Rob Rosenthal is Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan University, where he teaches and writes on housing, homelessness, community research, and the use of music in social movements.  He’s the author of Homeless in Paradise and co-author of the forthcoming Playing for Change; he’s currently working on an edited collection of the papers of Pete Seeger.  Mr. Rosenthal has worked for the past twenty years with community groups in Middletown, CT, including as one of the founding directors of Wesleyan’s Center for Community Partnerships.

Alice Hadler has been teaching writing at Wesleyan for 15 years, encouraging people to tell their stories and think critically by considering multiple perspectives.  Her areas of interest include literature and the arts, the literature of medicine and public health, travel writing, and food.  Her own immersion in the cross-cultural began with insisting on going to school early in the 5^th grade to learn French (the only way to do it in those dark ages of American education), and continued in the intervening decades through degrees in German and applied linguistics, work with international educational exchange programs, acquisition of several languages, and extended stays to study or work in culturally challenging places around the country and around the globe.  Those places include Japan, Switzerland, New York City, the Navajo Nation (Window Rock AZ), the Samoan Islands, Hunan province in China.  It was in Changsha, Hunan, that she found herself in front of a classroom teaching English to medical students and became a reluctant teacher. In the exhilarating  25+ years since, she has reveled in the chance to spend every day talking about ideas with sharp young minds, and in the relationships with people from every conceivable (and inconceivable) background and life story.  For these reasons, and out of profound respect for the brilliant and dynamic African student community at Wesleyan, and in particular, for the remarkable work of Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner (both her students), she has decided to continue her support for the Kibera School for Girls in this more official capacity – with unconditional enthusiasm.

Melissa teaches a multi-age class at the Integrated Day Charter School (IDCS) in Norwich, Connecticut. As one of the original teachers, she has helped the school grow to become a model program for innovative practice including intensive community building, student empowerment, and student research. She has served as lead teacher, mentor, and board member at IDCS.  Melissa received her BA from Goddard College in Vermont and her MAT from Connecticut College. A consultant for Main Street Academix , Melissa has facilitated various workshops on school climate in Connecticut, Tennessee, and New Hampshire drawing upon her extensive background in teaching and learning. Melissa also completed study at the Institute of Expressive Arts at Salve Regina University on integrating the arts into the school day for greater academic achievement as well as personal well-being.  Melissa designed the curriculum and provides curricular support for The Kibera School for Girls.

Wayne Silver is the co-founder and President of the Board of Directors of the American Friends of Kenya.  He was formerly a Humanities Professor at Three Rivers Community College, where he also served as the Academic Dean.  Mr. Silver is the author of many op-ed articles and scholarly publications.  He has also been the author or project administrator of more than 25 grants, including grants from I.B.M., Rockefeller Foundation, U. S. Department of Education, Gloria Dei Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development. He has previously served as the chair of the board for the Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center and the Florida Council for the Hearing Impaired.  Mr. Silver was given an honorary award by the governor of Florida for outstanding service to disabled citizens.  Through the American Friends of Kenya Mr. Silver has built libraries and helped many living in poverty.

Betsy Teutsch learned about the Kibera School for Girls Project from her daughter Nomi (Wesleyan ‘11) whose excitement about the school was contagious. Teutsch is a longtime community volunteer and organizer, works as Head of Communications for www.GreenMicrofinance.org, and is a Judaica artist who has been designing Jewish wedding contracts for over a generation. With background in third world green tech innovations, Betsy is particularly excited about the eco-sustainability mission at the Kibera School, along with its microfinance plans for the student body parents.

Marvin Farbman retired from his position as the Executive Director of Connecticut Legal Services (CLS) in January of 2007.  During his tenure at CLS Mr. Farbman worked on many issues from housing, homelessness, social services, and many others.  His many accomplishments include designing Equity in Housing of Middletown, a unique scattered-site limited equity housing cooperative that now serves 37 low-income households. Mr. Farbman has also designed a shelter for homeless families.  This shelter was the first apartment-based—as opposed to dormitory-based—family shelter in Connecticut.  He has also organized a local social service coalition to sponsor the reconfiguration of a hotel into an apartment complex with supportive services. The new facility, Liberty Commons, was the first of its kind to be completed under Connecticut’s Supportive Housing Program.  Mr. Farban is still very active in the legal community.  In addition he serves on the board of directors of Middlesex County Coalition for Children, Equity Housing in Middletown, Oddfellows Playhouse (a community arts center for children of all backgrounds), and Russell Library in Middletown.  Mr. Farbman received the Legal Services Leadership Award from the Connecticut Bar Foundation in 2007.

Barbara Jones is an international library consultant.  She recently retired as Wesleyan University’s Caleb T. Winchester University Librarian.  She has spent over 25 years in academic and research libraries.  For the past 10 years she has focused a great deal of her time on freedom of expression issues in libraries around the world.  As a member of the Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression Committee (FAIFE), she has traveled around the world to “train the trainers” on the role of librarians in an open Internet, public access to HIV/AIDS information, and government transparency.  She serves as an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin/Madison and the University of Iowa/Iowa City.

Rebecca Ann Rugg currently teaches at the Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the Yale School of Drama.  At Yale, she has inaugurated an multi-disciplinary study abroad course in the arts and public health, an unprecedented collaboration between African Studies, Theater Studies, and the School of Drama.  Through collaborations with South African and siSwati artists, U.S. students are introduced to major issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern Africa, and are challenged to understand health as it relates to a broad cultural fabric, and the arts as they engage with society.  Before coming to Yale, she served on the artistic staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, under George C. Wolfe, as Dramaturg and Director of New Projects, focusing on musical theater development.  She was dramaturg on the original productions of Caroline, or Change, Radiant Baby,  Elaine Stritch at Liberty and Harlem Song, among other pieces.  She produced the University network of the 365 International Festival, which organized thousands of artists to produce Suzan-Lori Parks’s 365 Days/365 Plays cycle in a relay from November 2006 to November 2007.  This season in Chicago, she has been the dramaturg on 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal with the 500 Clown ensemble and a world premiere of the new play Fake written and directed by Eric Simonson, both at Steppenwolf.