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Summit Speakers' Biographies

Diana Aubourg directs Africa policy and programmatic development for the Pan African Children's Fund / Save Africa's Children, a U.S. black church initiative that supports orphan care projects in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. In her capacity as special assistant to the president, Bishop Charles E. Blake, Ms. Aubourg represents the organization among a network of people addressing the AIDS pandemic, including governments, humanitarian organizations, faith-based organizations, and policy and advocacy groups. She has traveled extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Ms. Aubourg has been active in the fight against global AIDS for more than six years. She serves on the boards of the Jubilee USA Network, a national campaign to cancel the debts of impoverished nations, and the Leadership Council of Global Action for Children, a campaign to help AIDS orphans and vulnerable children.

Ms. Aubourg earned a bachelor’s degree in policy studies from Syracuse University and a master’s in international development planning from MIT.

Sheikh Abu Bakarr-Conteh, First Vice President, Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone

Sheikh Abu Bakarr-Conteh has served as a missionary to the Muslim World League (RABITA), Mecca, Saudi Arabia; as chief imam at Masjid Hamdallah, Masjid Jamieu Salam, and Masjid Uhud; and as senior lecturer, Department of Religious and Moral Education and head of Arabic Department, Freetown Teacher’s College. He also was elected to the Freetown City Council.

An active member of the community, Sheikh Bakarr-Conteh speaks regularly on weekly Islamic programs on national radio and television. He also has contributed his expertise as a member or officer of many boards and committees, including the Advisory Board Committee-Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone; the Advisory Board for the Campaign for Good Governance, the University Court, University of Sierra; the National Consultative Commission of Stakeholders in the Electoral process, representing the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone.

Sheikh Bakarr-Conteh earned a Higher Bachelor Degree from the faculty of proselytism and theology from the Islamic University, Al-Munawarra, in Saudi Arabia.

Victor A. Barnes, Ph.D., Director,HIV/AIDS Initiative, Corporate Council on Africa

Dr. Barnes has a long career in HIV/AIDS and related healthcare issues. Before taking his position at the Corporate Council on Africa, he worked for The National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, part of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Barnes has served as deputy director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention and as associate director for external relations in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He also directed the Business and Labor Responds to AIDS Partnership, a public-private partnership initiated to engage the U.S. private sector in HIV/AIDS prevention in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Barnes began his HIV/AIDS prevention work at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) overseeing the HIV prevention program, which provided funding and technical assistance to 35 countries to develop and implement HIV prevention programs.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in French, a master’s degree in African Area Studies and a doctorate in International Development Education.

Rev. David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World

Rev. David Beckmann leads a grassroots, Christian citizens' movement against hunger, whose members and member churches urge the U.S. government to take action to reduce domestic and global hunger. He also is president of Bread for the World Institute, which does research and education on hunger.

A Lutheran minister and an economist, Rev. Beckmann is the founder and president of the Alliance to End Hunger, which engages diverse institutions, including corporations, unions, foundations, charities, and governmental and U.N. institutions, in efforts to build public will to end hunger.

He earned master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Christ Seminary in St. Louis, and bachelor’s degree from Yale. He also has received honorary doctorates from Villanova University, the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and Capital University.

His books include Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World, Transforming the Politics of Hunger, and Friday Morning Reflections at the World Bank.

Bishop Charles E. Blake, Senior Pastor, West Angeles Church of God in Christ

Bishop Charles E. Blake is pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, California, one of the largest churches in the western United States. In response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, Bishop Blake founded and is president of the Pan African Children's Fund, whose Save Africa's Children program currently provides support to orphanages in sub-Saharan Africa.

Bishop Blake also serves as First Assistant Presiding Bishop and is a member of the General Board of the Church of God in Christ, which presides over the 5.5 million- member denomination. His honors include the Salvation Army's William Booth Award, the Greenlining Institute's Big Heart Award, and the Los Angeles Urban League's 2000 Whitney M. Young Award.

Awa Marie Coll-Seck, MD, Ph.D., Executive Secretary, Roll Back Malaria Partnership Secretariat

Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, now based in Geneva, has been Minister of Health of Senegal and has held director positions for Policy, Strategy, and Research at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva and in the Infectious Diseases Department at the University Teaching Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. She has been a coordinator, counselor, and trainer with the National AIDS Program and a member of the World Health Organization country team in Senegal.

Dr. Coll-Seck earned her medical degree in Senegal, with specialized studies in bacteriology and virology, infectious and tropical diseases. She also studied applied epidemiology and biostatistics in Annecy, France. She is author of more than 150 scientific publications, including more than 50 on different aspects of HIV/AIDS.

Bishop Mvume Dandala, General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches

Rev. Dr. Mvume Dandala, Presiding Bishop of the 1.2 million-member Methodist Church of Southern Africa, is known for his efforts in conflict resolution dating back to the 1980s, at the height of the apartheid era in South Africa. In 1985, after the declaration of a state of emergency in South Africa, he was detained by authorities for ten days without trial. In subsequent years he has been called upon to mediate and work for non-violent solutions in South Africa and beyond.

Bishop Dandala also has served as regional secretary for Southern Africa of World Methodist Evangelism, a program related to the World Methodist Council. He was the first black minister in South Africa to lead a multiracial congregation, at Empangeni, on South Africa's northeast coast, from 1978 to 1982. Dandala has also served as president of the South African Council of Churches and as Moderator of the Advisory Group on Regional Relations and Ecumenical Sharing of the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Council of Churches.

In 2001, he led a WCC multi-national delegation of church leaders to the United States for dialogue with U.S. church leaders in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Their itinerary included a meeting with Church World Service and the National Council of Churches USA during their annual General Assembly.

The All Africa Conference of Churches, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is a fellowship of 168 national churches in 39 African countries with a congregational membership estimated at 120 million. National Christian councils are associate members.

Professor Musa W. Dube, Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians

Dr. Musa W. Dube is an associate professor in the University of Botswana, department of Theology and Religious Studies. She taught Biblical studies--Synoptic gospels, New Testament Greek, Johannine and Pauline Literature--1997-2002. From 2002 to 2003, she was seconded to the WCC, serving as a HIV/AIDS and theological consultant for churches and theological institutions of Africa. Her role was to train theological lecturers and church leaders to mainstream HIV/AIDS and gender issues in their programs. To that end, Dr. Dube has edited two volumes on HIV/AIDS curriculum, Methods of Integrating HIV/AIDS in Theological Programs and Africa Praying: A Handbook of HIV/AIDS Sensitive Sermons and Liturgy.

Dr. Dube has published numerous academic articles and edited several volumes, focusing primarily on postcolonial feminist interpretations of the Bible, which explore feminist ways of reading the Bible without colonizing the other. She is also exploring ways of reading the Bible that are authentic to her cultural background, such as reading with non-academic readers and divination and storytelling methods of reading. Of late, she is exploring ways of reading the Bible in HIV/AIDS contexts--for prevention, quality care, and breaking the stigma. Two volumes just out are Grant Me Justice: HIV/AIDS and Gender Readings of the Bible, and The HIV/AIDS Bible: Selected Essays.

Dr. Dube has served as chair of biblical research and publication for the Circle for Concerned African Women Theologians. In this role she has edited such volumes as Other Ways of Reading; African Women and the Bible and Talitha Cum Theologies of African Women. Dr. Dube, who describes herself as an activist and community scholar, is also the author of Postcolonial Feminist Interpretations of the Bible and co-editor of Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future Perspectives.

Prof. Dube was teaching at Scripps College 2004-2005, but is now backing in Botswana, teaching at the University of Botswana.

Meg Findley, Ph.D., Director, Chemonics Consortium of the USAID Water and Coastal II Indefinite Quantity Contract

Dr. Meg Findley is a water resources management expert with more than twelve years of experience in environmental and integrated water resources management for domestic and international development programs, including nearly seven years as a member of the USAID Water Team.

With expertise in water management best practices, water conservation, and water demand management; Dr. Findley has implemented projects and conducted studies in the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia on various aspects of water, coastal, and environmental resources management. She also has worked in Jamaica and El Salvador conducting research on watershed management and biodiversity conservation.

Fr. William Headley, Counselor to the President, Catholic Relief Services

Fr. Headley is a sociologist, a counselor, and a Catholic priest with a broad background in church leadership, justice and peace, and international aid. In 2000, he joined CRS as Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Strategic Issues. He later was appointed counselor to CRS President Ken Hackett, with major responsibility for the agency’s peace building initiatives. As part of the executive management team, Fr. Headley helps to guide the agency’s relief, development, and justice and peace programs. As a peace builder, he has assisted the bishops’ conferences in Ghana, Nigeria, the Balkans, Sudan, and Haiti. He was co-founder and first president of the Africa Faith and Justice Network/USA, and was instrumental in starting the Washington Office on Haiti. In 1986, he conducted a yearlong study of refugees in Nairobi, Kenya, with Jesuit Refugee Services.

Fr. Headley earned a doctorate in sociology from New York University and advanced degrees in counseling and theology and post-doctoral work at Harvard Divinity School and George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

The Most Reverend Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Chairman, Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), North of Nigeria

Archbishop Idowu-Fearon is the past national president of the Christian Council of Nigeria, the immediate past national president of Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion, and a former president of the Network for Interfaith Concerns (Anglican Communion).

In 2000, he was elected Archbishop of the new Province of Kaduna, where he had earlier served as Bishop of the Diocese of Kaduna and as Bishop of Sokoto.

Archbishop Idowu-Fearon has published many papers, including Jesus in the Qur’an: A Northern Nigerian Case Study, for his master’s degree at Birmingham University (UK); Reconciling a Religiously Divided Community Through Inter-Faith Dialogue: An Experiment in Wusasa-Zaria of Nigeria, for his doctoral project at Hartford Seminary, (U.S.); and several papers on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in Nigeria and Africa for academic and general publications.

Sabina Khoza, Secretary-General, National African Farmers' Union

Sabina Khoza, one of South Africa's top poultry farmers, operates the Fair Deal Education and Production Training Centre, which she established on her Fair Deal Poultry Farm in Zuurbekom, near Soweto, South Africa. People from the community come to the center to learn farming and business skills. The first group of trainees graduated in 2003. Since then, more than 100 farmers trained at the center--mostly women--have graduated and started their own small businesses.

When Ms. Khoza entered the business world in 1988, she had just 10 chickens and little knowledge of farming. She now produces 150,000 chickens a year, and has received many farming-related awards, including Female Farmer of the Year.

Ms. Khoza also is president of the Gauteng Provincial Farmers' Union

Dr. John Kilama, President, Global Bioscience Development Institute

Dr. Kilama has a broad background in the pharmaceutical, agricultural biotechnology, and agro-chemical chemistry.

Dr. Kilama worked with DuPont as a senior medicinal research chemist, and was awarded several patents covering innovative applications of new classes of chemicals for crop protections and published several scientific peer-reviewed articles in the agro-chemicals journals. At DuPont, he developed a natural product team in the Chemical Discovery Department. He also helped establish several collaborations between DuPont and other institutions in developing countries. He developed an approach to establishing a longlasting, workable relationship between multinational corporations and institutions in developing countries.

Born in Uganda, Dr. Kilama earned a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Arizona, a pharmacy degree from the University of Kentucky, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Berea College in Kentucky.

His Eminence, Seraphim Kykkotis, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria

His Eminence Seraphim Kykkotis has served as Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa since 2001. He recently participated in a mission of five people from All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of Churches, in Ethiopia to discuss human rights and peace issues. He also has served as Bishop of Kenya and has been closely involved with mission work in 22 Eastern, Western and Central African countries. He was a parish priest in Cape of Good Hope and has served in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, where he was also appointed as a permanent head representative of the Orthodox Mission of Africa. He has traveled and lectured extensively.

A native of Cyprus, he was awarded a degree after studying patrology and theology at Christ Church in Canterbury. He earned a masters degree in the science of patrology at Holy Cross College in the United States.

Ambassador Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, Under Secretary General, Special Advisor on Africa, United Nations

Legwaila Joseph Legwaila most recently served as the secretary-general's special representative to lead the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Prior to that he served as permanent representative of Botswana to the United Nations.

He also has served as deputy special representative of the secretary-general in Namibia, as special representative of the secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) for South Africa, and as special envoy of the chairman of the Frontline States to Lesotho. He has also served as his country’s concurrent high commissioner to Guyana, concurrent high commissioner to Jamaica, and ambassador to Cuba.

Mr. Legwaila worked for the Botswana presidency before coming to New York as Botswana's ambassador. In New York he served three terms as vice-president of the United Nations General Assembly. He has represented his country on the Security Council and has served as council president.

Katherine Marshall, Counselor to the President of the World Bank

Katherine Marshall has worked in international development for more than three decades, focusing on issues of the world’s poorest countries, including social policies. She has worked as a senior officer at the World Bank for more than three decades, and currently is responsible for a broad range of issues involving ethics, values, rights, and faith in development work. Ms. Marshall previously was director for World Bank programs in East Asia (focus on social policy and governance), Africa, and Latin America.

Ms. Marshall is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. She serves on the boards of several NGOs, and was involved in the creation and development of the World Faiths Development Dialogue.

Rev. Edward M. Matuvhunye, President, United Church of Christ, Zimbabwe

Rev. Edward M. Matuvhunye is executive member of Christian Care, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, United Theological College Board of Trustees, and several other ecumenical organizations in Zimbabwe.

He has been president of the United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe since 2005. He is actively involved in the life and development of both the church community and the larger community. As a coordinator of the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust, Rev. Matuvhune helped establish a forum for political parties to exchange views in regard to peaceful co-existence, human rights abuses, development, and fairness in food distribution.

Rev. Matuvhunye earned a degree from the United Theological College in Hatfield, Harare.

Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director and CEO, Church World Service

Rev. John L. McCullough has led the international humanitarian agency since 2000. Church World Service is the global relief, development, and refugee assistance agency supported by 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations in the United States, working in some 80 countries.

Rev. McCullough is the architect of Church World Service’s Africa Initiative, a collaboration with faith, business, civic, and government partners on the continent to address the root causes of hunger and poverty, with a special focus on children, people living with HIV/AIDS, and the uprooted. One part of the Africa Initiative is the "Giving Hope" program, begun in Rwanda to empower children who have become heads of households because their parents have died or are dying of HIV/AIDS or were killed in the 1994 genocide. The model now is being successfully replicated in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.

In collaboration with the All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of Churches, CWS also is partnering in the Eminent Persons Ecumenical Program for Peace in Africa, launched in West Africa in 2005. In early 2006, Rev. McCullough led a delegation to Liberia for the Conference on Peace Consolidation in the Mano River Basin.

In March 2003, he presented his vision for the establishment of School Safe Zones across Africa to members of the UN HABITAT community. This Africa Initiative program now is in the pilot stage at several schools in Kenya, with the endorsement and participation of the government of Kenya. In 2002, Rev. McCullough led an ecumenical peacekeeping delegation to four countries in West Africa. The following year he hosted a return delegation of West African church and grassroots leaders, who met with ecumenical groups and United Nations and U.S. government officials to urge more international attention to the then escalating crisis in Liberia.

An ordained elder in the Southern New England Conference of The United Methodist Church, Rev. McCullough has led congregations in Kenya and in the U.S. and has held executive positions within the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. His honors include the 2003 Boston University School of Theology’s Distinguished Alumnus Award; the 2004 Esther Smith International Missions Award of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; and a 2005 Peace and Justice Award from Eastern Mennonite University (2005).

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa

Winston Hugh Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town since 1996, has been very involved in the campaign to abolish developing world debt and, more recently, in the related anti-HIV/AIDS campaign.

In 1960, he was involved in anti-pass law demonstrations while a student at the University of Cape Town and was arrested under apartheid law and served a three-year sentence as a political prisoner on Robben Island. While in prison, Njongonkulu decided to enter the ministry. He was ordained as a priest of the Anglican Church in 1974 in the Diocese of Cape Town.

Archbishop Ndungane earned a master’s degree in theology and a degree in divinity at King’s College, London. His honorary degrees include doctorates from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Worcester State College, Massachusetts, and the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in Virginia.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Nyansako-ni-Nku, President, All Africa Conference of Churches

Rt. Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku is moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and chairman of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary Council. Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku served as general secretary of his denomination before being named moderator four years ago.

Under Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku’s leadership the church has successfully lobbied the government to subsidize the cost of anti-retroviral drugs to treat those living with AIDS.  In his role as president of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku has urged churches throughout the continent to make the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic a priority.

Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku is author of several books, including Cameroon, Keep God, a collection of sermons, and Days of Our Lives. He edited Journey of Faith, a history of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, and Footprints, theological essays.

Prabhudas Pattni, Secretary General, Hindu Council of Africa

Prabhudas Pattni has worked for many different organizations, but his longest service has been for the Pattni community and Hindu Council of Kenya. He is the longest serving committee member of Pattni Brotherhood in Kenya, East Africa, where he started as the chair in 1976 and now is a trustee. This is almost 30 years of unbroken service to the community. His work with Hindu Council of Kenya started in 1980 when he served as a managing committee member. He has since become the national secretary, the national chair, and a trustee of the Council. He also has been active in national campaigns to eliminate poverty.

In recent years, Pattni has worked for mentally handicapped people in Kenya. He is the advisor and consultant to the Kenya Society for the Mentally Handicapped and the National School Feeding Council of Kenya.

Patrick Purtill, Director of New Partner Outreach, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, U.S. Department of State (S/GAC)

Patrick Purtill came to this position after serving as director of the U.S. Department of Justice task force for faith-based and community initiatives, where he coordinated the department's programs to address problems like juvenile delinquency and drug use for faith-based and community organization involvement.

Previously, Mr. Purtill served as president and executive director of the Washington Scholarship Fund 2000. He also was president and chief executive officer of the National Council for Adoption.

Mr. Purtill earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in politics from the University of Dallas.

Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, National Coordinator, Public and Social Advocacy, American Baptist Churches USA

As national coordinator, public and social advocacy, in the National Ministries Office of Governmental Relations, Curtis Ramsey-Lucas advocates with members of Congress and administration officials using policy statements and resolutions passed by the General Board of American Baptist Churches USA. He serves on the Justice and Advocacy Commission of the National Council of Churches USA and on the Board of Directors of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

He also is editor of “The Christian Citizen” magazine and author of Reconciling Liberty and Security: A Bible Study on First Samuel 8, Does the Bible Tell Me How to Vote?, The Role of the Church and the State: A Bible Study , and Being a Responsible Christian: A Primer for Advocacy.

Mr. Ramsey-Lucas earned a master’s degree in divinity from Andover Newton Theological School and a bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University in Connecticut.

Leonard H. Robinson, Jr., President and CEO, The Africa Society of The National Summit on Africa

Leonard Robinson has more than 30 years working and living experience in international affairs, with Africa and Asia as regions of specialization. He has served as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, with responsibility for economic and commercial policy. He also has served as deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for U.S. policy toward Central and West Africa. His other portfolios for Africa have included narcotics, terrorism, democracy, and the Peace Corps. Robinson directed U.S. diplomatic initiatives to help resolve the Liberia civil war.

Mr. Robinson and colleagues founded The Africa Society in 2001 as a direct outgrowth of the historic National Summit on Africa. The mission of The Africa Society is to educate and inform Americans about the continent of Africa.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University; attended graduate school at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and postgraduate school at American University, Washington, D.C., and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the recipient of two honorary doctoral degrees.

Sarah J. Tisch, Ph.D., Chief-of-Party, Womens Legal Rights Initiative

Dr. Sarah J. Tisch is a political economist with 20 years of experience working on policy reform issues in agriculture, natural resource management, information and communications policy, e-government, and women in development. She is a gender expert with extensive experience in strategic planning, project design, budget, and project portfolio management.

The USAID-funded Women's Legal Rights Initiative, implemented by Chemonics International, has projects in Benin, Rwanda, Madagascar, the southern African region
(South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Lesotho), Guatemala, and Albania.

Dr. Tisch is knowledgeable about USAID, State Department, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and private foundation project development from the civil society organizational perspective.

She is the author of several articles on integrating gender issues into different development sectors, and is co-author of the textbook Dilemmas of Development Assistance: The What, Why and Who of Foreign Assistance (Westview Press, 1994).

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