Melinda Bickerstaff
Treasurer (USA); current term: 2008-2011.
Melinda Bickerstaff
Melinda Bickerstaff has worked for many years in change management, human capital strategy and implementation and strengthening of teamwork in the corporate sector. She is currently employed as Senior Vice President at Healthy Companies International, a consultancy which helps Executives of companies to improve performance. From 2006-2008, she was Chief Learning Officer at Discovery Communications, where she lead the functions of talent and knowledge management, organizational development and transformation, leadership, succession planning and performance management. Prior to this, she worked at Bristol Myers Squibb (5 years) and KPMG Consulting (4 years). For many years, Bickerstaff served on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and received numerous awards for her leadership and contributions to the Society and to the field of workplace learning and performance.
Ian Edwards
(USA); current term: 2007-2010.
Ian Edwards, Member
A foreign service officer and linguist by training, Ian Edwards started his communication career in the Jamaica Foreign Ministry’s Information division, and later served at Jampress and the Jamaica Information Service. He subsequently joined the Jamaican Consulate in New York as information attaché, and was accredited at the same time to cover the UN through the Jamaican Permanent Mission to the UN. He has been with the organization of American States (OAS) in Washington since October 1992, as English translator and media relations specialist. Edwards is very connected with Caribbean diaspora organizations in North America and well-known through his participation in “Caribbeana,” a nationally syndicated weekly radio programme on Caribbean affairs which highlights Caribbean voices. He is a founding board member of the Washington-based Institute of Caribbean Studies.
Barbara Jacobs-Small
(Saint Lucia); current term: 2007-2010.
Barbara Jacobs-Small
Barbara Jacobs-Small is Managing Director of her own marketing communication company – Right Angle Imaging (RAI), based in Saint Lucia. RAI publishes the regional magazine “Island WHERE” and the investor’s guide “WHO’s WHO in Saint Lucia Business.” In addition to wide experience in marketing and public relations, she has worked in all media (print, radio, TV). She was a most dynamic Programme Manager at the national radio station, Radio Saint Lucia, where she designed public service broadcasting strategies for situations ranging from national events to disasters and crises. She has done much media development around HIV, gender and the environment. Jacobs-Small implements training for journalists and a wide range of stakeholders interested in marketing, PR and strategic communication.. She is a graduate of UWI (Mass Communications) and holds a professional Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London.
Florence Jean-Louis
Vice-President (Haiti); current term: 2009-2012.
Florence Jean-Louis
Florence Jean Louis has long experience in managing public health projects from a community perspective. She is currently employed as Deputy Director of the Health System Development Support Project (PADESS), which helps to regulate and streamline the health service delivery provided by the government, private sector, and religious communities in Haiti. She holds Diplomas in Medical sciences and social services (Autonomous Metropolitan University, Mexico City) as well as rural development and natural resources management (Southern Border College, Chiapas). Over many years, Jean-Louis has focused on HIV and AIDS, and brought strong gender dimensions to community health programmes. She is an accomplished trainer of trainers. Before PADESS, she worked with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Red Cross and several other health promotion programmes.
Franklin McDonald
Secretary (Jamaica); current term: 2007-2010.
Franklin McDonald
Franklin McDonald (retired) was most recently Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies. A geologist by training, he has a long and distinguished career in environmental and disaster management, landslide and erosion control, engineering geology, economic rehabilitation and recovery efforts. McDonald has respectively been the Director of the Jamaican Office of Disaster Preparedness, the Pan Caribbean Disaster Preparedness Project (based in Antigua and Barbuda) and the National Environmental Planning Agency in Jamaica. He was the first Moderator of the White Water to Blue Water Partnership between the Caribbean Basin countries and the United States. He has worked as an Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme in the Caribbean.
Yves Renard
President (Saint Lucia); current term: 2008-2011.
Yves Renard
Yves Renard has a particular interest and experience in participatory approaches to natural resource governance and sustainable development policy. He currently works as an independent consultant, in the Caribbean and internationally. Between 1992 and 2001, he served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), an organisation that works to foster the development and adoption of policies and programmes in support of increased participation and collaboration in natural resource management. Renard has edited books and published a number of guidelines, articles, papers and reports on issues of natural resource management, sustainable development, culture, and community development.
Dorienne Rowan-Campbell
(Jamaica); current term: 2009-2012.
Dorienne Rowan-Campbell
For 30 years, Dorienne Rowan Campbell has been an international consultant on gender, human resource development, training and environment. She started her career as a broadcast journalist in Canada, quickly specializing on improving the portrayal of women. She founded an environmental enterprise “Rowan’s Royale” which produces organic Blue Mountain Coffee. Rowan’s Royale aims to be a model for organic enterprises and highlight environmental issues and the role a small farmer can play in combating climate change, environmental degradation and disaster mitigation. She currently participates in a team implementing ICT and organic farming workshops for women farmers in the Caribbean. Rowan-Campbell is a qualified organic farm inspector. She also runs a community greening project in her neighbourhood which has set up the first regular recycling collection service in Jamaica.
Cletus Springer
(USA); current term: 2009-2012.
Cletus Springer
Cletus Springer is currently the Director of Sustainable Development at the Organisation of American States (OAS), responsible for the design and implementation of sustainable development cooperation among OAS member states. A graduate of the University of the West Indies (Public Administration and Mass Communications), Oxford Brooks University (Urban/Regional Planning Studies) and Aberdeen University (Environmental Impact Assessment), he has widely published on environmental management and planning. In the 1990s he was Permanent Secretary, respectively in the Ministry of Tourism, Public Utilities, Civil Aviation and National Mobilization of Saint Lucia; and in the Ministry of Planning, Development, Environment and Housing. In 1998 he joined the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) as advisor in policy and strategy development. Subsequently, Springer headed a consultancy practice working for Caribbean governments and Intergovernmental institutions. Springer is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI).
Mark Wilson
(UK); current term: 2008-2011.
Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson is Executive Director of Panos London, where he provides much impetus in the joint strategic development of the Panos Network. A former journalist and communications director, he joined Panos London in 2004 after eleven years with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, where he was responsible for operations in the Balkans, Kosovo and Mozambique, was its Head of Planning and Senior Adviser to the Secretary General. He has specialized in reporting on international politics, trade and economics. He holds Masters degrees in International Politics, Soviet and East European Studies, Journalism and Management.
Ismene Zarifis
(USA); current term: 2008-2011.
Ismene Zarifis
Ismene Zarifis is a human rights lawyer with a number of years of experience with NGOs, the UN system and intergovernmental cooperation. She is educated at Ithaca College (Bachelors, Journalism), American University (Juris Doctorate) and the University of Pretoria (Master of Law in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa). Zarifis’ career has spanned working as a Human Rights Specialist at the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (5 years) and the UN Mission in Liberia (2004-2005), as well as a researcher with American University (2002-2003) and Programme Officer in human rights protection, promotion and advocacy with NGOs, such as Global Rights (Liberia, 2006 and Washington 2000), Casa Alianza (Guatemala, 2001), the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (Haiti 1997-1999).
