Dadaab Camps - Team

Wenona Giles is a Professor, Anthropology and Scholar at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University. She is a long-time researcher who has taught and published in the areas of migration (including forced migration), refugee issues, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, work, globalization, war. Her articles and books include co-edited publications: Development and Diaspora: Gender and the Refugee Experience (Artemis, 1996); Refuge Special Issues on Gender Relations and Refugee Issues (1995) and with Sarah Dryden-Peterson on Higher Education for Refugees  (2010-11). She is lead co-editor of Feminists under Fire: Exchanges across War Zones (2003); and a co-editor with Jennifer Hyndman of Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones (2004). She co-founded and co-coordinated the International Women in Conflict Zones Research Network (1993-2004). Her SSHRC funded research with Hyndman (2005-2009) on protracted refugee situations focuses on Somali refugees in Kenya and Afghan refugees in Iran. They are currently writing a book based on their research. She is principal investigator for a SSHRC grant (2011-13) "The Provision of Higher Education for Long-Term Refugees in the Dadaab Camps, Kenya" and co-lead with Don Dippo on a MasterCard Foundation Grant: Reaching Higher: The Provision of Higher Education for Long-Term Refugees in the Dadaab Camps, Kenya.

Don Dippo is a University Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University. His interests include: the social and political organization of knowledge, environmental and sustainability education, global migration and settlement; university/community relations; and teacher education. He serves on the Executive Committee of  the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and is on the Board of Directors of Success Beyond Limits, a not-for-profit organization that supports high school youth in Toronto’s Jane/Finch community.

Aida Orgocka is a Research Associate and Resource Development Officer at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. She received her PhD degree in Human and Community Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in 2003 and has worked in the areas of gender, migration, child labour migration, development and strategic project planning. An active contributor to both policy and academic fields, she has worked in areas of gender, migration and development in Albania, Canada and USA. Her early work on migration focused on emigration desires and decisions of Albanian youth and women as well integration of Muslim immigrant families in USA. Most recently, she has focused on the exploration of unaccompanied child migration for work from Albania and development of multi-level programmatic responses to the phenomenon. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and edited book volumes. She will contribute in terms of overall partnership management and advice on additional local resource mobilization opportunities.

Emily Antze is an experienced manager of overseas community development projects and holds an MA in Sociology and Equity Studies/Comparative, International and Development Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Before joining BHER she was as a Program Manager for Canadian NGOs International  Development and Relief Foundation and World Literacy Canada; in her previous roles she has overseen multiple CIDA-funded projects in the education and health sectors and has worked in Ghana, India, Nepal and Zambia.

As the Program Administrator for the BHER project, Emily's work encompasses both Program Support and Education Program components.  She is based at York University but collaborates closely with field staff in Kenya.

Danielle Bishop is currently doing a PhD in Health Policy and Equity Studies at York University. Her scholarly interest lies in the broad areas of political economy, human rights, health equity and the politics of humanitarianism. She is especially interested in how health, particularly maternal-child and reproductive health in contexts of displacement, is embedded in material-discursive social relations of representation and power, particularly the degree to which global geopolitics and contemporary humanitarian governance intersect and affect the legal, political and social determinants of maternal-child and reproductive health and policy outcomes in refugee contexts. She has worked in this area of research as a social worker in Mindanao, Philippines and has previous field work in Zimbabwe, Africa, in both hospital and camp settings.

Negin Dahya is a PhD candidate, Faculty of Education, York University (Toronto). Her doctoral research explores postcolonial feminist theory in relation to digital media and learning. Important aspects of Dahya’s work focus on feminist perspectives relating to how women and girls in under-served communities work with media and technology. Dahya’s research is focused on the portrayals and representations of pop/culture and social justice issues in a broad scope of both formal and informal educational contexts, as they relate to or are produced by girls and women. In addition, Dahya is involved in research in education and refugee studies, with a particular interest in the ways in which information and communication technologies impact social structures, gender, learning and engagement in the refugee camp context.

From 2005-2012, Dahya worked in the education department of the National Film Board of Canada developing and facilitating arts based educational programs in film and animation. Dahya worked as Managing Editor of the journal REFUGE until January 2012 and will be teaching EDUC 3900: Studies in Pop Culture in the Faculty of Education, York University, July 2012.  

Research interests: postcolonial feminist theory, critical and emancipatory pedagogy, digital media and learning, information and communication technologies in education, popular culture, social justice.

Rebecca Houwer is a 3rd year doctoral student in the Faculty of Education, York University. Rebecca completed her Honours BA in Communication Studies at the University of Toronto and her MA in Education at McGill University where she worked as the Assistant to the Editor for the International Journal of Inclusive Education. Rebecca has experience working on community, university, and government initiated research projects. She presently serves as the Academic Co-chair for the Evaluation and Monitoring Working Group for the Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Community University Research Alliance. Her research interests include community-engaged scholarship, participatory action research, translocal social movements, and eco-social sustainability.

Thaddeus Hwong is the Associate Director of the School of Administrative Studies at York University. In that capacity, he strives to bridge the gap between liberal arts and professional studies in developing students to become not only productive employees but also informed and responsible citizens. Cross-appointed to the School of Public Policy and Administration, he models interactions between tax law and social policy that affect the financing of a more equal society. His current empiricial research projects explore costs and benefits of progressive income taxation and tax expenditures amidst globalization as well as attitudes towards taxpaying and welfare state. His research informs his teaching in income tax, public finance, social policy as well as law and politics. To engage students in academic pursuits outside the classroom, he directs the Social Policy Ideas Lab, an experiential learning initiative for student researchers to learn by conducting empirical research on pressing issues of our time.

Michaela Hynie is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Associate Director of York Institute for Health Research (YIHR) at York University. Her general research interests in how to use research as a means for social change, both directly through the process of research itself and indirectly by generating research findings that can be used for activism. Dr. Hynie conducts research on culture, immigration status and health inequities and how basic interpersonal or social psychological processes are affected by culture. Dr. Hynie also founded the Program Evaluation Unit at YIHR, a unit that supports not-for-profit organizations in conducting program evaluations.

Jennifer Hyndman is a Professor and the Associate Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, as well as a member of the Workshop Organizing Committee and co-applicant of the SSHRC-funded Refugee Research Network. She has published extensively on heographies of forced migration/immigration; humanitarian aid in response to conflict/asylum/disasters; refugee (re)settlement; critical and feminist geopolitics; and gender and conflict zones. She is currently involved in a SSHRC-funded project on the globalization of long-term refugee camps.

Her critical analyses on how policies created in the Global North have impacted on the duration of protracted refugee situations, and how the lack of opportunities, particularly of access to tertiary education has impacted on these populations will be important to the Dadaab workshops.

Susan McGrath is Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, as well as a member of the Workshop Organizing Committee and PI of the SSHRC-funded Refugee Research Network. Her research interests include: refugee women’s mental health, community education and practice, and community-based social development. Dr. McGrath has been involved in community development and educational initiatives in neighbourhoods with large populations of immigrants and refugees for a number of years, including access to tertiary education. Her recent work in Sudan on the vocational and training needs of the ex-combatants is very relevant to the themes being addressed in this workshop.

She brings her experience as the Director of the international Refugee Research Network (RRN) and as President of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration to this project.

Joseph Mensah is a Professor of Geography and the Coordinator of International Development Studies at York University. His research focuses on issues of globalization and culture, transnational migration, health, and African development. He recently led a team of researchers to evaluate Ghana’s National Health Insurance for the Gates Foundation and the Global Development Network (GDN). Professor Mensah has received several competitive awards and grants from the likes of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), The International Labour Organization (ILO), and GDN. He has written several journal articles and books, including the well-received Black Canadians: History, Experience, and Social Conditions (Fernwood, 2002 & 2010); Neoliberalism and Globalization in Africa [edited] (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Michele Millard is the Coordinator of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, the Project Coordinator of the Refugee Research Network and previously the Volunteer Coordinator at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture. A former member of the Executive Committee at the Canadian Council for Refugees as well as of the Community Council at the Salvation Army’s Immigrant and Refugee Services, Michele is currently President of the Board of Sojourn House, a refugee shelter and transitional housing unit for refugees in Toronto. She has been volunteering for organizations providing settlement, protection and advocacy services to refugees and refugee claimants for the last 10 years. Michele holds a Master’s degree in Art History from McGill University and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Toronto.

Beryl Pilkington is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of Research and Graduate Education in the Faculty of Health, School of Nursing, at York University. Dr. Pilkington entered nursing with a diploma and worked as a staff nurse (Labour and Delivery) for 10 years. She obtained a BScN degree from the University of Western Ontario (1985) and an MScN degree from the University of Toronto (1987), after which she worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in maternal-newborn and women's health for five years. In 1992, she worked as a CUSO ‘cooperant’ in Nigeria in a program for women with vesico-vaginal fistulae. She earned a PhD in Nursing from Loyola University Chicago in 1997.

From 1996-1999, Beryl held the position of Nurse Researcher/Special Projects at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto. Her current faculty appointment to the School of Nursing at York commenced in 1999.

Completed research has focused on quality of life and lived experiences with various populations including persons with diabetes living on a low income, persons living with stroke, women with gynecologic cancer, women in an abusive relationship, and elders living in long-term care. Her research expertise is with qualitative methodologies. Beryl is contributing editor and a member of the referee panel for Nursing Science Quarterly.

Fahim Quadir is Director of the Graduate Program in Development Studies at York University. He wiill engage students from the IDS graduate program in the York University workshop and where possible, the workshops in Kampala and in the Dadaab research camps. IDS and Kenyatta graduate students will work together to create a new scholars network that will include refugee students in the Dadaab refugee camps.

James Simeon is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration and a Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) Scholar at York University. Before joining the faculty at York University, he served as the first Executive Director of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ), which was the foremost international professional association of its kind. From 1994 to 2005, he served on the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) as a Member and Coordinating Member where he was assigned to a number of special projects and sat on several high profile cases including one that was argued at the Supreme Court of Canada. He is currently the President of the Canadian Association for Refugees and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS).

Bakary Diallo has been working in the education sector for the past 20 years as a secondary school teacher, an academic, a consultant, a project administrator and a researcher. He joined the African Virtual University (AVU), an Intergovernmental Organization based in Nairobi Kenya, which specializes in Open Distance and Electronic Learning in August 2005. He held several senior positions within the organization before his appointment as the CEO/Rector of the AVU in August 2007. Prior to joining the AVU, he worked at the University of Ottawa as a part-time Lecturer at the Faculty of Education from July 2001 to July 2005, and as a Consultant of Integration of ICT in Education at the Center for University Teaching. He taught at the Secondary Level in Senegal from 1988 to 1997 before joining the University of Ottawa in 1997. Dr. Diallo is fully bilingual (French and English).

His latest research activities focus on the use of ICT in higher educational institutions.

Catherine Wangeci-Thuo, a Kenyan National, is an Educationist working with African Virtual University (AVU), as the Manager of AVU Education Projects and Business Services. The AVU is an Intergovernmental Organization whose mission is to facilitate the use of effective Open Distance and eLearning in African institutions of tertiary education with the overall objective of expanding access to quality, demand-driven, relevant, and affordable education and training programs in Africa. She holds a Masters Degrees in Education, Curriculum Studies from the University of Nairobi, Kenya; and a Bachelors in Education, from Egerton University, Kenya. Amongst other literally contributions, Catherine has co-authored a chapter in a Commonwealth of Learning book, Towards a Culture of Quality (2007). She has a passion for the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education and is convinced that the use of these technologies in education will leapfrog Africa into a position of fair competition in the global economy.

Sarah Dryden-Peterson is Assistant Professor of Education at Harvard University. Previously, she was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the Comparative, International & Development Education Centre at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on the connections between education and community development. She examines issues such as the role of social institutions in immigrant/refugee integration, the connections between education and family livelihoods, and transnational institution-building. Her work is situated in conflict and post-conflict settings in sub-Saharan Africa and with African Diaspora communities in the United States and Canada. She is concerned with the interplay between local experiences of children, families, and teachers and the development and implementation of national and international policy. Dr. Dryden-Peterson has taught middle school in Boston and founded non-profits in Uganda and South Africa.

Olive Mugenda is current Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University as well as Professor in the Department of Community Resource Management Extension. She has had an illustrious career at the University where she has been Head of Department, Dean of Faculty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and now the first woman Vice-Chancellor of a public university in the East Africa region. Dr. Mugenda has, over the years, built an international reputation as a university teacher and researcher.

Dr. Mugenda obtained a Bachelor of Education (First Class Honours) from the University of Nairobi in 1979. Her masters and PhD degrees in Family Studies and Consumer Economics were obtained from Iowa State University. She has supervised numerous Masters and PhD theses and won several research grants and served as technical adviser and resource person to numerous workshops in and outside Africa. Among the numerous researches she has carried out, perhaps the current one on Improving the Performance of Girls in Science and Mathematics in Secondary Schools serves as a model project that has been nominated for a Commonwealth Education award. She has published numerous scholarly papers and books and she has received several scholarly awards. Dr. Mugenda serves on the board of a number of continental and global bodies including the Association of African Universities (Board Member) and International Association of University (Vice-President). 

Josephine Gitome is Director of the Regional Center for Capacity Development (ReCCaDe) at Kenyatta University. Since December 2009, this center has been mandated to offer skills upgrading short courses for higher education, private sector, and NGO institutions in the Eastern African Region. Her key areas of research include: youth counseling; HIV and AIDS preventive measures; community and poverty eradication; and gender-based studies. Her service to the community in Kenya includes being a founding organizing secretary to a teen’s association Puberty to Adulthood Camps Kenya (PACK) whose vision is to raise adults of integrity who are God fearing and have a focus in Life.

Dr. Gitome studied Sociology and Religious Studies at the University of Nairobi for her Bachelor's level and graduated in 1986 (Upper 2nd Class Honors). She completed her Master's Degree in Religious Studies at the University of Nairobi and graduated in 1989 with a thesis entitled Pastoral Care and Counseling to Educated Young Adults in the PCEA Church Kikuyu Parish, Kenya. She obtainedhera PhD from Kenyatta University in 2003, focusing on Pastoral Adolescent Counseling. Dr. Gitome has served Kenyatta University as a lecturer for the last 19 years in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

She is our principal faculty contact with Kenyatta University and is a scholar who is knowledgeable of the Dadaab camps and has carried out research on youth education, poverty, gender and youth empowerment.

Stephen Njoka Nyaga is currently the Head of Teaching Programmes, Publications and Tuition Facilities Section of Kenyatta University as well as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development. His areas of research and publications are: inter-faith dialogue; conflicts management and post conflicts reconstruction; application of indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary education and infrastructural development and service delivery in rural and urban areas; integration of indigenous environmental education and development paradigms in enhancement of sustainable development; and the role of civil society organizations in attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He has been contributing and participating in national, regional and international academic workshops, conferences/symposia.

Dr. Nyaga holds a Bachelor of Education (Arts); Master of Arts (MA) and Ph.D. He has twelve (12) years of university teaching and research. He supervises and examines post-graduate theses and dissertations.

He is also working in the area of higher education and e-learning at KU.

Joseph Kurauka is a current Lecturer as well as a 3rd-year doctoral student in the School of Environmental Studies, Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development at Kenyatta University. He holds a Master of Environmental Science (M.Env.Sci) and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies of Kenyatta University, Kenya. His areas of research include effects of tree species on socioeconomic and environment in different agroecosystems. Professionally, Joseph is registered as an EIA/Audit Lead Expert with NEMA under the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) 1999 and Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit Regulations 2003 and is a member of Kenya Wetlands Forum (KWF) and Kenya Climate Change Working Group (KCCWG). He has experience in working with host community within Garissa and neighboring counties when he was engaged in conducting initial environmental audit assignment of Arid Lands Resource Management Project II funded by the World Bank. His research interests include: Community development and Natural Resources Management.

Irene Njogu Nyambura is a tutorial fellow as well as a PhD student at Kenyatta University in the School of Education and the Department of Education Management Policy and Curriculum Studies. Irene has previously worked as a quality assurance officer with the Ministry of Education. She also has experience working the Dadaab refugee camp when she was conducting a study with the Ministry of Education. She continues to assist a school in Garissa where she has sponsored a child with a mental disability. Her research interests are: education management and quality assurance, gender equity and equal access to opportunities for vulnerable and disadvantaged persons.

Irene has extensive experience in the high school system in Kenya and is knowledgeable of the quality and type of high school education that is offered to refugee students in the Dadaab camps. She has also worked on the gender relations of education.

Suzanne Hurley recently completed her doctoral stuides in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at york University. Prior to this, as a civil engineer and project manager, she was involved with rural and urban water and sanitation development projects in Togo, Zambia, and Malawi as well as emergency relief in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad. Her areas of interest include planning and policy implementation, gender, the environment, and humanitarian assistance in international refugee camps.

Peter Murphy is an award winning television reporter and anchor whose career spanned forty years from 1967 to 2007 and included coverage of some of most the important events in Canada and the world during that time for CKX TV in Brandon Manitoba; CJAY-TV, Winnipeg; CFTO-TV, Toronto and CBC-TV Toronto, and for twenty nine years as a senior National Correspondent and Anchor at CTV National News. Among the major stories he covered: the FLQ crisis in Quebec in 1970, almost every National Federal election since 1967, both Quebec referendums, the OKA crisis, the 1982 and 1991 recessions, the free Trade Negotiations in Washington D.C., the Ipperwash occupation, the Walkerton Tainted Water tragedy, the Iran Contra hearing in Washington, etc. During a stint as CTV’s London Correspondent from 1982 to 1984 Murphy covered the Falklands War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Lebanese Civil War, the NATO Summit of 1982, and the 1983 British election. From 1985 until 1999 Murphy frequently anchored on the CTV National News and on the CTV Weekend National News. Among the awards Murphy garnered were the RTNDA Charlie Edwards Network Award in 1996 and the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award for TV Spot news covered in 2005. Peter will be leading the development of video productions for the BHER project.

Jackie Strecker has been a Research Awardee with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for the past two years. She was first with the Peace, Conflict and Development Program, and is currently working with the Evaluation Unit. Strecker was a SSHRC funded M.A. student in the Communication and Culture Program at York and Ryerson University. Her most recent IDRC supported research examined the integration of information communication technologies (ICTs) within protracted refugee camps in East Africa. This work built upon earlier thesis research conducted in 2008 when Strecker traveled to the Kakuma Refugee Camp, as a participant with the WUSC’s Refugee Study Seminar. During this time she served as an intern with FilmAid International and delivered pre-departure orientation sessions for Windle Trust Kenya. Strecker M.A. field research included a participatory photography project conducted in collaboration with the local refugee community.

Lori Heninger is the Director of the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, a 5700 member network dedicated to the provision of safe, quality, relevant education for all in times of crisis. Lori received her BA is in education, her Masters from Columbia in Social Work and her PhD from City University Graduate Center in Social Welfare. Lori has conducted assessments and trainings internationally, and has worked as an organizational consultant in the United States.

Her core education domain is Community Participation and her thematic expertise is in: conflict mitigation, gender, human rights, inter-sectoral linkages (e.g. WASH, Health, Nutrition), protection, psychosocial support, youth.

Jackson K. Too Senior Lecturer in Curriculum Instruction and Educational Media. He has taught and conducted research in teacher training Colleges and the University. He has served as Postgraduate Director and Teaching practice Coordinator in Moi University. Currently, is the Head of Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Deputy Director of Kenya Association of Educational Administration and Management (KAEAM), a Professional body affiliated to the Commonwealth Association of Educational Administration and Management. He has supervised over thirty Masters and Doctoral students. He has co-authored one book, written two chapters in a book and published eleven papers in refereed journals. He has been involved in the development of a Teacher Education Diploma Program for Refugees in Dadaab camp.

Wanjiku Jennifer Khamasi (Ph. D) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Science, Chepkoilel University College of Moi University. In addition to teaching, Wanjiku has served Moi University in various capacities. She is the former (1st) Director of the Institute for Gender Equity, Research and Development, IGERD (2005-2011). Previously she served as the Associate Dean, School of Education-Chepkoilel Campus (2002-2005) and Head of Family and Consumer Sciences Department (2003-2008). Wanjiku has held fellowships at International Center for Research on Women –Washington DC, 2003, African Population and Health Research Center Nairobi-2006 and in 2009/2010 she was awarded Erasmus Mondus Scholarship which was tenable at Karolinska Institute Sweden and University College London, UK in 2010. From 2005-2012, she was a member of the MU-K-VLIR-UOS Programme Steering Committee and the Project Leader for MU-VLIR-UOS-Gender Equity Project which institutionalized gender mainstreaming strategies at Moi University from September 2007 to April 2012. A graduate of UBC (PhD), UNB (M. Ed) and UON (B.Ed.), Wanjiku’s research interests include: teacher education, gender, participatory research methodologies, peace education, sexuality studies, cultural practices and gender based violence. She has taught and published in these areas and some of her articles and books include co-edited publications: Engaging Patriarchy: Challenges and Responsibilities for Educators and Policy Makers in Kenya (Moi University Press 2011), Perspectives on Selected Critical Gender Issues in Kenya and Beyond (Moi University Press 2011), New Wine Old Wine Skins, (Nova Publishers USA 2010) and Sexuality: An African Perspective. The Politics of Self and Cultural Beliefs (Moi University Press, 2005).

Maureen K’opiyo has worked in UNHCR Dadaab Refugee camp for over 4 years in different capacities. Currently she is a Community Services Associate focused on the implementation of Education programme in the camp. K’opiyo holds a bachelors degree in Social work and a Masters degree in Sociology.

Rita Irwin is a Professor of Curriculum Studies and Art Education, and Associate Dean of Teacher Education at the University of British Columbia. Rita has been an educational leader for a number of provincial, national and international organizations including being President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies and the Canadian Society for Education through Art, and is the current President of the International Society for Education through Art. Her research interests have spanned in-service art education, teacher education, socio-cultural issues, and curriculum practices across K-12 and informal learning settings. Rita publishes widely, exhibits her artworks, and has secured a range of research grants, including a number of Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants to support her work in Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and beyond. Her most recent co-edited books include Revisions: Readings in Canadian Art Teacher Education (co-edited with Kit Grauer and Mike Emme) and Being with A/r/tography (co-edited with Stephanie Springgay, Carl Leggo, and Peter Gouzouasis). Rita is an artist, researcher, and teacher deeply committed to the arts and education. In recognition of her many accomplishments and commitments, she has received a number of awards for her scholarship, service and teaching including the distinction of Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association in the USA, the Ted T. Aoki Award for Distinguished Service in Canadian Curriculum Studies (CACS), the Canadian Art Teacher of the Year Award (CSEA) and the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring (UBC).

Research interests: Teacher education, teacher development, socio-cultural issues, international education, arts education, arts based research, a/r/tography.

Tom Sork was born in Orange, California. He grew up on a farm and lived in Huntington Beach until the age of 14 when his family moved to Dixon, California where he attended high school, graduating in 1966. He attended Colorado State University where he received a B.Sc. in Agriculture (Animal Sciences) in 1970. Upon graduation he began work as a conference coordinator in CSU's Office of Conferences and Institutes, his first professional work experience as an adult educator. While working there he began a part-time masters program in adult and continuing education and graduated with an MEd in 1973. From 1973-1975 he completed coursework toward the PhD in adult education at Florida State University during which he was an intern with FSU's Division of Continuing Education. From 1975-1977 he served as Assistant Director of Continuing Education at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. During this time he also completed his doctoral thesis, graduating in 1978. His first full-time academic appointment was in the Department of Adult and Continuing Education at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln where he worked until 1981 when he accepted a position in the adult education program at the University of British Columbia where he currently teaches. His research and teaching focus on educational planning and professional ethics in adult education. His hobbies include various outdoor pursuits, photography and genealogy.

Marangu Njogu is the Executive Director for Windle Trust Kenya. He has over 28 years of professional experience in governmental and non-governmental organizations in the field of national development and humanitarian work in a range of implementation, senior management, and leadership positions. He is currently responsible for overseeing the implementation of the WTK programs (English Language Program, Scholarship Programme, WUSC Programme and the Teacher Education Programme) in Kenya and management of project personnel to achieve the objectives agreed to in grants and contracts.

Philip Landon is the Regional Director of Africa for the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). He has been involved in international development and education for over twenty years. His work focuses on the design and management of sustainable education and international development projects and programs that address the needs of marginalized populations.

Tom Tunney is currently World University Service of Canada (WUSC)'s Senior Manager of University and College Programming, a position he has held since April 2009. In this capacity, Tom is responsible for the delivery and expansion of WUSC's work on Canadian campuses and engaging university faculty in WUSC's development efforts overseas. He also manages WUSC's Annual National Research Seminar. He holds a Master's of Arts (Social Sciences - Collaborative Studies in International Development) from the University of Guelph.

Before joining WUSC, Mr. Tunney worked in the International Relations Division of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada where he managed CIDA-funded university linkage programs like the University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development and Special University Linkage Consolidation Project and provided research and analysis on internationalization at Canadian universities and Canadian university contributions to international development.