13-year old future civil rights leader.

Abstract

Kathleen Whalen, LCSW, MEd is Psychosocial Program Manager for the Domestic Emergencies Unit of Save the Children. A thirty year veteran of New Orleans Public Schools, having been both a teacher and social worker in elementary, middle and high school as well as New Orleans Public School Liaison to Juvenile Court, Kathleen began her work with Save the Children as part of the Katrina Response Unit. She has a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of New Orleans and a Masters of Social Work from Tulane University.

Abstract

Richard Williams has been a child and adolescent psychiatrist for 33 years and a strategic leader and manager with responsibilities for developing, implementing or monitoring aspects of health services’ policy, design, delivery and governance for the last 17 years.

He is the Professor of Mental Health Strategy in the University of Glamorgan, Honorary Professor of Child and Adolescent Mental Health in the University of Central Lancashire, and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust. Richard Williams is also Scientific Adviser on Psychosocial and Mental Health and Disasters to the Department of Health in England and the Lead Officer of the Royal College of Psychiatrists for Disaster Management. He is Special Adviser on Child and Adolescent Mental Health to Welsh Assembly Government and chairs the Ethics Committee of Welsh Assembly Government’s Healthcare Standards Advisory Board.

His recent research and writing is in healthcare policy and strategy, service development, clinical governance, professionalism, and user and carer participation in service design, continuing professional education.

Richard Williams has had a special interest in disaster health and psychosocial care for more than 20 years and much of his current work is on the psychosocial impacts of trauma, terrorism and conflict. He is an Advanced Trauma Life Support Instructor for the Royal College of Surgeons of London, and a member of the Board of Examiners of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London for the Diploma in the Medical Care of Catastrophes. He is a member of the Department of Health’s Emergency Planning Clinical Leadership Advisory Group and advises the government in England on managing major incidents, psychosocial resilience, post-incident recovery, and models of post-disaster psychosocial and mental healthcare. He is also advising NATO’s Joint Medical Committee on psychosocial resilience and models of care for managing the psychosocial aspects of disasters. He is a member of the English government’s Committee on the Ethical Aspects of Pandemic Influenza, has been advising the Department of Health on developing its guidance on mental healthcare services during a pandemic, and is a member of the Pandemic Influenza Clinical and Operational Advice Group that is chaired by the Chief Medical Officer for England.

Abstract

Barbara Worley is an anthropologist (Ph.D. Columbia University) who has undertaken three research expeditions among Tuareg camel herders in the Saharan regions of Algeria and Niger. Her research has focused on pastoral economy, ritual, gender roles, and warfare in the Sahara. Her work has been funded by Fulbright-Hays, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Her disaster experience has been among Tuareg refugees affected by the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, and her ongoing research on the conflict and refugee situation in Niger.

She currently teaches in the Anthropology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Abstract

The Rev. Jonathan T. Wortmann is a minister, executive coach, and speaker on leadership and communication. He leads Pilgrim Congregational Church in
Suburban Boston, and a leadership coaching Firm, Muse Arts, LLC.

After graduate studies at Harvard University, Jon worked as a hospital chaplain, a leadership trainer and consultant to corporations, and a coordinator for volunteer service trips to communities including New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City. He has spoken and consulted on his proprietary Leadership Model, “The Moves,” with educational, non-profit, start-up, and Fortune 100 organizations. In addition, Jon serves as a supervisor at Harvard University, volunteers as an advisor to the Goddard NASA School Summer Enrichment Program and Builders Beyond Borders, and is a director for the Worcester Area Mission Society.

He lives with his wife in Vernon, Connecticut.