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Did you know?
Only 57 percent of school-age girls in Africa attend school, and just 15 percent of these go on to secondary school.


WOMEN'S GLOBAL IN THE MEDIA!


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We believe:

Education, gender equality and empowerment of women are critical to a society's development, and that everyone is entitled to an education, regardless of gender or economic status. Read the supporting research.

People
at Women's Global

U.S. Staff
Board of Directors
Advisory Board

U.S. Staff

Amy Maglio
Executive Director

Amy Maglio is the Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Global Education Project. While serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, West Africa, from 1996-1998, Amy identified a church group in the U.S. to fund her village sister to go to school. With her sister’s success and after returning from Senegal, she decided to expand the project and provide other girls in Senegal the same opportunity. She incorporated Women’s Global Education Project as a nonprofit organization in March 2003 with the vision of expanding the opportunity of education to women and girls all over the world.

Amy holds a master's degree from the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is a gender specialist with several years' experience in the field of international development having worked for nonprofit, business and government agencies. She worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a gender research analyst measuring the impact of the agency's programs on women worldwide. Amy has also managed and designed international exchange programs in women’s business development, NGO capacity building and leadership.

Edevina Quetua
Communications

Before joining Women’s Global, Edevina served for several years in communications and marketing for Access Community Health Network in Chicago, the nation's largest network of community health centers for uninsured and underinsured patients. Additionally, she served with the AmeriCorps program City Year Chicago, first as a literacy tutor for remedial third-grade students and then as manager of education programs. She also served in the field of national service training and development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in applied communication and public relations from Asbury University in Kentucky and a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Edevina grew up in the Philippines and the U.S.

INTERNS

Laura Napoli

Laura Napoli is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago Law
School. She graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2006 with a concentration in entertainment, business, and media studies. She has served as Child Advocate for two unaccompanied immigrant children through her participation in the Immigrant Children’s Advocacy Project, and she recently participated in the Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. Laura also has extensive volunteer experience, from working with middle-school children as part of the University of Chicago’s Neighbors program to tutoring adults in literacy and GED programs with Next Step. In her spare time, Laura enjoys singing and playing the piano. She speaks English and French and has been learning Spanish.

Hayley Webster
 
Hayley Webster graduated from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, with an MA in International Relations and Modern History. Her intensive travels during her university years fueled an interest in international work, which she hopes to combine with education, a field she first became interested in as a high school volunteer who worked in a special education classroom and helped found her school's Best Buddies International chapter. She previously interned at the Newberry Library, working with the educational programs department, and currently volunteers with the Oak Park-River Forest Infant Welfare Clinic in Chicago's near west suburbs. She enjoys aquatic sports and captained the University of St. Andrews women's water polo club. Hayley will be serving with the Peace Corps in Kenya beginning June 2010.

Laura Wilson

Laura Wilson is a graduate of Georgetown University with a bachelor of science degree in foreign service and a major in international politics and women's studies. She has extensive international travel and community service experience, having taught English to elementary school students and adults in Thailand as well as studying abroad at the Institut de Touraine in Tours, France. She volunteered with two D.C.-area nonprofits, For Love of Children where she tutored remedial public school students, and the Sursa Corda housing project where she mentored middle school residents. She also volunteered with the Obama campaign and served as an intern with Women for Women International. Laura is a keen vocalist who performed with the Superfood A Capella group at Georgetown. She speaks English, French, conversational Spanish, and conversational Thai.

Board of Directors

Malii Brown
Cross-cultural Consultant

Malii is a Consultant for Intercultural Programs with Language & Culture Worldwide, a firm that offers cross-cultural training, coaching and consulting services to meet the most sophisticated global challenges faced by Fortune 500 corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Malii has traveled, lived and worked extensively in Asia and Latin America, beginning her career in cross-cultural work in rural Japan with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Malii then served with Rotary International’s Humanitarian Programs Division to coordinate international humanitarian aid projects. Upon relocating to Chile, she worked in foreign language education and cross-cultural training for various Fortune 500s. After returning to the US, Malii served as Program Manager for the Women’s Empowerment Program at Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, where she oversaw program administration in addition to providing direct service to refugee and immigrant women from Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Malii is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles where she earned a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs. In addition to Women’s Global, she is actively involved with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) Alumni Association, Occidental College Alumni in Admission, and the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR). She was recognized in 2007 by Afrique newsmagazine as one of the “Top Ten Movers and Shakers Making a Difference in Chicago,” where she currently resides.

James McDonald
New Century Bank

James serves as Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Lending for New Century Bank, one of Chicago’s leading real estate banks in Chicago with almost $500 million in assets. Currently James manages a real estate portfolio of approximately $65 million and provides financing for development of condominiums, high-rises, single-family homes and strip centers, as well as financing for the acquisition and refinancing for similar properties.

James has worked in the banking industry for approximately 10 years since graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Arts degree double major in Psychology and Sociology. With this sociology background, James has participated in several volunteer programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, mentoring at-risk youths for the Neighborhood Intervention Program in Madison, Wisconsin, and volunteering for Elderly Thanksgiving deliveries.

Joan K. Sherman
Northwestern University

Joan received her Master’s Degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, with a specialization in international economic development. She worked for CARE International for 5 ½ years: first in Haiti working on rural clean water systems and in mother and child health, then in India as director of their micro-credit program. She became an organizational resource on gender and development issues, and participated in the strategic planning processes for the India mission. Upon returning to the U.S., she worked for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Global Security and Sustainability Program. She currently teaches a seminar course on International Development and the Politics of Gender at Northwestern University.

 

Advisory Board

Sonya Anderson, Ph.D.
Ounce of Prevention Fund

Coming from a long line of educators, Dr. Sonya Anderson has been in the field of education since she graduated from Yale University in 1992. As part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, Dr. Anderson spent two years teaching in rural Mississippi where she taught high school French and history. After her time as a teacher, she served as a Program Associate with the Ford Foundation in New York City where she supported grantmaking in the fields of service learning, higher education reform, and international studies.

Following her tenure at the Ford Foundation, Dr. Anderson worked as a Senior Associate at Creative Associates International in Washington, DC where she co-directed the implementation of education development projects in West Africa and the Caribbean.  In this capacity she consulted with Ministries of Education and non-governmental organizations to deliver training and provide technical assistance to teachers, administrators, and curriculum developers on strategies to improve girls’ participation in education.

Dr. Anderson joined the Oprah Winfrey Foundation in July 2005 where she served as the Education Program Director until September 2008.  There, she managed the development of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and oversaw the Foundation’s other domestic and international education projects.

Dr. Anderson holds an undergraduate degree in economics and political science from Yale University, and masters and doctorate degrees in education from Harvard University. Her research focused on girls’ education in Africa and, specifically, the relationship between teachers’ attitudes about girls and the impact of these attitudes on teaching and learning in the classroom.

Elise Annunziata-Blaisdell
City of Manchester NH, Department of Community Planning and Development, Community Improvement Program
 
Elise is a Founding Board Member of Women’s Global Education Project.  She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Senegal (‘96-’99) where she worked with Senegalese teachers and students to develop primary school programs and curricula in environmental education.
 
Upon her return from West Africa and a training contract for the Peace Corps in Guinea, Elise worked at Chemonics International and managed multi-million dollar USAID contract projects in Mali, Senegal and Uganda.  Later, she became a Master Trainer for NASA/National Science Foundation and the Department of State’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) project, and facilitated trainings for students and teachers in The Gambia and Madagascar. On behalf of Women’s Global, Elise traveled to Senegal in December 2004 and met with Women’s Global local partners and scholarship recipients.
 
Elise received her master's degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy from The George Washington University in 1995, and her bachelor's degree in Political Science from Mary Washington College in 1990. Currently, Elise lives in Manchester, New Hampshire, with her husband, stepson and daughter.

Lynn Besser, LCSW

Lynn received a master's degree in psychiatric social work from the University of California at Berkeley, and has worked in both in-patient and out-patient psychiatric settings. She has experience in individual, family and group therapy, and has worked in all aspects of the adoption process in New Mexico and Illinois, including counseling with pregnant adolescents, education and counseling with adoptive families, and grief counseling with all members of the adoption triad.

Christopher Boffey, J.D., L.L.M.,
PetroKazakhstan

Christopher Boffey, who serves as legal adviser to Women’s Global, has been practicing law for 13 years and is now Legal Director for the PetroKazakhstan group of companies in Kazakhstan. Before this, Chris was a partner in the Almaty, Kazakhstan, office of McGuireWoods LLP. He was also previously an associate in the Chicago offices of law firms Ungaretti & Harris and McDermott, Will & Emery, as well as the Moscow, Russia office of Holme, Roberts & Owen.

Chris is a securities and transactional lawyer by training who oversees legal matters for PetroKazakhstan's upstream and mid-stream joint venture operations including several litigation and arbitration matters. Chris holds a B.A. from Northwestern University, a J.D. from the University of Maryland and an L.L.M. from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow where he was a National Security Education Program fellow.
Chris speaks English and Russian.

Michelle Gavin
Rotary International

Michelle Gavin has more than 10 years’ experience in international education and development. She currently works at Rotary International where she coordinates The Rotary Foundation’s The Rotary World Peace Fellowship program, which awards 60 full scholarships annually for master’s degrees in peace and conflict resolution.  She has worked as a trainer for Prudential Relocation Intercultural where she specialized in designing cross-cultural adaptation programs for youth.  Michelle has also worked as a capacity building trainer for Save the Children in Tajikistan, a high school English teacher in the CzechRepublic, and a program director for Heartland International in Chicago.  In 1999 she moved to Zimbabwe for 9 months where she studied sculpture in a rural village, and traveled throughout Southern Africa. 

Michelle holds a BA in Russian and International Studies from Bowling Green State University, and a Master of International and Intercultural Management from the School for International Training. Michelle has traveled to 30 countries, speaks conversational Czech and Russian, and is an amateur cellist.

Nancy Juda

Nancy Juda is an activist, a philanthropist, and an artist. She focuses her

attention, activity, and passion on supporting and empowering community
building and leadership, especially that of women and girls. Currently,
along with Women's Global Education Project she is most engaged with The
Mastery Foundation, The Hunger Project, and The Chicago Foundation for
Women. Nancy lives in Chicago and travels frequently to work towards the
possibility she envisions for our shared world.

Safietou Kane
Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Sociology, Florida International University

Born and raised in Senegal, Safietou received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from the University of the District of Columbia in Washington D.C. She then got her M.A. in African Studies from Florida International University in Miami, and is currently pursuing her doctorate degree from Florida International in Comparative Sociology. Safietou’s research interests center around international NGOs in Senegal that focus on women, health and education. She first got involved with Women’s Global as a translation voluteer, translating reports from French to English and helping to interpret phone conversations between U.S. staff and our partners in Senegal. Safietou sees Women’s Global as a great asset to Senegalese girls and women and to the entire Senegalese community.

Laura Kennedy
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Chicago native Laura Kennedy has 10 years of professional experience in the fields of humanitarian grants administration and international education. Laura has served with the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution program at The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. In Washington, D.C., she also managed the largest university-level Russian language exchange program with the former Soviet Union. Laura lived in Moscow, Russia for more than three and a half years during the late 1980’s and 1990’s. In Moscow she worked with the International Organization for Migration to develop micro-enterprise in Russia. She also managed scientific grants in the former Soviet Union for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prior to joining The Rotary Foundation, Laura worked with a small, Chicago-based non-profit to design and implement short-term educational training programs for U.S. State Department-sponsored groups from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Laura has a B.A. in Political Sciences and Russian Studies from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University. She completed her coursework and exams toward a Ph.D. in Political Science at Emory University before leaving academia for other pursuits.

Abdoulaye Ndiaye
United Nations Development Program

Abdoulaye Ndiaye has 20 years of government, non-government, foundation, and private consulting work experience in Africa in nature conservation and community development. He currently works with the United Nations Development Program in Senegal as a regional coordinator in biodiversity and international waters for West/Central Africa. In 1999, he joined the MacArthur Foundation as program officer where his responsibilities included grant making for the foundation’s Conservation and Sustainable Development area for Africa, and integrated grant making of the Africa Task Group. Prior to his arrival at MacArthur, Abdoulaye was the Country Director of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) program in Senegal. Abdoulaye has also worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Catholic Relief Services and the Senegalese Government where he started his professional career as head of the Urban Water Supply Unit. Abdoulaye has a B.S. in Physics/Chemistry from the University of Dakar, a Rural Development Engineering degree from the International School of Engineering of Burkina-Faso, and a master’s of science degree in Water Resources Administration from the University of Arizona.

Paul Ndong, Ph.D.
Senegal Ministry of Education

Paul Ndong is the Director of Middle & Secondary General Education with the Senegal Ministry of Education in Dakar.  He holds Bachelors, Maters and Advanced degrees in Literature and French from the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He was a high school French teacher for 17 years, including 12 years as a trainer for high school teachers at Ecole Normale Superieure de Dakar. Paul spent six years as the Education and Cultural Counselor for the Senegalese Embassy in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in French Literature from Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. in 2006. Paul is from the Sine-Saloum region in Senegal where Women’s Global is currently operating and lives with his family in Dakar.

Barbara Rose
S. N. Peck, Builder, Inc. & Case Handyman and Remodeling of Chicago,
Management Cleaning Controls, Inc.

Barbara Rose serves as CEO of S. N. Peck, Builder, Inc. and Case Handyman and Remodeling of Chicago and as Vice President of Operations for national building services firm Management Cleaning Controls, Inc. She has a B.A. in Sociology and an M.S. in Counseling from Purdue University and has designed numerous training programs and seminars for leadership training, management development, and communication skills, especially for people in the construction industry. In addition to serving as an Advisor to Women’s Global, she is on the Board of Directors of Chicago Foundation for Women, Industrial Council of Near West Chicago, Heartland International, and For Global Progress. She has held office in several women’s organizations and has organized, volunteered and led community programs in Illinois and Indiana. She is also a volunteer fundraiser for the Hunger Project and has traveled to many countries in Africa, including Senegal and Kenya where Women’s Global currently operates.

Jennifer Sachs
On Lok

Jennifer enjoyed two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching environmental education in Senegal, where she became aware of how few girls have an opportunity to learn in school in Africa. Jennifer has been a fundraising professional for more than five years. She was Development Director of Bluewater Network and is currently the Development Associate for On Lok, a program for seniors in San Francisco. She is an avid runner and painter.

Julie Stagliano
President, Heartland International

Julie Stagliano has a firm grounding in international development assistance with more than 20 years experience living and working overseas (primarily in West Africa) and serving in senior management positions for private sector companies in the Washington, D.C.-area dedicated to health systems improvement and sustainable development. She was also involved in strategic business development efforts and managed contracts for the U.S. government and the World Bank.

She served in the Peace Corps in Tivaouane, Senegal, and lived there an additional five years with her family, participating actively in NGO service projects, working for USAID and writing a monograph on the culture and history of Senegal. After moving to Chicago, she directed the Chicago Sister Cities International Program where she developed new collaborations and initiatives for the then 24-city partnerships. She is now President of Heartland International, a non-profit corporation that
designs and implements international training and exchange programs that promote social justice and economic development in emerging democracies around the world.  Current field-oriented projects include strengthening entrepreneurial skills in Kenya and building NGO capacity in Turkey.

Julie is fluent in English and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Wolof (lingua franca of Senegal) and some German. She is an active member of the Council on Global Affairs, a volunteer with the Casablanca Committee of Sister Cities, a member of the education committee of Chicago Opera Theater, and co-directs Chicago Shares, an organization that serves the homeless.

Bill Taylor
Oakton Community College, retired professor of political science

Bill Taylor taught political science and history at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, for 32 years before retiring in 2004.  He began volunteering in 1999 with Seeds of Peace, an organization that brings Israeli and Palestinian teens to a camp in Maine every summer for a 3-week experience in peaceful coexistence, where he served as facilitator of the camp’s daily dialogue sessions. During the school year, Bill also teaches short courses for older adults on such subjects as Islam and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In 2002 he assisted in the founding of Hands of Peace, an organization modeled after Seeds of Peace, but adapted to the urban setting of Chicago's northwest suburbs and has been volunteering with Hands of Peace in various capacities.

He became involved with Women’s Global after hearing founder Amy Maglio interviewed on the Chicago Public Radio global affairs program Worldview.

 

 

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Women's Global Education Project

P.O. Box 617613 ▪ Chicago, Illinois, 60661-7613 USA
Telephone: 708.415.7410 ▪ Email: info@womensglobal.org