Berkley Center

Dr. Ousseina D. Alidou is the director of the Center for African Studies at Rutgers University. She is an associate professor in the Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures. She is a faculty affiliate in the Department of Anthropology and Women’s and Gender Studies.  Her research focuses on African Muslim womens agency and leadership.  Her new book is of Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya: Leadership, Representation and Social Change (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013). She also the authored  Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Postcolonial Niger (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005, a runner-up for Ama Ato Aidoo-Margaret Schneider Book Prize of Women Caucus’ of the African Studies Association, 2007), co-edited Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Africa, with Ahmed Sikainga (Africa World Press, 2006) and A Thousand Flowers: Social Struggles Against Structural Adjustment in African Universities (with Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis). 

Diane M. Ciekawy is an associate professor of anthropology and Africa Studies faculty member at Ohio University. She has conducted research in the Kenya coast for the past 25 years. At Ohio University she teaches courses on religion, social movements, politics, the anthropology of health and healing, and human rights and development. Over the past three years she has developed course material for and facilitated OU-UNICEF Communication for Development workshop training. She is the author of articles and book chapters on religion, politics and development, most recently contributing to the volume Contesting Identities: The Mijikenda and Their Neighbors in Kenyan Coastal Society. The volume Dialogues of Witchcraft: Anthropological and Philosophical Exchanges she co-edited with George C. Bond. She is currently completing an ethnographic study of politics and healing practices among Mijikenda in Coastal Kenya.

Charles DeSantis serves as Associate Vice President for Benefits, Payroll and Wellness and Chief Benefits Officer for Georgetown University. His connection to Kenya is through his distinguished history of service to charitable organizations. He developed an arts education program for high school-age AIDS orphans in Nairobi’s Kibera slum; serves on the board of Nyumbani, a Kenyan orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS; and also served as an advisory board member for the Children of Kibera Foundation. His passion for art and the beautiful children of Kibera was the inspiration to start the Kibera Art Institute that has just entered its second year promoting visual arts creation in the community.  Charles is also the Chairman of the Board of the United States Association for UNHCR that serves refugees world-wide.  In 2010 he published the book, Smart, Beautiful and Important: Teaching art to AIDS-affected orphans in Africa's largest slum.

Samuel K. Elolia holds the Ph.D. from Trinity College, University of Toronto. Until his appointment to Emmanuel in 1998, Dr. Elolia taught for five years at St. Norbert College. Since joining Emmanuel he has been teaching wide ranging courses in Theology and World Christianity. Dr. Elolia’s broad research interests for which he has also published include African pneumatology, postcolonial theology, religion and civil society, religion and poverty. He received the ATS Lilly grant in 2005 to conduct research on African pneumatology. His edited volume Religion and Politics (2013) was selected for panel discussion at the 2013 AAR/SBL annual meeting. Dr. Elolia has also served on professional boards including American Academy of Religion where he served for two terms as the co-chair of African Religions Group.

Andrew Fuys is the associate director for International Programs with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program. In this position, he designs and manages projects to improve access to essential services and protection by refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. In Kenya, this includes outreach to faith communities on the protection and human rights of LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers, a project that CWS began in 2014. Before joining CWS in 2008, Andrew served as a policy officer and Asia focal point for the International Land Coalition, a United Nations network that works to increase secure access to land by poor households and communities. He worked from 1997 to 2001 as a program officer with the National Democratic Institute’s Asia unit, including two years with NDI's Indonesia country office. Andrew holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California. 

Callisto Madavo is a visiting professor in the African Studies Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Before joining Georgetown in 2005, he held several high level positions at the World Bank including special adviser to the president of the World Bank on African issues and initiatives. He also served as the country director for East Africa, vice president for Africa region, and country director for East Asia. In these positions he developed extensive experience in international development work covering a wide range of country program issues as well as sectoral matters including urbanization (housing and transport) in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In addition, he championed a number of initiatives on Africa including the HIV/AIDS, capacity development and infrastructure initiatives.

Since 1961, Ray Martin has a long career working on development in different sectors. His half century as an international development and public health specialist includes 25 years with USAID as chief of the Health, Population, and Nutrition offices in Zaire, Pakistan, and Cameroon, plus tours in Ghana and Morocco, followed by several years as a public health specialist on Africa programs at the World Bank. He served as the executive director of Christian Connections for International Health, a large network of organizations and individuals working in global health for 14 years. As a retiree, his current focus is on climate change and environmental justice issues and he is active in several professional associations. He was selected for the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association. In 2017, he received the Alumni of the Year International award from the USAID Alumni Association for his activism and achievements after retiring from USAID. His career began as a Mennonite volunteer in community development in Somalia and in refugee development in Tanzania. Martin received his B.A. in economics from Goshen College, completed coursework for an MA in economics from Vanderbilt University, and received a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Pauline Muchina comes from the Rift Valley Province in Kenya, where her family still resides. She is the founder of the Future African leaders Project and a fellow with Center for Health and Social Policy. Previously, she served as the senior partnership advisor for UNAIDS for seven and a half years. Pauline serves in several boards and advisory groups including, Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. Additionally, Pauline supports African Women & Youth, a handmade creative design company that crafts authentic hand-made African products for the global market. In 2011, Pauline received the United Methodist Church Global Leadership Award. On March 8, 2014, the Huffington Post honored Pauline as one of 50 women powerful international religious leaders. She holds a master’s degree from Yale University Divinity School and a Ph.D. from the Union Theological Seminary.