Board of Directors
Judith Nielsen, President, is an R.N. from Sturbridge, MA. She has a M.S. in Nursing from the University of Massachusetts and a M.S. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, Ca. She is currently participating in a research project teaching meditation to hospitalized patients. Judith has worked at the UMass Memorial Medical Center since 1978 and has a long-time commitment to quality of life issues.
Dr Richard Jenson, Vice-President and President-elect, of Lexington, MA, has been an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Boston College since the early 1980s. He has a mathematical interest in algebraic coding theory and computer science. He graduated from Dartmouth with a BA and earned his PhD in mathematics at the University of Illinois in Chicago. After bringing his family to Tanzania in the year 2000, he has returned to the country five times: each time to assist two primary schools in the Arusha region by supplying computers and text books, and by teaching math to a group of 13 year old Tanzanian children during their school vacation.
Wilson Muraga, Treasurer, is a CPA from Dracut, MA. Born and educated in Kenya, Wilson immigrated to the United States in 2001, and now works for Intertek Testing services Inc. located in Boxborough, MA as a finance manager. He has more than 15 years of corporate finance/accounting experience having worked for multi-national companies such as Cognos Corp and IBM. He became interested in GTL’s mission because growing up he witnessed first hand the plight of women in Africa. “African women are less likely to go to school than men, bear the brunt of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, have fewer representatives in public offices and their overall earning potential is limited due to cultural beliefs. Educating women especially at early age will also eradicate practices such as forced marriages and female genital mutilation to name just a few.”
Catherine Nash, Clerk, of Holden, MA, received her MPH in Community Health Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her BA from Mount Holyoke College. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa and later joined the United Nations World Food Programme. Her duties with the World Food Programme for nearly a decade started with administering all food distribution programmes to the Liberian Refugees in the Nzerekore region of Guinea. She then worked as food pipeline officer for the West African operation based in Abidjan, managing all incoming food stocks for Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Moving to Bangladesh, she headed a food and development programme serving 500,000 women throughout Bangladesh. In Nepal, she served the Bhutanese Refugee population before returning to the USA in 2004. She currently works as a Community Outreach and Education Specialist, conducting education and outreach programmes to underserved women throughout Worcester county.
Beverly Alexandre, of Abington, MA, attended Elmira College and New York University graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. She received her M.ED. from Tufts University and taught for several years before joining her family-run insulation and real estate management business started in 1949 by her father. Beverly is President of her family’s small private foundation, The Anderson Foundation. Following a safari to Tanzania in 2002 she became interested in the educational system in Tanzania and in one school in particular, the Shinda Basic School, where she has committed her time and resources to improving the quality of the education there.
Nancy Dougherty, of Newton, MA, is a clinical specialist in community health nursing and holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Massachusetts. Nancy has 25 years experience working nationally and internationally in the field of public health. For two years (‘87- ’89), Nancy lived and worked in rural Uganda, observing first-hand the everyday challenges faced by young women and children. Nancy also spent four years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted at the World Health Organization, New Delhi, India and has worked with the Massachusetts and Alaska State Departments of Public Health. In 2007 Nancy joined Novartis Vaccines in Cambridge MA, providing scientific expertise in support of the development and distribution of vaccines. GTL provides Nancy with an opportunity to make a difference to young women in East Africa while raising her family closer to home.
Dr Louis Fazen, III comes to the GTL Board as an experienced pediatrician with extensive experience with health care for children across the developing world. He has worked on child health projects in West Africa and South Africa and he lived for a year with his family in Harare, Zimbabwe. Dr Fazen has published numerous articles on health care for children based on his training in pediatrics and public health epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. He has recent experience with the United States Public Health Service to deliver primary care to the Sioux, Navajo and Hopi tribal populations. Currently Dr Fazen serves as chairman of the Board of Health in Southborough, MA.
Donna Lazorik, of Somerville, MA, is a registered nurse with an MS in Community Health Nursing from Boston University. She coordinates the Adult Immunization Program for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She spent fifteen months working in Khmer refugee camps in Thailand in the early 1980s and assessed primary care programs throughout Vietnam for the William Joiner Foundation in 1990. In 2002, she spent three months volunteering as a technical consultant with the World Health Organization on the Global Polio Eradication Program in Kenya.
Jeanne Lynch, of Paxton, MA, has a B.A. in Thanatology from the University of Massachusetts and an Associate Degree in Nursing from Quinsigamond Community College. She is an advocate for children and has been a volunteer with the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and the Department of Social Services. Her interest in African children's education was heightened by her travels in South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania with her husband, Roger Whiting, GTL's founder.
Dr Creighton Peet is Program Coordinator, Adjunct Associate Professor, and Director of the Namibia and Hong Kong Project Centers in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division. Dr. Peet has been working on the problems of international development, humanitarian assistance and international education since the late 1960's, first with the Peace Corps in Nepal and later across the world. He obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, with additional training in agriculture at Cornell University, and has focused his research and project work on the issues of sustainable development, particularly the sociocultural aspects of water and natural resources management. Dr. Peet has been involved in international education since 1989. He worked for four years as Associate Dean at the School for Field Studies, for two years as Program Director for the Social Sciences at Earthwatch Institute and for the last nine years at WPI. He has also been a consultant on capacity building in the non-governmental sector in both Eastern Europe and many of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.
Mary Schwartz, Past President, of Holden, MA, holds a Bachelor and Masters degree in Nursing from the University of Detroit, Mercy and Wayne State University, respectively. She also earned a Doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts. Mary is currently working as a Healthcare Quality Consultant on projects in Guyana and Zambia, after working many years in nursing and hospital administration and serving as faculty in nursing education programs. She has served on multiple healthcare committees at state and national levels and has served the Town of Holden by sitting on several boards and commissions. Mary became interested in GTL after traveling to East and South Africa where the plight of women without education became evident as a critical factor impacting the future development of those areas.
David Walsh, of North Easton, MA is a professional CPA. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and also has earned a Master of Science Degree in Taxation from Northeastern University. He works for Davies Monahan P.C. Before that, he was a tax consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. David is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants and is an active member of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs' state taxation committee. He is also a member of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce.
