IDC 2010 - Panel speaker bios

SAT, 4/10, 9:30 - 10:50 AM. Location: TBD

The sustainability of development efforts has become an issue of prime importance. Development efforts have come to include innovative models of capacity building to ensure that we truly "strengthen the knowledge, abilities, skills and behavior of individuals and improve institutional structures and processes such that the organization can efficiently meet its mission and goals." The panel represents leaders in the field of capacity development who have worked on human resource, organizational, technical, and institutional development collectively. We hope to learn more about the innovative models of capacity building that they have developed and how they can be applied to address global development challenges.

Biographies

Marika is Co-Founder and Managing Director of MASS Design Group, an architectural nonprofit dedicated to designing well built environments that aid in the reduction of global poverty. Marika is a lead designer on the Butaro Hospital project in northern Rwanda in collaboration with Partners in Health, the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, and lived on-site last year developing the designs and overseeing construction. The hospital will be the first in a district of 400,000 people and has used all local workers, along with local materials and innovative ventilation systems to combat in-hospital TB transmission. Her work with MASS has also been dedicated to training the next generation of Rwandan design leaders, working with young interns from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.

Marika has received several awards for her work in reframing architects as change agents in combating global inequity, and last year was an invited Ideas Scholar at the Aspen Institute. Marika was a research fellow at Public Architecture in 2007, and received a US National Commission for UNESCO Traveling Fellowship in 2008. Marika has a BA in Urban Studies from Brown University, and is currently finishing a professional degree in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Victor Grau Serrat is the co-director of D-Lab, and interdisciplinary program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that is committed to working with people around the world to create and disseminate affordable technologies that contribute to sustainable livelihoods, healthy communities, and more just and equitable societies. Through academic offerings and research projects, D-Lab explores the use of technology to alleviate poverty and promotes the concept of creative capacity building, which encourages people to become creators of technology, rather than just users or recipients of technology.

Before joining D-Lab, Mr. Grau Serrat worked in the telecommunications industry specializing in the provision of Internet access in emerging regions and technology transfer. Mr. Grau Serrat has participated over the years in several technology-based start-ups, and holds a Masters degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Ted Constan is Chief Program Officer for Partners In Health (PIH) and Vice President for Program Management for the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change (PIDSC) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He joined PIH and HMS in August 2003.

Prior to joining PIH/HMS , Mr. Constan spent 12 years in state government, serving as Chief of Staff to Massachusetts State Senate President Tom Birmingham from 1996-2002. In this capacity, he was responsibility for managing all offices and departments of the Senate, advising the President regarding policy and political considerations, and supervising passage of all legislative policy matters addressed by the Senate.

Mr. Constan earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard University in 1989. He is married to Alison Franklin, Director of Strategic Communications at City Year headquarters in Boston. They have two young children and live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jeffery Huffines is an American citizen who joined CIVICUS in April 2009 to serve as Main Representative at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, is an international alliance of some 450 members and partners in 110 countries at the local, national, regional and international levels, that spans the spectrum of civil society including: civil society networks and organizations; trade unions; faith-based networks; professional associations; NGO capacity development organizations; philanthropic foundations and other funding bodies; businesses; and social responsibility programs.

Mr. Huffines also serves as Chair of the NGO/DPI Executive Committee that represents over 3,500 Non-Governmental Organizations associated with the UN Department of Public Information that helps organize the annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, that will be taking place this year in Melbourne, Australia, 30 August - 1 September 2010, to focus on global health and the achievement of the MDGs.

Based in New York since 1996, Mr. Huffines has been a leading advocate for a number of coalitions, having served as Chair of the UN Association/USA’s New York Council of Organizations; President of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations; co-founder of the Tripartite Forum on International Cooperation for Peace; convener of the New York NGO Network on the 2005 Millennium Summit; council member of the US Conference of Religions for Peace; senior advisor to the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC); and Co-Chair of the Faith and Ethics Network for the International Criminal Court (FENICC). He had previously served as Main UN Representative for the U.S. Baha'i Community and has taught as an adjunct professor at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University.