Program Team 

The following team members define Empowerment WORKS and bring the vital integrity, diverse expertise and unstoppable commitment to realize it's game-changing vision.

Melanie St.James, MPA
Executive Director & Global Programs Director (USA)

Executive Producer & Co-Chair, The Global Summit

Melanie's passion to promote a sustainable world began at 20 in 1994 with a semester in mainland China where she saw early warnings of the pressing social and environmental challenges facing humanity.

Through field studies to Senegal and Zimbabwe Melanie learned of the many challenges that citizens of these countries face; limited access to education, healthcare and profitable markets for their goods.  Touched by the warmth and intelligence of the people she met, Melanie decided to put her education to use by innovating projects that catalyze local resources to meet human needs and ensure a sustainable future. In the summer of 2001, Melanie formed “Empowerment Works” to raise funds and implement such development programs.   

Returning to China in Fall 2009, this time to teach, Melanie delivered EW's 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) addressing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the service learning curriculum for the ongoing World Academy for the Future of Women in its first Semester.

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). And,  in 2007 after participating in the World Social Forum in Kenya, Melanie initiated  Empowerment WORKS' biennial conference  The Global Summit (2008, 2010, 2012 +)  a platform to unite the world's most powerful and grassroots voices to develop sustainable solutions.

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. In 2007 she published a medicinal plant based AIDS treatment which she seeks partners to help make available in the developing world at cost.  Her training in Transformative Mediation and International Negotiations has contributed to EW's multi-sector collaboration model. Fluent in French and Spanish, Melanie has lived and traveled across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Bandita Thapa, MA

Regional Director-Asia (Nepal)

Co-Chair of The Global Summit 2012

Nepal is one of the most culturally-rich and bio-diverse nations on earth- with the highest mountains, deep water supplies and over 60 extraordinary ethnic groups,  yet still facing critical economic, political and environmental challenges.

Nepali born and raised global social entrepreneur, Bandita Thapa, became involved with EW in 2010 when she came to the USA to participate in The Global Summit II, and pledged to replicate the multi-sector forum to empower more voices to be heard in her country. Still in her 20s, Bandita has worked for the past 10 years to create locally-led change, founding two organizations and serving as an expert in Monitoring and Evaluations for international organizations and donor agencies including United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

After The Global Summit 2010, Bandita's follow up exploration and on-the-ground development time in Nepal with EW's Executive Director led to the co-creation of "CAT: Catalyst Action Training" - a unique community development education initiative whereby local organizers develop the 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) training content & tools in their own language through addressing local issues.

Marking her dedication to create change as the youngest program officer in PLAN International at 20 Bandita has since traveled the world advancing her skills in Asset Based Community Development, and continues to blaze trails representing the voices of grassroots women. She has also earned a Masters Degree in Sociology, TU Nepal, 2007, and Post Graduate Diploma in Leadership Development, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada, 2009 (completed as an Award Winner of CIDA).

Serving a strategic role in the two groups she founded in Nepal (the Hamro Forum and Women Foundation Nepal) as well as Co-Chair of The Global Summit 2012, Bandita applies EW collaboration frameworks to most fully engage marginalized voices in The Global Summit and beyond.

Edith Regier, MFA

Artists in Action Global Program Director (Canada)

Chair of Culture for The Global Summit 2012

Everyone has the right to an imagination, through our imaginations we dream, heal, and create futures for ourselves, our families, our communities. This belief fuels Edith’s passion for Transmedia Storytelling with people in remote locations. The groups of people that Edith meets with are at times remote in the traditional geographical sense but often are those who while situated in inner-cities are remote from education, health resources, political voice, economic opportunity  and some in the severe isolation of prison. Through their collective Transmedia stories they seek to open the hearts and wills of those who listen.

In 1996, Edith founded one of the first community based arts organizations in Canada, the Portage Art Project where she co-created with imprisoned women. Like many Canadians she didn’t realize that 85%  of the imprisoned women were Aboriginal and this was the beginning of more than a decade of collectively producing images that expressed their lived histories. In 2002 she founded the not for profit organization Crossing Communities Art Project where she has developed a participatory process with collective authorship focused on making transmedia representations with the intention to create dialogues to shift the dynamics of exclusion. Many of these short films can be seen on the Crossing Communities Art Project produced www.lookingspeakingout.com. In 2007 she received the Kaiser Foundation Award for  Excellence in Aboriginal Programming.

Collaborating with partners in Thailand, Brazil, Nepal , the UK, United States, across Canada and its remote northern regions she stages interdisciplinary media events to engage in dialogue with members of parliament, medical professionals, academics,  cultural leaders, religious groups, prison staff, and many others. Crossing Communities Art Project’s collectively directed award winning Transmedia films have been screened to international audiences in film festivals and art galleries.

Edith joins Empowerment Works bringing her skills for social transformation to her role as Chair of Culture for the Global Summit London and Program Director Artists in Action.

Kofi Kankam  
Regional Director-Africa (Ghana)

Co-Chair, The Global Summit 2012