Agenda (Final, July 5, 2006)

of

the meeting at the Columbia School of Public Health

July 6th, 2006; 10:30 am to 4:45 pm

Judith Jansen Conference Room, Rm R425 (4th floor)

Mailman School of Public Health

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center

Columbia University

722 West 168th Street

New York, NY 10032

 

[This can be reached by the A, C, 1, and 9 trains.  From midtown the A train, an express train, is the most convenient.  Take the train to the Broadway and 168th St. station and walk west from Broadway 1&1/2 blocks on 168th St.   The School of Public Health building is on the left between Ft. Washington Ave. and Haven Ave.]

 

Contact Person

Manidipa Sengupta, M.A.

Project Coordinator
Department of Epidemiology
Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health
GH Sergievsky Center
630 West 168 Street, PH19-115A
New York, NY 10032
212-305-9081 (Phone)
212-305-9080 (Fax)
sengupt@sergievsky.cpmc.columbia.edu

 

A laptop computer and a slide projector are available, but not Internet connection
Compiled by Tak Utsumi and Rita Hindin, July 5, 2006

 

 

PURPOSE OF MEETING

 

1.        To learn each other’s activities in terms of global e-learning and e-healthcare/telemedicine.

2.        To seek threads of collaboration.

3.        To discuss direction of cooperation, e.g., formation of a group or coalition for exporting  (later importing) educational, healthcare (and later cultural) services in tri-state around NYC to (later from) developing countries, and then construction of a portal for those services and delivery mechanism, etc.

4.        To plan future actions, e.g., planning workshop and fund-raising for it, etc.

 

Lunch and Snack during afternoon break

 

§        The produce served at lunch is all sourced from the mid-sized organic Red Fire Farm, Granby MA. (www.redfirefarm.com). 

§        The desert chocolate is all fair trade certified. 

§        Lunch will be prepared and delivered by Micha Neugut, with the assistance of Yair Hindin.

§        The snack offered during the afternoon break is provided by John Turenne, Rita’s colleague.  He is an executive chef and founder of Sustainable Food Systems (www.sustainablefoodsystems.org).

§        We anticipate that a contribution of about $15 per person will cover the cost of the food.

 

 

SCHEDULE

 

Time

Name

Subject

11:00 – 11:05

 

Zena Stein

 

Columbia School of Public Health

11:05 – 11:10

 

Rita Hindin

 

Background

11:10 – 11:40

 

Takeshi Utsumi

 

 

Global University System (GUS)

 

11:40 – 11:55

 

Gerald (Jerry) Greenberg and William L. Benzon

 

World Island Project

11:55 – 12:10

Susan S. Witte and Frank A. Moretti

 

Columbia University/

School of Social Work/

Center for New Media Teaching and Learning

 

 

12:10 – 12:15

 

Tova Neugut

 

The Courage Curriculum (see below)

 

12:15 – 12:30

 

Mohammed Yunus Rafiq

 

 

McNair Program

 

12:30 – 01:30

 

LUNCH

 

1:30 – 01:45

 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles U. Eke

 

 

Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Transmission Project and Participation of Secondary

School in New Jersey

 

01:45 – 02:00

Edward A. Friedman

 

Stevens Institute of Technology/

Technology Management in Global Development

 

02:00 – 02:15

 

Winston O. (Wole) Soboyejo

 

Princeton Institute for the Science & Technology of Materials

02:15 – 03:00

Edward A. Friedman and Takeshi Utsumi

 

Discussion on direction of cooperation, e.g., formation of a group or coalition for exporting educational, healthcare (and later cultural) services in tri-state around NYC to developing countries.

 

03:30 – 03:30

 

COFFEE BREAK

 

03:30 – 04:45

 

Takeshi Utsumi and Gerald (Jerry) Greenberg

 

 

Discussion on future actions, e.g., planning workshop and fund-raising for it, etc.

 

ADJOURN

 

 

Attendees
Total 14, all confirmed

I.　Presenters

 

Aang Serian Peace Village

 

Rita Hindin, PhD, MPH – Convener of the meeting

6 Franklin Street

Shelburne Falls, MA 01370

(h) 413-625-9528

(c) 413 329-1518

rhindin@gmail.com

 

Consultant in Epidemiology and Public Health

Adjunct faculty University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst MA

 

With the grounding in public health and epidemiology gained from training under Zena Stein, Mervyn Susser and others at the Columbia School of Public Health in the late ’70 and early ‘80s, Rita has worked on an eclectic group of public health projects in the arenas of maternal child health, HIV/AIDS, and, more recently, at the intersection of human and ecosystem health. 
 
There are two foci for most of her current work:
- efforts in support of initiatives she has been inspired by during her 10 week sojourn in Tanzania (Jan – Mar, 2005) as guest of Aang Serian Peace Village (ASPV) co-founders Lesikar Ole Ngila and Gemma Burford Olengila, to wit ASPV and United African Alliance Community Center .  (www.aangserian.org.uk; www.uaacc.habari.co.tz/).
 
- catalyzing activities to create better food systems by increasing awareness that individual and institutional food choices are a most fundamental component of human and ecosystem well-being—whether the scale be local, regional, national or global.  Rita has developed Food Matters, a framework for colleges and universities to improve their food systems by utilizing the relevant academic expertise of diverse members of a campus community (faculty, students, staff) to inform campus food choices.

 

 

Tova Neugut

186 Davis St

Greenfield, MA 01301

(413) 250-0445 

tova_neugut@hotmail.com

 

Educator

 

Tova has taught and developed curricula (for both in- and out-of-school time) regarding such fundamental issues as conflict resolution and moral courage in rural communities in the US, Jamaica and Grenada.  Most recently she developed "The Courage Curriculum: Literacy for Understanding, Mediation for Problem Solving" and is anticipating piloting it in the primary school of an impoverished rural town in western Massachusetts during the next academic year.  (See Courage Curriculum overview at bottom of this agenda)

 

 

Mohamed Yunus Rafiq

800 North Union, Apt.124
Bloomington, IN 47408
(h) 812 857-8404
(c) 812 521-3816

mwalukere@gmail.com

 

Co-founder of Aang Serian Peace Village (ASPV), a Global NGO based in Arusha, Tanzania.  Poet, writer, activist, artist and lecturer, currently an undergraduate student at Indiana University, he’s recently become a Fellow in the McNair Program.

Link to ASPV: www.aangserian.org.uk
Links to organizations whose leaders have mentored Yunus http://www.angonet.kabissa.org/casecpage.htm -- A single page description of CASEC (Community Aid and Small Enterprises Consultancy). 
Mzee (that is elder in Kiswahili) Alfred Sakafu, founder of CASEC, is one of the first local Tanzanians to start an NGO. Formerly he was the country head for OXFAM.  CASEC is one of the most respected and well-known NGOs in Tanzania and the surrounding areas. CASEC works in Tanzania, as well as in Eastern/Central and Southern Africa. CASEC works in diverse areas such as advocacy, lobbying, micro-credit, housing and income generation. The work of CASEC reflects Mzee Sakafu's upringing, namely the Pan-African spirit, hence its work in other areas of Africa, also the idea that the well being of the community (East Africa, Africa, the world) and of the individual are fully intertwined. An example of Mzee Sakafu’s love for the youth is that, while at Oxfam, he encouraged many youth programs such as writers associations, youth magazines, music bands and football clubs. He is a very approachable man (always open to sit with youth and discuss issues they face), and also funny, which breaks down the traditional barriers between the elders and the young.  Most CASEC staff are young people, thus young people are being given chances to shape their lives and Tanzania, and new leadership is being cultivated.
www.uaacc.habari.co.tz/  United African Alliance and Community Center, founded in 1991 by Mzee Pete and Mama Charlotte O’Neal; creating many excellent opportunities for young people in TZ; quite savvy in making best use of new technologies and media. When you have a chance to visit that site, be sure to reviewthe programs page:  http://www.uaacc.habari.co.tz/Community programs.htm
Links associated with Aang Serian
www.xplastaz.com - Hip Hop group that fuses tribal chants, Kiswahili and Kihaya with East coast beats, a household name in East and Central Africa. Founded by another co-founder of ASPV, Gsann Rutta.
www.africanhiphopradio.com - The only online radio station that broadcasts hip hop from the continent and from the African diaspora. Founded by a colleague and co-founder of ASPV.

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/11/aidsmusic/ - Several members of the Aang Serian community studio participated in producing this audio documentary about musical responses to HIV/AIDS in Tanzania and Malawi. It was broadcasted by Minnesota Public Radio.

www.naomba.com - A Masai colleague of mine Onesmo Ole Kishapuy pioneered the creation of this online information portal in Tanzania.

Read related story on Naomba as reported in Yahoo News: E-Mentoring Initiative to Connect Tanzanian Youth With Positive Role Models - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20060621/bs_prweb/prweb401338_2
http://www.hakikazi.org/about_us.htm  Hakikazi works on and develops accessible materials for public education, empowerment, and poverty alleviation, often in partnership with CASEC, cited above.  (Note:  If the home page does not open correctly, access by entering through its “about_us” page.)

 

 

Columbia University School of Public Health

 

Zena Stein

Professor (Emerita) of Public Health (Epidemiology) and Psychiatry at Columbia University and Co-Director, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute

Columbia University
Department of Epidemiology
Mailman School of Public Health
 722 West 168 Street,7th floor
New York, NY 10032

(212) 305-9081
zas2@columbia.edu

http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=att&disp=vah&attid=0.2&th=10c20d5a68f2aa3c

 

Zena Stein received her medical degree in 1950, from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She began her career in community health and primary health care in Alexandra, a town-ship for Africans, then followed nearly a decade at Manchester University, working on epidemiological and family and cultural studies of mental retardation, child development, and psychiatric disorders. Since coming to New York in the mid 1960’s, she has occupied her present academic and research positions, at Columbia University.
 
Her research into mental retardation and developmental disabilities led to the large-scale studies of the effects of prenatal under nutrition on subsequent development in studies of the aftermath of the Dutch Famine of 1944/5 and in Central Harlem. In the same general area, she also initiated extensive epidemiological studies of miscarriage, preterm delivery, and malformations.
 
Most recently, because of her deep concern with the HIV epidemic, she began to study prenatal and perinatal HIV infection and HIV infection in women.  Since 1987, Zena has been co-director of the NIMH-funded HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Here she has major responsibilities for the problems of women and their pregnancies, in the U.S. and internationally.
She remains Rita Hindin’s mentor since grad school; she was on Susan Witte’s dissertation committee.

 

 

Columbia University

 

Susan S. Witte, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

School of Social Work

Associate Director, Social Intervention Group

Columbia University

1255 Amsterdam Avenue, Room 813

Mail Code 4600

New York, NY 10027-3997

212-851-2394

Fax: 212-851-2126

ssw12@columbia.edu

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/sig/

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/draft/lizday/sig/preview.html -- HIV/AIDS education program

 

Frank A. Moretti, PhD

Executive Director

Center for New Media Teaching and Learning

2970 Broadway
603 Lewisohn, Mail Code 4122
New York, NY 10027
212-854-1692

fmoretti@columbia.edu

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/web/

 

 

GUS and GLOSAS/USA

 

Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E.

Chairman, GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A., (GLOSAS/USA)

Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS)

43-23 Colden Street

Flushing, NY 11355-5913

Tel: 718-939-0928

utsumi@columbia.edu

http://www.itu.int/wsis/goldenbook/search/display.asp?Quest=8032562&lang=en

http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/

Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676

 

 

GUS/Nigeria and ABSUTH project

 

Charles U. Eke with Mrs. Lillian Eke (Available from 11:30 am on)

Founder / CEO

Infotex Systems, Inc.

1045 Woodland Ave.

Plainfield, NJ 07060

908.405.7441

Tel: (908) 722-1093

cel: 908.884.7333

Fax: (908) 754-5042

bychief@yahoo.com

ceke@infotexsystems.com

http://www.lnfotexsystems.com

http://www.ddn-africa.org/

Or

Systemax Information Technologies, Ltd.

135 Ogunlana Drive, Suru Lere

Lagos, Nigeria

Tel/Fax +234-1-481-7471

Tel: 0803.321.0774, 0805.530.8904, 0803.373.4962

 

Mrs. Lillian (Lily) Eke

lilyeke@yahoo.com

 

Charles Eke is working on creating GUS/Nigeria and the following project at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH);
 
Oji, D. E., T. Utsumi and C. Uwaje, "International Centers of Excellence for e-Health in Africa with Global University System in Nigeria," Paper published in the eHealth International Journal, International eHealth Association (IeHA), University of Michigan Health System, September 25, 2005
 
Charles Eke has an extensive network of people not only in Nigeria but also around African continent.
 
Mrs. Lillian Eke will also attend.  She has been teaching high schools in New Jersey for many past decades.

 

 

Princeton University

 

Winston O. (Wole) Soboyejo (Available from 1:30 – 5:00)

Professor and Director of Undergraduate Program - Princeton Institute for the Science & Technology of Materials

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Princeton University

Olden Street, Engineering Quadrangle

Room D404B

Princeton, NJ 08544

Tel: 609-258-5609

Fax: 609-258-5877

soboyejo@princeton.edu

http://usami.princeton.edu/  But note: This web-site is NOT up-to-date.

 

Assistants: Laura Cerrito:  wstemp@princeton.edu

                   Dale Grieb: dmgrieb@princeton.edu

 

Professor Wole Soboyejo received his PhD in materials science from Cambridge University.  He is currently a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University.  He is also the Director of the NSF-funded US/Africa Materials Institute (USAMI), which is an institute that is trying to promote collaborations between US and African scientists and engineers in the areas of materials research and education.  Since 2004, he has been the chair of the African Scientific Committee of the Nelson Mandela Institutions, which is a World Bank sponsored group that is trying to build new African Institutes of Science and Technology.  His current research focuses on biomaterials, alternative energy systems and thermostructural materials.  He is the author of one textbook and more than 300 peer reviewed papers.

 

 

Stevens Institute of Technology

 

Dr. Edward A. Friedman (Available from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm)

Director

Center for Technology Management in Global Development

Professor of Technology Management

Stevens Institute of Technology

Castle Point on Hudson

Hoboken, NJ 07030

201-216-5188

Cel: 917-476-1977

Fax: 201-216-5385

EIES No. 1871

FRIEDMAN@STEVENS-TECH.EDU

friedman@stevens.edu

http://howe.stevens.edu/global

 

See his web site.  In the right hand column of his web site, you can see his photo.
 
He is a graduate of MIT and Ph.D. From Columbia, an accomplished practitioner of e-learning firstly for secondary schools in NJ and then many locations around the US with NSF fund, and later some Latin American countries with fund from Inter-American Development Bank.  He is now forging ahead to apply advanced ICTs in telemedicine in African countries as having traveled to sub-Safari African countries, including Lesotho recently.  He also just came back from his month-long trip to Bulgaria, Macedonia, Cyprus and Crete.
 
He is a good friend of Jerry Hultin, new President of Polytechnic University (my alma mater), who is a friend of former President Clinton and his wife, Hillary.

 

 

World Island Project

 

Gerald (Jerry) Greenberg

Chairman/Co-Founder

World Development Endowment Foundation

126 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3D

New York, NY 10011

212-465-8600

Cel: 646-526-6653

Fax: 212-328-30993

ig@wdef.org

http://www.wdef.org/

 

See his web site on his World Island Project.

 

William L. Benzon

writer, consultant, musician

Associate Director

World Development Endowment Foundation

708 Jersey Avenue, 2A

Jersey City, NJ, 07302

201.217.1010

bbenzon@mindspring.com

http://asweknowit.ca/evcult/

 

He is a graduate of Columbia — see his web site.
 
Both of them are now working on the World Island Project — see my following list distribution;
 
Support for World Island Project
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q2732513D
 
As said in it, they want to have our Global University System project play a major role in the education field of their project.

 

 

II.　Observers

 

Professor Seth G. Neugroschl

Co-chair Columbia University Seminar on Computers, Man and Society

Columbia University

1349 Lexington Avenue

New York, NY 10128

212-876-7674

SN23@columbia.edu

 

The Courage Curriculum: Literacy for Understanding, Mediation for Problem Solving

 

Tova Neugut

 

To be piloted in the primary school of an impoverished rural town in western Massachusetts during the next academic year.

 

 

Through linked literacy and mediation programs the school will establish and express a priority commitment to increasing respect, empathy, compassion and moral courage among students.  Literature will be selected and employed to address the issues of anger, bullying, and bias, and to stimulate thinking and discussion about values, coping with problems, and examining a situation from multiple perspectives. A select group of students will be trained to serve as peer mediators: to facilitate resolving disputes between two people or small groups of the same age-group.  In combination, these programs will change the way students understand and resolve conflict in their lives.  Our intention is to improve student self-esteem, listening and critical thinking skills, and the school climate for learning, as well as to reduce student aggression and resultant disciplinary actions.  The skills that will be developed are all transferable outside of the classroom and will enable students to make wise choices both within and beyond the school setting.

 

A vitally important element of The Courage Curriculum will be the teaching of tolerance and respect for diversity. Like the rural town of Whitwell, Tennessee – featured in the film Paper Clips – Montague, MA is a small community almost entirely white and Christian.  It is a particular challenge to teach about cultural diversity in this type of insular community.  In Whitwell, the collection of millions of paper clips helped students to gain exposure to and understanding of cultural diversity that exists in the world outside of their community and to appreciate the magnitude of the Holocaust, an extreme instance of the breakdown of norms of civility on the macro scale.  In Montague, The Courage Curriculum will encompass a multidimensional exploration of cultural diversity.  We will consciously strive to expose children to more diverse literature as well as to provide school and community activities that will deepen understanding of difference.