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[Updated May 6, 2008 ] |
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A recent update from Sara:
I’m currently working as a servant to a very persuasive puppy named Bexar (pronounced “bear”), after the county we live in. When he allows it, I also work as an assistant professor of communication at the University of Texas at San Antonio I teach communication theory, research methods, and intercultural communication, and my research focuses on ways in which U.S. Americans experience cultural diversity, the role of communication in shaping, reinforcing, and challenging ethnocentrism and cultural ideologies about difference, and how allies work to promote social justice.
Every now and then Bexar goes to camp and allows me to leave town. My international travel these days is mostly for leisure—a recent highlight was hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. [5-08]
Mantina Mohasi (Ed.D. 2000) mohasivm@yahoo.com
Mantina Mohasi returned to the Lesotho Institute of Extra mural Studies (IEMS) in 2000. IEMS is one of the teaching institutes of the National University of Lesotho whichoffers undergraduate and graduate (Masters) programmes on a part time/open learning basis. Dr. Mohasi is a senior lecturer academic staff member in the Adult Education Department of the Institute. She presently coordinates the B. Ed Adult Education Programmes. The Institute has also introduced Masters Programme in Adult Education in 2007/2008 academic year and Dr Mohasi is one of the key facilitators
She has occupied several administrative positions as head of the department from 2000-2003 October, and a
cting dean of the Institute from November 2003 to October 2004. She facilitates undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Distance Education, Practicum in Adult Education, Psychology in Business. At Masters degree in Adult Education she facilitates Social Psychology and Conflict Resolution. She further supervises adult learners’ research projects.
Dr Mohasi’s research work focuses on indigenous knowledge, Open and distance learning, gender issues and community development. She presented papers to different conferences that were organized in countries like Botswana, Uganda, San Francisco and Austria. One of her highlights of her career came when she was awarded the prestigious Cyril O’Houle Scholarship in Adult and Continuing Education. This was an honors programme for emerging scholars and leaders in this field. This progamme culminated in a scholarly publication: Global Issues and Adult Education in which Dr Mohasi contributed an article on “ Mainstreaming Marginalized Populations through Adult Education Programs: The Herd boys in Lesotho.”
Apart from her academic work, Dr Mohasi is also a very keen community development practitioner. She has participated in non-formal education programmes for traditional healers in the area of HIV and AIDS. She also developed material for these traditional healers on mentoring processes and skills.[5-08]Jane Benbow (Ed. D. 1994) jbenbow@air.org
Jane is currently living in Cairo Egypt severing as the Chief of Party
of a $90 million dollar USAID education project. The project is called the Education Reform Project (ERP) and works with schools, communities,
teachers and administrator to implement a School Based Reform (SBR)
approach to reinventing the whole education system of Egypt. The project
also supports Adult Literacy and Scholarships for girls. At the request
of the 
Ministry ERP will eventually be working with all the Idarra
(districts) of Egypt to institutionalize the ERP approach to School
Self Assessments, School Improvement Planning and Active Learning. The
project will continue to work with individual schools to support
innovations such as Teacher Learning Circles, Subject Area Learning Hubs
and approaches to Early Reading.
Jane says this work is exciting, interesting and demanding. If she had
known how great being a COP could be she would have taken it up
earlier. "Who knew being the boss and having a little power was much
fun?" she said. "All those years at CIE I was taught to reject and
mistrust power - what a miseducation.". Jane is still
employed by the American Institutes of Research (AIR) in Washington DC.
Before becoming the COP of ERP Jane served for 2 years as the Director
of the EQUIP 1 program.
Just after leaving CIE, Jane spent 10 years with CARE, USA. During that
10 year period Jane established CARE's world-wide program in Basic and
Girl's Education.
In spite of these accomplishments and maybe because of them she is still
looking for a man who can dance! She has lowered her expectations,
however. Instead of looking fo a rich elderly gentlemen with a short
life span she now wants someone with a good retirement plan who is healthy
enough to keep up with her.
Jane continues to be a staunch supporter of CIE, working CIE graduates like Hassan Mohamed in Afghanistan, Doc Coster in Egypt, Debbie Fredo for work in Mali, and Jenny Campos. She is also active in recruiting with three former CARE employees who have gotten degrees from CIE. [5/08]
Bonnie Mullinix (Ed.D. 1995) bbmullinix@gmail.com
Bonnie currently works as a Senior Consultant with the Teaching, Learning and Technology Group, a national organization that works to support TL&T in Higher Education. This position allows her to work out of Greenville and continue to build other educational research and consulting efforts domestically and internationally.
Most recently, she and Dave McCurry established Jacaranda Educational Development. The first activity undertaken by this consulting firm was Bonnie's work with CIE/UMass helping with the development of a M.Ed. for faculty responsible for secondary teacher education throughout Afghanistan (beginning in a snowy January return to Amherst and continuing through 6 weeks in Kabul February - March
2008. It was wonderful walking the Halls of CIE, visiting with everyone, and working with all the interesting and dedicated Center members, HEP Project personnel and Afghans associated with this wonderful project!). As for the website and consulting firm, we are offering several CIE friends and colleagues a web-presence with us and welcome CIE members to think of us if you need consultative help.
Prior to these most recent endeavors, Bonnie concluded two years as Assistant Academic Dean at Furman University (2005-2007) where she worked intensively to establish the Center for Teaching and Engaged Learning (CTEL) and create a unique, interesting and worthwhile set of programs to support both faculty and students. This position is what brought them to Greenville, SC (where they are happily settled an hour north of Dave's parents).
Before this, Bonnie served as Associate Professor of Higher Education at Drexel University and spent seven years serving in various capacities at Monmouth University and established a Faculty Resource Center, designed a Center for Teaching and Learning and redesigned the educational counseling program. These positions gave her a chance to write, research, connect with various professional communities and build familiarity with new technologies. The international connections came when she worked with the MU Social Work International Community Development Concentration and got Monmouth its first federally funded international institutional partnership grant - with Latvia.
All of this University-based teaching and faculty development work is situated in the context of what is now 25 years of work in international development - that is now calling her back. A brief retrospective: Namibia NGO Capacity Building and Training of Trainers (1995-98); World Education - LSI, domestic literacy/numeracy, Kenya, Mali, (1992-1998); Malawi Adult Literacy (1988-91); CIE (1983-1995); and before that The Gambia Peace Corps Secondary Science and Adult Literacy (1980-83) - with lots of consulting in between.[4-08]
Michael Marzolla (M.Ed. 1996) ammarzolla@ucdavis.edu
It is hard for me to believe that I have completed twenty-five years with the University of California and that I started
my graduate studies at CIE back in 1978, thirty years ago. I continue to lead the 4-H Youth Development program in Santa Barbara County and four years ago I assumed the leadership of our Counties Master Gardener program. I have also participated in various international assignments in Bolivia and more recently in Serbia. In 2006 I was able to visit to Cuba to study their sustainable agriculture efforts. Currently, as the Co-Chair of the North American Association for Environmental Education's International Commission, I am organizing a learning and exchange visit to Cuba with a focus on environmental education scheduled for November 29th through December 8th of this year-(I would love to have CIE faculty, alumni and students join our delegation!). Cuba is a wondrous and stimulating country. I have attached a more recent photo of yours truly at the La Foridita Bar in Havana next to a stature of Pappa Hemingway... [1-08]
Since leaving CIE over ten years ago, Don has worked both internationally and domestically. He worked in Cambodia, and has also held various positions in Lowell, MA (little Cambodia) and bordering towns. Since his days at CIE, he has integrated two important concepts into his life and work experiences (intent and the inner teacher).
As a visiting professor at a business college in Phnom Penh, Don's primary duties were to develop a four level ESL curriculum, and the syllabuses for about 20 different undergraduate courses. He was also involved in external staff development training for local businesses, such as the floating casino. Don taught an undergraduate course called Working Internationally as well. He was about to be promoted, when his wife Phanna asked him to return to Lowell.
Phanna , his spouse, had been a bilingual teacher for about 17 years with the Lowell Public Schools. To make a long story short, Phanna and about thirty other nonwhite teachers were fired. In order to achieve justice, Don and Phanna had to match the superintendent's and the school committee's will and intent. Basically, Phanna won an intense 12 day arbitration hearing. Her case is still under appeal, but she has returned to work.
Currently, Don runs a GED/Basic Skills Program for several homeless shelters in "Little Cambodia". He has several unique qualifications for this position: 1) went to high school for three months, and enjoyed that experience so much he returned a year later to stay for another three months; 2) has a Ge.D to go with his Ed.D. and 3) during the 60s lived in his walk-in van for six months.
In addition to his academic work for Tewksbury Public Schools, Don taught Kouk Sundo (Korean Yoga) and Tai Chi Ball at the high school for five or six years. Don has written an article based on his studies of Kouk Sundo, entitled The Teacher is Within and Findable. The following quote is from that article.
I still need to reach that point where I can trust my own inner center, in order to become a good external teacher. “My greatest surprise was the discovery that I had an inner teacher,
an inner center of wisdom, which has been with me all along, but not developed.”
The struggle to find one’s inner center is beneficial, but the realization that we have an inner teacher comes before finding the inner center. The struggle to find that inner center is also a good teacher. Once you begin learning more and more through practice, and receiving more benefits, you become more inspired to be a teacher.
Don believes that we all have an inner teacher, and that we can apply it to our own calling. Phanna is now just three years away from retirement. Don is not looking to retire, in fact he recently purchased the new 24 inch IMAC, and it is his "intention" to discover something that will allow him to reinvent himself, as he enters the "final chapter". [12-07]
Adama Konate (M.Ed. 1990) adamakonatex@yahoo.fr
I am now living in Abidjan. I retired from the civil service in 2003 and since then I have been devoting my time to writing English textbooks and teaching English in enterprises. I have contributed to the writing of a series of English textbooks entitled: English for Success which are currently in use in some secondary schools in West Africa. I am presently completing the writing of a novel in French, which I hope will be published soon. [12-06]
Flavia Ramos (Ed.D. 1999) framos@juarezassociates.com flavia.ramos.mattoussi@gmail.com
After five years as assistant professor and director of the International Training and Education Program (ITEP) at American University, I’ve taken a new position as Senior Education Advisor with Juárez and Associates (J&A). In June 2007 I became Project Director under the ABE/BE IQC and Director of the Juárez & Associates (J&A) DC Office. I am now responsible for overall technical, administrative and logistical implementation of all activities undertaken by the contractor, and expected to provide vision, direction, and leadership in bringing together disparate technical areas (mostly education projects) that span all regions of the world.
Recently I traveled to Guatemala (picture at left in El Salvador - note the CIE cap!), Nicaragua, and El Salvador with the purpose of conducting preliminary research regarding each country’s development trends and needs in Basic Education; experience first hand the project J&A is implementing in Guatemala; examine other USAID sponsored initiatives in the region; and to learn more about current education projects and funding for basic education. It was nice to be back in Guatemala after a twenty-year hiatus. I hope to keep in touch with the CIE community. I will be tapping onto the CIE pool of resources every now and then as I foresee many opportunities for collaboration in the education development field. [7-07]
Mary Comeau-Kronenwetter reports on her current activities.
Hi CIE family! Here is my update…
I am working as the Education Director at The John Hay National Wildlife Refuge in Newbury, New Hampshire. I am primarily focused on ecological and conservation education for children. My CIE training in nonformal education has been very helpful in developing curricula for youth and adult programs. Developing awareness and fostering activism on preserving our natural environment is very rewarding and I often bring my young son Shaun, a junior naturalist in training, along into the woods with me. Winter weekends find me teaching adaptive skiing to children with developmental and physical disabilities. I also occasionally teach as an adjunct at some local colleges in the education or humanities departments and teach ecology in my son’s school as a volunteer. In the last few years I have been writing and speaking on mentorship and civic participation, adaptive recreation, and NH natural history. I am too busy to get cold up here north of Amherst! Best to all and thank you all for your important work! [5-07]
Since the birth of her son Noah in 2002, Joanie has been piecing together consulting work around Massachusetts and internationally. She continues to work with the MA Department of Education Even Start Family Literacy Program providing program evaluation services and TA, and she has also been involved with nonprofits in capacity building efforts in Holyoke and Springfield. Joanie is in her second year of teaching the undergraduate course in International Education at CIE as well.
Since last spring Joanie has been consulting for the Bernard Van Leer Foundation and the Caribbean Child Support Initiative to develop family literacy programs in four Caribbean countries: St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Grenada.
Tim, Joanie and Noah vacationed in St. Lucia last summer and hope to visit another island in 2007! [1-07]
I used to say to all my friends that I am slowly moving South - started in
Vermont in 1985 but got stuck in Amherst Massachusetts for 10 years and another 10 in Connecticut. With that pace, I would be long dead before I
reached Florida for the warm weather. But then, I not only made a move - I
leaped from East to West, leaving University of Connecticut for the sunny
Southern California. Subarna (my wife) and I have settled in East Highland,
California - about an hour East of Los Angeles, 40 minutes from Palm Springs
and about 2 hours North of San Diego. Mountains, desert and beaches are all
in close proximity, we love it here. I was named Dean of the College of Extended Learning at California State University, San Bernardino in August 2005. My College is the continuing education and outreach arm of the university serving the Inland Empire that consists of San Bernardino and Riverside counties - the largest in the country. It is the fastest growing area of the United States.
My College has a very strong international program component which takes me
to many Asian countries. We conduct training 
programs for mid to high level
managers, teachers, and professionals from both the public and private
sectors. China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are key countries but we are
expanding to Thailand, Philippines and other South East and South Asian
countries.
I do miss East coast where I have many friends and family but so far life is good in California. I want to keep in touch with CIE friends but I don't know who lives/works around here. If you happen to be here please give me a call. [1-07]
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After leaving CIE, I spent several years teaching Adult Basic Education (ABE) in Massachusetts and consulting on health and literacy projects. For the past eight years, I have worked at SABES (System of Adult Basic Education Support) which provides staff and program development for ABE practitioners in the state of Massachusetts. I also currently work under a Massachusetts Department of Education grant as the Staff Development Facilitator for Volunteer Services programs in the state. As a long-time quilter and fabric artist, I recently tried my hand at focusing more on my art but decided my passion is in adult education (but I will still keep my art and craft as a side activity!).
I live in Shutesbury with Mark Protti and our son, Luke, who is in first grade. Through Mark’s work with ITD, we have the opportunity to interact with and host folks from many different countries, which has been both exciting and enriching. In March 2007, we will be moving within our town to a home in a community where there are 20+ acres for skiing and hiking. We will have a lot of room to welcome any CIE folks who are looking for a place to stay as they pass through Amherst. Please contact us if you are visiting! [11-06]
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My partner, Evangelina Holvino, and I continue to run our organization consulting business based in Brattleboro, VT. As you will see from our website, at Chaos Management we try to sustain a practice in four areas of work:
- Building organizational capacity
- Enhancing management, leadership and networking skills
- Advancing diversity for organizational performance
- Creating personal and organizational future
An example of our work in capacity building is a project that Evangelina has been engaged in to increase competencies in the use of organizational change models for gender equity, and identify best practices on institutional change for gender equity in six universities in sub-Saharan Africa. The project provided technical assistance, research, and documentation and dissemination of successful change efforts for university change agents. Change agents were supported in the design and implementation of institutional change programs so they could provide more effective training, strategic planning, and implementation of change interventions within their institutions.
This project was funded by a Carnegie Corporation grant to the Center for Gender in Organizations.We have also gone into partnership with another organization to bid on AIDSTAR, a USAID project designed to address all aspects of HIV/AIDS in the developing world. If successful, Chaos Management’s role would be to provide support to institutions in the following ways: 1) organizational assessments of local institutions and networks 2) leadership and management training; 3) stakeholder workshops 4) training in functional collaboration for organizations in an HIV/AIDS network.
We also do work for corporations. Nine years ago we started working with Bell Atlantic, and now Verizon, to do leadership development workshops for Hispanic managers and we are endeavoring to find other clients for programs specifically targeted to improving the situation of Hispanics in organizations.
We have just started a project to put together what we know about the concept and practice of collaboration. It would be great to hear from CIE colleagues who are also interested in exploring that topic.
In my “spare” time I do Tai Chi, supervise our never-ending on-going project to renovate our house, and continue developing the problematic moment approach to managing differences and increasing collaboration in groups. The photo was taken July 22, 2006 at the local hospital’s annual fund raising event. I am with Evangelina. [7-06]
top of page For the past nine years, I have been working in Boston at Commonwealth
Corporation, a quasi-public organization devoted to strengthening the
literacy and workplace skills of Massachusetts workers and thereby
helping to improve employer competitiveness in the global economy.
Currently, I am Vice President for Policy and Communications and spend a
lot of my time helping multi-stakeholder groups analyze complex problems
and develop effective solutions. Our flagship
programs are focused on the creation of alternative education models for
at-risk youth (e.g., Diploma Plus, funded in part by the Gates
Foundation), and sector projects that partner employers with people in
need of stronger skills for career advancement (e.g., The Extended Care
Career Ladder Initiative - ECCLI - funded by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts). In the last couple of years, I've spent a lot of time
working with others to develop strategies to make community colleges
more responsive to the needs of working adult learners, most of whom
work several low-wage jobs while raising a family, and many of whom are
first generation college bound. Should you want to know more about
this, I helped write a report with a grant from the National Governors
Association.
In my spare time, I continue to serve on the board of the Karuna Center
for Peace-building, which is located in Amherst. Increasingly Karuna
Center's focus places it at the crossroads of development work and
peace-building. Multi-year programs exist in several countries, among
them Rwanda, Senegal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, India, Macedonia,
and United States. I am also on the board of the Massachusetts
Biotechnology Education Foundation, whose current priority is a program
called BioTeach that has the ambitious goal of bringing biotechnology
literacy to all Massachusetts public high schools by the year 2010.
Two years ago, I returned to Ecuador for the first time in fourteen
years. It was my husband Chris's first trip and through his eyes I got
to experience once again the country's staggering beauty, enormous
complexity, and daunting challenges. A trip to Chile beckons now that
Michelle Bachelet is President (Chile is where it all began for me back
in 1970). [6-06]
My latest news is the birth of my son, Spencer Holland Messer, on January 18, 2006. He is welcomed to the family by his older sister Maggie, now a precocious two and half year old. With mixed feelings, I return to my job as Seminar Program Specialist at the East-West Center next week after three months of maternity leave. I've enjoyed my second round of "momhood" even more than I expected. Work is interesting, though, and feels important in this time of increasing global tensions. I coordinate short-term professional development seminars for journalists and emerging leaders from Asia and the United States, providing them with an opportunity to enhance their understanding of Asia Pacific issues and gain a network of colleagues from which to draw as they advance in their positions of leadership and influence. The job affords some opportunities to travel through the Asia Pacific
region and the United States, so I hope to connect with CIE alumni as I roam about the region. It was great seeing David Evans and other CIE folks here in Honolulu for the CIES boondoggle! (editor's translation = professional conference!)
If anyone would like to know more about the East-West Center or the various professional development opportunities available here, please check the web site. If any of you are heading out this way, please feel free to contact me I'd love to see you. Aloha! [5-06]
Edward Graybill (Ed. D. 1995 ) egraybill@changes2.org.zm
We’re still in Zambia, and have grown to really like it here and in the Sub-Saharan region. The original CHANGES (Communities Supporting Health, HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Gender Equity, and Education in Schools) program, which I managed as Chief of Party under Creative Associates International, ended in July 2005 after a solid four-year run. We did a lot of good work in a number of sub-sectors of education in Zambia.
As CHANGES was winding down, I was approached by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) about staying in Zambia to be Chief of Party of the follow-on CHANGES2 program, an $18 million, five-year initiative. I agreed to do so for three years because Zambia has been very good for my family, there is still a lot of work to do here, and because CHANGES2 is sufficiently different from the original CHANGES program: larger, more complex, and involved in additional areas of educational development that interest me
We are continuing much of the work the original CHANGES program started in school health and nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation, girls’ education, and community mobilization for education, but on a considerably larger scale. In addition, CHANGES2 has a more prominent emphasis on teacher education, both pre- and in-service, as well as on teacher supervision and facilitating school-based change. Also, we’re doing a lot more work in nurturing school-community partnerships and sub-granting to schools, communities and CBOs. All of these components work synergistically to improve the quality of basic education in Zambia. It’s an interesting, worthwhile and challenging program to be managing.
I’m not much for making New Year’s resolutions but this year I resolved to write more about aspects of my work beyond the two monographs and chapter in a book I’ve had published in recent years. I feel that over the past 10 or so years since I finished my doctorate at CIE, which included lengthy sojourns in Pakistan and now Zambia, with a brief stint in between at USAID in Washington, DC, I’ve been doing interesting work that involves grappling with many of the fundamental issues of educational development as well as some more immediate issues like dealing with the ravages of HIV/AIDS on communities, schools, and education systems. But, alas, I’m still having difficulty finding the time and energy—both at the same time—to put pen to paper in any significant manner. If only there were sabbaticals and long summer vacations for Chiefs of Party.
On a more personal note, my family is flourishing and doing well. Maureen still works at UNHCR and continues to do battle with the UN bureaucracy, yet manages to derive enough satisfaction and enjoyment from her work with refugees (mainly from Burundi and the DRC) to keep at it.
We plan to continue living and working in Zambia until July 2008 when it will be time to move on and pursue new horizons. In addition to families of peacocks and guinea fowl, and two wonderful cats, we have a semi-detached guest suite at our house in Lusaka; come visit some time. [5-06]
I miss the old days at CIE and wish we could all do another Summer Institute for Literacy Professionals for old times sake. I almost started writing my application for the faculty position and then I remembered all my ties and obligations to my current position.
I am still in Provo, Utah working "part time" at Brigham Young University. I have become a rather interdisciplinary person with part-time contracts in no less than four departments: (1) The Center for Economic Self Reliance where I coodinate international development internships with NGOs and interact with faculty and practitioners from every sector as we seek to define economic self reliance. I also hang out with a lot of social entrepreneurs from the business world who are into microenterprise, (2) the Romney Institute for Public Management where I teach a class on Organizational Development for NGOs, (3) The David M Kennedy Center for International Studies where I teach a "capstone" class for students getting a minor in International Development, and (4) the Health Science Department where I am consulting on the educational design for a hygiene promotion project in Cape Town.
In addition to this, I am experimenting with community development and education with the growing Hispanic Immigrant Community in Provo Utah. I've been facilitating a very interesting collaboration of organizations that work with the low income and Hispanic community called the Timpanogos Community Network and I helped start an NGO called Centro Hispano. I think my "part-time" volunteer community work is even more full-time than my "part-time" university work. It takes so long to name what I do that I don't have time to describe the fascinating things I am learning from working in the collaborative world that lies in between the gaps of all the institutions. [2-06]
David, now tenured Associate Professor of Education at Monmouth University will complete his 8th year at MU. This year is his 7th year as Director of the MAT/ MEd Program and 2nd year as Vice Chair of Faculty Council at Monmouth. David has a chapter pending in the book series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Book IV: The Enterprise of Education. In June David will resign his present position and move to South Carolina to join Bonnie. He will be re-examining his career options and looking at consulting, art and music, in whatever order necessity and circumstance determine that to be.
CIE babes Scott (21) and Schalon (18) head off for college after Scha finishes his senior year in High School. Kevin, soon to be 11, will complete 5th grade and be ready to start middle school in South Carolina. At the end of December ’05 everyone moved Bonnie down to Greenville to begin full-time work as Assistant Academic Dean for CTEL at Furman. Look for our change of address and updates by the end of this summer. [January 2006]
Cris continues to work for World Education as a Senior Program Officer. Currently, she is the 
Deputy Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), a U.S.DOE-funded center focused on conducting and disseminating research about how to best teach adults with limited literacy and English-speaking skills and adults without a high school diploma. Along with other CIE graduates (and the advice of Gretchen Rossman!) Judy Hofer, Marla Solomon, and Marilyn Gillspie, Cris directed a five-year study of how adult basic education teachers change after participating in professional development (See Publication). She also directs NCSALL's dissemination initiative, focused on how to actually get research findings into teachers' hands in ways that they can use the research in their classroom and program practice.
In the 1990s, Cris coordinated World Education's South Asia programs, including the Women's Economic Empowerment and Literacy program and the Health Education and Adult Literacy programs in Nepal, training programs for Friends of Women's World Banking and SEWA Bank in India, and advising on literacy and education programs in Bangladesh, Burma, and Thailand. Cris lives in Pelham with her husband Jon and son Pete, all of whom are devoted (fanatical?) Red Sox fans. [Nov 2005]
(top of page)Sushan wrote from Nepal to share some of her current activities.
Ri
Sumon Tuladhar told me that Fredi Munger is in town for ADB. I will try to catch up with her swhile she is here. [September 2005]ght now I am involved in a comprehensive research review of literacy/NFE in Nepal. It is preparatory work for UNESCO's LIFE program for the Literacy Decade. And I am sure it will also be very useful for the students there. The interesting aspect of this review is that we have finish it by September 15th. Immediately after that I will get involved in again the UNESCO sponsored qualitative study of the functioning and effectiveness of the scholarship and incentive schemes provided to the primary and secondary level students, esp. girls. We will review all the UN agencies' incentive programs including food for education and the Ministry of Education and Sports' incentives schemes. Due to security reasons for field visits we have to be very selective in deciding the districts though. And other times I am busy guiding M.Ed. and M. Phil. students working on their theses.
I left CDC in August 2002, and re-located from Atlanta, GA closer to family here in the great Pacific Northwest. My husband Russ and I bought a lovely 1917 craftsman bungalow in Tacoma, WA (about 40 miles south of Seattle), and I started working from my home office as an independent public health consultant. In 2003, I spent nearly 4 months back in Niger with the World Health Organization and CDC on the polio eradication program. Since then, I've worked as a curriculum developer for NW AIDS Education and Training Center (NWAETC), the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), and most recently, the International Training & Education Center on HIV (I-TECH) at the University of Washington. My current I-TECH projects are in Namibia and include an HIV Rapid Testing course (for laboratory technicians, health workers, and community counselors) and courses for physicians on HIV Antiretroviral Therapy, Tuberculosis, and the Clinical Management of HIV.
In her recent travels she reports running into several CIE members - her pictures and comments below.
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In May, Michael Tjivikua and I spent time together in Windhoek, Namibia. Michael is now the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Polytechnic of Namibia. I was in Windhoek for an HIV/TB training of Namibian clinicians with the International HIV Training and Education Center (I-TECH).
In June, I accompanied my husband on a business trip to San Francisco. While there, Ellen Licht drove down from the Russian River area to meet me in the city, and we had a wonderful visit! She had just finished producing a video for her work with ESL students in Santa Rosa.
[July 2005]
A recent communication from Phyllis on her current activities.
My husband Ethan and I are back in the Valley after having spent the winter on Maui and will be moving there in November with plans to return to the east coast in the summer months. I am teaching a workshop called "Emotional Intelligence and Handling Crisis at Work" for Maui Community College's Continuing Education program this winter. I discovered a gem in the Pacific this past winter in the form of the Director of Continuing Education. Lois Greenwood has joined her 30-year practice in Tibetan Buddhism and her workplace education training in emotional intelligence in doing leadership training with organizations and businesses in the Hawaiian Islands. Having done her dissertation on gender and development, those who know me can understand why Lois and I have become instant colleagues, companion spirits with big plans to develop some training programs together. Lois has wanted to move in the direction of more international women's leadership training and I am currently shaking the trees at places like the East West Center where I just found Anne Hartman (also a CIE member from the 1990s) doing great work in leadership with folks from the U.S., Asia and the Pacific Rim. I welcome any other suggestions from my colleagues and welcome any of you to our home on Maui. Aloha ! [October 2005]
I am a lecturer at the University of Botswana-Center for Continuing Education-Public Education Unit (UB-CCE-PEU). I develop, organize, and manage the provision of public education activities. To make them relevant to learners, I involve communities not only in organization of learning, but also in the education issues in which they need enlightenment. Because not every community member can participate at a given time in the determination of need for educational programs, communities collaborate with UB-CCE-PEU to establish Public Education Advisory Committees (PEACs) on their behalf to specify the educational programs that the communities need.
So, PEACs collaborate with the UB-CCE-PEU to implement educational activities. Public education activities include conferences, inaugural lectures, panel discussions, popular theatre - drama, songs, and dances- pubIic lectures, radio programs, short courses, symposia, talk-shows, television programs, think-tanks, and workshops. Besides organizing public education activities, PEACs also participate in education. They also participate in discussions of current issues. (June 2005)
In addition to working in Public Education, I carry out research, teach and co-teach with other University of Botswana faculty members, facilitate educational interaction between University of Botswana Faculties and the public, and create publications from such educational activities. (June 2005)
Nfila is active in education and a local newspaper reported recently on a meeting where he addressed distant education students at Meepong Community Junior Secondary School on Tuesday.
The Distant Education Unit of UB convened the meeting to brief part-time students on courses offered at the university. It also provided support and motivated distant learning groups.
Nfila said that education has opened up their minds and developed their critical and analytical skills and therefore they must approach life as well-informed and independent citizens determined to make the best out of life.
He explained that life is a problem itself and in order to survive, they must solve those problems, more so that problems themselves never end, adding that they should always think before they act.
Dan Gerber (Ed.D. 1996) gerber@schoolph.umass.edu
Dan has been an assistant professor at the Amherst UMass campus in Public Health and recently received two awards for his teaching. At the May 2005 undergraduate commencement Dan was honored with the Outstanding Teacher Award from the School of Public Health. In the previous year, he was honored with the Outstanding Teacher Award from University Without Walls. At the presentation the UWW Director said "He is a great supporter of UWW students, but he also challenges them to do their best and integrate theory and practice." Below Dan talks about his approach to teaching.
At the graduate level I now teach three courses: Group Dynamics; Community Development in Health; and the Theory of Community Health Education at U/MASS Worcester Medical School. All three courses are based on CIE's participatory class discussion, and the first two courses bring practice into the classroom through community service projects. The graduate students in our community health program are similar to CIE's Masters students in that they enjoy learning through discussion and experiential learning, it's the medical school students that are my biggest challenge. It takes several weeks of constantly asking them questions about what did they learn from the homework readings until they finally realize that I meant it when I said my course is not a lecture course. But once they internalize adult learning theories and principles the classes take off and the discussions get very lively. A common statement from students at the medical school is, "Paulo Freire might have some interesting ideas but he never had to tell a patient over and over again that they need to lose weight."
At the undergraduate level I teach a large personal health course (460 students) in Mahar Auditorium behind the Newman Center. Fortunately, I also have ten graduate students (TAs) implementing small group discussion classes along with my twice a week lectures. The course covers the basic health issues (nutrition, physical fitness, sexual health, etc.) but I also have moved the lectures towards critical thinking of the media, our societies values, etc. One of the more surprising new components of the class was the introduction of eight hours of community service two years ago. The surprising part is on the first day of class when I explain that this class has a mandatory community service component you can hear the groan of 460 students over in the Newman Center, yet in every evaluation the community service component receives extremely high marks. The usual comment we see in the students reflection papers is, "Thank you for making me do some volunteering, once I started it I very much enjoyed doing it." The challenge for me now is moving the students from a "charity mindfulness" to issues of social justice and why is the world the way it is.
Anyway, part of my spirit is still craving for being overseas living and working in another cultural, and yet another part understands that there is plenty of work to be accomplished right here in the valley. I am happy to say Jen Dolan my partner, is still very happy as the health educator at Holyoke Community College. We have two incredibly active girls (Corey's almost five and Jessica "Jessie" is two and a half), and sometime this year we will be adopting our third child from an orphanage in the Philippines. Life is good. [June 2005 ]
Kevin works in the Division for Global Mission with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as Director for Global Mission Education. Kevin's main responsibility is in educating the ELCA about the changes in Global Mission in the 21st century. He is involved in producing resources, establishing networks, and facilitating events for the church. The educational resources, both printed and multi-media, are used by congregations, synods, and regions of the church in educational programs.
Prior to attending CIE, Kevin served as an ELCA missionary for eight years in the country of Papua New Guinea. For six years he was chair of the Religious Education Department at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea. His primary responsibility was to train future secondary school teachers in religious studies. Kevin also spent two years at Balob Teachers College in Lae, Papua New Guinea working as assistant to the chaplain and teaching Christian Religious Education. Prior to his ordination Pr. Jacobson was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia teaching at ZorZor Rural Teacher Training Institute. Originally from Blair, Wisconsin he grew up in a family with four sisters and five brothers, all of whom are in the field of education. Kevin is currently studying at Loyola University-Chicago for a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education. [June 2005]
Menzi Mthwecu (Ed.D. 1996-2005)
In May 2005, Menzi was killed in a tragic automobile accident in South Africa, bringing to a sudden end a very promising career as a leader in education for South Africa. He had broken the barriers into an industry in which very few blacks had penetrated. Menzi was occupying a very influential policy and decision-making role as the founding CEO of the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA). Those familiar with the industry said that the impact of his efforts toward transformation were starting to be felt industry-wide.
Menzi was a former CEO of the MQA, and was recently acting as CEO before his death. The MQA is a SETA (Sector Education & Training Authority) for the Mining and Minerals Industry in terms of the Skills Development Act of 1998. Menzi had been with it since its inception in 1998 and could be credited with establishing it and later ascertaining that it is functioning as per the Act. MQA's mission is to ensure that human resource development is a reality in the industry, by establishing, administering and promoting Learnerships and skills programme. A recent industry newsletter reported on a speech that Menzi had given about women in the mining industry.
At the moment, the mining industry's collective workforce only consists of about 25% managers from
previously- disadvantaged groups, 5% women employees and less that 1% disabled employees, Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) CEO Dr Menzi Mthwecu reports. The main driver for the advancement of employment-equity programmes is the Mining Charter, which dictates that, by 2009, companies should have 40% of managers and professionals from the previously-disadvantaged groups and 10% of women included in their workforce. “While the number of bursary holders from previously-disadvantaged communities exceeds 85%, the number for women only stands at 30%, which is far short of the Department of Labour target of 54%, and the number for the disabled has not been met, mainly due to the health requirements prescribed by mining regulations,” states Mthwecu, adding that the unfavourable cultural perception about women in the mining sector in particular needs to be confronted by industry and women, as there are indeed numerous opportunities available to women. “For instance, there are women who are driving large dragline machines at the coal-mines,” he says. As a means to further encourage women's participation in the sector, the MQA has embarked on a programme to provide financial assistance to the South African Women in Mining (Sawima) group. [June 2005]
Debbie Fredo (Ed.D. 1995) debfredo@yahoo.com
Maria Keita (M.Ed. 1997) iep@datatech.toolnet.org
On
a recent trip to the states, Debbie shared the following information with
us about the work that she and Maria Keita are doing in Mali. Deborah
Fredo serves as Curriculum and Training Advisor for IEP. Currently
she is working towards publication of IEP modules and community school
curriculum and training trainers to use them with local youth and community
school teachers.
Maria
Diarra Keita serves as Director of the Institute for Popular Education.
Maria maintains a visible presence in international and national level
policy fora while continuing to work at the grassroots level in training
trainers for community education work with IEP modules and approaches.
She has been an Ashoka Fellow recognized for innovative social entrepreneurship
in the field of education in Mali.
The Institute for Popular Education (IEP) in Kati, Mali finds itself in the midst of a ten-year national program for systemic education reform. Founded by Maria Keita and Deborah Fredo in 1993, IEP has worked to develop models of alternative practice of education in Mali, starting with women's literacy and extending now to intergenerational community education with a special emphasis on quality issues in community schools. ( For a more detailed description of IEP see http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ls3_coumba.htm)
Decentralization policies in place since 1998 have made it increasingly apparent that community schools will evolve into local government schools but having passed by the stage of parental control we are hopeful that parents' associations will be able to build on their experience and capacity to make schools the vehicle for their own participation in local government. IEP's evolving challenge to "make alternatives visible" is now endorsed by national education policy that makes the alternative, in a sense, the "conventional" even if still not entirely "visible". IEP promotes what we call "alterstreaming": bring the mainstream into the alternative as sanctioned by educational policy.
At present, IEP is registered as a national NGO with a staff of 16 and with programs in community participation through community schools, curriculum development and the training of local youth as teachers for community schools. IEP also has consulting capacity and we have worked on contracts to build capacity in girls' education, education policy, curriculum and teacher training. IEP runs a bilingual (national language/official language) "lab school" for curriculum development and teacher training in Kati which now has classes from pre-school to 9th grade. The curriculum is currently being tested in community schools in rural areas and has been submitted to the Ministry of Education for approval to be used on a wider scale as the education reform promotes use of national languages in primary education. We have developed a series of community education modules that IEP trainers use with youth leadership groups and parent associations to promote dialogue, analysis and action on gender, education, reproductive health, and HIV-AIDs issues. Our many collaborations with CIE and with CIE members since 1993 have been so vital to the development of IEP's practice. We continue to look for ways of extending those collaborations before this ten-year "window of opportunity" for making educational change in Mali closes! (July 2004)
Well,
after I left the Center I became heavily involved in a local community
cable access station in Turners Falls for all of Montague. I worked
on a documentary film for the Quakers about Aristide and the Liberation
Theology movement in Haiti. We did interviews in Aristide's old, burned-down,
church where lay priests were conducting the service while explaining
how the World Bank and International Monetary Fund kept the Haitians
miserably poor and oppressed. We also interviewed Paul Farmer, a doctor
who has built a hospital in the poorest region in Haiti and doing wonders
fighting tuberculosis and other health problems with a little money
that he gets from people in Boston. We did a long interview with Naom
Chomski from MIT who has a remarkable history and interest in Haiti.
Oh yes, we talked to our own Joanie Cohen-Mitchell, who was there
during the first overthrow of the democratically elected government,
contributed to the film.
In addition, Ron continues his work in the health field
with the chronically ill. (April 2004)
Cathie Bachy (M.Ed. 1993) cbachy@starbucks.com
Cathy works with Starbucks' Corporate Social Responsibility Department, where she now manages the Starbucks Foundation We focus our literacy grants on early childhood literacy (from birth to
5), tutor/mentoring programs in elementary schools, and in creative writing
programs for youth (ages 12-21) that stimulate personal development and
encourage social commitment. One of the key criteria for grant eligibility
is that an applying literacy organization have developed a partnership
with a local Starbucks store. She lives in Seattle with her family. [1-08]
James Melvin Dawson, Jr. [1944 -2003]
James Dawson passed away in December 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin. "JD"
was a doctoral candidate in CIE in the late 1980s and early 1990s where
he is remembered for his 
insightful
wit in class and his boundless energy and support for others. He last
returned to Amherst for CIE's 25th anniversary celebration. The words
below are from his obituary. Comments and testimonies from his
many friends around the world can be found here.
JD's quest to discover the world and the diverse people in it reflected the career path he chose. On completion of his Master's degree he entered the Peace Corps. As a Peace Corps volunteer, he spent time in a kibbutz in Israel and went on from there to the State of Maharashtra, India. As a Peace Corps volunteer in India, JD established a poultry project and a community library. After returning home from the Peace Corps he moved to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands where he managed businesses and organizations for eight years. He then became a Foreign Service Officer and returned to the Peace Corps as a Director in the Fiji Islands and in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Three years later, he became the Overseas Director for Oxfam America in Boston, working on programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas. His career as a "Citizen of the World" continued even when he moved to the corporate sector where he served as Vice President and International Market Development Director for American Breeders Services (ABS) in DeForest, Wisconsin. This position provided wonderful opportunities for him to work and experience life and the different cultures of several countries in Eastern Europe and China. JD's untimely death occurred while he was serving in Bangladesh as the Chief of Party of ATDP, a Louis Berger Economic Development Project between the United States Agency on International Development (USAID) and the government of Bangladesh.
JD lived life passionately and lived in the moment. He thought of himself as a citizen of the world. "I am a Globalist" was his favorite answer, anytime he was asked for his country of origin. His goal was to visit as many countries and interact with as many different cultures as possible. At the time of his death he had visited 90 countries and interacted with people from so many different cultures that his reports were beginning to sound like "stories," except that he had pictures to back him up. He derived great pleasure in watching immigration officers go through his passport to find his visa for whichever country he was trying to enter. His passport was three times as thick as the normal American passport. He had this wonderful ability of immersing and comfortably living in whichever culture he happened to find himself.
JD's whole life was dedicated to empowering and improving the lives of
people all over the world. Before he started out on his journey to help
people around the world, he was a civil rights activist fighting for injustice
in America and a union organizer to fight for the rights of blue-collar
workers. James Melvin Dawson, Jr. leaves footprints in the "sands
of time" in America, Africa, Asia, Europe and other parts of the
world. Hence, all those lives he warmly touched, will mourn their loss
and celebrate his life.
Valerie Haugen (Ed. D. 1995) valerie.haugen@synergydevgroup.com
Valerie is living in Sydney, Australia where she has been engaging in pro bono work raising money for a Vietnamese orphanage in Ninh Thuan (southern Viet Nam) and has been working with a Sydney businessperson to identify and import high quality Vietnamese household items to generate income in ethnic minority households.
On
a professional level, Valerie has been working as a freelance consultant
on education and community development projects. Most recently, she has
been contracted as a long-term technical assistance group member to provide
external M&E expertise and advice to AusAID on its Indonesia education
projects. [She is shown in picture with staff and parents from Indonesian
government school near Ngada, Flores, Nusa Tengarra Timur]
She has also been involved in numerous project design appraisals and project
reviews as well as proposal development activities for various Australian
organizations. She remains current and involved in language acquisition
and language education and conflict studies, her two areas of particular
interest. Of particular interest is the Local Capacities for Peace initiative,
for which she is a qualified trainer. LCP assists organizations providing
emergency aid to conflicted regions to critique their approaches to help
ensure that conflicts are not exacerbated and that the aid gets to the
target groups. (November 2003)
Cliff Meyers (Ed.D. 1996) cmeyers@unicef.org
Cliff reports in a recent email:
Fumi and I left Vientiane, Lao PDR in February 2003 after two years there. We now live in Bangkok where I am the UNICEF Regional Adviser - Education. The countries I support stretch from Mongolia in the north down through China and North Korea to the Mekong Delta countries, further south to Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor to the Pacific nations and Papua New Guinea. The learning curve is tremendous, but I am on the road about 40 percent of my time. Fumi is busy studying to be a gemologist. We are both very happy to be living in Bangkok, and my office has a great view of the busy Chao Phraya river.
On a recent trip to Mongolia, Cliff was interviewed about his impressions (interview) [October 2003]
Rahela Kamyar (M.Ed. 1999) rsk110@hotmail.com
Rahela recently visited Amherst and left this note:
What a great surprise to have David Evans answer my phone call to CIE when I called to announce my visit! I left Afghanistan in 1994 for Laos and worked there until 1996 with the United Nations Volunteers Program. I joined CIE in 1996 and since then CIE has become like an extended family for me. Now I live in San Diego, California and work with a medical complex as an Administrative Assistant. I continue to look for work in humanitarian assistance as well. I am here in Amherst to visit some of the CIE members, my extended family, and to attend the graduation of my nephew from Amherst College. [May 2003]
Mark Protti (Ed.D. 1999) mark@itd-amherst.org
Mark recently brought a group of six Armenian educators to a CIE Tuesday maeeting where they discussed the task of developing civics education curricula for Armenia and the challenges that it faces.
Michele
and I continue to live in the Pioneer Valley with our 3 year old son Luke.
My career seems to have come full circle as I have been recently hired
as a vice-president at the Institute for Training and Development here
in Amherst. (http://www.itd-amherst.org/)
As the vice president of ITD my responsibilities include program management, project direction, training design, facilitation and proposal development. Currently, we are working on Civics Education curriculum development projects in Armenia, Krygyzstan and Romania. The goal is to build the capacity of national curriculum development teams to produce and implement Civics Education courses for primary and secondary schools.
Prior to coming to ITD, I worked as the Director of Training for Heifer International. Heifer's mission is to reduce poverty and hunger in the world through small-scale, livestock development projects. Again the focus of my position was developing organization-wide systems to build capacity to fulfill Heifer's mission through participatory development. It was a tremendously challenging yet rewarding experience to be working in the organizational development department of an organization that has experienced exponential growth in the last decade. Together with colleagues, I grappled in practice with age-old questions like the role of a PVO in creating conditions for grassroots community development. A good indicator of Heifer's commitment to grassroots development is the fact that we used Jane Vella's Training through Dialogue as the basis for our training for trainers course. It's great to be working again with ITD and I look forward to interacting more with CIE in the upcoming months. [May 03]
Barbara Huff (Ed. D. 1996) BarbaraJHuff@aol.com
Barbara writes from Guyana where she is now based after leaving Washington DC at the end of 2002:
I'm working for Habitat for Humanity as the Caribbean Regional Trainer. I am responsible for staff development for all the countries in the region where Habitat works. So far, I love it. I'm based in Guyana but travel here frequently as it is the headquarters for the Latin America - Caribbean Area and our Area Training Center is here also. Costa Rica is beautiful although I spend much of my time here at the center! So far I've been to the Dominican Republic and Guyana. I will be going to Trinidad next, probably in May. Right now I'm planning an orientation for new National Directors. We are expecting five but one is stuck in Miami awaiting a vist. [February 2003]
Marilyn Gillespie (ED.D. 1991) gillespie@wdc.sri.com
Marilyn is an Education Researcher
at SRI International in Washington, D.C. Since leaving CIE, her work has
focused on research, planning and evaluation of literacy education, English
language learning, and workforce education. Since joining SRI in 2000,
her projects have included research and development of performance-based
assessment tools and processes for the National Institute for Literacy's
Equipped for the Future Project, design work on the Multi-Media CD-ROM
training kit for adult literacy staff development for the U.S. Department
of Education, and the evaluation of the PBS Project Connect for adult
English language learners. For more details see: http://www.sri.com/policy/cep/staff/gillespie.html
She
is also currently working as a team member on a research study of the
staff development needs of adult education teachers for the National Center
for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning (NCSALL) along with former
CIE graduates Cris Smith, Judy Hofer, and Marla Solomon.(CIE's
John Comings directs NCSALL.)
Marilyn currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband Carlos
Martinez and her two young daughters Claire and Laurel Martinez.
Sherry Kane (M. Ed. 1996) SKANE@uniteunion.org
After leaving CIE, I moved to New York City, where I work as Communications Director for the largest affiliate of the garment workers' union - UNITE. We are involved in a variety of issues including making sure our members get decent wages and benefits (in the garment industry, that's always a challenge) and advocating for universal health care, affordable housing, child care, immigrants' rights (and presently anti-war efforts). Unfortunately, it has been a tough period for New York's garment industry and, although the union is trying different strategies to keep our members working, many New York City garment workers are not hopeful these days.
Aside from my work at UNITE, I co-lead labor delegations to the Texas-Mexico border for another organization where we meet with activist workers in the border factories. Aside from helping with translation, logistics, and leadership of the program, I've now become quite efficient at flying through fast-moving Mexican traffic with a van full of people. (A little like ITD but more dangerous.)
In the summer, I continue to volunteer for the Experiment in International Living (the organization that started SIT in Vermont) taking high school students to live with families on educational exchange programs (most recently to France and China). Some of my 'kids' from previous trips have taken their own groups which means I'm really getting old.
It's nice to hear from Center folks so drop me a line and come visit when you're in the 'big City.' [February 2003]
Malena
has been very active since leaving CIE. A recent email outlines some
of her activities.
Since I left CIE I have founded two sister NGO's centered on women's economic and political empowerment: The Center for Economic and Democratic Development, CENZONTLE focusing on education, technical assistance, organization and advocacy; and FODEM-CENZONTLE, a micro-finance organization that facilitates credit. I left the executive director position at Cenzontle in July of 2001 with the satisfaction of having received a prize for best practice in the Latin American region. We developed a methodology from practice that articulates both institutions, micro-enterprise and citizenship advocacy development for women through education & training, organization and access to credit with a gender perspective.
At this moment I am a member of both boards,
Cenzontle and Fodem-Cenzontle; I am an advisor to ASOMIF, the Microfinance
Association in Nicaragua, where we are trying to introduce a gender
perspective, and I also participate in other consultancies as they arise.
I would love to have the chance of sharing my experience sometime in
the near future with all of you at CIE! [January 2003]
At Michigan I continue to have talented, fun,
hard-working, socially-conscious undergraduates in small seminars and
independent study projects on topics such as racism, international development,
and -- new in 2003 -- nonviolence. I have three books out now: Listening
to the World (1994) (from my CIE dissertation) is now out of
print but I'll soon be putting it up on the web; check my website http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hfox/
for information about how to read it on-line or down-load it for free.
My second book, When Race Breaks Out: Conversations About Race
and 
Racism
In College Classrooms (2001) is available from Peter Lang, Inc.
and from Amazon.com. My third (well -- I was just one of three editors
-- but it was hard work all the same!) is called ALT DIS: Alternative
Discourses and the Academy (2002), published by Heinemann. It's
about opening up the university to new styles of writing and critical
thinking. Many of the pieces are written in "alt" styles that
range from light-hearted through angry, moving, political, subtle, and
straight-forward. I'm thinking now of a fourth book, this one on nonviolence.
Something snapped after 9-11 when the rhetoric of revenge began to emanate
from the White House, and after a summer of retreat and study in the
woods and by the water, I became vehemently and totally anti-war.
I am blessed with a wonderful extended family: a four-year-old granddaughter,
Sarah, a step-son Jaime (a freshman at the University of Michigan),
a step-daughter Sara, who is a 
dedicated
community activist and bilingual Spanish translator, as well as my three
daughters: Nondini (Beth), who is doing creative community work in Portland
Oregon; Maria, now an employment discrimination lawyer in Seattle, Washington;
Maria's husband Mark, a nurse practitioner in the mental health field;
and Cybelle, a Ph.d. student in Harvard's Social Policy program. My
husband, Jim Koopman, is an epidemiologist who now does computer modeling
of disease epidemics but previously worked in many Latin American countries
and, as a physician, participated in the world-wide campaign to eradicate
smallpox in the 1970s in India. I won't name all my wonderful nieces
and nephews, sisters-in-law and so forth -- you get the picture. I'm
surrounded by talented, fun, supportive, socially conscious people who
love me and vice versa.
Jim and I have a fabulous vacation cottage in
Michigan's Upper Penninsula on Lake Huron. We have two guest rooms and
a lot of floor space, so if you like to kayak, fish for salmon, dream
on uninhabited islands, read on the deck, or swim in absolutely clear
water off our boat, do come up and visit. We're usually up there most
of the summer. [January 2003]
Sue
Thrasher is currently the Coordinator of the Five College Public School
Partnership, a project of the Five College Consortium in Amherst. In
that capacity she is responsible for linking faculty at the five colleges
with teachers and administrators in the 44 public school districts of
western Massachusetts. Last year, she collaborated with the Sally
Habana-Hafner and the Horizons Project of CIE to organize a study
tour of SE Asia with eight teachers from Northampton, Springfield, and
Amherst. She recently rotated off of the Highlander Research and Education
Center Board of Directors but continues to work with the Center on its
historic archives. She is Co-Chair of the National Priorities Project
in Northampton www.nationalpriorties.org
Sue also was one of five women who wrote Deep
in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement in March
of 2002. The following is excerpted from the authors' preface.
We are all very different: southern and northern; rural and urban; state university and Ivy League; middle class, working class, and poor. We were moved to our radical activities in various ways: by Marxism, Christian existentialism, and immigrant folk wisdom; by our grandmothers and the Constitution; by Thoreau and Dumas; by living on a kibbutz; by African freedom fighters; and by a Deep South upbringing. . . . Our book is about girls growing up in a revolutionary time and place. It is about love and politics and the transcendence of racial barriers. We offer this work to enrich the chronicle of a social movement that forever changed the country and our lives.
Tony Savdié (M. Ed 1994) bobolop@yahoo.com
I am currently working on HIV prevention in Guatemala. The general idea is to make accurate information about AIDS accessible to people who meet UNAIDS and FAO impact and vulnerability criteria -folks in rural areas, prisons, the poor, the young, the usual, primarily Mayan but this past year we appear to have extended our brief and gone national.
In
order to broach the subject - sexually transmissible diseases are not
considered part of proper public discourse in Mayan society - we use
clowning and street theatre, clowns being universally allowed to act
and speak outside ordinary parameters (one of the clowns to the right
is Tony - your guess as to which one!). We follow up with a mixture
of intensive residential youth peer educator trainings and short (two
hour) workshops with selected groups in the communities we visit - evangelical
pastors, sex workers, high school kids, teachers, midwives, health workers,
firefighters, those sorts of people.
We receive funding from he Guatemalan government, the UNDP and three European outfits, a bunch of really good people and organizations whose attitudes, practices and professionalism are refreshing.
Anyway, life is good; I work with a dozen other
clowns, Mayan and foreign, organized as a collective called Proyecto Payaso, we have covered
over a hundred communities and estimated our number of direct beneficiaries
at over 50,000, but these are very soft estimates, made with local health
officials, and a systematic evaluation both of the process and the impact
of the project will be a priority this year. Do you know anybody looking
for a topic for a master's project? [January 2003]
Mansour Fakih (Ed. D. 1995) [ - 2004]
Tragically, Mansour passed away in 2004, thus silencing an important voice of moderation in modern islamic Indonesia.
Mansour took a job with OXFAM/UKI while finalizing his dissertation as their Country Director in Indonesia. In 1997 he started his own Community Development NGO named Institute for Social Change and Transformation (INSIST). This organization focuses mainly on training, advocacy and publication.
Mansour has translated a number of development documents and written a number of books. A recent article can be found on the web: Born in the wrong era: Amidst globalisation, can East Timor still be a people's alternative? His book on gender issues has been very well received. He is invited to many seminars and workshops to talk about gender issues and lately on Human Rights issues. He recently was appointed by the Indonesian parliament as a Commissioner on the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komisi HAM) where he chairs the Sub-commission for Education. He was in Amherst in September 2003 to work with ITD on a program for a group of Indonesian leaders of Pesantrans. [October 2003]
Andrew Jilani (Ed. D. 1998) bilojil@hotmail.com
Hello
friends! I have been in Pakistan for the last year now. Since October
2001, I have been working with Aga Khan Education Service (AKES, P) in
the Northern Areas of the country. I am based in Gilgit and work as Education
Development Manager. AKES, P takes pride in providing access to girls'
education and 65% of the students in our 125 primary, middle and high
schools are girls. I have initiated a Qualitative Research Forum and our
staff is very excited as they explore different issues through case studies.
We plan to publish these case studies. If things remain calm in the region
we plan to hold a national conference on Non-Formal Education in Pakistan.
It has been a challenging job and given the violence, which is still continuing
in Afghanistan, the situation in Pakistan remain also tense.
I met by chance Fatimah Ihsan at her work
and Pamela Sequeira at the airport in Islamabad. They both are
well and work in Islamabad. My own family is well in Lahore and in Germany.
It has been nice to take a break and stop by the Center. I plan to stop
by David Kinsey's Garden at the Jone's library and take inspiration before
I return to Pakistan. [March 2002].
Andrew recently wrote to announce that recently I edited a book from
a project which I had designed and obtained funding from the Humanities
Council in North Carolina. This book is being used in high schools and
the university in NC. I had started this project when I lived there in
1998-99. Jilani, A. (ed.). (2002). South Asian Voices: Oral Histories
of South Asian Immigrants in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina.
The Chapel Hill Press, Inc. [April 2003]
Layton Montgomery (M. Ed. 1994) layton@alum.mit.edu
During the last few years, I have been doing web development and research into social aspects of the internet in less industrialized countries.
I
am currently in the write-up stage of a PhD at the University of Wollongong
in Australia (although I am in Washington DC) in social aspects of the
introduction and spread of the internet in Nepal. The PhD program is a
bit different from anything I have encountered in the US. To get accepted,
I had to submit a dissertation proposal to a professor and get him agree
to take me on as a PhD candidate. After that, the university application
process was just a pro forma activity. Once accepted, the only requirement
of me is that I submit a yearly progress report, and eventually submit
a finished dissertation for review by anonymous examiners. I have done
a fair bit of background reading, and two field research trips to Nepal,
so I really do have nothing left but to write up my results now. (08/02)
Carl C. Stecker (Ed. D. 1996) Cstecker@CatholicRelief.org
I
have been the Senior Technical Advisor for HIV/AIDS for Catholic Relief
Services (CRS) since Jan 2002. However, since March 2004 I became Chief
of Party for AIDSRelief: Providing Treatment, Restoring Hope, the Catholic
Relief Services consortium that was awarded $25 million Year 1 funds to
do antiretroviral treatment (ART) in 9 of the 15 PEPFAR (President's Emergency
Fund for AIDS Relief) countries, and a total 5-year funding commitment
from PEPFAR for $335 million, the largest grant CRS has ever
received. During the month of December 2003, I helped CRS author three
multi-country grant proposals for initial PEPFAR funds; CRS received two
5-year awards. In addition to the ART grant, we were also awarded $10
million for work with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in 5 countries.
Since March 2004, I have been extremely busy getting the ART project up
and running in all nine countries. We will have done orientation, startup
activities, and site activation in 8 countries by first week in August,
and people will be on treatment in Kenya and Uganda as a result of our
work by same date (other countries to follow
in August and September). Very exciting, very tiring!
Of interest on the home front: Chantal will be a senior at Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, MN) majoring in International Relations and Peace Studies; Alyssa just graduated from high school and will be going to Northpark University in Chicago this fall; Valerie is going into 8th grade and loves soccer; Paula just finished her internship year at a local Lutheran Church in Baltimore and will complete here 4th and final year of studies for a Master's of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and be eligible for ordination as a pastor in the Lutheran Church in May 2005. [August 2004]
Pan finished her doctorate at the end of 2001 and returned to Thailand. She wrote to CIE friends recently.
My life begins to take its shape and I start to feel more settled at the moment. I have become busier with lots of work and have less time for loitering again, which is somehow fun and fulfilling for me.
Upon returning I was assigned to be in charge of the NFE teacher training activities and a project on literacy for the tribal people in hill areas of Lamphun. This project emphasizes learner-centered and community participatory approach. The present Minister of Ministry of education and the new DG (direct general) of our department, including some high ranking people in the department, are thrilled about this 'new' approach. Its refreshing to find current officials so committed to the principles that the NFE community has been practicing. The DG has been pushing and valorizing community-oriented project. In mid-February I took a group of volunteer teachers and youth from the hill areas to visit a highland development project under the patronage of the royal family in Mae Hongsorn, a province about 120 miles north of where my project site is located. We hope the visit to this project will inspire the group to envision what an education and community development model that responds to their community can look like.
On the home front, Siggi starts his house renovation today with the help of two workers from the house of his German friend. They are halfway through working on replacing the roof on the west end of our house. After that, Siggi plans to redo all plumbing system, expand the guest bathroom and then the bathroom attached to our bedroom. We're keeping busy! [February 2002] top of page
Mark Lynd (Ed.D. 1994) markrobertlynd@yahoo.com
We were delighted to welcome Mark back to CIE in early November to attend a Tuesday meeting and to see old friends. Mark describes his current activities below.
In September 2001 I started a new life. My wife Anastasia Pickens and I moved into a small (but expensive) rental house in Penngrove, CA, about an hour north of San Francisco. After working in basic education for 7 years in Africa, I am taking a break to surf, sleep, smell the flowers and learn a little about what I have been teaching others for the last 7 years. ‘Tis a story oft told – study one thing, then work in a completely different field. My years of studying participatory research at CIE were wonderful and intellectually stimulating. Then I got a job training elementary school teachers in Africa. Quite a leap! What did I know about early childhood development? Mother tongue instruction? Formal education systems? Like many of us, I had to learn quickly, then apply what I had learned to training for thousands of teachers.
In Namibia I developed programmed instructional materials with the Institute for International Research, then in Guinea I helped develop interactive radio programs with Education Development Center. Now's my chance to step back and see what kind of damage I have done. Once that assessment is complete and I get over the depression, I hope to move on to reading, studying, writing up some of my experiences and perhaps publishing something. I'm also toying with the idea of starting an NGO that would develop demonstration projects for basic education in Africa using a "package approach" or several interventions simultaneously to improve the quality of instruction for children in the early grades. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this subject, I'm all ears and would gratefully receive your comments. [November 2001] top of page
R. Kavena Shalyefu-Shimhopileni (M. Ed. 1996) kshimho@yahoo.com
Kavena was a Chief Education Officer, heading the Department of Adult and Nonformal Education in Ondangwa Educational Region in Namibia, when she came to do her Masters in Adult and Nonformal Education at CIE from1994 to1996. Kavena did her Masters Project on Training and Research: Popular Theatre as a tool for Community Educational Development. Her model is now being used by the Ministry of Basic Education and Culture for literacy mobilization and to educate communities. After finishing her degree, she was posted as a Deputy Director of the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL), responsible for programs and material development in Distance Education. She later moved to the University of Namibia to help with the establishment of the Department of Adult Education and Community Development. As a standard at all universities, faculties are required to obtain a Doctoral Degree in order to be able to execute their duties effectively.
When she visited CIE to attend the regional meeting of CIES in October 2001, this is what she had to say:
While I was working at the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) and also at the University of Namibia (UNAM), I observed the lack of professionals with training in Instructional Systems Design and the effect it was having on the performance of the institutions. That realization urged me to engage in studies that will help meet the need. I thought of coming back to CIE, my second home, but Instructional Systems Design and Distance Education are not the focus of CIE. I looked at a few institutions and Pennsylvania State University seemed to have the right mix of programs that will help prepare me to meet this need. I now miss the CIE community, because of the safe environment it provides to expose your ignorance, arrogance and intelligence. You can never be the same after the CIE experience! I am proud to be a CIE/UMass graduate.
You are welcome to visit Kavena's Web Site at: http://www.personal.psu.edu/rks160. You will find references there for her site on African Studies materials for U.S. primary schools and other sites she has designed. [October, 2001] top of page
Haleh Arbab (Ed. D. 1995) bhcorrea@prodigy.net