Officers:
Co-Founder, Co-Director, Treasurer: Dr. Alma Gottlieb
Award-winning cultural anthropologist and author/editor of nine books on religion, family, gender, language, and ethnographic research and writing; conducted nearly two years of ethnographic research among the Beng people of Côte d’Ivoire. She is currently Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Visiting Scholar at Brown University.
Website: almagottlieb.com
Contact: bengcommunityfund@gmail.com
Co-Founder, Co-Director: Philip Graham
Award-winning author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction; co-founder of the
award-winning literary/arts journal, Ninth Letter; and Professor Emeritus at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His most recent book, the novel
What the Dead Can Say, was inspired by the Beng conception of the afterlife and
was begun while living in a Beng village.
Website: philipgraham.net
Contact: pg@philipgraham.net
In-Country Correspondent: Dr. Bertin Kouadio
Born and raised in a Beng village, completed a BA in political science and an MA in African studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then a Ph.D. in international relations at Florida International University. He is currently Assistant Professor of international relations at the International University of Grand-Bassam (Côte d’Ivoire).
Website: www.linkedin.com/in/bertin-kouakou-kouadio-ph-d-0b924121a/
Contact: bkouadio2021@gmail.com
Secretary: Nitya Kaza
Student at Westford Academy in Massachusetts; passionate about human rights
and research into a variety of pressing topics concerning religion and culture.
Website: nityakaza.com/about/
Contact: nitya@nityakaza.com
Board of Directors:
Dr. Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
Cultural anthropologist, and author of two books on kinship, migration, and social
mobility in Cameroon and its diaspora; numerous expert witness engagements
for Cameroonian asylum seekers. Currently affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Germany), and Broom Professor of Social Demography and Anthropology at Carleton College (Minnesota).
Website: www.carleton.edu/directory/pfeldman/#
Contact: pfeldman@carleton.edu
Renée Giovarelli, Esq.
Lawyer specializing in land tenure policy and gender issues related to land
rights, with impactful research experience across Asia and Africa; Founding
Executive Director of Landesa’s Center for Women’s Land Rights and currently Senior Gender Integration Specialist at the Global Center for Gender Equality.
Website: www.linkedin.com/in/renee-giovarelli-469b4b62/#
Contact: rgiovarelli@gmail.com
Dr. Charles Piot
Award-winning cultural anthropologist, and author/editor of four books on
transnationalism and post-colonial studies, focusing on contemporary culture and
politics in French-speaking West Africa. Currently Professor of Cultural Anthropology & African and African American Studies, and Bass Fellow at Duke University.
Website: https://scholars.duke.edu/person/charles.piot
Contact: cpiot@duke.edu
Dr. Carolyn Rouse
Award-winning cultural anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, and author of
three books on race and healthcare disparities, religion, gender, and mass
media; founder of a high school in Ghana. Currently Vice-President/President-Elect of the American Anthropological Association, and Ritter Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University.
Website: anthropology.princeton.edu/people/faculty/carolyn-rouse#
Contact: crouse@princeton.edu
Cynthia Williams, Esq.
A lawyer with extensive experience in corporate responsibility, sustainable finance, environmental governance, and interdisciplinary collaborations; engages in policy work through the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, the Climate Bonds Initiative, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental
Finance Advisory Board. Currently Professor of Law and Roscoe C. O’Byrne Chair at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law.
Website: law.indiana.edu/about/people/details/williams-cynthia.html#
Contact: cynwill@iu.edu