CIE Off Campus

Sue Tatten suetatten@hotmail.com

Sue writes recently - Greetings from Liberia! I've been here for a year now (after 5 years in Sudan) with UNDP leading the Rule of Law program initiatives. Quite a change from East Africa and many years there. (9-10)

Aukram Burton a ukram.burton@jefferson.kyschools.us

Educator and media artist, currently working as the Diversity and Multicultural Education Specialist in the Department of Diversity, Equity and Poverty Programs for the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, Kentucky. The Department offers professional development designed to assist classified and Aukram Burton certified staff in acquiring knowledge about culture and diversity. The focus is on preparing teachers to change how they view students and their cultures. To support the success of this effort, the department has implemented the Institute for Cultural Competence and Courageous Practice: Working Together for Inclusion, Equity, and Excellence.

Aukram's work as a media artist and producer has taken him around the globe where he has been involved in many educational and cultural exchanges. His work reflects his extensive travels throughout the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. He uses his skills as a photographer and filmmaker in developing curriculum units to promote an awareness of other cultures and their environmental experiences and traditions. One such project is the "Open-Air Marketplaces Around the World," a teaching unit introducing the important role that marketplaces play in human societies. (12-10)

Leah Tepelunde Kaira (M.Ed. 2003) lkaira@educ.umass.edu

Leah Kaira After returning home with her Master's degree from CIE, Leah worked at the Malawi National Examinations Board before entering the doctoral program at UMass in REMP - a program in the same department as CIE. She is one of three from the old Malawi project who have returned to UMass subsequently in a doctoral program, and the first to graduate. In July 2010, she successfully defended her dissertation entitled: Using Item Mapping to Evaluate Assessment Curriculum Alignment. She is now looking for work where she can apply the skills she has developed in her degree programs. [7-10]

Jane Benbow (Ed.D.1994) jbenbow@air.org

The American Institutes for Research (AIR) recently announced that Dr. Jane Benbow, an international education professional with extensive experience in the areas of international development, program development, and management, has been promoted to vice president and director of AIR’s International Development Division.

Benbow currently is a Managing Research Scientist with AIR, where she has been serving as Chief of Party of a large education reform project in Egypt funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In Egypt, she works closely with the Ministry of Education and oversees a staff of more than 250. [7-10]

Matthew Roehrig (M.Ed. 1974) mgroehrig@comcast.net

For years Matt has a been a fixture in the Pioneer Valley scene, playing lead roles in the annual Valley Light Opera Society's productions of Gilbert and Sullivan. This year he also took the lead role of Dr. Faustus in a production at the Renaissance Theater at UMass. Matt continues to teach school in Belchertown as well. [5-10]

Ellen Kornegay (Mulato) (Ed. D. 1983)

Ellen Kornegay Ellen writes: as of this week I am seconded to the Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with disabilities for a period of one year. It is quite a challenge ahead but I do look forward to it and with your continuing support I am sure something I will together with my colleagues advance the goals of that ministry. I look forward to this challenge. As many of you will recall, I was part of establishing the programmes in the Presidency. The programmes will now form part of the new ministry. My responsibility will be to assist to activate the ministry. [9-09]

Oliver P. Mhaiki (M.Ed 1986) opmhaiki@yahoo.com.uk

Fulgence Swai reports that Oliver Mhaiki has been appointed by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania in the position of being the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and Justice - shown here being sworn in. He was formerly the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. [4-09]

Sushan Acharya (Ed.D. 1999) sugyana@wlink.com.np

On May 7th, 2009 Sushan went to Aga Khan University - Institute for Educational Development in Karachi to participate/present in the South Asia Regional Dialogue on Quality Education.She presented a paper on Policy, Practice and Research Nexus in Education Quality -The case of language in education. [5-09]

Askar Mambetaliev (M.Ed. 2004) askarbek@gmail.com
Askarbek Mambetaliev
Askar returned to CIE for the last Tuesday meeting May 2009 and made a presentation on corruption. He outline a broader definition of the kinds of corruption, its causes, and its effects. He spoke of the importance of citizens willing to take the risk of exposing corruption and the importance to societies of having such people in their midst. Askar also spoke briefly about how he had created a CIE at Kyrgys State University, modelled after the CIE at UMass! [5-09]

Retna Burham (M.Ed 1980) hanum.nila85@gmail.com

CIE recently received its annual Holiday card from Retna. She writes that she is now fully retired. Her husband passed away and she now lives with her daughter, whose email address she can now use. She would love to hear from others from her era. [1-09]

Top of Page

Hilda Kokuhirwa Sinkonde (Ed.D. 1982) osodo@aol.com

I am in Tanzania for a while at least until June working on an HIV program under I-TECH (International Training and
Education Center on HIV) at the University of Washington Seattle. I will write you soon and tell you what I have been up to. No CIE folks yet. My best to all at the CIE. [1-09]

Tim Woolmer (Ed.D. 1975) tim.woolmer@virgin.net

Note from Anna Donovan. Our son was flying from Cairo to London and while on the plane he started chatting with a couple who had just vactioned in Egypt. Long story short -- it was Tim Woolmer and his wife! Tim was amazed at the CIE connection, etc., and wanted to be remembered to you both -- said that he remembers UMass-CIE with great fondness. [12-08]

Mishy Lesser (Ed.D. 1996) mishylesser@gmail.com

I went to Chile in February 2008 to conduct interviews with members of the family that hid me during the treacherous weeks following the September 11, 1973 coup d'etat. Before I left, an editor at PRI/BBC's "The World" read a short sketch I wrote about my Chile experience and decided my story would make a good radio documentary, so she loaned me a digital recorder to conduct interviews. The documentary was broadcast on September 11th on WGBH. You can stream the show whenever you want through your computer by going to PRI's The World, where they will feature a short introduction to my piece and (I'm told) photos of me (on the right - a picture of Mishy with Laura Allende in 1972). Look for the "Listen" icon and click there to hear the story. The radio piece is just a small slice of what I wrote in my Chile Blog, which can be found on my website with the entire story. [9-08]

Steve Grant (Ed.D. 1972) sgrantmail@verizon.net
Steve & Arthur Steve signed up for a "Paris through the Ages" tour led by Arthur Gillette in October, 2007. The two are pictured here on rue Mouffetard, tour no. 12 of 16 different tours Arthur has created. Steve's daughter Sylviane joined the party. She is studying for her masters at the Sorbonne. Steve earned his masters at the Sorbonne in 1964. [October 2007]

Jan Droegkamp (Ed.D. 1982) droegkamp@uis.edu
Margaret McLaughlin (Ed.D. 1983)

Jan and Margaret were together at a Peace Corps conference in Cambodia in early 2008 and Jan sent along this picture. Clearly they were enjoying their work! Jan is assistant Peace Corps Director in Albania now and Margaret is with Peace Corps Washington. [3-08]

Chikondi Maleta cmaleta1@yahoo.co.uk
Upon returning from his nondegree study at CIE, Chikondi joined the new Masters degree in planning at Chancellor's College. He is now in the Policy and Planning section of a newly reorganized Department of Education where he is currently working on the Joint Financing Arrangement and SWAp in collaboration with collegueas in the Ministry & Development Partners. He is also in the involved in the finalization of the National Education Sector Plan. His Master's topic is Financing of Public Primary Schools within Inadequate Resources: Policy agendas and alternatives. [January 2007]

Vicente Arredondo (Ed.D. 1982) varredondo47@prodigy.net.mx
I live in Cuernavaca city, nearby Mexico city, with my second wife. She works at the state public university, and I am a free consultant, since 2001, on matters such as formal education, local development, civil society empowerment, and ethic in business. As you see, many areas of interest. Click on the picture for an article on City Life by Vicente. [August 2006]

Top of Page

CIE Muskie Reunion
The US Embassy in Georgia and American Councils organized 2006 Regional Muskie Alumni Conference: “Building Democratic Societies and Market Economies in Eurasia ” on March 24-27, 2006 in Gudauri, Georgia. The conference topic was the political, economic and social concepts that are essential to the functioning of a democratic society. This was an exciting cross-cultural experience for Muskie alumni from Eurasia revolving around the ideas of democracy and market economies. Out of 36 invited participants, seven participants were UMass/Amherst alumni of whom five were CIE graduates so there was kind of UMass-CIE reunion. The Education and Social Issues panel was presented by the CIE alumni.

Suzi Kindervatter (Ed.D. 1978) skindervatter@interaction.org
Suzi is Director of Gender and Diversity at InterAction. She has led InterAction’s work since 1994 in expanding the capacity of InterAction members to integrate a gender perspective into their operations and programs and in promoting gender equity in donor and UN agencies. She says

This has been a year when a lot has come to fruition. I produced a CD ROM facilitator's training tool for our organizational Gender Audit methodology and directed a study in Africa on the impact of gender mainstreaming, which we've published.
She recently sent copies of these materials to CIE for the resource center. [December 2005]

Duong van Chu (Ed.D. 2004) (1944-2005)
Duong passed away on Nov 21, 2005 in Springfield MA. While at CIE, Duong combined academic work with participation in the CIRCLE program working on developing community leadership in Asian communities in the Pioneer Valley. Mr. Chu, a resident of Springfield worked for a number of years as a community outreach health educator for local Asian communities and was affiliated with the Mass Dept of Public Health. He is survived by his wife and three children. (11/05)

James Key (M.Ed. 1979) jameskey@post.harvard.edu
James recently visited CIE. He recently spent more than a year in Cuenca Spain where he had been awarded a scholarship to study at the International Museum of Electrography. James is a free-lance artist who now works solely in digital images like the small one shown here. His work is often displayed in his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico and he has been featured in a number of local and international art shows and cultural events. (7/05)

Deborah Golub (Ed.D. 1979)
Deborah published an article on Social Action Art Therapy in the Spring 2005 issue of Art Therapy, the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. In the article she draws upon her work at CIE as a framework to reflect on three examples of her approach to art therapy in Brazil, China and Denmark. The cover of that issue is picture of one of a series of miniature collages that Deborah had constructed. The cover collage is entitled “Gli Abitanti” (The Dwellers). (6/05)

Babacar Mboup (M. Ed. 1997) mboup@educ.umass.edu
Babacar was at the first CIE Tuesday meeting of Spring 05. He announced that he was defending his dissertation in the French Department the same day. His dissertation is titled: Negro African Theatre: Beyond traditional boundries, development and new challenges. His defense was ten years to the day from when he arrived at CIE to begin his master's program! He is now an assistant professor of French at Valdosta State University in Georgia where he is also active in outreach, working with local churches to bring a more accurate understanding of Islam to the local community particularly in light of current world affairs.(1/05)

Kaki Rusmore (M.Ed. 1995) krusmore@cruzio.com
Kaki is currently a Program Officer for management assistance with the Community Foundation of Monterey County in California. She runs workshops on Organizational Development, manages a small library and provides informal consulting on OD issues. A highlight this year was a neighborhood leadership institute working with 19 grassroots organizations over a period of six months. Next year she hopes to do a longer institute on social entrepreneurship. (December 2004)

Doc Coster (M.Ed. 1989) coster85@link.net
In September I made the decision to leave CARE USA and CARE Egypt in order for me and my family to stay on here in Cairo. I've taken a position with an education project and am working with World Education. My wife, Ann, is the elementary librarian at the international school that our 3 children attend. Life is good here and so we've decided to stay on for a spell. (October 2004)

Sherry Russell (M.Ed. 1999) srussell@np.peacecorps.gov
Sherry retuned to CIE from Nepal in July 2004 to defend her dissertation which deals with a US-based participatory adult education research project. She will be returning to Kathmandu where she is now the Program and Training Officer for Peace Corps, where she has two more years. She, her partner Frances, and their one lovely Pug are doing well. Frances is doing interesting teacher training work and we're both still enjoying Nepal despite the current stresses. (7/04)

Bérengère de Negri (Ed. D. 1988) bdenegri@aed.org
Bérengère has recently co-authored a publication entitled Making Sense of Focus Group Findings: A Systematic Participatory Analysis Approach.The manual provides practical guidance for researchers and program managers in low resource settings who are faced with the difficult task of analyzing focus group data. The book contains both a review of concepts and a case study from Zambia that allows readers to practice their skills with specific exercises. The full text of the manual (http://www.aed.org/publications/Making%20Sense_final.pdf) is available online. (4/04)

Jan Droegkamp (Ed. D. 1982) jdroe1@uis.edu
Edgardo Rothkegel & Jan Droegkamp Jan sent this picture of herself and Edgardo Rothkegel from the 25th reunion of CHP International, a training organization specializing in training volunteers for Peace Corps. She has worked for them periodically, but is on the faculty at University of Illinois in Springfield. Edgardo works for Peace Corps in Paraguay. Jan is going to Botswana on sabbatical from October to December of 2003 where she will be a visiting professor at the University of Botswana. While there she will live in the house of Mercy Montsi - who will be at Stanford also on Sabbatical! (10/03)

Elizabeth Psychas (M.Ed. 1988)
We regret to announce the passing of Elizabeth Psychas on July 2nd at the age of 67. She is survived by her husband George Psychas whom she met while they were both teaching in Tanzania. George received his doctorate from the School of Education at UMass with George Urch as his chair. After Liz got her degree at CIE she and her husband lived and worked in Westfield, Massachusetts.

Becky Bunnell (M.Ed 1989) rbunnell@cdc.gov
DRE dropped in on Becky recently at her office in CDC in Entebbe, Uganda where she is now the Associate Director for Science and Research. She has been in contact with Hema Abeygunawardena who she is bringing to Uganda to do some training in use of a computer-based program for analyzing qualitative research data. (3/03)

Renuka Pillay rpillay@imul.com
Seen here recently in a fashionable lunch spot in Kampala, Uganda - Renuka continues to be very busy working with USAID on supporting and maintaining the Teacher Development and Management System (TDMS) that CIE had a big part in creating in Uganda. She vows that she will be returning to CIE soon to finish her dissertation. (3/03)

Judy Hofer (M.Ed.) judy@nmcl.org
I just started a new job January 1st as the ABE Professional Development Coordinator for the state of NM. It's a wonderful position for me as the need is enormous and teachers are hungry to learn. I think of David Kinsey often in my position and miss him dearly. She has recently completed a sourcebook Take on the Challenge. It's about the work that adult basiceducation programs in New England did to address the impacts of violence on women's learning. (3/03)

Tamara Mikadze (M.Ed. 2000) tm625@nyu.edu
Tamar is from the Republic of Georgia. She received her M. Ed. from the Center in May, 2000. After two years working in Georgia, she has now returned to the US where she is studying for a Master's in Public Administration at NYU. Tamara promises to come visit us soon especially now that we have so many Muskies at CIE! (12/02)

Natalia Oleshko (M.Ed. 2001)
A Christmas card from Natalia says she is still in Cherkassy, Ukraine, but will soon be moving to Kiev to take up a position with USAID in the department of economic growth. (12/02)

Chuck Harns (Ed. D. 1992) charns@iom.int
We recently received a job notice with the International Organization for Migration (http://www.iom.ch/) in Geneva courtesy of Chuck. He is currently the Head of their Technical Cooperation for Migration Service. (9/02)

Harold Weaver (Ed.D. 1985) weaverhal@yahoo.com
I work at W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University and am currently busy curating and preparing for The ChinaFilm Project 2002, our annual celebration of Chinese films at the Harvard Film Archive, 15-17 and 22-24 November 2002. In the past few years I have interviewed major Chinese filmmakers and have collected over 300 videos of feature films from Greater China for education and research in the U.S. After the festival, I expect to accept the visiting professorship I've been offered at a Taiwanese university for the coming semester (10/02).

Karen Elam (M.Ed. 1997) talanga91@hotmail.com
Karen writes: Yesterday was my first day as the new Director of Planning and Development for AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. It's a great organization: Jewish college grads in their 20's spend a year working at anti-poverty organizations in NYC and, soon, in Washington, D.C. I will be working with the board and staff on expanding the program to other cities and will be doing fundraising. I'm very excited at the opportunity. (7/02)

Lilian Goytia-Marin (M.Ed. 84) - lgoytia@entelnet.bo or causavih@yahoo.com
From La Paz, Bolivia - Lilian says that she loves reading the news on our CIE website. Also she wanted information about how to order CIE shirts, bags, etc. She especially would like email addresses of CIE people such as Nancy Maklan, Michael Basile, Joan Dixon, Deborah Golub, Juan Aulestia, Vicente Arredondo and Nanette Brey. (6/02)