Hema Abeygunawardena passed away in July 2004

Her obituary can be found Here.

Hema was a teacher and an educator in her home country of Sri Lanka before coming to CIE. She earned an M.Ed. from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1980 which focused on the participation of girls and women in formal and nonformal education programs in the Nuwara Eliya region of Sri Lanka.

Eloy Anello passed away in October 2009
His obituary can be found Here.

Eloy lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, beginning in the early 1970’s. He was the leader of a group that included his brother Francisco Anello, which founded Unversidad Nur in 1985, a private university in Santa Cruz based on the universal principles of the Baha’i faith.

Norman Hiza passed away in January 1999
His obituary can be found Here.

Originally from Tanzania, Norman was a well-known educator in his home country.  He also was an officer in the Tanzanian Army and was part of the force that invaded Uganda in 1978 to overthrow the regime of Idi Amin.

James Dawson passed away in December 2003
His obituary can be found Here.

Before coming to CIE, ‘JD’ as he liked to be called, was a civil rights activist fighting injustice in America and a union organizer fighting for the rights of blue-collar workers.

Mario Acevedo passed away in August 2016. 
His obituary can be found Here.

After finishing her doctorate, Rema worked with a variety of United Nations agencies including UNDP, UNIFEM, and UNICEF.  Her principal activities included Multi-Country Programming and Grants Management; Metrics and Evaluation; Public Relations; High level advocacy with UN Missions and Embassies; and Representation at conferences and meetings.

In 2003 she became the Director for Public Health with the American India Foundation which is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth.

I am originally from the Netherlands.  I began working there, and then worked in Zambia and Nepal.  After Nepal, where I met Charles Harns who convinced me to consider CIE, I came to Amherst to pursue a M.Ed. focusing on Adult Numeracy and Literacy.

While studying at CIE, Greg also worked as the manager of two USIA-funded projects at CIE called Teacher-Text-Technology projects – one in Somalia and one in Tanzania.   

After leaving CIE, Greg worked for more than a decade with United Airlines, and subsequently as Director of Sales Training for School Specialty, Inc. in 2009 Greg started a new career with Peace Corps.

Bonnie (Mullinix) and I have told the story many times of how we came to CIE and UMass. While in the Peace Corps in The Gambia as volunteers and volunteer leaders (1980-1983), we encountered a few people who all shared a connection to a program called CIE at the University of Massachusetts.

After finishing their course work at CIE in 1990 Grant and Marisa Suhm spent six years in Micronesia, working as faculty members at the College of Micronesia where Grant was the Founder and Director of the Department of Agriculture. Grant also worked as the Training Director for Peace Corps in Micronesia and later in Ecuador and Sri Lanka.