Global Partners for Development’s growth in 2013 was inspiring and exciting. The Board was determined to grow its family of committed colleagues to help lead us into 2014 and beyond. And so it came to pass. By the end of the year we added three new board members. They are brilliant, spirited and talented individuals that will bring fresh perspective, insight and vision. We enthusiastically welcome these new partners to our board of directors.
Julia van der Ryn
Julia is Director of Service-Learning and and Assistant Professor of Humanities at Dominican University of California. Over the past ten years, Julia has established a thriving program at Domnican, working with faculty and community partners to to create classes across the disciplines that bridge theory to practice. Working with non-profit organizations, students learn first-hand about pressing social and environmental issues. In the last academic year, over 400 students served and learned with over 30 community partners and residents. Additionally, She has implemented numerous community-engaged initiatives and participatory action research projects.
Dominican has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service for the past six years. The Honor Roll recognized higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achievement of meaningful outcomes in their communities. Julia’s experience with service-learning best practices, assessment, and community organizing has broader application to international service-learning and development.
Marisa Katz
Marisa is a NY-based journalist/editor born and and raised in Los Angeles. She has contributed to numerous publications and TV channels on culture, politics and design including The New York Times, Time, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and many others. She also has worked on several documentaries and television shows, including Channel 4′s BAFTA award winner, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, HBO’s ‘By The People: The Election of Barack Obama and DreamWorks’Spin City.
Currently, Marisa is the editor of a new Creative Time initiative called Creative Time Reports, spotlighting artists as critical thinkers who actively participate in the issues of our time. With Creative Time Reports, artists are correspondents and bring their own unique spin to current events. From 2009-2011, with grants from the US State Department Marisa established and operated a program that teaches citizen journalism in a severely marginalized district of Casablanca, Morocco.
Marisa graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1998 with a BFA in Film and Television and Theatre.
Yvette White
Yvette is Sr. Project Manager for the Performance Improvement Institute of Kaiser Permanente. She brings valuable experience and expertise in the area of organizational and international development especially in the non profit sector. Her career path has included work for Skoll Global Threats Fund, NYU Wagner School of Public Service, World Learning for International Development and Amnesty International.
She received her BA in International Business at Georgetown University, McDough School of Business, and an MA in Latin American History from Howard University. Her international studies lead her to Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba and Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.