Richard Flyer
Chairman
Mr. Flyer, founder of the Truckee Meadows Conscious Community and
Business Network (www.ccbnreno.org),
is owner of a medical clinic (Northern Nevada Hyperbarics, Inc.) in
Reno, NV. He has served as a community organizer, manager of a
metropolitan food bank in San Diego, and ran a statewide microenterprise
fund and training program in Nevada. He is also an educator about
Sarvodaya and community vision for nearly two decades. |
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Mary Woodward
Treasurer
Mary Woodward has worked in international education at universities
in the United States and for governments in Southeast Asia for over 20
years. Her most recent position has been as career development
coordinator for the master's in public affairs degree program at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. She volunteered with the Sarvodaya USA
office following the tsunami and developed an interest in the
organization and Sarvodaya's work in Sri Lanka. |
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Patricia Masters,
PH.D.
Secretary
Dr.Masters is professor and director of study abroad programs for Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles. A recipient of Fulbright grants for
teaching in Sri Lanka, she also teaches courses on women, religion and
politics in Asia. |
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Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne
Executive Director-Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka
Dr. Ariyaratne is the Executive Director of the Sarvodaya Shramadana
Movement of Sri Lanka. He is a medical doctor with expertise in
community medicine and has taught at several medical schools in Sri
Lanka. In recent years, he has been in the forefront of civil sector
peace initiatives. He also serves in several national policy committees,
he is one of the only three civil society representatives in the
high-level Donor/Civil Society Steering Committee formed by the key
multilateral donors to the tsunami recovery program. Dr. Ariyaratne has
published in several national and international public health and
development journals. |
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George Bond, PH.D.
Dr. Bond is a professor in the Department of Religion at Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of Buddhism at Work:
Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya Movement;
The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition,
Reinterpretation, and Response and numerous other publications on
Buddhism, Hinduism and the history of religion. |
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Dave Capraro
Mr. Capraro is president of In The Light, a non-profit corporation and
collaborative network of individuals and organizations which promotes
peace and service. He is the founder and project director for, Gandhi
and Khan: Power of Nonviolence, and active in various interreligious/spiritual
organizations. Mr.Capraro has served on non-profit committees to support
causes including environmental, nonviolence, refugees and cooperation
among spiritual/inter-religious organizations. He is the inter-religious
coordinator for the Aetherius Society USA. |
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Karen Faster
As publications director, Karen Faster manages print and online
publications for the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining the La Follette School
in September 2004, Faster taught journalism and public relations at the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She holds a 2003 doctorate in
journalism and mass communication with a minor in print culture studies
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a teaching
assistant in journalism. She earlier worked as student publications
manager at Madison Area Technical College, where she advised the
award-winning student newspaper. Additionally, she earlier worked as a
reporter or editor for the Wisconsin State Journal, the Capital Times,
the Fargo Forum and the Marshall Independent. She was a copy editor and
writing coach for the Minnesota Daily at the University of Minnesota,
where she earned her master's degree in 1990. |
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| Dr. Harsha P. Jayatilake |
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Michael Trainer
Mr. Trainer is an artist, educator, and social change agent. As a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, he apprenticed in the ritual arts with a seventh-generation healer. This formative experience revealed to him the powerful potential for the arts to build consciousness and heal communities. He applied this knowledge in working with school children in the U.S. to help support Tsunami-affected youth through Sarvodaya’s Suwasetha program. Currently, Michael is a FLAS fellow at Columbia University, where he studies Tamil and international educational development.
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Ann Meredith
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Joanna Macy,
Ph.D., of Berkeley,
California, is author of Dharma and Development: Religion as Resource in
the Sarvodaya Self-Help Movement; Coming Back to Life: Practices to
Reconnect Our Lives, Our World; World as Lover; World as Self;
Mutual
Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory; The Dharma of Living
Systems, Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards A Council of All Beings and
many other publications on Buddhism, deep ecology and general systems
theory. She serves as adjunct professor at the Starr King School for the
Ministry, the University of Creation Spirituality, and the California
Institute of Integral Studies. |
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Richard Brooks
is Outreach Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
teaches Facilitating Health and Social Change, consults with programs in
youth and community development, public health, service learning and
global education. Former volunteer director of Sarvodaya USA, he has
also served with SHARE Wisconsin, a three-state community building, food
security and service program(chair), Wisconsin Positive Youth
Development Initiative (chair) and Wisconsin Partners for SustainAbility
as well as more than 20 other local, statewide, national and
international non-profit groups. |
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Dr. Patrick Mendis. Born in
Sri Lanka, Dr. Mendis first became familiar with the Sarvodaya
Movement when he was a 12-year old rural child in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. With his Buddhist-Christian background, his interest in the
non-violence peace Movement and the admiration for his mentor-friend Dr.
Ari have been unabated ever since. As a university professor, American
diplomat, advocate of global education, and author, Dr. Mendis has
promoted Sarvodaya to his colleagues and students worldwide for many
years. He has provided scholarships and training support for young Sri
Lankan professionals through the leader-to-leader program and dedicated
the proceeds from his most recent book (2nd edition),
Glocalization, to
Sarvodaya and other tsunami projects in Sri Lanka. He and his family
live in the Washington D.C. area.
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Denese Ashbaugh Vlosky,
JD, Ph.D., has been involved in international and community development
issues for over 25 years. She was originally introduced to the Sarvodaya
Movement over 20 years ago as a college student studying international
social development; when she wrote to Dr. Ari, he wrote back! She has
served in various board positions for Sarvodaya USA and on consulting
assignments for Sarvodaya proper. In 2005 she traveled to post-Tsunami
Sri Lanka to do an impact assessment in the Matara District and to
identify a village in which to build a preschool with the monies raised
by the International Student Association at the Louisiana State
University (LSU). She is currently a Research Associate in the Office of
Social Service Research and Development in the School of Social Work at
LSU where she’s the coordinator of an evaluation project of selected LA
TANF Programs including: Individual Development Accounts, Earned Income
Tax Credit, Microenterprise Development, Teen Pregnancy Prevention,
Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program, FINDWORK and
Strategies to Empower People. |
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Shisir Khanal
Executive Director
As Executive Director, Shisir manages operations, programs, donor
relations, communications and fundraising efforts for Sarvodaya USA.
Prior to working at Sarvodaya USA, he worked as Research Assistant
at Robert M. La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
interned with United Nations Development Program in Nepal and worked at
Connecticut General Assembly. He is active in community, now serving on
the Board of Nepal American Friendship Association (NAFA) and the steering
committee of the International Nepal Solidarity Network (INSN). Shisir
graduated with a Masters degree in International Public Affairs (MIPA)
in 2005 from the La Follette School of Public Affairs and has a Bachelor’s
degree in International Political Economy from University of Bridgeport. |
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Amanda Saran
Administration and Communication Coordinator
Amanda Saran is currently pursuing her MA in the Educational Policy
Studies program, after earning her MSW in 2005. Her studies in social
work and educational policy have included a focus on community and
school development, social justice, and multicultural education. Having
worked with non-profits and schools within the Madison community, she
has extensive knowledge about youth culture, and race/class relations.
She is further studying education, driven by the inspiration to reform
educational systems to better suit the needs of those who seek
opportunities. Her main area of interest is educational development, as
she desires to work as a support person for students, families, and
communities facing obstacles in the realm of education and beyond.
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