Mission/Overview
    Background

    Our People
      - Program Staff
      -
Board of Directors
      - Advisory Board
      - Research Fellows

      -
Global Trustees 
    Core Perspectives
    Words from our Founder
    EW Structure & Culture
    Funding Opportunities
    Spending /Development
    Guiding Principles

    Frequently Asked Questions


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROGRAM STAFF & CORE VOLUNTEERS

Melanie St.James, MPA
Executive Director & Global Program Officer

Melanie is a full-time Social Entrepreneur and the Executive Director of Empowerment Works. Her passion to promote a sustainable world began at 20 with a semester in mainland China where she saw population (then 5.6 billion, now 6,706,993,152 *July 2008 est. - CIA fact book) vs. increasing consumption as the most pressing security challenge facing humanity. She has dedicated her life since to addressing root causes and developing systemic solutions.

In 1999, Melanie's field research in Human Security and Population took her into separatist conflict regions of West Africa where her experience with culturally-rich communities underscored the need for collaborative, locally-led, solutions. Putting this theory into practice, Melanie founded EW in 2001, along with EW's first community-based programs- in Senegal and Zimbabwe.

As Executive Director of Empowerment Works, Melanie oversees programs, innovates educational workshops and presents publicly at diverse environmental and social forums. A few highlights include the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, the 2004 Sustainable Resources Conference in Boulder; Chairing/ Moderating the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth, 2008 Global Sound Conference, +. In 2006 Melanie co-founded the Coalition for a Sustainable Africa (CSA), for which she serves as Director of Capacity Building.

Returning to China in Fall 2009, this time to teach as a founding facilitator of the World Academy for the Future of Women (WAFW), Melanie delivered EW's 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS), which is now the official community development curriculum of the ongoing women's leadership program.

Following her father's footsteps as a green inventor in the private sector, in 2002 Melanie founded, and continues to develop- BioNova™ Medical Corporation, a medicinal plant based intellectual property management firm, reinvesting indigenous knowledge to conserve bio-diversity.

Melanie holds a Masters of Public Administration in International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ Graduate School of International Policy Studies, and a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Schiller International University in Madrid, Spain. Her training in Transformative Mediation and International Negotiations has contributed to EW's multi-sector collaboration model. Fluent in French and Spanish, Ms. St.James has lived and conducted research throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and Central America. Melanie resides in Venice Beach, California with her dog, Jackson, is committed to driving as little, and eating as much of a Vegan diet as possible - as the reduction of meat related Methane is pivotal to climate change.

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Courtney White, LCSW
Community Liaison

Courtney has been working in the world of non-profits and government organizations since 1996. While earning her Masters in Social Work through UCLA, Courtney lived, studied, and worked in Durban, South Africa. Looking at the epidemic of HIV, Courtney worked with the University of Natal, the Jane Goodall Institute, Sinikithema Clinic, and McCord Hospital to develop holistic approaches in prevention with teens, income generating projects with mothers, and organizational development with institutions.

Courtney also has experience working with African communities in London, England through the British Red Cross Refugee Unit and the Family Resource Team of the Borough of Southwark. Courtney currently conducts research and provides direct mental health services to the homeless population through the US Department of Veteran Affairs in Los Angeles.

In addition to her demanding social work career, Courtney plays a quintessential role in managing EW interns for global programs as well as co-creating EW Artists In Action Events in Los Angeles.

 

Abagail Fritz
West African Region & US Cultural Programs Director

Abagail has a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies, a Minor in Small Business Management, and a great passion for African dance. Her first visit to Africa through NGO, Cross Cultural Solutions, Abagail worked as a volunteer teacher at the age of 20. Inspired by her experiences with driven students in an education system of 3rd world conditions, Abagail returned to Chicago, IL to finish a degree in Cultural Studies, a practice that evaluates and identifies power structures within different societal demographics. She applied her studies to dance cultures to better understand how dance plays a role in social change. She interned with dance education non-profit, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project, while finishing her undergrad in 2008. Here she developed her management skills at the grass-roots level, helping to develop fundraising, scholarship, and marketing programs.

A Rocky Mountain native, Abagail returned home to Colorado for six months in 2008 to work with eco-traveling company, Explore Africa, where she was introduced to the environmental as well as social and cultural benefits of eco-educational tourism in Africa. Three years after her first visit to Ghana, Abagail returned for her third visit to Africa to study traditional dance with master teachers from Guinea-Conakry in 2009.

Now living in San Francisco, CA, she will attend the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking in October, 2009 to prepare for the documentation of EW's cultural focused sustainable development initiatives in Guinea-Conakry, and other West African countries for 2010.

Marie Stojimirovic, MS
Collaboration Research & Evaluation Director

Recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Rouen in France, Marie won a full scholarship to come to the US and serve as a full-time intern with EW. Her creative brilliance designing the Partners In Empowerment international survey and evaluation will not only advance EW's global impact but the social science of multi-sector collaboration. To further support data analysis and monitor long term success of 1pie.org (multi-sector collaboration portal) upon her return to France, Marie will remain on EW’s global team as an honored EW Research Fellow.

Marie’s own words describe her best: “I contacted Empowerment Works because I am very interested by international solidarity and holistic approach and thinking that the economy should totally be embedded in the society instead of controlling it!

Moreover, I feel very concerned by the different types of domination which still persist at every level of our world (between social classes, “races”, countries, sexes, etc.) and are especially materialized in our economic system.

That’s why I plan to get a PhD in sociology to analyse and understand the different practices in sustainable development and explain what’s working or not and why.

Like EW, I believe that educational institutions and researchers have a role to play in social change because they have the skills and the knowledge to understand and explain the reality. Building partnerships between international institutions could be very effective to have a global and accurate view of populations’ needs and programs' results. To build these precious partnerships and organize different research programs, I will collaborate with EW and do my best to contribute to this process.”

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Stefan Cibian
Global Policy Research Director

Stefan is currently a PhD Candidate at Central European University, Department of International Relations and European Studies. He holds a BA in Political Science (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), a BA in Law (1st of December University, Alba Iulia, Romania) as well as an MA in Public Policy (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary).

Stefan works on international relations theory and development policy.

Stefan's PhD thesis focuses on the expansion of Western forms of societal organization to non-Western areas with a specific focus on the relevance of development aid for international relations. Previously Stefan has worked with several youth/student organizations. He enjoys working on community development and building up international networks.

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Jeff Buderer
Sustainable Development & Appropriate Technologies Strategist

Jeff's current research areas include information technology, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and eco-building practices as part of an integrated, assets-based (“Holistic Village”) approach to sustainable development. Jeff's multi-faceted support of EW includes creation and editing The Inspired Citizen blog, managing various aspects of web communications, facilitating global partnerships, programs and serving as co-Chair of the Digital Village committee and membership on The Global Summit strategy team.

Jeff Buderer received his degree in political science at Missouri State University in 1999 where he researched Arcosanti – a futuristic prototype for urban sustainable development located in the desert of Arizona. Once graduating, he moved to Arizona and joined Arcosanti as Construction Crew Chief and trained participants how to apply sustainable development theories and tools on the job site. While there, he enrolled in the first total immersion course on Ecological Design offered by Ecosa Institute -one of the few courses of its kind. This four month course gave him a comprehensive view of Ecological Design. Thereafter, in the Paradox III Conference, which featured an eclectic mix of digital visionaries, utopians, technologists, architects, communitarians, and sustainability experts, Jeff saw the convergence of Information Technologies in support of the rapid adaptation of sustainable technologies. Putting his passion for the Digital Village into action, Jeff serves as oneVillage Foundation's operations and program director.

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Julia Kunzekwenyika
EW Zimbabwe Program Director


Julia is an African born & raised social entrepreneur, business-woman, artist and mother who has dedicated years to empowering hundreds of people out of poverty. With minimal outside support, she has paid orphan school fees, purchased uniforms, set up a community library and helped widows become self sufficient by empowering them to make crafts which she would sell at local markets. Julia began to set herself apart as a social entrepreneur when her sick Aunt (with brain seizures) was shunned by
her relatives because of their cultural superstitions.  Against the demands of her entire family, Julia sold tomatoes on the street corner to pay the medical bills and nursed her terminally ill Aunt until she passed away in dignity.  Julia and her brother Tapiwa started T&J Painted Fabrics as a craft project which has successfully expanded with training and employment of over 10 members.  T & J Batiks are sold locally at the Zimbabwe National Art Gallery and are beginning to make a name internationally with retailers such as the American Smithsonian Museum Store.

Over the past 20 years this In addition to helping her community, Julia has managed to send 3 of her 4 kids to college. One daughter recently graduated from medical school. *EW’s founder, Melanie St.James had developed a relationship with Julia for 2 years prior to launching Empowerment Works AIDS relief & Orphan Care projects in Zimbabwe.

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Tobias Sturmer, MA
EW Music - Ethnomusicology Artistic
Director

Tobias Sturmer is an ethnomusicologist, producer, social entrepreneur, musician, composer and educator living in London, UK and Cologne, Germany.  Originally from Germany, he has lived in Dominican Republic, USA, Senegal and Venezuela, studying music and culture, teaching and performing.

Since arriving in London in 1998, he has acquired an MA in Ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. He performs professionally on the London Jazz, Latin and African music scene as well as on the contemporary dance scene.  T.S.  has been running a non-profit artist support scheme in Senegal and Uganda since 2002. The aim of his work has been to 1) encourage cultural and economic development of African communities by providing African musicians with tools for self-reliance, and 2) to document and to enhance the cultural heritage of musical traditions in Africa.  In the course of the project T.S. has supported more than 20 bands in Casamance/Senegal and Luwero/Uganda.

Mr. Sturmer lived one year in Casamance, Senegal learning about Diola music and culture. He initiated a charitable recording project in the Casamance region, which has now become EW-Music, with its first Album, Music of the Diola, Vol. 1, released in Dec. 2007!

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Ariel Kraten
Development Assistant & Suriname Program Facilitator


Ariel recently returned from serving in the US Peace Corps in 2006 after spending two years in Suriname, South America.  While living in a remote Amazon village, learning a new language and culture, Ariel helped to install her village's first running water system and coordinated numerous AIDS benefit events and community projects.  Ariel earned both a BA in Classics & Religion and a BS in Photojournalism at Boston University, where she was awarded a full-tuition scholarship and was a member of their highly competitive NCAA Division I rowing team.
Ariel has a passion for international humanitarian work and she has interned for the Nobel-Prize winning organization Physicians for Human Rights in the communications department.  She has also won awards for both her writing and photography.  While putting these skills to use as EW's Part-Time Development Coordinator, she is also pursuing her MS in Non-profit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, increasing her skill base as well as EW's access to new developments in the Not-for-Profit business world.

 

Lindsay Gatz
Graphic Designer of Event Promotions & Print

Principal of Von Rocko Design Lindsay has created much of EW's creative content.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dana Arak, Atty
Chair of Board & Artists in Action Events

Dana is a multi-talented attorney, human rights activist, author and founding partner of BlueGreenStar Studios which provides sustainable solutions for creative media - leading the way in evolving Hollywood towards social responsibility. In addition to specializing in trademark law, she dedicated her time to helping launch new green businesses. Her entry point to EW came with her efforts to develop a project in Cambodia promoting sustainable food production to fund local education, complimented by eco-tourism project honoring local culture.

 

Holly Mosher
Public Advocacy Chair

A serial award-winning Filmmaker for Change, Holly Mosher grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In high school she developed a passion for both photography and philosophy that led her to pursue filmmaking. In her college entrance paper, she cited George Orwell’s idea that all art should be political, and today, uses that concept to guide her work.

Holly graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, she spent two years in Brazil working as an assistant picture and sound editor on four feature films, including the Oscar nominated films O QUATRILHO, TIETA, and PEQUENO DICIONARIO AMOROSO. Now having executive produced many of her own masterpieces including, HUMMINGBIRD, FREE FOR ALL!, and THE VANISHING OF THE BEES, Holly is now in production on her second directorial project, BONSAI, where she is following the work of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. Holly is also a co-founder of Be Well Media, a non-profit which aims to create films and other entertainment that inspire people to take their health into their own hands.

 

Stephan McGuire
Perma-culture & Partnerships Chair

Stephan is President and Founder of Coalition for a Sustainable Africa. CSAfrica is an international coalition, of non-profit organizations offering sustainable solutions for grass-roots initiatives to empower the people and communities of Africa.

For almost 11 years, Stephan has been a Producer with Tree Media Group through which he co-produced The 11th Hour documentary, narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Stephan is committed to The 11th Hr film becoming a movement. This year he founded GreenTownACTION!, an American program documenting on-the-ground sustainable action in a ‘green’ YouTube’ type web portal to be launched in the autumn of 2009. In April, 2009, Stephan was awarded Green Dot Award’s “Visionary of the Year” by a distinguished international jury. Additional projects & clients include Woody Harrelson's Voice Yourself in 2003, 11th Hour Action campaign, web-portals for Global Green USA, the Official 2000 Presidential Campaign Library for the Council on Foreign Relations, and California's Heal the Bay.

Bringing 11th Hour Action to Africa, Stephan has become the Executive Director of GAWA, (Green Awareness Africa) in Namibia, southern Africa, where he is implementing officially mandated sustainability programs with the Namibian American Embassy, the Prime Minister and President, and large African corporations who are taking the lead in environmental awareness and action. Perhaps at the root of these actions, Stephan has studied sustainable, earth-restorative farming and living practices called "Permaculture" on the island of Hawaii in 2001-2002 and in Costa Rica 2003-2004, where he became a certified Permaculture Teacher. Permaculture techniques focus on making our communities healthy, culturally rich, and self-reliant models of integrated living. He attended colleges and universities in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Stephan is now in pre-production on a documentary called "Losing My Religion", which documents Jehovah's Witnesses as they leave and find their way in the world. In June, 2009, he formed his own film production company called Hungry Creature Presents and begins production in January 2010.

 

Rick Pinckert
Communications Chair

An Information Technologies expert with a strong cultural background Rick guides the Digital Village committee of The Global Summit. Rick's day job is Network Administrator at the USC Annenberg School for Communication where he manages the distance Learning technical program, Video Conferencing and decision-making role in evaluating new technology for internet content sharing for faculty and students. Previously, he served as Director of Technical Services at USC's Advanced Bioinformatics and Biotechnology Center, where he directed and supervised IT technical support teams. Influenced by his aunt the world-famous psychic Jean Dixon he began what was to become a long history of research into alternative healing and metaphysics including studying with Yogi Bhajan 1970, the Yuen Method of Chinese Energetic Medicine and advanced courses in Meditation and Healing with the Southern California Psychic Institute. As Executive Producer he is premiering "Stellar Transformation"; a TV show about how people can transform themselves with alternative healing arts. As an active member of the LA grassroots cultural community, he has been involved in various productions including the Program Director for a Four Star Records project, "Little Elmo" that initiated neighborhood children's theatre projects with performances at The Los Angeles Garden Theatre Festival.

Susan Daya Hamwi, Atty
Legal Chair & Director of Mediation

Daya became a lawyer at the tender age of 23. However, during 13 of her 18 years in legal practice, she has been working as a mediator and has been a dedicated advocate for indigenous peoples rights. She is now serving as Legal Adviser and Counsel at Settlement Works, a center for dynamic family resolution. Susan holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Loyola Law School and a Bachelor of Arts, Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1989 and completed the LA County Bar Association's mediation training program in 2001. Susan lives with her seven year old son, also near the water, in Venice, California.

Adam Krim
Marketing Chair

Adam Krim brings to EW a rich background in both marketing and finance. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business and serving at Deloitte Consulting in SF, he moved to LA in late 1999 where he began launching startups. He joined Business.com when they shifted to the cost per click model. After excelling there for 18 months, he left to start a liquor company Progressive Brands, helping to raise $3M and building their main brand – HAN. Adam currently serves as Director of Business Development at Affiliate Fuel, owned by Experian. While his corporate job keeps his high tech marketing skills on the leading edge, Adam's long term passion project is “The Confluence Group” a revolutionary online and offline social network based marketing firm, and EW Partner In Empowerment!

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Advisory Board

Pamela Millar
Private Public Partnerships /TGS
Co-Chair, 1PIE Portal

At the nexus of Sun Microsystems’ role in creating Open Standards for Globalization, Pamela is now leading EW's strategy to globalize sustainability, starting with six key sectors of PIE (Partners in Empowerment).

Principal of Bridgemakers Consulting, Pamela Millar has entrepreneur in her bloodstream, having spent the past twenty years launching computer software and hardware companies into the global market. She has her MBA in international management and some of the biggest names in information technology companies in the world have been her clients, including Pixar, Compaq, Netscape and Sun Microsystems. Pamela helped optimize market positioning for innovative software companies around the world, including Dynaware, Pastel Development, Pixar Corporation, No Hands Software, Kensington Microware and others. Her range of experience includes both inbound and outbound marketing, from market development planning to product advertising and messaging worldwide. She is fluent in French and Spanish, speaks some Mandarin Chinese, and has lived and worked in France, Belgium, Mexico and Taiwan.

Leading development of EW's 1PIE Portal, Pamela brings experience as senior global product strategist for Sun Microsystems for seven years, co-chairing the steering committee which determined the worldwide strategy for the company's software portfolio and chairing a group of product marketing directors across the company. Many of her responsibilities included customer needs analysis, competitive and market segment analysis, product requirements definition and global marketing strategy. In partnership with the global engineering team at Sun, Pamela contributed over one million lines of source code to the open source community, including the entire multilingual architecture for the Solaris Operating System. Since leaving Sun, Pamela has been guiding and stewarding new entrepreneurial companies such as Green Technology Institute, TEKIO, the Romero Institute, Earth Networks Television and Justsystems Corporation.

In her spare time, Pamela has also been active social entrepreneur. She rode her bicycle across the United States to raise money for Mobility International, an organization which helps people with disabilities travel internationally. Still committed to this cause, Pamela helped form the Accessibility initiative at Sun Microsystems, ensuring equal access for people with disabilities to the latest internet technology across the suite of Sun's products.

Pamela co-authored a book of Buddhist spiritual teachings, which is now selling worldwide in 23 languages. Her contacts with readers around the world sensitized her to the living conditions of impoverished communities worldwide. With a rash of natural disasters in many areas of the world in the 1990's, Pamela helped organize numerous flood relief efforts in the US, Latin America and Europe. She is also a field reporter for a satellite television station broadcasting only positive and inspirational programming around the world.

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Jenny Huang, MS
Chief Technology Advisor

Jenny Huang specializes in advanced software architecture design and agile software development processes with the aim to enhance organization productivity and align IT solutions with business objectives. As a senior Technology Consultant at a major global communication service provider, Jenny is responsible for the research and development of industry standards for next generation operations support systems. In this capacity, she also serves as co-chair for both the Service Delivery Framework program at the TeleManagement Forum and the Telecom Interest Group at the Object Management Group - two of the largest global consortia who advance and create the software standards for the Communication and IT industries. Just recently, Jenny received the TM Forum Distinguished Fellow Award, she is the first minority woman honored with this title since the establishment of the forum 20 years ago. To see the ceremony, Click here.

Ms. Huang has extensive experience working side by side with the industry’s top talents, and she is now eager to apply her knowledge and influence at the grassroots level. Jenny firmly believes that the solutions to humanity’s most pressing issues require global interventions that harness good ideas and effectively transform them in to practical solutions. Since 2006, Jenny has served as a full time volunteer and Executive Director of the International Free and Open Source Software Foundation (iFOSSF). As a committed supporter of EW's vision of multi-sector collaborations, she will assist the organization in creating the processes and technologies that can enable people to make educated choices regarding public investments and channel market forces to support novel ideas with measurable results.

Jenny holds a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Master degree in Computer Science. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

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Sophie LaPaire
Strategic Development

Sophie has a keen eye for optimizing organizational efficiency within business planning systems. She has a talent in unifying processes across multiple divisions and organizations, standardizing workflow, eliminating redundancy in process, and specifying exact timelines and deliverables. She has worked very actively with product teams to increase time to market while keeping an eagle eye on quality metrics. She has vast experience in architecting repeatable and efficient workflow systems and guiding her customers toward desired success
metrics. An experienced diplomat, Sophie is a skilled business negotiator, successfully mediating cross-cultural and cross-divisional priorities. She is also versed at financial planning, budget tracking systems and financial reporting.

In her private life, Sophie is an avid golfer, having played for years on the French National Golf team as well as competitively representing UCLA on a Fulbright scholarship throughout her college years before joining the professional mini-tour.

Sophie has a personal passion for the protection of human rights and has been actively supporting numerous humanitarian causes since her early adulthood. She lived and worked in the Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong, assisting the “boat people” with social and job skills and offering a source of moral support for their plight. She has also served as liaison and communications manager for numerous flood relief efforts in conjunction with the International
Red Cross and has spoken before international audiences on the needs of refugees and the disenfranchised. She co-authored a book of Buddhist spiritual teachings which is now selling in 23 languages worldwide. She is also a field reporter for a satellite television station broadcasting only positive and inspirational programming around the world.

Sophie is now president of Bridgemakers Consulting Corporation, a group of like-minded consultants and business coaches who offer a range of services including product management and product marketing, strategic business planning, program management and customer service optimization.

Jay Levin
Mass Media, Social Change & Journalistic Ethics

Jay Levin is one of the pioneers and leaders in the independent media industry. He has led companies in the publishing, TV Network and Internet industries. Mr. Levin is known for his wide knowledge, his general editorial and business creativity, and his experience as a leading independent culture and news specialist with an extensive range of contacts. As the Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Weekly, under his editorial, marketing and sales leadership the newspaper became the largest circulation and most advertising-rich weekly paper in the country and won numerous journalism awards. While he was heading the LA Weekly, the paper founded the popular magazine LA Style. Later he created Planet Central TV, a startup cable television network. He currently heads up RealTALKLA.com

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Dianne McCutchan, MA
EW Co-founder & Development Advisor

Dianne McCutchan has helped build EW from the ground up- since 2001. Formerly director of consulting and information services for the Nonprofit Support Center in Santa Barbara, Dianne is now serving as the Development Director of the United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara. In that role, she is growing resources available for youth development programs, athletics, summer camp and teen programming. She has chosen to focus on local youth, as a means of providing compelling alternatives to youth violence, bridging the achievement gap, and helping acquire and implement tools for academic success.

Applying her MA in Anthropology from University California Santa Barbara, Dianne lectured college courses on Women in Development, and community psychology giving much needed exposure to issues faced by the global communities EW serves. At home in California Ms. McCutchan, with over seven years experience in nonprofit management, has successfully implemented a variety of youth education programs emphasizing teenage pregnancy prevention work and public education. Her professional roles include Project Coordinator for United Boys & Girls Clubs and a collaborative grant project with Planned Parenthood and other partners focused on teenage pregnancy prevention; Launching Teens and Toddlers, a youth development program FOR at-risk youth in Santa Barbara through Empowerment Works. Later as Executive Director of "Children: Our Ultimate Investment", in Los Angeles, Dianne multiplied Teens and Toddlers programs and funding where it is needed most.

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Suad Sulaiman, PhD
Global Health

Dr. Sulaiman has over 30 years of research and program management experience addressing the root causes of Sudan's inextricably linked social and environmental challenges.

Suad has been an active and founding member of the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society (SECS) since its founding 1975 and served on the executive committee for 4 years. SECS is Sudan's largest and most respected environmental and sustainable community development organization with 120 branches and over 12,000 members throughout the country.

An expert in community development, climate change, waterborne diseases, Dr. Sulaiman is an advisor to the World Bank, WHO and guides multi-stakeholder collaboration in environmental and agricultural management as part of the Nile River Discourse.

Recognizing the value of her local dedication and knowledge, Empowerment Works is proud to partner with Dr. Sulaiman in extending its community-based approach to the Sudan as Joint Program Director of EW's integrative eco-restoration, health and economic development strategy in her country. [See Resume]

Meeting a timely challenge to raise climate change consciousness, and funds to empower those most affected with the economic, educational and environmental tools to fight it on the very front lines, Dr. Sulaiman made a bridge-building tour to the United States from August 4-20th to inspire hope and solutions for a healthy, peaceful and sustainable Sudan.

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David C. Jamali
Organizational Development & Human Rights

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, David is East Asia Program Officer with Oxfam Australia focusing on Timor Leste. Before working on the East Asia desk; he worked on the Oxfam Australia’s Horn of Africa Program in the same role focusing primarily on the Somaliland program and helping on the Ethiopia program. He has been with Oxfam Australia for almost 4 years. Before going to Australia, he worked with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association for 8 years, starting with the role of Field officer and helped to build the Economic and Social Rights Outreach Program of the organization and later moved up to become the National Programs Coordinator and was responsible for managing all the organization’s programs and acted as Executive Director. David managed donor relationship and large budgets for institutional donors like the Ford Foundation, European Commission (EC), HIVOS, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), USAID, Danish International Development Aid (DANIDA), Netherlands, British Embassy grants, Swedish and Canadian Embassy grants.

In addition to his broad international development and human rights achievements, David is a sculptor/artist, current affairs host on a independent radio station in Melbourne and proud new father of a beautiful baby girl, Maya. Read about David's May 2007 trip home to Zimbabwe

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EW Research Fellows

Michael Abrams, MA
Research Fellow for Quality of Life

Michael Abrams holds a Master’s in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins, which he attended on a University Fellowship, and a Bachelor’s, cum laude, from Hunter College. Other awards include being a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship competition, and a participant in Argonne National Laboratory’s Undergraduate Research Program.

Michael’s work history includes employment as a Systems Engineer in the Advanced Research Divisions of both Westinghouse and Sperry Corporations, where he helped develop next-generation radar systems for the US military. In addition, he has contributed to research efforts at Columbia University’s School of Public Health and the Stevens Institute of Technology. Michael has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Statistics Department at Florida International University. With extensive experience tutoring college students in Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Michael is currently a Course Developer and Adjunct Professor at Excelsior College, a virtual university and will start a MA in Individualized Studies program at Goddard College (Environmental Studies Concentration) in Fall 2007.

The caviat for Michael becoming EW’s first official Research Fellow centers on his study of ‘quality of life’ (QOL), as a means of transcending the conventional approach of gauging social development by total economic output (GDP). Ultimately, he intends to use his work as the basis of a textbook for a college-level course that would introduce students to the subject of ‘QOL and Its Measurement’. The Earth Charter reminds us that, “We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.” Precisely what this ‘being more’ entails, at the level of society, will be the focus of his work at Goddard College, which EW will apply to its like-minded evaluation system. Read more about Michael's work on EW's Inspired Citizen Journal & Blog.

Kachina Katrina Zavalney, MA
Research Fellow building "Community Organizers Tool Kit"

Kachina Katrina is an extraordinary organizer, community builder, event planner, greener of everything she touches, educator, and organizational development consultant.

Empowerment Works has distinguished Kachina as an official "Research Fellow" for the "community organizers tool kit" she is developing for inspired people who want to do something about the problems in this world, and don't know where to start. Outlining specific practices and resources for local solutions, EW looks forward to applying this educational resource and capacity-building tool in global programs and within the PIE network. In addition to having a global program platform for her work, being an EW Research Fellow also enables Kachina to fund raise for its completion through EW as non-profit fiscal sponsor.

Kachina Katrina has been referred to as a master net worker, connecting broad spectrums of people together through important issues and innovative solutions. She has learned and practiced community building sharpening organizing skills with the City Repair project in Portland, OR since 1999, becoming their national outreach coordinator.

Read more about & download Kachina's Toolkit via EW's Inspired Citizen welcoming her to EW!

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Global Trustees

Dr. Emanuel Bassene
Senegal

Professor and Director of Senegal's National University University Anta Chiek Diop Medical School Department of Ethnobiology. Dr. Bassene is a native of the southern Casamance region of Senegal. His insights into the indigenous Diola culture and scientific research experience make him an invaluable adviser and co-creator of the Casamance Institute of Arts & Sciences vision since 2001.

Craig Chirinda
Zimbabwe

Principal of Nova Capital Group, Craig promotes trade and investment into the southern Africa region, which is the place of his childhood. Although he is based in the States, he is actually a Zimbabwe national. He has handled nearly US$4 billion in leads, financing deals, and joint ventures flowing into Africa and if that isn’t enough he speaks seven languages. And he has managed to get all of this under while still in his early twenties.

As an international trustee, based in Harare, Zimbabwe, Craig has developed an extraordinary local oversight committee and outreaching globally to promote economic self reliance in expanding markets for EWZ Beyond Fair Trade™ crafts. Read a great interview with Craig Here

Elisaveta Petkova, MPH
Bulgaria

Elisaveta holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Environmental Health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (2008) and a BS in Biotechnology (2003) from Asen Zlatarov University in Bulgaria.

Elisaveta has extensive experience with environmental and human health risk assessment, and risk communication. At the present she is a project manager at StrataTox, LLC, a Minnesota based human health risk assessment consulting company. Previously she was a program development specialist and conference organizer at the International QSAR Foundation to reduce animal testing and a Research Assistant at the University Of Minnesota School Of Medicine in Duluth, MN.

An accomplished communicator, skilled in media outreached, Elisaveta has a special talent in social marketing and communicating organization's vision, mission, and values to various audiences. She joined the EW team in 2006 to help shape the image of Empowerment Works! by creating a website reflecting the core values and vision of EW, and continues to serve in an advisory role. Visit: www.epetkova.com

David Whortley
United Kingdom

Director of Serious Games Institute in Coventry England, David Whortley is a renowned expert in online communications and lectures globally on the social impact of Second Life and other virtual worlds.

In his role as EW Global Trustee, he is providing EW and participants of the Global Summit a physical address in the UK at Serious Games Institute along with access to over 70 international communication spaces in the “Soft Landing Zones” project sponsored by the UK Trade & Investment Dept.

David became involved in EW in 2007 after co-chairing day 3 of the International Symposium on Digital Earth with EW's Melanie St.James.

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