events and program

schedule of events

International Bridge Builders Conference 2009 Schedule of Public Events
Monday April 6th - 10th, 2009

Meet 10 grassroots visionary leaders and learn from their experiences
in fighting for social justice around the world.

- Free Admission to ALL Events
- All events are at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- We look forward to your participation!!!!

Monday, April 6th
Lunch Groups with Bridge Builders and HKS PICS
12:00pm-1:30pm; Meet in Forum
Email to reserve a spot!*

Tuesday, April 7th
Lunch with Center for International Development (CID)
12:00pm-1:30pm; Rubenstein, 4th Floor, Perkinson Room
Email to reserve a spot!*

PANEL I: Organizing for Gender Justice
Moderator: Professor Rohini Pande; 4:00pm-6:00pm; Littauer Bldg, Rm140
followed by
Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) Reception
5:30pm-7:00pm; Littauer Bldg, 3rd Floor, Fainsond Room
Dinner & Drinks will be served

Wednesday, April 8th
PANEL II: Organizing for Rural Development
Moderator: Professor Merilee Grindle
11:30am-1:30pm; Taubman Bldg, Allison Dining Room

PANEL III: Organizing for Disability Rights Amidst Poverty
Moderator: Professor Michael Stein
2:30pm-4:00pm; Taubman Bldg, Rm 275
Dessert will be served

Thursday, April 9th
PANEL IV: Organizing for Youth Empowerment in Conflict Zones
Moderator: Kaethe Weingarten; 4:30pm-6:00pm; Littauer Bldg, Rm 140
Coffee and tea will be served

Friday, April 10th
PANEL V: Organizing for Social and Economic Enterprise
Moderator: Johnny Falla; 2:30pm-4:00pm; Littauer Bldg, Rm 140
Coffee and tea will be served

*Email to Register of for Lunch Groups: Bridgebuildersconference2009@gmail.com

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PANEL I. Organizing for Gender Justice

Panelists: Magda De Castro (Costa Rica)
Harman Kaur Sharda (Punjab - India)
Umme Kulsum Ranjana (Bangladesh)

Moderator: Professor Rohini Pande, HKS
Rohini Pande is Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy. Prior to joining the Kennedy School she was an Associate Professor of Economics at Yale University. She has taught at Yale University, MIT, and Columbia. Her research focuses on the economic analysis of the politics and consequences of different forms of redistribution, principally in developing countries. A Rhodes Scholar, she is the recipient of several NSF grants, the Russell Sage Presidential Award (with Lena Edlund), and the Royal Economic Society Junior Research Fellowship. She holds a PhD and M.Sc in Economics from the London School of Economics, an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, and a BA in Economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi University.

PANEL II. Organizing for Rural Development

Panelists: Jacquelyn Akello (Uganda)
Harman Kaur Sharda (Punjab-India)
Gildo Cuamba (Mozambique)

Moderator: Professor Merilee Grindle, HKS
Merilee S. Grindle is Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. She is a specialist on the comparative analysis of policy making, implementation, and public management in developing countries, with particular reference to Latin America. She is the author of Searching for Rural Development; Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Peasants in Mexico; State and Countryside;Challenging the State; Audacious Reforms; Despite Odds,and Going Local. She has written numerous articles about policy management and the politics of policy reform. She also is the editor of Politics and Policy Implementation in the Third World; Getting Good Government; and Proclaiming Revolution. She is co-author, with John Thomas, of Public Choices and Policy Change, which won an award as the best book in public policy in 1991. A political scientist with a PhD from MIT, Grindle is engaged in research on the political economy of public sector reform.She was the 1991 recipient of the Manuel C. Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching.

PANEL III. Organizing for Disability Rights amidst Poverty

Panelists: Fredrick Ouko Alucheli (Kenya)
Umme Kulsum Ranjana (Bangladesh)

Moderator: Michael Stein, HLS
Michael Stein is a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches the course Disability Law. He is a Cabell Research Professor of Law, College of William & Mary School of Law and the Executive Director, Harvard Project on Disability. The central mission of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) is to support the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Michael is a graduate of New York University, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a J.D. degree from Harvard (where he was the first person with a disability to serve on the Law Review). His path-breaking scholarship has been published in many leading journals. Recent examples include Disability and the Social Contract, University of Chicago Law Review, and Disability Human Rights, California Law Review. Professor Stein has taught courses on disability law at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, and William & Mary. In addition to playing a prominent role in the drafting of the CRPD, he counsels governments on disability law and policy, represents international disability rights organizations, trains disability human rights advocates around the globe, and serves on several disability rights and research advisory boards.

PANEL IV. Organizing for Youth Empowerment in Conflict Zones

Panelists: Fernando Figueroa (Bolivia)
Mitslal Haile-Selassie (Ethiopia)

Moderator: Kaethe Weingarten

Kaethe Weingarten is a Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School and directs the program in "Family, Trauma and Resilience: Integrating Biology, Psychology, Family and Community Perspectives" at the Family Institute of Cambridge. She is founder and director of The Witnessing Project, a nonprofit organization that consults to individuals, families, and communities locally, nationally, and internationally to transform passive witnessing of violence and violation to effective action. Her most recent book is Common Shock - Witnessing Violence Every Day: How We Are Harmed, How We Can Heal. Dr. Weingarten has worked in Kosovo and South Africa for the last several years, addressing issues of community-wide trauma. She has over 40 publications, including six books; is on the editorial boards of five journals. She served on the AFTA Board from 1995-2001; and was honored by AFTA in 2002 with the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Theory and Practice. Current interests include developing models for communities to use witnessing to intercept multigenerational transmission of the impact of historical trauma and political violence.

PANEL V. Organizing Social and Economic Enterprise

Panelists: Veronique Kittirath (Laos)
Roberto Killmeate (Argentina)

Moderator: Johnny Falla
Johnny recently served as Associate Program Officer at the Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto, California. His work with the Skoll Foundation's Program and Impact team consisted of grant making and managing partner relationships, developing the Foundation's portfolios in Tolerance & Human Rights and Peace & Security. Johnny graduated from Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in international relations and was the first student to complete a minor in social innovation. While at Stanford, he served as President of the Future Social Innovators Network (FUSION) for two years, the country's first undergraduate student interest group in social entrepreneurship, and he helped advocate for social innovation as an area of concentration at the university. Johnny currently works with undergraduates at Harvard College, serving as a Teaching Fellow for David Ager's Social Entrepreneurship class, Sociology 159. Johnny grew up in Portland, Oregon.