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The Decade of the 1970s [Updated April 13, 2013 ] |
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Raphael Njoku (M.Ed. 1979; Ed.D. 1981) ralphnjoku@yahoo.com
Each day of my life, I continue to live with the pleasant memories of having the very best of education at UMass and being a part of the CIE family.
On my return to Nigeria, I served in the state schools system of Imo State in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, as a high school principal. In 1998, I went private and set up a Secondary School – City High School, Owerri - in Imo State as an institution where youth, apart from attaining academic and moral excellence, can appreciate and uphold democratic values. The school is already making an impact among the rural population around and has graduated students who have ventured into different meaningful areas of human endeavor including teaching, social sciences and health. We have now expanded to accommodate Nursery and Primary sections which are equally doing very well.
It is a joy to put into practice, the skills that I acquired in Educational Management at UMass. I will be turning 79 on June 22, 2013 and am still very active working on my school project and always feeling fulfilled and proud to have passed through CIE/UMass. Like any school in its teething period, there are obvious problems, including need for library books, science equipment, computers and other teaching aids. Alumni wishing to assist African Children through this project should contact me at the email above or by Phone at +2348035408958. [3-13]
Gordon Schimmel (Ed.D. 1974) wrightflight@gmail.com
A Schimmel Update from Old Cape Cod - Although I retired from the superintendent’s position and a career in public education four years ago, I am fortunate in having an opportunity to remain active as an education development consultant to the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
The position enables me to help the Academy obtain grants from NASA and the Alcoa Foundation to create hands-on activities featuring simple model aircraft to teach standards-based science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in public school classrooms. Before taking on the role of consultant, I chaired the Academy’s Education Committee for fourteen years and currently serve as Chair of its scholarship Committee.
Working with the Academy has taken me to many exciting venues – as least for people who are as goofy as I am about aviation in all of its forms. For example, over the years I have had the opportunity to meet personal heroes like John Glenn and Scott Crossfield, and travel to places like Edwards Air Force Base where Chuck Yeager broke the sound
barrier. To mark my visit to the Dryden NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards, I got to “fly” first class in engine #2, (see photo), on one of the 747s used to transport Space Shuttles to Florida when they were forced to land in California. As a friend noted, “I know what a ten-pound Canada goose can do to one of those things – I can’t imagine the effect you would have on it!”
In addition to having great fun, providing me with lots of travel and a little “mad money,” the work has kept me active in the international arena with presentations in Scotland, Ireland and, most recently, Serbia. Currently I serve First Vice President of the Education Commission, for the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which meets once a year in Lausanne, giving me an opportunity to learn how aerospace educators from other countries use aviation to inspire and motivate young people. In short, I have more work than I need at the moment, but it works better for me than other retirement pastimes such as fishing, golf or crossword puzzles.
I am most fortunate to have had an interesting career in public education that included international education through student and teacher exchange programs our school district arranged with Chile, the Ukraine, Thailand, Germany and China. I am grateful for the education and experience that the Center, the faculty and fellow students provided for me during those early years - some of which were actually quite fun! Merci, mille fois, aux Dwight, les deux Davids, George et tout le monde aux Centre d’Education Internationale! [6-12]
Beverly Lindsay (Ed.D. 1976) lindsaybeverly@yahoo.com
Beverly Lindsay, a professor and senior scientist of higher education and international policy studies at Penn State, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Lindsay was elected a Fellow in January 2012 for her distinguished contributions to enhancing international scientific education, leadership, and scholarship, particularly as a global leader in efforts to promote international understanding through curricular and policy changes. [January 2012]
Beverly Lindsay was the 2010-11 Invited Visiting Professor at The Institute of Education, University of London and the Inaugural University Fellow and Professor at Dillard University, New Orleans. In both sabbatical sites, she is involved with the research and policy project entitled, "University Engagement in Domestic and International Venues." Her co-authored/edited book, Universities and Global Diversity, will be published simultaneously in London and New York by Routledge in January 2011 [December 2010]
Beverly Lindsay, Executive Fellow at the Institute of Multi-Track Diplomacy
in Rosslyn, 
Virginia and
Professor and Senior Scientist at Penn State University was the recipient
of a second Senior Fulbright Specialist grant. Her grant was awarded to
design and implement executive and faculty leadership development, foster
peace and conflict resolution, and facilitate
academic and strategic planning. She was affiliated with the Institute
of Peace,Leadership, and Governance and Africa University in Mutare,Zimbabwe
in late summer and fall 2003. The Institute of Peace, Leadership, and
Governance engages in peace and conflict
resolution for legislators, non-government organization officials, and
private sector leaders from Southern Africa. Africa University is the
second oldest university in Zimbabwe and enrolls students from throughout
the African continent in undergraduate and graduate programs. [February 2004]
David J. Rosen (Ed. D. 1974) djrosen123@gmail.com
David has worked in alternative education, out-of-school youth education, adult literacy and nonformal education, all of which he says were themes of his studies at UMass. In the early 1980s, following his work as founder and first director of a publicly-funded alternative high school in Waltham, Massachusetts, he was the Director of Education at Boston's Jobs for Youth, now JFY Networks. He was for 15 years, until 2003, the Director of the Adult Literacy Resource Institute at UMass Boston.
Now an independent consultant, David is the President of Newsome Associates. He has worked in Northern 
Cyprus with an Education Development Center (EDC)-sponsored public schools vocational education project, and in South Africa and Haiti on Youth Build International-sponsored integrated curriculum projects. He has recently worked with EDC on projects in Haiti, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. He currently works with Youth Build International and EDC on projects in Liberia and Haiti.
Recent domestic work includes: the Learner Web - a U.S. national adult learner and college student learning support system developed as a response to the Longitudinal Study for Adult Learning (LSAL); the Media Library of Teaching Skills - a web library of free, short, adult education and English language learning classroom and tutoring videos design for teacher professional development; and he founded and co-manages a 1400 page wiki on Adult Literacy Education. In addition, he is an advisor to McDonald's on its English under the Arches and other employee and community basic education programs.
In October 2011, I had a great visit in Seattle with CIE colleague and friend, Lillian Baer, whom I haven't seen in perhaps 20 years. Seattle is a terrific town, and Lillian is a fabulous host and tour guide. On November 11th I made a presentation and led a discussion at a CIE Tuesday meeting on Using mobile phones and tablets for learning in poor and developing countries, and in the U.S.
David is a musician, too. With former CIE Teacher Corps Project member, Owen Hartford, in 1975 he founded the Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society. Still going strong, this six-member Celtic, maritime, American colonial and New England music folk band performs regularly in New England and has performed twice in Ireland. [January 2012]
John Hatch (Ed. D. 1974) jdhatch3@aya.yale.edu
I etired at end of February 2010 and immediately got swept up in various volunteer activities/committees/boards here at Asbury, a CCRC, caring for a garden and once again chairing the Westmoreland Volunteer Corps. After a visit to the Bay Area for family graduations and trip up to Crater Lake/Mt. Shasta and in to Oregon for Bend, Eugene (I went to 3rd grade there), Portland and back down the coast we returned to a major left ankle operation for Marolyn. When she was mobile enough to care for me, I had a similar operation for torn tendon in my left ankle in late Sept., except mine was more complex and I took longer to get back on my feet so no major trips except to see family. Spent the summer and early fall on the garden, preparing for the Peace Corps 50th/Tanzania's 50th/Friends of Tanzania's 25th and enjoying them when they happened (we had 225 for the F.O.T. dinner!). We have started an "ethnic lunch" group (12-20) that meets monthly at various restaurants (including Southern Fried) that the area is filled with, and just recently have joined a ROMEO lunch group (Retired Old Men Eating Out) with a core membership of former AED employees. Over the next year Marolyn and I expect to finally be able get into our kayaks, attend the Rose Parade in Pasadena and visit the Getty and La Brea Tar Pits, spend two April weeks in/around the Big Bend in SW Texas looking at stars (McDonald Observatory)/flowers/scenery, and finally get to Andalusia to visit Moorish history in Sept/Oct.
Love to see anyone passing by 596 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877 (301) 216-4875 [October 2011]
Wendy Schaerer (M. Ed. 1972) wendyschaerer@msn.com
As is probably the case with many CIE members, I've had the opportunity to work with some very talented "undocumented" kids during my career and strongly support The Dream Act. One of the more interesting things I did over the years was some lobbying on behalf of
international students as part of a professional association representing international schools. As a former political science student, it was both enjoyable and enlightening.As a single parent, most of my activities were closer to home. For example, I was a member of the state-mandated "site councils" of my daughter's
schools (elementary thru high school), dealing with a variety of issues, and many years ago on the board of her day care center.
Before moving to N.Y. State and becoming a parent, I helped set up a shelter for abused women in N.J. and was an officer of the state coalition of organizations addressing domestic violence.
It's hard to believe it's been two years since I retired from Cornell where I was involved, at different times, with admission, recruitment and advising of international students. I've been singing, on the board & chairing a committee at the local Unitarian Church, trying to keep fit & otherwise tending to the parts of my life that were neglected while I was working.
I'm also part of a local RPCV group & we just got together with the newest crop of local recruits. Training - and countries of destination -seem to have changed quite a bit since I entered in 1968! I tend not to share too much of my own experience and perspective, not wanting
to detract from their enthusiasm. (I served in Brazil where the program was terminated. For those interested, there is a good summary of P.C. in Brazil and reasons it closed that can be accessed from the P.C. 50th Anniversary site.) On the other hand, I have maintained close personal ties there and have returned several times for both professional and personal activities since completing Peace Corps in 1970.My daughter, whom I adopted in Brazil as an infant, turns 26 soon and, having completed a Bachelor’s degree, is doing hiring and marketing for a firm selling a health-drink in Chicago. She and my brother have helped me into the Facebook age, as it's the only way I hear from her and my niece and nephews!
I enjoy checking out the CIE website from time to time and send very best wishes from Ithaca. [9-11]
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Jane Vella (Ed.
D. 1979) jane@globalearning.com |
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After finishing her studies at CIE, Jane Vella taught at North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina before founding the Jubilee Popular Education Center, now Jim Hoxeng (1970s)
Update: After 36 years with USAID Jim has retired. His comment was:
I came in on Valentines day in 1975, and when HR told me to pick April fools day (2011)as my departure date, it seemed somehow fitting.
Jim says he will be off the electronic grid with no computer at home, but rumor has it that he still has a telephone by which he could be reached. [4-11]
Jim continues his work at USAID, where he has been for over 30 years, in support of the Education Office's activities, provides liaison support to the Latin America/Caribbean Office, and to non-formal education and literacy efforts. Until recently he was CTO for the BEPS project which was managed by Don Graybill. His kids are out on their own with established significant others, and daughter Megan keeps him fit with weekly "power walks." [11-06]
Jeanne Moulton (Ed.D. 1977) JeanneM@caii.com
Jeanne Moulton is a Principal International Technical Advisor in the International Development Division of the Education Development Center. She began work at EDC in November 2010, joining Steve Anzalone from CIE. Jeanne has many years of experience in helping improve education in developing countries. She has worked in the Asia, Near East, Eastern Europe and Africa regions, particularly in basic education. Her current interests is work in fragile states and in private school networks. In recent years she has worked with Renuka Pillay in Uganda and with Margaret McLaughlin who is now with the Foreign Service Institute. [Janaury 2011]
Kla Somtrakool (Ed.D. 1980) klasomtr@gmail.com
Recently I was invited by the NFE Department of Laos and Unesco sent me to work on the NFE curriculum in Vientiane for almost two weeks. [December, 2010]
Kla writes after a long silence about what he has been up to these many years.
[I have been out of touch] because of my duty in working with the Thai government: as a head of the establishment of Lifelong Learning Centers through out the country, Director of National Science Center for Education, Deputy of Nonformal Education Department,Advisor for the Ministry of Education, Director General of Religious Affairs Department and the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture. And now, I have been already retired from the government work for 5 years. But am still working as an Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, a lecturer for PhD. students in Cultural Science of many state universities and others (also as a fruit gardener).
After I opened the CIE website, it seemed to me that I had forgotten a window of life which I had very deep concerned and very strongly influenced my life. My past experiences, I had a lot of benefits from what I learned from the CIE. And when I found my past friend's (comrade's) stories, I feel I have many long lost friends. I already copied all of their e-mail addresses and will try to contact them very soon.....So many thanks you for sending me the mail and I will try to keep the CIE window open all the time. [September 2010]
Adeye M. Befecadu (M.Ed. 1973) befecaduadeyem@yahoo.com
Adeye visit CIE in June 2010 where she sparked a reunion of the old Ethiopian network at CIE - Ron Bell, Ash Hartwell and David Schimmel (See picture). She was accompanied by her daughter who had just gotten her Ph.D. in astro-physics. Below is a part of her story. For the longer version with her reflections on her experience click here.
I returned home to Ethiopia after 3 years in the US in 1974 and contrary to everyone’s expectation was immediately employed by the Ministry of Education as a secondary school teacher in Hossana, a small town around 200 kms south of Addis Ababa. I then spent five years at the Mass Media Agency in the MoE. After that I was promoted to the planning section of the MoE where I spent an additional 6 years. Finally after 18 years, with the change in government, I left the government and joined the private sector, working first for UNDP and then SIDA.
I retired from the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency of the Government of Sweden based in their embassy in Addis in March 2009. I was there for 14 years as a Senior Programme Officer for the education, health/HIV/AIDS and a big support to the Civil Society sector in Ethiopia. I loved and enjoyed all my years there. I took some time off to laze around but my colleagues wouldn't let me - so I did some freelancing for a small NGO dealing with children and community development. They asked me to develop a' learning strategy' for their organization. It was (as they say 'kind of Greek to me') as learning I thought was all that one did in school. To my astonishment there is a new school of thought that focuses on learning as a tool to look into the operation and improvement of an organization. It is mostly applied to businesses to improve profitability but some organizations in the UK are applying it to civil society organizations.
Anyway, it's been an experience and’learning’ for me as well. I did that for around 10 months. Now I'm done with that and taking it easy and 'teaching' myself on how 'to be retired'. Not for too long though as I go back home at the end of July and will see what else there is for me to do. [June 2010]
Dr. Ramoshebi Ishmael Maboee Moletsane (Ed.D. 1977) molapos@continentaloutdoor.com
Dr. R. I. M Moletsane comesfrom Lesotho where he is now a retired professor of Education. Since retiring he has been active in the area of rural and sustainable development. Prior to coming to CIE, Dr. Moletsane was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the 
University of Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland- the predecessor of the National University of Lesotho (NUL). He later served as Professor of Education at the University of Transkei and at the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the North.
During 1997 - 2000, Dr. Moletsane served as the Vice-Chancellor of NUL. As Vice-Chancellor, he was credited with introducing a range of transformative strategies on the campus. His achievements at NUL during that period included the merging of the Faculty of Agriculture with the Maseru College of Agriculture, the Development of the Faculty of Health Science, the transformation of Faculty of Science into Science and Technology, and the Establishment of Academic Development Centre. He also focused on improving office space for lecturers, and he acquired computers for the University as well as land for a sports complex.
Following his tenure at NUL, Dr. Moletsane continued his leadership role in education. During 2001 – 2004, he served as Director of National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS), and in 2004 he became the first Director General of the new Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and Management (LIPAM). In 2002 he was honored as a Desmond Tutu Fellow for his work with solar energy for remote areas.
More recently Dr. Moletsane has worked in the area of community development in Taung. His work included working with nurses to promote health facilities, organizing educational health campaigns, and working with miners to construct a secondary school. He has also promoted land management and soil conservation, water management, and sports in Taung. As a current volunteer with Rural Communities of Lesotho, Dr. Molestane focuses on Women's Empowerment, Democracy and Sustainable Rural Development. [March 10]
Patricio Barriga (M. Ed. 1974) patriciobarriga2009@yahoo.com
Living in Honduras, one of the original banana republics, I have managed to survive (with some integrity) closely related or within these kleptocratic states as a consultant in the areas of basic education, training, perma-culture (sustained agriculture), and health education. I have witnessed the Latin American public sector’s deterioration during the last years - nevertheless, I strongly feel that social marketing could help promote awareness among decision-makers for them to get interested in the less privileged and in issues like global warming and the human 
footprint. I continue to be irreverent as in the seventies, and I think I have not sold out my soul yet, but my vocabulary has softened up a bit.
Using my still-rustic English, as you can see, I try to explain what happened in Honduras and I claim, unlike CNN’s account, that it was a constitutional transition, but I think socialism, or at least a market economy with social concern, will have to replace the existing paradigm for the Western hemisphere to survive as a semi-cohesive group of nations. (The deposed president claims to be a XXI century socialist). Events like the one in Honduras may be recurrent if societies do not invest in literacy and education for all… Poverty (and illiteracy) in countries like Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico and Nicaragua, among others, are the breeding ground for social unrest…
I welcome all friends to visit Honduras … yes, I think we are a few years behind, which is a pity, but at the same time for the distracted observer it has charm and relevance. [November 09]
I was embarrassed to see how long it had been since I updated my details here. In the past 8 ½ years I’ve changed employers, modified my professional focus, and – most recently – become a grandfather twice. But one still point in this turning world remains South Africa, home base for Deb and myself.
How did I get here? Well, after leaving the School of Education in 1973 I spent a couple of years in the Chicago area working on Bahá'í teaching and youth programs, then moved to Eastern Ontario to work for five years as the instructional systems specialist at a technical community college. In 1980 I finally accomplished my long-standing objective to work in Africa, beginning with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) as Chief of Party for a five-year USAID project in Kenya that developed a radio-based methodology for teaching English to children in rural primary schools (a system now being used throughout the continent). I moved to Southern Africa in 1985, where I've managed basic education reform projects in Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia.
One of my main interests continues to be the potential of information and communications technologies to meet the challenge of providing quality education for all Africans. This helped guide our 1996 decision for Deb and myself to settle permanently in South Africa, where I took a detour into the world of dot-com entrepreneurship. I helped establish Cyberschool Africa, an innovative Web-based revision service for disadvantaged high-school students that operated until going the way of most dot-coms (i.e., out of business!) in 2000. At that point I moved 
back into the donor-funded development arena. I rejoined AED to establish their regional office in Pretoria and work on their USAID basic-education projects in South Africa and Ethiopia.
In 2004 I joined the International Development Division at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), for which I had worked in Swaziland and Namibia under a previous incarnation (the Institute for International Research, IIR). From a new AIR office, also in the Pretoria area, I managed a four-year project on child labor and education that the US Department of Labor funded. Then I took up my latest, and perhaps most exciting, professional challenge: planning and implementing a three-year effort supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for developing an innovative system, using radio and mobile phones, to deliver impact-driven agricultural extension services to (and from) small farmers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Our ten-year vision is to improve the productivity and livelihoods of 80 per cent of this population, so vital to the continent’s future and so ubiquitous among its population.[6-09]
Retnaningsih Burham (M.Ed. 1980) hanum.nila85@gmail.com
After a long interval during which CIE received regular Holiday cards from Retna, but didn’t have email contact, she is now connected and has sent this recent update on the state of NFE and the activities of some of her cohort who were at the Center in the 1970s.
Here is some information about the progress of NFE in Indonesia. Up to now there is only one state educational university (IKIP Bandung) in West Java, which offered NFE Masters and doctoral degree programs. Our friends Djudju Sudjana, Endang Sumantri, Sutaryat, arranged that program in Bandung. Syahbudin Harahap passed away not long after he finished his studies at UMass
Since year 2007, Faculty of Education at Jakarta State University (UNJ – formerly IKIP Jakarta) had planned to open UNE program for master degree entering the new academic year 2009-2010. We hope Center for International Education can give us support in new ideas, suggestion and innovation or activities to complete the curriculum according the progress of science in this field I know you should be very busy, but I appreciate your help toward the success of this program.
Thank you very much, waiting something from you. [2/09]
Earlier Retna Burham recently wrote from Jakarta, Indonesia. She was happy to see the pictures and descriptions of folks she knew at CIE in the newsletter, including Anna Donovan, June Bourbeau and John Comings. Jaya Gajanayake was her room-mate at UMass.
In the 27 years since she left Amherst, she’s consulted for UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank, and USAID, among others. Retna is now retired but still advises students during the thesis/dissertation process at the State University of Jakarta, and is still writing environmental education texts for Indonesian schools. She has also written books about methodology and evaluation techniques in non-formal education, guides for tutors and facilitators, and building objectives and needs assessments.
In the past few years she has seen Nanette Brey in Jakarta, Jan Droegkamp in Bali, Kathleen Cash in Medan, and Daniel Moulton in Jakarta, where they both worked for a World Bank basic education project from 2004-2006.
My Indonesian colleagues from CIE UMass group (10) are mostly retired but some of them are working at private universities. It’s still hard to change the participative learning system from the traditional one in Indonesia. There are many aspects in education that must be control and developed by the government. We are discussing about spiritual quotient, Indigenous children and also Millennium Development Goals. [7-07]
Charles L. Jenkins (Ed.D. 1978) Charles.L.Jenkins@ssa.gov
For CIE's 40th, Charlie reflected back on his active career. For other aspects of his career before he became an educator, you may find the recent article at MassLive blog of interest.
Life continues to present interesting challenges! Like my CIE colleagues my professional career has focused on making a difference. We know that educational development continues to be a viable force for young people and adults alike. As an educator, achieving this goal and deciding which direction to take is the challenge. My successes are based on analyzing, exploring, measuring, planning, and the ability to form linkages by reaching out, learning from others and sharing information.
My experiences involve working in 17 Asian countries, representing the U.S. State Department over a three year period. Lecturing, conducting clinics for Asian Physical Education teachers and teaching coaches in track & field techniques were some of my responsibilities during this time frame.
I have worked for thirty five years for the federal government. This included assignment with Peace Corps’on the Philippines desk and as an Associate Director in Indonesia and Thailand.
I also enjoyed employment with the U.S. Office of Education, in the areas of Higher and Elementary Education, Adult and Continuing Education, and State and Local Programs. All to promote the cause of continuing reform in education.
In the Office of Economic Opportunity I directed the Office of Research and Evaluation/Job Corps. I was responsible for conducting evaluations of elements of Job Corps systems, which included Job Corps plans, policy changes, and administrative actions. In 1980, I was assigned to the White House in an advisory capacity, on the President’s 1980 Olympic boycott.
Presently, I am working in the Social Security Administration’s Office of Communications, providing outreach to inform the American public on Social Security programs and practices. This involves work with community groups, colleges, and universities, religious organizations, and local government entities.
As I write these few paragraphs, I began to feel that I have been working forever. Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful journey. [8-08]
Tim Woolmer (Ed.D. 1975) tim.woolmer@virgin.net
Tim has pursued two careers, one as educator and one as psychotherapist, and
ended up as a manager in both.
He spent 5 years in the north west of Pakistan, as Principal of Edwardes
College in Peshawar, and then returned to what is now Roehampton University
in London. From 1991until retirement 11 years later he was National Director
of The Westminster Pastoral Foundation, a counselling and psychotherapy
charity. Since then he has been a part-time director of the West London
Mental Health NHS Trust, and a director of Richmond Adult and Community
College.His current passions are golf, photography and chess.
He is married to Bernadette, who is a psychotherapist They have 3
children who have graduated but not yet left home....which is in Kew. [12-08]
Henry Holmes (Ed. D. 1974) hcholmes@bkk3.loxinfo.co.th
Hank
has spent the past 25 years or so in Thailand where he has pursued
a career in teaching as well as founding and becoming the managing
director of Cross-Cultural Management Co. Ltd. The firm has developed a series of focused training courses to assist
expatriates working in Thailand to be more effective in communicating
and working with Thai colleagues. To facilitate that goal he co-authored
a book entitled: Working with the Thais: A Guide to Managing
in Thailand. The book is intended for both newcomers and seasoned
foreigners in Thailand. It provides useful steps to deepen your understanding,
respect, and abilities to forge lively cooperation and teamwork between
expatriates and Thais. (We have recently used parts of the book in
a course here at CIE
Hank wrote recently on changes in his life:
Although I retired last year, at age 72, our company (Cross-Cultural Management Company, Ltd.) continues to thrive. (They seem to do better without the Old Man...) The company has several faithful clients, like Michelin, Citibank, three or four Thai companies, and some
UN organizations. We still run cross-cultural training courses, of which an increasing number are for Thais and Japanese (rather than Westerners) who have to work together. Examples are Toyota and Daikin. Believe me, there are plenty of juicy differences between these two Asian cultures. Apart from our long-standing cross-cultural courses, we have moved into the more general areas of Leadership and Team-Building, using very unusual and stimulating techniques, I must say.
Between 2004 and 2006, I ran a series of articles about cross-cultural managers (problems and solutions) in Thailand's newspaper, The Nation. There were about 60 of these. In November of this year, we produced a book -- in the Thai language -- called, How to Work Internationally: Thais and Non-Thais Understand Each Other at Work. The 39 cases involve Westerners, Thais, and Japanese.
Our earlier book, in English) came out in 1995: Working with the Thais. This one is still going strong, in its 9th printing. Some of its cases are used at the Harvard Business School. If you don't have a copy at CIE, let me know and I'll send one.
I'm living most of the year in the Bay Area of San Francisco. I have tried some one-to-one tutoring. Good fun. There are many "retirement homes" out here, and I play the piano and guitar for them quite frequently. Also playing for a couple of USTA tennis leagues for fellow creepers, over 60. We are slow but crafty. [12-08]
Arthur Gillette
(Ed.D. 1976) Armedv@aol.com
After 25 plus years of service to Unesco, Arthur
retired from his last position as Director of Youth and Sports Activities
in April 1998. He has since enthusiastically pursued a diverse agenda
of activities, some of his recent ones are chronicled below.
* My note on involving marginalized people (handicapped, the very young, the oldies, etc.) in volunteering is summarized here.
* Consultancies have included a)helping run a regional youth policy workshop for Central and Eastern Africa at Addis Ababa, b) helping formulate a national youth policy in Rwanda, c) working up a cultural tourism policy for the Vrancea Judetul (province) in Eastern Romania, d)running an in-service training course for teachers of English at a language school an Nanning (Guangxi Province, China), e) helping "animate" a Middle East and North Africa Unicef workshop (Rabat) on participatory research with young people, and f)keynote talks to international conferences on the younger generation, NFE., tourism and other subjects in Thailand, Indonesia, Chile and Croatia.
* My guiding of Paris historical/cultural strolls continues unabated, and can be sampled in highly concentrated form (lots less talk than when really on the hoof) here. Scroll down the homepage until "Histoire de Paris" then pick your poison ;-)
*I write regularly for the quarterly newsletter called France on Your Own - once there, scroll way down until "Free Access". [Or see here.]
*My first book - One Million Volunteers - The Story of Volunteer Youth Service - is also available on-line here, as is a later opus minor, Ticket to Ride - Youth and Literacy, here.
* My son's folk/blues group is booming - check it out for giggles and samples! [12-08]
Arlen Etling (Ed. D. 1975) aetling@unl.edu
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, —
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few. (from Emily Dickinson)
A farm boy from Kansas; agricultural education at Kansas State; taught high school social studies in Bolivia; focused on nonformal education and curriculum development at C.I.E. Taught extension education courses at the University of Arizona and coordinated training programs for Cooperative Extension then moved to Northeast Arizona in a community development specialist position nine years. Taught extension education (NFE) methods and program planning courses at Penn State and coordinated 4-H international programs for 10 years. Fulbright at University of Monterrey in leadership for community development led to a book Liderazgo Efectivo (see photo). Returned to the prairie, University of Nebraska, to teach graduate courses in extension education and coordinate 4-H curriculum development. Promoted to Director of the International Programs Division, College of Agriculture, then Associate Director of University International Affairs. Completed Senior Fulbright Specialist program in leadership for university outreach at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Now coordinator of international studies including study abroad initiatives for the Ag College.
CIE was important to me because it gave me a working definition and diverse case studies in NFE, a theoretical understanding and practical experience in curriculum development, empower- ment to be creative even in conservative academic environments, applications for educational evaluation, a refined world view, courage to take on professional challenges, and a willingness to look “outside the box.” CIE has been disappointing to me in that I have not been able to access its rich network of human resources as much as I would have liked when I really needed them.
Current priorities are family, transition to a productive retirement, continuing to rethink a lifestyle of learning and service, and becoming “native to this place” – the prairie. [6-08]
Roshan Billimoria (Ed.D. 1980) roshan1@peoplepc.com
After being out of contact with CIE for many years, Roshan reflects on her journey since leaving CIE below.
And there were those blessed ones that pointed the way: Dwight Allen sitting in our living room in tiny-town, Panchgani - India, who invited me to be part of the excitement of building this world of my dreams; Dave Evans and George Urch, who gave me the once-over before I joined the Montague House clan(1970) and then continued to inspire and guide me by
their example - long, long after I had left the fold for adventures elsewhere; Arthur Gillette who in essence handed me a compass (which I use every day) and who introduced me to the joy and fulfillment of working with the United Nations. And the many CIE colleagues through the 1970’s that were my family, and my rooted-ness through the ‘long time passing…’ since then.
While with CIE in the 1970s, along came opportunities to be on the Founding Committee of the U.N. University; to consult with UNICEF and UNESCO; to work on and co-author a study undertaken by the International Council on Educational Development on Non-formal Education. And to spend seven years in rural Denmark with farmers, fishermen, home-makers and mayors; small-town advocates and activists, who were interested in shaping a more sustainable future for themselves by inviting experts in alternative energy (solar, wind and bio-gas) from so-called ‘developing’ nations to help this little wind-swept corner of the ‘North’ gain from the rich experience and technical know-how of the ‘South’. A variation on the traditional North-South flows of development assistance!
My involvement with the United Nations continued through the ‘80s, 90s and beyond – as non-governmental representative; as Coordinator of The Women’s International Dialogue; as Chair of the United Nations Conferences of Nongovernmental Organizations and as Chair of the Executive Committee of NGO’s (the people’s voice) at U.N. headquarters. Among some of the highlights – participating, close-up and first-hand, as an NGO Representative at theReykjavik Summit between Reagan and Gorbachev (October 1986) and serving as Convener for the Earth Day Summit in the U.N General Assembly Hall (April 1990).
Over the years, I have continued to serve as resource-person and liaison with Indigenous Elders and community leaders and networks, in latitudes North and South: including collaborative efforts with the Inupiat in Kotzebue, Selawik and points further North in Arctic Alaska who wished to consult with their Hopi counter-parts in Northern Arizona regarding language-loss, at-risk-youth, archival challenges and inter-generational opportunities; as well as conflict resolution and non-violent ( including at-times, non-verbal) empowerment among the nomadic Mrilinga and Yalta Aboriginal communities in The Southern Bight of Australia who were embroiled in intense and violent struggle over land-rights and related incursions into their respective, life-giving ‘dream-time’ totems.
The above— were accompanied by various and sundry stays, long and short, in rural Belize; the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia; and among the citizens of both Irelands. My small contribution was focused on engendering development-indicators that value and nurture the well-being of communities and peoples; that hold precious—the web of Life around us. And that sustain the authentic Self, in the face of today’s cross-roads and challenges.
I hold meaningful my sojourn this time around. And enjoy home among the red rocks, ancient lava flows and starry skies of Northern Arizona. [5/08]
I am taking a sabbatical from my volunteer job at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training in Arlington, where, as senior fellow, I assist other retired diplomats in editing and publishing their manuscripts. Addicted to biography now, I am taking on bigger game. The sailor-author-merchant-consul Peter Strickland from New London, Conn. was a perfect subject to start with: his personal diary from 1857 to 1921 was unparalleled.
Now I am researching a dual biography, the husband-wife team of Henry & Emily Folger, founders of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, where I work most days in the Tudor Reading Room. With 166 linear feet of personal papers to go through, I'll be at it for a while. See details at Steve's new website. [5-08]Stephen Grant’s Peter Strickland: New London Shipmaster, Boston Merchant, First Consul to Senegal
(New Academia, 2007) is the 29th volume in the Diplomats and Diplomacy Series that is intended to increase public knowledge and appreciation of the involvement of American diplomats in world history.. Grant based this account on extensive research, including US consular ispatches, a detailed personal diary, obscure documents in libraries in the eastern United States, and Consul Strickland’s correspondence with French authorities that the author unearthed in the Senegalese national archives. His book recounts how Connecticut Yankee Strickland strove to survive and prosper from 1864 to 1905 in the midst of a strong French colonial presence in Senegal — first as captain of merchant ships in the trans-Atlantic trade and then as the first US consul in Senegal, indeed the first in French West Africa [12-06]
Stephen Guild (Ed.D. 1973) sguild41@gmail.com
In 1980, I moved to Seattle. I began a consulting business concentrating on the design, development and delivery of training programs for businesses and organizations, and my
clients included Boeing, Microsoft, the American Institute of Banking, Recreational Equipment, Inc., several Washington State departments and others. During that time, I also worked in Russia, Guam, China, Germany, Slovakia and Greece. My family and I spent one year in Kenya (1994-95), teaching at the United States International University in Nairobi.
In 2003, I began working for City University, a private university in the Seattle area, as the Dean of Faculty Development, a position I held until 2006. When my job was eliminated and my office dissolved, I decided that I would move to Brazil to be with my partner, Tiago, whom I had met on the Internet and had cyber-dated for a year-and-a half. I moved to Recife, the largest city in Northeastern Brazil, in June 2006.
I was certified as a TESOL teacher before I left Seattle, but right now I teach entirely online for several different universities and organizations, so my job is portable…and I don’t have any morning rush-hour traffic to contend with. [5-08]
Robert Pearson (Ed.D. 1973) r.pearson@comcast.net
Since leaving the Center in 1972 I’ve been an Education Professor at Swarthmore, Lafayette and Muhlenberg colleges, the director of a drug and alcohol education agency, and the director of a USAID project in Romania dealing with the awful orphanage situation there which you undoubtedly remember from the media coverage in the early nineties. Since 1992 I’ve been “semi-retired”, spending much of my time playing serious senior softball (tournaments etc.), reading, writing, and occasionally consulting. Since 1993 I’ve directed a Peace Corps training project in Albania, worked with Muslim refugees in Croatia, given a teacher education workshop in Ethiopia, 
worked with Leon Clark evaluating a USAID education project in Swaziland, been to Armenia four times with UNICEF on a training project for school principals as well as training trainers in interactive teaching methods and supervising the development of a teacher’s manual in interactive teaching methods. In 2005 I worked on a Basic Education proposal in Afghanistan, and in 2006 I worked with UNICEF/Turkey in drafting a sample five year plan for the Ministry of Education in Turkey.
Beeby and I live in Wellfleet on Cape Cod and are outdoors every day, working, hiking, and swimming. Between us we have five children. Those of you who remember my two, Erik and Tim, may be interested to know they are both in the arts, Erik a musician (guitar, banjo, flute) and composer --he had a small banjo piece in the recent movie “Into the Wild” --, and Tim an oil painter. Naturally they need supplementary careers, Erik as a computer guy, and Tim as a carpenter. My three step-children are also either musicians or oil painters. Those of you who live near Boston may have heard of Tim Gearan, well - known in the Boston music scene.
Over the winter we are in Vieques, a little island off the coast of Puerto Rico known to many because of the protests against the Navy bombing (which fortunately ended in 2003). If anyone is in the area of Wellfleet during the year or Vieques in the winter, email us and we can get together! [5-08]
Steve McLaughlin (Ed.D. 1979) smclaugh@comcast.net
Steve McLaughlin continues his current independent consulting for a wide variety of organizations, ranging from UNAIDS to Plan USA. He plies his evaluation and research trade with assignments that have taken him to Nigeria, Russia, Malawi, and Vietnam over the past year. His latest interest is to continue a new relationship with an environmental organization to improve the connection between international environmental protection and humanitarian development. When they are both in the country, he and Margaret endure an increasingly frustrating commuter arrangement, with Steve working out of their house on Cape Cod and Margaret working M-F in Washington, DC and returning on weekends--that is, when Steve is not down there. In addition to remaining busy with international work, Steve and Margaret have continued their friendships with the many individuals they've met overseas. Last year, they attended the traditional Muslim wedding (in Lancaster Pennsylvania, of all places) of an Iraqi woman they both knew in Baghdad several years ago and have stayed closely in contact as she pursues her doctoral studies in genetic engineering, and makes a family, in the United States. Steve, also, regularly gets together with Wellfleet-based Bob Pearson and sees DRE and, occasionally, other CIE and School of Ed folks who vacation on the Cape.
Margaret and Steve welcome seeing any Center members who want to sample the delights of Cape Cod. They know all the best beaches, restaurants, bike paths, scenic lighthouses, and ice cream parlors. Come anytime--even in the winter, if you dislike crowds. You can contact them by email or phone at 508-477-5895 [4-08]
Dale Kinsley (Ed.D. 1977) dalekinsley@comcast.net
In 1971 I left UMass to accept a job at the University of California/Santa Cruz to work with Joe Blackman, a fellow Charter member of CIE, on a Teacher Corps/Peace Corps program. Later I became a faculty member and Director of Teacher Preparation at UCSC. Later I decided to take a leave in 1979 to join another CIE'er, Jim Hoxeng, at USAID in Washington, D. C. I couldn't decide at the time whether I was going to make a difference in schools in the US or through programs in the developing world. While in DC Bill Smith, another CIE'er and staff member at the Academy for Educational Development at the time, helped me meet my soon-to-be-bride, Cheryll
Greenwood. Cheryll was running the International Division of AED at the time, but within a short time married me and off we went to Santa Cruz, CA to accept a position as their Superintendent of Schools. That was more than 24 years ago! [9-05]
Although I retired last June, I almost immediately "failed" retirement over the summer, taking on a number of consultant jobs as well as teaching a course last Fall for the Superintendent Credential Program at Western Washington University. In late October I was asked to become the founding Director of a Washington State Leadership Academy for practicing superintendents and principals. The state legislature and the Gates Foundation have provided the professional associations for principals and superintendents three years of start-up funding to create a more focussed, personalized, and job-embedded learning/support program across the State. They hired me to figure it out and to draw a connection from leadership learning to improved student achievement. No small task.... So, I am now working with a design team of professionals from across the state to prepare a pilot initiative for next Fall that will include district teams of administrators working together with on-site coaching support. In addition, I am currently working with two school districts as an "improvement coach" and am team teaching a leadership seminar in our region for district teams from 10 districts. All of this adds up to a lot of driving, since my office is either at home or in my car or wherever I need to be to work with folks. [2-08]
The latest from Bill....
Finally retired full time -- although no one interesting really retires anymore. I remain attached to AED, but I can't do that much damage there anymore. There are way too many great things to fail at yet to give up entirely. I have settled into a career of speech making. Luncheon speeches are the easiest -- all you have to do is entertain them for about 40 minutes max, and make sure they don't have to take notes.Google is a speaker's dream. At least a speaker that overuses powerpoint as much as I do. Do you know there are pictures of everything -- I mean everything on google. With You Tube video -- it's a breeze. I am having a wonderful time.Oh, someone bored reading this has got to be asking- "What is he talking about at these amusing little events he uses to pass his final years?" Well I'm glad you care. I'm still trying, without much more luck than ever, to get people to believe that if they make things fun, easy, and popular for other people to do, the other people are more likely to do them, that is, do the things, not the people. I was always noted for the penetrating depth of my analysis and the imprecision of my language.I recommend retirement - at least as practiced at the beginning of the 21st century.A final act of uncompromising self-revelation. There is more than a grammatical difference between speaking "at" the House of Lords and speaking "to" the House of Lords.[Bill recently spoke at the House of Lords. ed.] I did the "at" part. Fun, easy, and I think it was a just a bit popular. A little Brit different. Sorry, and love you all. [11-09]
Bill Smith is the Executive Vice President of the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC. For over twenty years, he has led the Academy's work in public health communication and social marketing programs in over 65 countries around the world. Bill is now partly retired and sent in the following reflections on his many years of experience.
It is 37 years or so since I left the Center. I have been pretty much at the same place all that time. AED was 35 people when I came here and now we are almost 3000. I had a very small role in that change. But it has been a learning experience to stay focused on real work andstill pretend to “manage” things at the same time.
I have a total pinball mind. I have never wanted to be a world class expert on anything and I
have achieved that goal. I went from Paulo Freire to Madison Avenue – from liberating adults to rehydrating babies – from rural villages in Africa to gay bars in Santo Domingo – from putting on condoms to taking off pounds. I became a world expert on health literacy just because I participated in a single Institute of Medicine Panel. And I became a famous social marketer by telling people to make their complex programs of social change – fun, easy and popular for people.
But enough about my past….let’s focus on my future! Ahhhhhhhhh. Bored yet?
What I am doing now is trying to find something useful to say to young people. It is a dilemma, because I still believe in experiential learning. It just seems such a shame that people have to go through the same 30 years I did, or you did. Of course, no one does. They make their own mistakes. It is only a coincidence that their mistakes look just like our mistakes. But my God, did we have to invade Iraq without a plan, or God forbid, at all?
The question isn’t – What do we have to share with young people that is useful? – but rather “Is there someway to say what we learned so that it’s useful to them living in a world which seems very different but actually isn’t. You know that thirty years ago none of us could have IMAGINED, and I mean IMAGINED, cell phones, Google or Second Life. Second life meant finishing the damn dissertation. But we still have to figure out what to say on the cell, who to call, what to believe on Google, and what role to play in Second Life.
Right now I am interested in listening to young people; understanding social media; promoting social movements; and using systems thinking. When you get old your eyesight fails and you have to focus on things very far away, like these topics, in order to see anything at all.
Look forward to seeing many of you at the reunion/ anniversary. [1-08]
Bill's complete statement including a Sufi Poem is in a Word file. See also his web site for one of his new hobbies.
A recent update from Peter since he has moved to Cambridge, MA:
I hit the big seven zero mark last August, a milestone I would be happy to forget. But I draw inspiration from a bumper sticker I saw the other day which read "Born just fine the first time". And in all candor, rocketing back and forth from extremes seems to suit me. Let me explain myself.
While I have a 45 year-old son who is a tenured professor at Bryn Mawr, I also have a 10 year-old half Samoan little bomber who rejoices in the name of Roxanna Ataata-o-Mauga (try saying that fast).Through guile, stealth and cunning, she has managed to get me to sit down with her every night to do her homework, half of which is in French (she attends the Ecole Bilingue here in Cambridge). She fills me with great happiness so while there are moments when I am wondering what in hell I'm doing at my advanced age, the fact is that I am happy to do it. So that is one extreme.
The other is that I have been involved (under UNESCO auspices) in devising a support system for a Siberian Inuit nomadic schools project. The weather? Appalling. As I write these lines, the temp in Yakutsk (capital of the Sakha Republic - 3 times the size of California with a population of 1.5 million) is roughly -50 Celsius. And the logistical challenges? Equally so. Does anybody fancy a two-day drive on a snow mobile in -50 C.??
The Siberian Inuits that make up the so-called Five nations are reindeer herders. And I don't mean they look after Donner und Blitzen during the down months: a single family's herd can easily number 2,500 animals. Reindeer are migratory which means that if the family is to stay together, if the way of life, the culture, the languages are to be preserved...the school must follow. And the point is that they want no other life. When the weather warms up to a measly -30 C, they sweat. They LIKE their lives, they revere their culture and traditions and they emphatically do not want these things to be undermined by schooling. But providing education to them that is at all consistent with the national curriculum is off the charts in terms of per capita cost.
This is not the place to describe all this in any great detail but a few snippets might be of some interest. They want a curriculum that is part "core" and part "life skills" – fine but in what proportions? And by the way, once you get past the simple vocational aspects of life skills education (e.g. reindeer husbandry), you find yourselves butted up against pure fuzz stretching away in all directions: what does anyone mean by education to promote "life quality"?
There are quite a few areas where I felt I struck a responsive chord - e.g. training in classroom diagnostic testing methods, multi-class teaching, and the like - but the biggest hurdle by far was trying to find ways of reducing per capita costs. And while the answer is hardly rocket science, accomplishing it is another matter altogether. While teacher support was/is hardly adequate, there is some interaction between the teachers on the one hand and the inspectorate, curriculum advisors and district education officers on the other. The problem has been that the latter have always interpreted their role as essentially one of policing the putative undisciplined teacher.
The people are heart-breakingly welcoming and enthusiasm runs high. Will Moscow follow? Bof, qu'est-ce que j'en sais?But it is just possible that, if countries with significant Inuit and other Arctic populations of their own -i.e. the Canadians, the Danes (for Greenland) the Norwegians and Finns (for the Lapps) - could be persuaded to come to the party in support of a workable circum-polar educational network, this real, and I have to say extraordinary, if unlikely way of life can be preserved, with or without Moscow. So that is it.
Sorry this is so long but as the French salon courtesan, Madame de Stael once famously wrote to a friend, "Je vous prie de bien vouloir me pardonner cette lettre trop longue mais je n'ai pas eu le temps de vous en ecrire une courte" (forgive this long letter but I didn't have the time to write a short one). Being succinct for me is chasing a receding horizon.
Greetings and best wishes to those who remember me. [12-07]
Elvyn passed away on November 14, 2012.
Elvyn continues with her private practice in psychotherapy, is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School in the College of New Rochelle. At the end of 2007 she sent along this update:
I continue in my second profession as psychoanalyst and mental health specialist, which arose out of my experiences of living abroad for over twenty-five years. During that time, I became aware of the paucity of knowledge and services available to indigenous populations and the international community living abroad. International life and service has a tendency of taking one into unanticipated areas. My areas of work have coalesced in providing individual and group therapy to diverse populations, program management, teaching, training and supervision. I maintain my links with the international community. [12-07]
Last year I was made a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association and in the spring, will be running for a state-wide office in the National Association of Social Workers. My motto continues to be "sieze the time". I continue to work full time in the field of adult education and mental health, which has grown to include clients with HIV/Aids and Hep C. [This is New York!] As I discovered in London, mental health issues are a neglected area amongst us all, largely due to stigma. This is doubly so among people of color. It is a fitting and much need area for work, training and study for someone with my skills set and broad cultural exposure. At present, I am working with a Kenyan colleague to explore the viability of an information transfer from the US to African mental health practitioners. [2-07]
R. Michael Haviland (Ed.D. 1973) havila12000@yahoo.com
I recently finished redrafting and editing an "Edu Tainment" novel, Arcadia. The “Edu”part draws attention to the plight of the world’s two billion persons who have incomes of less than two dollar per day. In the book, the Arcadia Foundation implements innovative model programs to address extreme poverty. The “Tainment” part of the book is my attempt to write prose which attractss and holds its readers. I am now looking for an agent/publisher to take the book to the next stage and am anxious to begin work on a new project.
In 1995, I was appointed the Director of International Programs at the Colorado School of Mines. It is challenging trying to internationalize the culture of a U.S.oriented engineering institution, even though more than half of its graduate students are from abroad. Over eight years, there was progress. The school, in cooperation with the government of Qatar, recently founded and now administers a petroleum and chemical engineering undergraduate college in Doha. Several professors from Colorado teach at the new college in Qatar.
During a recent trip to Myanmar, I met with several staff members of the Save the Children program. It is one of the few international NGOs allowed to operate there. Although closely monitored and restricted, it provides basic health and education services for adults and children in rural areas. My hosts were alumni of the Humphrey Fellowship Program, a Fulbright entity, which I directed from 1979-1989. Meeting with the colleagues in Myanmar was a uniquely informative and rewarding personal experience.
I look forward to revisiting CIE, and attending the 40th anniversary conference. [11-07]
Priscilla Angelo (Ed.D. 1977) PartnersGE@aol.com
I have now entered a life chapter I call reinvention (others call it retirement) and love scheduling my own priorities. When I first retired, I took classes at the RI School of Design to learn something about architecture and design. I would like time for a second career in architecture but decided it was getting too late. So instead, I learned just enough for us to design a new home that we had built on Narragansett Bay. And I loved the opportunity for such a creative process. It reminded me of the creative times higher education administration offered in the 60's and 70's!
"Reinvention" allows space to do the things I have always loved: Garden Club, Book groups, lots of volunteering in the arts, ...and of course travel. In January 2006 we spent a month in the Thailand hills; spring renting a house in Umbria (Italy); fall on safari in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia; Zimbabwe, S. Africa.
In Feb. 2007 we spent ten days in Aruba and soon we leave for China and Tibet . My husband (John Eng-Wong) is also retired but continues his research in the Center for Ethnicity at Brown University. Together we are working on a Food and Culture project (looking at ways comfort food transforms itself as it crosses oceans and makes its way to the States). Our research has introduced us to new customs, food and people. Hope you are well and thanks for keeping in touch. The Center holds my heart at U Mass. [3-07]
I had no idea when I was a grad student at CIE that, after stints in the Peace Corps, the nonprofit world, and academia, I would end up in business. It just happened. And, when my time at my company ITAP is done, I’ll be happy to return to some of those things that I wanted to do before I ended up in business.
The last few years have seen a geographic expansion of ITAP, from an exclusively domestic organization to one that has merged with a European partner, now with affiliates in Europe, Africa, and Asia. All this has been done on a shoestring (which came from my left shoe). My wife and partner Cass has been a leading force in marketing and professionalizing the organization. We are now in the process of spinning off the intellectual property we have created over the past 20 years so the income streams can be used to attract investors. I’ve never done anything like this, so every step is new.
ITAP provides training and consulting mostly to larger businesses, and mostly in the cross-cultural and competencies fields. But the work I most value has been the development of assessment instruments, one of which measures individuals’ cultural profiles, which can then be compared to country profiles. These are quantitative measures based on the work of an extraordinary man, Geert Hofstede, a Dutchman and pioneer in the field of intercultural research who I now call an old friend. I’ve just completed a fully web-enabled version of this instrument, which I understand DRE may use in some courses at CIE.
I am so pleased that the Center has continued its marvelous work over these many years and served so many students and communities from around the world. It is a very large and special legacy, unlike any other in the world.
I recently visited Alberto and Mariaelena Ochoa in San Diego and had a marvelous time. I hope old friends will visit us more frequently. We have space for you all! [1-07]
Farideh Seihoun (Ed.D. 1972) fseihoun@juno.com
Up on graduation I returned to Iran where over the next 7 years I was able to established two colleges, one for Foreign Languages & one for 
teacher training & education. I was in process of starting a new K-16 institution on Kish Island for International students when the Islamic revolution intervened and I returned to the States.
I went back to UMass took courses in Special Education & Administration and became certified on those areas & started working in public schools. From 1988 to 2005 I was Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum at Chicopee public schools. In 1998 and 2000 I wrote several successful teacher training grants to train teachers for Chicopee. The grants gave me opportunity to negotiate with a few colleges and we finally reached an agreement with Framingham State to have 4 different Masters program on site for teachers and administrators in Western Mass. Although the actual classes are in Chicopee, we have had students from other Western Mass communities.
In 2005 I retired from Chicopee but I remained a full professor at FSC where I still teach one course per semester. Now in collaboration with a few friends we have registered a nonprofit educational collaborative called High Quality Teacher training whose goal is to mentor public school teachers.
Of course I'm always ready to move & start something else but I don't know what yet. I still love to go overseas.... [10-06]
Alberto Ochoa serves as a tenured professor and the Chair of the Department for Policy Studies in Language and Cross Cultural Education, in the College of Education at the San Diego State University (SDSU). As Chair of the PLC Department, he has been responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the bilingual teacher education programs at the elementary an secondary levels. He also serves as the Academic Director of the Joint Doctoral Program between Claremont University and SDSU. He is actively involved in teaching courses in the bilingual credential programs, MA Degree program, and the Doctoral program.
At SDSU he has maintained an active record of professional development, grant writing and service to the community. Alberto's work is action research based, while combining theory and application in the resolution of equity problems confronting social and educational institutions. He actively participates in community and institutional development program/projects that have as their goals to promote democratic schooling and broad based community participation.
Alberto's research interests include public equity, school desegregation, language policy, critical pedagogy, student achievement, and parental leadership. In the last ten years, he has also been involved in developing processes for forecasting the educational needs of school districts through demographic trends, socio-political conditions, fiscal allocation of resources, and educational reform trends. His ongoing work focusses on educational and community development, organizational receptivity to change, bilingual education, race/gender/national origin desegregation, parent leadership, and multicultural/critical pedagogy. All of these areas have an educational equity and action research focus. Future endeavors will continue to focus on educational community development, social equity and democratic schooling.
His Holiday Greetings for the new year included the following poem reminding us of the ongoing challenges we face as educators [12-06]
En la jornada de un año cruzando fronteras sin luz y con luz una gota de sangre una gota de vida |
y aprendimos que tenemos que abrazar aquellos que amamos y respetamos que tenemos que trabajar para cargar un universo de justicía en los hombros de lo que hacemos |
Que 2007 nos de la fuerza para levantarnos y construir un mundo de esperanza y fé. |
|
After her stints as Ambassador to Sierra Leone and Burundi, Cynthia spent some time in Texas and was then appointed U.S. Director to the African Development Bank where she has served ever since. Recently she wrote:
I am more entwined than ever in the affairs of the African Development Bank which is struggling with human resources problems, statistical contradictions and sacred cows! I expect to continue as Director until the end of 2007 before contemplating a return to Texas. I invite you to check our website to note some things that are being successfully accomplished here at the Bank as well as consultative and employment opportunities. Some CIE members might wish to apply on line for the many professional positions for which we're recruiting. Salaries and benefits are competitive with other similar institutions. Tunis is a temporary site for the Bank which we hope to change soon and to return to Subsaharan Africa. Give my regards to all and my invitation to visit Tunis while I'm still here. Best wishes to all CIE members who remember me! [12-06]
Lillian recently wrote: Just a quick word to tell you that I am retiring from the ACI directorship at the end of December 2006, and moving to Rome. It should be an interesting adventure, and while very exciting and challenging, I am pulling up roots after 32 years here.
She and Gary Engelberg are the founders and directors of Africa Consultants International (ACI), a training and resource center in Dakar, Senegal which was founded in 1983. In 2000 they launched a new magazine called Yëgóo, a bi-lingual quarterly journal of culture and development intended to provide a forum for cultural dialogue and exchange. The journal is now online. They explain the meaning of the title as follows:
The word yëgóo is a rich Wolof expression which embodies the purpose of this journal. Yëgóo means to keep in touch with one another, to treat each other with respect and consideration, and to share information. Yëgóo is the reflexive form of ëg and expresses communication and reciprocal exchange of consideration and information. Wolof society values the practice of yëgóo as it helps maintain community solidarity. As one bids farewell to a friend, one may say, "Nanny yëgóo te ban umpante," which means "let us keep in touch and not be strangers."
For decades Lillian has been CIE's representative in Dakar and Senegal providing hospitality and entree to a wide variety of visitors. As the picture shows, it wasn't all work! We will all miss her presence there. [ 12-06 ]
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] It is with great regret that CIE announces the passing of one our most distinguished alumni, the Hon. Dr. Mose P. Tjitendero. Mose, who was a former Member of Parliament of Namibia, died in hospital in his homeland on the morning of April 26, after a long illness.
Among his many accomplishments, Mose served as the first Speaker of Namibia's National Assembly between 1990 and 2004, and had been a member of the South West African Peoples' Organisation (Swapo) Central Committee since 1981. He formed part of the ' Tanganyika club' of activists in the 1960s, who worked to propel Swapo into an international movement. Mose also served as Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Inter Parliamentary Union of which Namibia is a member.
In the political arena in his native Namibia Mose has been described i n the 2004 'Guide to Namibian Politics' as "widely respected as an impartial chairperson of parliamentary proceedings and an advocate of popular participation in Namibia's democracy." Mose was also a well respected scholar and orator who inspired many while working tirelessly for the freedom independence and advancement of his country.
Dr Tjitendero was widely respected throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and played a key role in community building. It can be said correctly that he made a significant contribution to changing the region. He was the vision, inspiration and driving force for the establishment of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, a battle he fought over several years, persisting until he won the support of all SADC parliaments, for an initiative so new and yet so obvious that it is now taken for granted as an established player in the region. It was not always thus.
The Center uses this opportunity to laud the perseverance and accomplishments of Mose (See complete obituary in AllAfrica). Though he has passed, as a community we take heart in the fact that Mose represented the true CIE spirit.
We offer our condolences to his family and friends. May his soul rest in peace. Center members who want to convey their condolences may send their messages to Michael Tjivikua. [5-06]
Joe recently sent a succinct summary of his comings and goings - in his own words:
Life Story: From Amherst to Santa Cruz (UCSC, Santa Cruz Schools)to New York (yoga ashram, writing courses) to Santa Monica (yoga ashram, head of video dept.) to Ganeshpuri, India (yoga ashram, three years, meditating a lot, met new wife) to New York (yoga ashram, married, video librarian and head of global bookstores) to Florida (care for wife's parents, research professor of education at USF, wife died, publication of book Graceful Exits) to New York again (head of children's initiative and hospice volunteer) to Oakland (retire and be near family and new grandson) to Santa Fe (be with family, which moved to Santa Fe, bond with Grandson) and finally back to Santa Cruz (Executive Director of the Santa Cruz County End-of-Life Coalition and having a ball). Who would have thunk it? Certainly not me. Are we there yet?
I
am
returning to finish my program after 18 or so years of being "out
in the world". I left the UMass campus in 1981 to work with several
consulting firms on projects in Lesotho, Botswana, Yemen, Bolivia and
Honduras. As my son matured, I found that I became more and more interested
in working on issues of education in the United States, particularly public
education in Washington, DC, where my husband and I had settled.The complexities of urban education, as well as urban politics and life,
has been the focus of my work for the last 10 years, during which time
I have published a local newspaper, continued consulting in both the US
and aboard and worked for several city council members and school board
members. For the last two years, I served as Policy Analyst for the DC
Board of Education. My new dissertation proposal focusses on the politics
and issues of school choice. [April 2004]
Hong Sah-myung (M. Ed. 1974) samhong@dreamwiz.com
I
retired from my position of Director of Korea Research Foundation, the
Korean equivalent of National Science Foundation, as the year 1998 was
drawing to a close. Since then I have been teaching at Hankuk University
of Foreign Studies. My status is an adjunct professor with the treatment
of full professor. Thirty years of involvement in the inter-country
exchange of academics stimulated my keen interest in "Korea in
the global context." Korea, once a trauma-filled child, has grown
up rapidly. Dazzled by the breathless change, its history is hidden
unnoticed by foreigners. I have been in charge of Korean studies abroad
and you may remember my approach to the Five niversity system some
15 years ago about the possibility of opening Korean studies. Smith
College showed an enthusiastic response that led to the establishment
of Korean language studies there.
My work experience focused my interest on Korean area
studies. I teach two courses now, both related to Korea. One is "Korea
and the World" given in English to undergraduates and the other
one is "Identity of Koreans" also given in English to foreign
students at the post-graduate level. I have one year to go and there
is a good chance of renewing the contract that will extend my teaching
for another two years. I received an invitation from the University
of Stockholm to teach there for one year beginning in the fall semester
of 2005. If things go as scheduled, it will allow me to visit Amherst
on my way to Stockholm and renew my acquaintance with the Center. [March
2004]
After finishing my doctorate in 1978, I went back to Iran. Due to the revolution, the UNESCO branch in Iran where I had previously worked was closed down. Instead, I was selected to be the dean of a two-year teacher training college. A year later, I became one of the three teacher training policy makers for the Ministry of Education. Later I served for five years as an associate professor at the Tehran University for Teacher Education. During these five years, I taught courses such as Methods of Teaching, Educational planning, and Curriculum Development. I also wrote some articles and translated a book by Audrey Howard Nicholson titled: Developing a Curriculum: A Practical Guide from English to Farsi, to be used as a textbook.
In
1985 I earned a sabbatical opportunity and returned to CIE. I stayed in
CIE for a few months and later went to Baltimore, Maryland to join my
family who had just come to the US. We have resided in Maryland ever since.
Since 1986 I have had three main occupations: teaching in the school system and colleges as a teacher and adjunct faculty, as well as volunteering as a principal for Farsi schools; using one of my masters degrees in counseling & guidance to work as a counselor for youth; and serving as an Employee Training Specialist for the State of Maryland and private sectors. As an Employee Training Specialist, I taught subjects such as: Total Quality Management, Conflict Resolution, Goal Setting, Stress Management, Supervision, Task Analyses, Motivation, Team Building. For the private sector, I taught management and computer courses. To be even more effective, I obtained two certifications in the Computer Construction and Networking fields.
In 1996 I had an opportunity to go to Iran for nine months. During this time, I translated some educational articles and a book from English to Farsi. The book, which was published by UNESCO in 1995, was titled: Partnership in Teacher Development for A New Asia: Report of An International Conference. The Institute for Research in Tehran published the translation of this book in 1977.
I am currently searching for new challenges as
well as working on a book for developing teenagers. This book is in the
early stages. My wife and two sons are doing well. Koorosh, my older son,
is an Intellectual Property attorney practicing in the Washington metropolitan
area, and Sasan, a computer information system graduate, is a very busy
program manager, directing various software and networking project. My
wife and I are very proud of them. (June
2003)
Valerie Miller (Ed. D. 1983) SHIMBAHILL@aol.com
Valerie
is Senior Advisor and a Co-Founder of Just Associates, otherwise known
as JASS.
She has worked in advocacy,
international development, gender, and human rights for more than 30 years.
She has collaborated with grassroots organizations, NGOs, and international
agencies from around the world as an organizer, trainer, advocate, evaluator,
and researcher. In the mid eighties she served as co-coordinator of a
national human rights coalition composed of main-line churches and independent
labor groups dedicated to ending US military support to Central America.
Over the past 15 years, she has been policy advocacy director at Oxfam
America, director of policy and exchange programs at the Institute for
Development Research, and advisor and associate of a wide variety of organizations
including the Global Women in Politics Program, Women, Law and Development
International, and the Highlander Center. She has also served as a board
member of Cenzontle, a Nicaraguan NGO (founded by Malena
de Montis) focused on women's economic and political empowerment,
and Grassroots International, a US-based group supporting social movements
around the world.
She
is the co-author of a new book entitled A New Weave of Power, People
& Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation.The
product of many years of work with organizations around the world, the book
takes a holistic and innovative approach to citizen participation and advocacy.
The Action Guide provides tools, analytical frameworks, concepts and a selection
of workshop and planning designs to help groups think and act strategically
in contexts of shifting power dynamics. Valerie also helped to edit volume
43 of PLA Notes on Advocacy and Citizen Participation. Valerie
recently sent us an email:
I just got back from China last week working with Ford and IDS on a workshop on local governance with community leaders and local officials from neighborhoods in eight cities. it was a profoundly moving and powerful experience. talk about upended stereotypes -- the humor - outrageous and sidesplitting humor was not what I expected -- serious work we did, of course, but their jokes, puns and irreverent on-the-spot songs and poems that reflected the learning of the workshop -- I did not expect any of that. Simply quite amazing. Their challenges are daunting, of course; the growing inequities fierce.Then I am off to South Africa and Mozambique for a coalition-building workshop and strategic planning session with Oxfam and its partners. And so the world turns, and the drums of war beat. I continue to hope for the best in people, even our president, but as the days go by, I worry more. In the meantime, it's almost springtime and I can't wait to see the first robin. [March 2003]
Jock Gunter (Ed. D 1975) jfgunter@swbell.net
A recent email from Missouri where Jock lives, chronicles some of his current activities:
The two telecoms companies I co-founded in the 90's are alive (if not well) in Latin America and providing mobile communications (like nextel 2-way radios) in one case, and high-speed fixed (non-mobile) internet access for businesses in the other case.
Both were restructured in ways which injected new capital, saved the companies, but diluted founders' interest quite dramatically! It wasn't really "easy come, easy go" but more like "bust your ass, bust your ass, bust your ass... hey, where did the fruits of all my labor go? ..."
I'm now working on a domestic health education effort aimed at 50-somethings who are looking ahead and newly motivated to take initiative to improve their health status and prospects. As you may remember, I've long been a health nut, having started jogging well before Dr. Kenneth Cooper coined the term "aerobics", and in the last decade have tightened up on diet and nutrition. It's amazing how these factors can promote long-term health. Hey, I can still do as many "chin-ups" as I could in high school. I think the time is ripe to infect lots of boomers with my health mania. After all, they won't be able to afford conventional "healthcare"!
I used to get to New England when daughter Janet was at Brown. But, alas no more. She's working in East Timor with Unicef - speaks good Portuguese and Tetun, the local language. And did i tell you, she was an election observer at the first ever E. Timor presidential elections for the Carter Center. [February 2003]
Jim Theroux (Ed. D. 1974) theroux@som.umass.edu
Jim,
who is a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at UMass, received
this year's top honor in Innovative Pedagogy for Entrepreneurship Education
from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Theroux won the award in January for a course that focused on a real-time case study of a high-technology firm, Optasite, Inc., a start-up firm in the communications industry in Worcester. Five years in the making, the course, offered during the fall 2001 semester, examined the ongoing pursuits the company. His course was also one of three finalists in the prestigious Decision Sciences Institute's annual awards for instructional innovation.
As far as I know, the course's "live" case was the first ever offered by a business school - actually four business schools - classes at the University of New Brunswick, Florida Atlantic University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute also participated in the case, said Theroux.
Interacting periodically with the company's president and other officers, Theroux and his students evaluated the firm's products, marketing strategy, acquisition of capital, human resources, and competitors. Each Saturday at 6 p.m., the course's full-time case writer - on site at the firm - posted new case material and related articles on a dedicated Web site. In response, students analyzed the material, discussed related issues via e-mail and in class, and forwarded their suggestions to the company. [excerpted from an article in the Feb 21st Campus Chronicle at UMass]
Several current CIE members took the course and
thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The course will be offered again in
Spring 2004 with a new company. [February 2003]
Pat Guild O'Rourke (Ed. D. 1980) patgo@islandwood.org
Pat has been an educator for more than 35 years, working as a teacher, principal and university faculty member. Her research has focused on learning styles, and she has published two books and numerous articles designed to help educators and parents honor diverse ways of learning and teaching. For the past 25 years, Pat has worked in teacher education, most recently directing certification programs in Kitsap County for Western Washington University. She served in the Peace Corps, taught at a university in East Africa, and developed multicultural curriculum materials. In her Holiday newsletter Pat has the following to say about recent changes in her life.
Many changes this year - new name, address and job. Bainbridge Island is a 35 minute ferry ride to downtown Seattle. It's a nice community, somewhat rural but full of commuters to the big city. I moved here in July because I started a new job as the Education Director of an environmental learning center. Most of you know that I do not have a background in outdoor education but the center was looking for someone who could lead a very talented team of 10 full-time staff. The timing was right and I'm very happy with my new job.
Island Wood is 255 acres of mostly forest, with a complete watershed (pond, marsh, bog and estuary). It's a brand new facility and just won a five star award for sustainable design. For more details see our web site at www.islandwood.org . We have 15 graduate students who live on site and do much of the teaching of kids. The professional staff teaches the grads, who receive a certificate in environmental education from the University of Washington.
In addition Pat has recently been in Korea several times as part of a program to teach English and to train Korean teachers of English. Pat recently saw Gordon Schimmel in Seattle and keeps in touch with Susan Carpenter. Lillian Baer visited last year as well. [January 2003]
Michael P. Hagerty (Ed. D. 1978) mikey@mhagerty.com
In a recent communication, Michael provides a succinct summary of life in the fast lane of the technology world.
Finished my doctorate, went to a small consulting firm as a software engineer, which led to a management position at one of their client firms. Revolutionized industrial process control software and created a new standard. Went to Motorola for the weather (you may remember both Donna and I hate the snow) and then to head up marketing at a compiler firm in Boulder that later tanked. During this time, I was the chairman of the national committee to standardize Pascal and produced two published standards. Fled the cold to Carmel (CA), where we have lived ever since, by joining a firm that manufactured equipment for the alarm industry. After replacing their answer to central station alarm management software with a radical new solution, I joined a startup that was cratered in the stock crash. To avoid losing our house, I went to work for Computer Sciences Corporation, first building a replacement for the system used by the Navy to route all of their aircraft, and then working wherever they needed system architecture and information security services nationwide. I was sacked last summer in a downsizing. I was considered too expensive... [December 2002]
I
have been living in Amherst since 1989 when I came back from living in
Sweden for so many years. I am now teaching foreign languages at a high
school in Springfield, MA, and since that is not enough I also consult
for a Latino social service agency also in Springfield. The first job
sustains me economically, the consulting feeds my soul as it is "old fashioned" conciousness-raising king of work, with Latina women.
I tried for some years with a good friend, to start a Folk School in this area–one modeled after the Swedish study circles and Folk Schools of Denmark. We worked for years with little funding but managing to do exciting things. Finally it got to be too much trying to teach full time, to develop programs which really needed a full-time commitment and also be a single parent. So, that was given up with great sorrow for that is where my heart is, but it is not sustainable.
So, I continue to teach in high school, in an inner city environment which is too often a psychological battle ground and sometimes a physical one as well. Sometimes it is also a place where great things happen not perhaps in the realm of teaching or learning, but in the realm of reaching someone in ways I do not know how to describe with words. Perhaps, that is what keeps me there.
My sons have grown up and Mikael graduated with a Business Management degree and is now working in Washington D.C. with his girlfriend Otilia. They will soon be transferred to Holland! Daniel is still in university and finishing a degree in Social Thought and Political Economy he is a prime candidate to continue our struggle to save the world!
So, for the time being, I will continue to live in Amherst which is a wonderful place to live most of the year, except in the winter! Greetings to Everyone! [March 2001] top of page
John Comings (Ed.D. 1979)
comingjo@gse.harvard.edu
John retired from his post as Director of NCSALL and is now involved in a variety of consulting and work activities. A recent product is a pod cast on Health Literacy entitled Health Literacy from a Literacy Perspective which was posted in July 2010. John also returned to his roots in CIE as an adjunct professor and now serves on dissertation committees and visits CIE regularly. [July 2010]
For the past five years, I've been Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) and a member of the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. NCSALL is engaged in research and dissemination activities that are focused on improving the quality of educational programs that are serving US adults who do not speak English, who do not have a high school diploma, or who have low reading, writing and math skills. Recently our grant was extended for five additional years, and so this might be my last job.
Over the last 12 months, I've published two monographs.
Both are available at NCSALL's 
website
http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu.
Building a Level Playing Field estimates the number
US workers who do not speak English well, who do not have a high school
diploma, or who have literacy and math skills that are too low to compete
for good jobs that include benefits. The paper also makes the case for
investment in educational services for this population reach their full
potentional as workers, family members and citizens. The second is The
First Five Years, which describes everything NCSALL did in its
first grant period, summarizes all the research, and draws lessons learned.
My present research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the forces that support and inhibit persistence among adult students in ABE, ESOL and GED programs in the US. The first report of this research, Persistence Among Adult Basic Education Students in Pre-GED Classes, is available at the NCSALL website and the next of four reports So I Made Up My Mind are available at http://www.mdrc.org/RecentPublications.htm . Earlier I completed a policy study, New Skills for a New Economy that is available at www.massinc.org .
After twenty-five years of working on international development projects, I've really enjoyed applying my skills and knowledge to adult education issues at home. I have definitely been able to apply what I learned in Asia and Africa to my work here, and maybe sometime in the future, I'll be able to apply what I've learned here overseas. If you want a summary of what I've been doing you can look at my faculty profile, which includes a five-year old picture go to http://gse.harvard.edu and look under faculty profiles for me.
My wife Rima is on the faculty of Harvard's School of Public Health and is doing research on health and literacy (www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy ). In a mild form of nepotism, NCSALL is funding some of her research. Our son Andrew is soon to be 20 and is just finishing his second year at Wesleyan University. He says he wants to be a high school history teacher, is a great musician, and is willing to put his arm around his father in public. [December 2002] top of page
Ronald Bell (ED.D. 1973) rbell60@verizon.net
Where does the time go? I am now beginning my 28th year as Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Amherst. While this might seem a rut to many, I can say that during this time I have had 28 differing jobs - thus keeping my energy and interest up. The last few years have entailed coordinating a 22 million dollar expansion/renovation of our high school, including bringing it into the 21st century in terms of technology. As a very brief respite, next summer I'll be coordinating the expansion/renovation of two elementary schools. It seems as if I have gone into the construction business. It's whole new language to learn - everything from 'noise reduction coefficients' to the varying quality of 'three-pass vs. four-pass boilers'. I don't seem to recall a course from DRE in this stuff, but it's probably something I just overlooked in putting my doctoral program together.
The educational and political challenges have substantially increased in Massachusetts within the last few years. Frankly, the Commonwealth is becoming very unattractive to the teaching profession at a time when large numbers of teachers will be retiring. The state Board of Education has approached the issue of accountability (legitimate) in a very accusatory and finger-pointing manner (not legitimate). As a result, even the good stuff - and there is a good deal of it - is slow to be accepted at the local level because of the manner in which it has been introduced. But enough about business.
For fun I have continued an active sideline with
my trumpet playing. This 
spring
will see my 30th year with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, 18th year directing
the Amherst Brass Band, and 21st year with the Amherst Brass Ensemble
- plus cantatas, musicals, weddings and church gigs too numerous to mention.
I have even been successful over the years in getting DRE to pull out
his trombone from time to time to join us in some of these ventures.
Amherst continues to be the crossroads of the world. Over 30 different languages are spoken in our public schools - friends from my early days in Ethiopia continue to relocate in Amherst (including CIE alumnus Ash Hartwell and his wife Trish), and folks continue to drop in from my past on a surprisingly regular basis. All this - as well as my family - continue to keep me young.
There was that brief episode with the heart a year ago, but all is well as no damage was done. It also helped me put things in perspective and balance out my work schedule in a more reasonable manner. While I never did get out of town following my CIE degree, the world - as I noted above - continues to visit Amherst. Please give a call when you drop into town. [11-00]
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Susan Carpenter (Ed. D. 1976) scarpenter3@worldnet.att.net Susan Carpenter stays busy with her consulting
business building consensus and resolving large-scale controversies.
She has spent the past twenty-five years working as a mediator and
facilitator on She has a chapter entitled "Choosing Appropriate Consensus Building Techniques and Strategies" in the The Consensus Building Handbook, published by Sage in 1999. The chapter addresses various factors that need to be considered in designing a consensus strategy. Her earlier book, Managing Public Disputes, continues to sell much, to the surprise of its publisher, Jossey-Bass. For those who want further information about these methods, Susan recommends two organizations that she works with. The first is The Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR) [http://www.spidr.org] and the second is The International Association of Public Participation, (IAP2) [www.iap2.org]. The IAP2 site has good links to other community participation organizations. She is currently based in Riverside, California and enjoys parenting her two young Chinese daughters, including Claire pictured above, with her professor husband, David Glidden. Susskind. L (Ed.) (1999). The Consensus Building Handbook : A Comprehensive Guide to Reaching Agreement. California: Sage Publications. [ 6-00] |
complex
public issues. She is presently increasing the amount of time that
she spends training others to understand and use collaborative strategies
to solve community and regional problems. She finds herself with
many opportunities to apply her tools overseas and to work with
foreign visitors in the U.S. She has had three projects in Russia
and one in Eastern Europe recently among other places. 
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