Participant Bios

Dr. Angel Pichardo Almonte is a medical doctor, healer, university professor, social researcher, and popular educator. He holds a masters in social work with specialization in masculinity and violence prevention. He has worked for more than 30 years in these areas in numerous countries throughout Latin America, North America and Europe. In addition, he is currently director of the Center for Partnership on Masculinity and Gender Studies, and Health Center Natural ANDA (Nutritional Counseling for Harmonious Development). He also coordinates Cornell University’s Global Health program in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Balu Balasubramaniam is a development activist, leadership trainer and a public policy advocate. A physician by training, he is the founder of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (www.svym.org), one of India’s leading development organisations. He is also the Founder & Chairman of Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (www.graam.org.in). He is the Frank Rhodes Professor at Cornell University and teaches leadership courses and runs leadership workshops both in India and the USA. He is a Tata Scholar, a Mason Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School and a fellow at the Hauser Centre for Non-profits, Harvard University.

Joshilyn studies economics, sociology, international studies, and women's studies at Kansas State University. Following her senior year of high school, she spent a year working in Ecuador with Global Citizen Year, a leadership development program modeled after the Peace Corps. Since coming to Kansas State last fall, her interests in social, economic, and environmental justice have deepened, and she has invested her time in working with marginalized populations in Manhattan and serving on the leadership team for Students for Environmental Action. Joshilyn will spend her fall semester in Bangalore, India, doing field studies and studying topics related to sustainable global development.

Chantel Daniels is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur born and living in CapeTown- South Africa. She is the Co-founder and programme manager of an international volunteer and travel company called Volunteer Mzansi AFRIKA.

Nathan Darity completed his graduate studies in public health and international development before beginning his work with Amizade Global Service-Learning in 2009 as their site director in Brazil. In his current role as Project Director, Nathan designs health science programs, oversees Brazil site development, and leads a variety of Pittsburgh-based initiatives. In 2014, Nathan became Project Manager of The Global Switchboard, Amizade’s co-working and global engagement initiative. Nathan is active with the Office of the Mayor for the City of Pittsburgh as a member of the Welcoming Pittsburgh Advisory Council, and in 2015 was selected to help plan the Pittsburgh 200th Anniversary Celebration. In addition to his work with civic and global engagement, Nathan is the host and organizer of CreativeMornings Pittsburgh, a breakfast lecture series for the creative community.

Dr. Jessica Evert is a Family Physician, her work straddles international education, global health ethics, clinical service, and academics. She is Executive Director of Child Family Health International (CFHI) a UN-affiliated San Francisco-based non-profit organization with over 25 Global Health Education Programs for undergraduate and graduate students in 7 countries, presenting global health realities through the lens of local community members while elevating local healthcare workers and leaders as experts in global health through a strengths-based engagement model. CFHI challenges students to "Let the World Change You," shifting the narrative and power dynamics of North-South relations. Dr. Evert is widely published in global health educational program development, ethics, and practices 'toward health equity.' Dr. Evert is Faculty at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Family and Community Medicine and serves at liaison to trainees for the Consortium of Universities in Global Health (CUGH), as well as on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Center for Global Health Initiatives.

Erika Ryser García is Executive Director of Programs in Latin America and Spain for the Institute for Study Abroad, Butler University. In her more than fifteen years in education abroad, she has also served at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in several capacities, including as Associate Director of Study Abroad and Director of Education Abroad for the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, as well as with the International Partnership for Service-Learning. Erika holds a Master of Education in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in history, Spanish and Latin American studies from Macalester College.

Micah Gregory was raised in the cornfields of Illinois but has held an interest for Brazil since his childhood. He pursued those childhood fascinations and has been living there for almost 11 years. He has worked with Amizade Global Service-Learning since 2010 and currently is the Brazil Site Director and also serves as a member on the board directors for The Amizade-Brazil Association. He has a Bachelor in Nursing Science from the Instituto Esperança de Ensino Superior.

Molly Hamm is the Associate Director of The DREAM Project in the Dominican Republic, where she manages the organization’s monitoring and evaluation systems, oversees external research projects, and helps manage strategic partnerships with universities, donors and government agencies including the Peace Corps and local Ministry of Education. She is project coordinator for the organization’s USAID-funded youth crime and violence prevention project, Alerta Joven, which focuses on education, HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual health, and workforce development. She is currently a member of the Teacher Motivation Working Group (sponsored by UNESCO's International Task Force on Teachers for EFA) and recently served as a working group member and representative of the Caribbean for the Brookings Institution Learning Metrics Task Force. She is actively involved in the Comparative and International Education Society, American Evaluation Association and Caribbean Evaluators International. Hamm holds a master’s degree in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University and bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Secondary Education from Kansas State University.

Olivia is a sophomore at Kansas State University studying Business with minors in Spanish and Leadership Studies. At Kansas State she is this year's Peace Corps Ambassador and the Student Coordinator for the Leading Change Institute (LCI). Through the Staley School she has been able to participate and expand her interest in global partnership and civic engagement. She helped lead an initiative to raise awareness about Orphanage Tourism at Kansas State University and has been introduced to many social innovation ideas and concepts through her Student Coordinator position for the LCI. This summer she studied and volunteered through the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador where she was able to engage with Ecuadorean students and other Kansas State University students about civic engagement while volunteering at a local preschool.

Eric Hartman is an Assistant Professor in the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University. His development and publication of strategies for community-engaged global learning and ethical partnership across cultures contributed to his receipt of the 2013 Emerging Scholar Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. His publications on global service-learning, global citizenship, and fair trade learning have spanned edited volumes, peer-reviewed journals in service-learning and international development, and popular and trade magazines such as International Educator. As Executive Director of Amizade Global Service-Learning (2007-10), he advanced community-driven development in more than a dozen communities around the world. He was selected as the recipient of: the Cabot Dissertation Award for Commitment to a Just Society, The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs 4 Under 40 Impact Prize, and as a representative of the United States in the State Department-Funded Water Here & There International Fellows Exchange Program with China. He serves as Editor and Co-founder of globalsl.org.

Rebecca Jenkins is a senior at Kansas State University studying Economics with a minor in Leadership Studies. At Kansas State she is the Student Coordinator for the Alternative Breaks program and has been involved with other social innovation and civic engagement initiatives through the Staley School and the entrepreneurship program. She recently studied at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador where she has the opportunity to explore and consider what civic engagement looks like in various cultural contexts. This summer she worked in D.C. as an intern at Ashoka U, an organization that promotes and supports social innovation education in higher education.

Richard Kiely currently serves as the Director of the Center for Engaged Learning + Research at Cornell University. In 2002, he received his PhD from Cornell University, and in 2005 was recognized nationally as a John Glenn Scholar in Service-Learning for his longitudinal research that led to the development of a transformative global service-learning model. In his current role as Director of Engaged Learning + Research, he provides support, guidance, resources, coursework and professional development opportunities for faculty, students and community members who are interested in community engaged learning and research. He continues to be an active scholar in the area of service-learning and community engagement in higher education and is the co-founder of globalsl.org, a field-building website and resource for service-learning scholars and practitioners. He is currently working on a co-authored book (forthcoming Stylus), Building a Better World: The Pedagogy and Practice of Global Service-Learning.

Brandon W. Kliewer, Ph.D. is currently an assistant professor of civic leadership in the Mary Lynn and Warren Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University and an associate scholar with Points of Light. Brandon specializes in deliberative civic engagement, community-engaged scholarship, collective impact, and cross-sector collaboration and partnership. He is currently working on a series of manuscripts that report the results of civic leadership development programs, deliberative civic engagement forums, and community engagement practices. His scholarship often involves undergraduate & graduate students, community members, and working professionals in ways that create the conditions to mobilize new knowledge in order to make progress on tough challenges. Brandon holds a Ph.D. from The University of Georgia in political science and a Master’s degree in political science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He can be reached at bkliewer@ksu.edu.

Lori Kniffin is the Advisor of Academic Programs for the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University where she teaches and advises students in a civic engagement focused leadership program. Through service-learning in her courses, she addresses issues of food security, racial equality, and student energy management. She completed her Master’s in Counseling and Student Development at Kansas State University. Lori is also the Director of Social Media for globalsl.org. She has emerging interests in global development, community-university partnerships, and humanitarian issues.

Aloyce Koillah is Senior Health Secretary at Meru Rural District Council. Being the first Health Secretary in Ngorongoro District in 2005, He was involved in setting up the Planning and reporting of the health care system using PlanreP3 software. He worked with ACORD International as Research and Learning officer documenting best practices of the Non-profit Foundation in Ngorongoro Comprehensive HIV/Aids Project now known as Ngorongoro Reproductive Health Project (www.acordinternational.org ). Aloyce has a Masters Degree in Development Studies of Uganda Martyrs University. He graduated with his first degree at Mzumbe University in Morogoro Central Tanzania in 2002. During the time working as Coordinator of AIDRO, he introduced performance based financing to 23 projects financed by CORDAID; A Netherland based organization (Formerly known as MEMISA). The system was then adopted by the government mainly applied in Health projects. He is also a co-founder of Children Growth and Development Centre, A Non-profit foundation working to support poor and underprivileged children. CGD works with women groups in identifying and supporting children who live in impoverished situation without placing then at the Orphanage Centre. We aim atbringing transformative change in the quality of life of underserved children in Tanzania and support efforts to make the world a better place for children. Visit www.childgrowthtz.org to learn more of what we are doing or write to us info@childgrowthtz.org

He has dedicated himself to providing help to Health professionals who are having difficulties in managing projects, Human resources management, or planning and budgeting. He also offers teaching on basic Swahili to volunteer’s students who want to learn how to speak and write some very basic Swahili. He provides weekly lessons and exercises that help students develop their writing skills or even discover their hidden talents in learning.

Janelle Larson is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics and Head of the Division of Engineering, Business and Computing at Penn State Berks. She leads Penn State’s interdisciplinary engagement with the Children and Youth Empowerment Centre in Kenya and has conducted research in Honduras, Ghana and Peru on land and labor markets, value-chain analysis and gender in development. Larson has a master’s and doctorate in Agricultural Economics from the University of Oxford.

As an Instructor in the Staley School of Leadership Studies Chance teaches undergraduate students in Theories of Nonprofit Leadership and Culture and Context of Leadership where the School’s mission is to “develop knowledgeable, ethical, caring, inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world”. Chance completed his undergraduate degree at Kansas State University in sociology and political science, Masters in Education at Chaminade University of Honolulu, and will soon finish his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. His focus is around the local-global nexus of university immersive programs, specifically relating to civic leadership.

Dr. Ben Lough is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Director of International Service for the Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis. He is also a Senior Research Associate for the Center for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Building Bridges Coalition, as well as the research working group of the International Forum for Volunteering in Development. Ben has extensive international research experience, with a specific research focus on volunteering for social and economic development. Ben recently received a multiyear grant 2014-2018 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study effective practices of international volunteering.

Paul Maina is founder and director of the Children and Youth Empowerment Centre in Nyeri, Kenya. The Centre is an initiative of the national program for street dwelling children, youth and families. Paul’s mandate is to develop a replicable model to address the challenges of standards of service provision, project sustainability and exit strategies in the national program. Paul, who has BA and PPE degrees from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and University of Oxford, UK, respectively, has worked with various local and international development agencies and has long experience in small and medium enterprise (SME) development. Paul is a board member of Zawadi Fund International and Children International, Kenya. He is also a Rhodes Scholar and the 2012 Michael C. Holen Leader-in-Residence award recipient at the Kansas State University School of Leadership Studies.

Anna McKeon is representative for Better Volunteering, Better Care - a global initiative facilitated by The Better Care Network and Save the Children UK aimed at discouraging orphanage volunteering and promoting ethical volunteering alternatives. Better Volunteering, Better Care works cross-sector, promoting collaboration and information exchange, and seeking to support actors advocating for positive change on responsible volunteering - especially volunteering with children.

Janice McMillan is Senior Lecturer and Convenor/co-Founder of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Global Citizenship (GCP) program, which she initiated in late 2010 (www.uctglobalcitizen.uct.ac.za). She joined UCT in 1994 and from 1999 - 2001 she was the UCT representative on a national service-learning research and development project funded by the Ford Foundation. From 2010-2014 while still at UCT, Janice was the service-learning Coordinator of Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Study program in Cape Town where she has been responsible for establishing community partnerships and leading a required seminar on service, citizenship and social justice. Janice obtained her PhD in Sociology in 2008 from UCT with a focus on service learning and community engagement. She sits on a number of university-wide committees including UCT’s Social Responsiveness Committee (where she has been involved in the development of the university’s social responsiveness policy); the UCT Knowledge Coop Steering Committee (http://www.knowledgeco-op.uct.ac.za); the Global Citizenship program Advisory Committee; and UCT’s Schools Improvement Initiative Steering Committee (http://www.sii.uct.ac.za). She is also a Board member of SHAWCO, a large student volunteer organization at UCT.

Jackline Oluoch Aridi is with the Ford Family Program on Human Development and Solidarity. East Africa regional program coordinator. She is Based in Nairobi at the University of Notre Dame’s East Africa Regional office, Aridi oversees the Ford Program’s community engagement and research in Kenya and Uganda; She supports Notre Dame’s faculty and students doing research, fellowships and internships in the region; She is responsible for building relationships with Ford Program regional partners and managing programs on behalf of the University. Previously, Ms Aridi was Regional community health worker program coordinator for East Africa for Columbia University’s Earth Institute, overseeing operations and providing technical assistance for programs in six countries in East and Southern Africa. Aridi has also worked with the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at Columbia University in New York, the World Health Organization in Geneva, the Guttmacher Institute, GBC Health, and the Global Alliance on Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She holds a Masters in public administration with a specialization in International health policy and management from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Administration.

Nora Pillard Reynolds is Director of Evaluation at globalsl.org, Executive Director of Water for Waslala, and a PhD Candidate at Temple University in Urban Education. She approaches global service-learning from her experiences as a nonprofit practitioner, higher education administrator, instructor, and researcher. At Temple she teaches two community-based learning courses, “Education in the Global City” and “Education for Liberation: Here & Abroad”. She is currently writing her dissertation which explores community perspectives of an engineering partnership in Nicaragua. Immediately following her graduation from Villanova University in 2002, Nora traveled to Nicaragua for the first time. That trip led her to co-found Water for Waslala, an NGO that works for access to clean drinking water in Waslala, Nicaragua, which has now constructed 15 water systems serving over 3,000 people, has a team of six employees in Nicaragua, and has hosted over 250 Villanova University College of Engineering faculty and students in Nicaragua over the years. During the start-up phases of Water for Waslala, she also earned her MA in International Development at La Univerisidad Complutense de Madrid in 2004. When she returned to the U.S. after graduate school, she worked as a 1st grade teacher at Potter-Thomas Bilingual School in North Philadelphia through Teach for America while completing her MS in Elementary Education at St. Joseph’s University in 2006. She returned to Villanova as the Assistant Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships to work in higher education before leaving to pursue her PhD at Temple.

Kaitlyn Rippel is a senior at Kansas State University studying Sociology and International Studies. She is an International Service Teams Coordinator at the Staley School of Leadership Studies, where she has had the opportunity to grow her interest and knowledge of international service-learning and global partnerships. As a student coordinator, she helps to facilitate a course in international service-learning, work with and establish international partnerships, and communicate with and coordinate volunteers for our international sites. Additionally, she has studied abroad and participated in service-learning programs in Ecuador and South Africa. She is pursuing a career working in social justice, with interests in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.

Steve Sclar is the co-founder and Program Director for Omprakash EdGE (Education through Global Engagement). EdGE is a digital learning platform and a first-of-its-kind intervention within the perilous realm of international service learning. Steve received a BBA from the College of William & Mary, where he majored in both Marketing and Environmental Science. He also received an MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health with a thesis titled "Indoor Air Quality in a Changing Tibet: A Mixed Methods Ethnography Amidst Particulate Matter and Black Carbon." Steve has worked stints in heavy industry, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, non-profits, agriculture, higher education and outdoor education in the U.S., Tibet, Ghana and Iceland.

Richard is Professor of Global Studies and Coordinator of the Global Studies Program at Azusa Pacific University. He founded Azusa’s Los Angeles Term, Global Learning Term, and MA in Transformational Urban Leadership (MATUL) programs, the latter focused exclusively on the planet’s one billion slum dwellers. Slimbach holds a Ph.D. in comparative and international education from UCLA and is the author of Becoming World Wise (Stylus, 2010). His passion is to cultivate within the next generation a fair share of responsibility for the fate of the poor and the planet. In his spare time, Richard enjoys converting castaway bicycles into fixed-gear commuters. He lives with Leslie, partner of 32 years, and their two children (Justus and Destinae) in Monrovia, California.

Rebecca Stoltzfus is Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and Provost’s Fellow for Public Engagement at Cornell University. Her collaborative research focuses on the causes and consequences of malnutrition in women and children in low-income countries, with ongoing projects in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. As Director of Cornell’s Global Health program, she has been involved in developing partnerships for student engagement in Tanzania, Zambia, India, and the Dominican Republic.

Cynthia Toms is the Director of Global Education and Assistant Professor at Westmont College. She previously served as Assistant Director of the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, where she oversaw academic immersion courses for over 1,000 graduate and undergraduate students annually. For three years she served as the Associate Director and a faculty member at the Uganda Studies Program in Mukono, Uganda, and has previously taught at Peking University and Huija Private College in China. Her international experience also includes work with NGO's such as Hope International and ChildVoice International. Cynthia’s research focuses on the impact of global volunteerism and service-learning on community development. Along with an upcoming textbook on East Africa Theology and Missions in Global Context (Pepperdine Press), she recently edited the book, Transformations at the Edge of the World, and has published articles in the Journal of Higher Education, Christian Higher Education, and Higher Education.

Garrett is a Nutritional Sciences & Gerontology student at Kansas State University. Garrett works as a Non-Profit Student Coordinator for the Staley School of Leadership Studies to connect KSU students to community projects through meaningful volunteer and service opportunities. Additionally, Garrett volunteers with the Open World Cause, an organization that supports schools in Nepal through primary and secondary school classroom projects in the United States. Garrett is interested in understanding how a Global Service Learning curriculum can be applied at a K-12 level, and desires to work to make the domestic and international educational projects he is involved in more effective and ethical. Garrett was first introduced to the idea of Global Service Learning through an undergraduate course taught by Dr. Eric Hartman, and through the course was exposed to literature and discussion on the topic of Global Service Learning as it relates specifically to the problem of orphanage tourism.

Andi Witczak is the Design Thinker in Residence at Kansas State University Olathe. She works at the intersection of business, community, and education, using design as a way to explore emerging opportunities, address complex challenges, drive innovation, and build meaningful experiences. She believes design thinking is the imaginative and creative force necessary for making change on issues of deep concern.

Prior to her current position, Andi was the Director of the Center for Civic and Social Responsibility at the University of Kansas (2006–2014), where she fostered the campus-wide commitment to civic and social responsibility through community engagement, service learning, and community-based research.

She received her BFA and MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Rafia Zakaria is an attorney, a political philosopher and human rights activist whose work focuses on international development, multiculturalism, Muslim feminism and Sharia law in Western contexts. She is a columnist for Dawn Pakistan and Al Jazeera America.and has written for The New York Times, The Nation, The New Republic, Los Angeles Review of Books and many other publications. She sits on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA and is Pakistan Country Specialist for AIUSA and Scholars At Risk. She is the author of The Upstairs Wife; An Intimate History of Pakistan (Beacon 2015).