Global Issues Summit 2016

SPEAKERS

L. Sarah DeMerchant

Sarah DeMerchant is a proud graduate of FBISD. She is the Security Officer and Founder and CEO of Fuzion Apps, Inc., home to the national award winning app “Aequitas: Education and Career Manager”. The app won the grand prize and women innovation mobile award of the U. S. Department of Labor Equal Pay app competition. She also serves as the CTO of MazelTov.com. For her working families and equal pay efforts she has been featured in The Shriver Report, USA Today, Vice News, Essence Magazine and the Lumina Foundation report.

Misa Nguyen

Misa Nguyen is the Director of Programs at United Against Human Trafficking (formerly Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition). Ms. Nguyen received her BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas at Austin with concentrations in Government and Asian Studies. During her time at the University of Texas, Ms. Nguyen was exposed to the social injustice of human trafficking and participated in faith-based initiatives to spread awareness of the issue. In 2010, Ms. Nguyen joined Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to end human trafficking. Ms. Nguyen is the manager of the Programs Department, which includes a variety of technical training programs for frontline professionals and public awareness initiatives.

Nicole Minor

As Founder and Chief Executive Director of The Pangea Network, Nicole Minor believes women and motivated individuals can be a powerful force for change through entire families and communities. After working in consulting for companies around the world, Minor returned to the United States and renewed her commitment to service. In 2005, Minor began to design programs that are now the foundation of The Pangea Network. She enlisted a board of directors, filed for non-profit status and initiated the efforts which today benefit hundreds of women and youth in disadvantaged areas.

Marty McVey

Marty McVey is the founder and CEO of McVey and Associates LLC. He is an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 15 years of international business development, leadership in creating new businesses through direct financial investments, as well as recognized social justice expertise. In 2011, he was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). Mr. McVey also served as Chairman for the Haitian Reconstruction Task Force, as well as Chairman of the BIFAD Budget Committee. His private equity firm spurred the creation of award-winning businesses in the Real Estate, Clean Energy Services and Healthcare sectors.

Naren Chavda

Naren Chavda is a Technical Director with WorleyParsons, an international engineering and consulting firm. His passion to educate underprivileged children in rural India brought him to Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA from its inception as a non-government charitable organization in Houston 15 years back. As President of Ekal’s Houston Chapter he organizes annual fund raising events and supports various local cultural events. His personal mission is “no child in rural India left behind as urban India advances”.

Alimasi Toto

Alimasi Toto is a farmer for Plant It Forward Farms. Originally from the Congo in Africa where many families farm to provide food for their communities, Alimasi and his wife have spent years living in numerous countries as refugees. Roughly five years ago Alimasi selected by immigration to move from Uganda to the United States of America. After safely arriving in Texas, he began a year long training in organic gardening with Plant It Forward Farms. Upon receipt of his organic gardening certificate, Alimasi was provided with a plot of land to begin his own farming business. He now provides fresh produce for roughly 30 families on a weekly basis out of his half acre plot of land in the Westbury Community Garden.

Ethan Crowell

Ethan Crowell is an education practitioner and Academic Life Coach. Ethan holds a Doctorate from the University of Houston in Education and a Masters from the University of Texas at Arlington in Humanities. With 12 years experience in public education as a teacher, coordinator, and administrator Ethan has a great deal of lived experience working with teens. He chose to pursue certification as a academic life coach because of an awareness that there is a huge gap in what the education system does for teens in developing good habits, self advocacy and personal leadership. He currently serves as a high school assistant principal in Katy, TX.

Vivek Pradhan

Vivek Pradhan has been an Ekal volunteer and the public relations officer for the Houston chapter of Ekal since 2015. He has been volunteering for United Way, Junior Achievement, and other similar charitable causes since the 1990s. He has a strong passion for helping the needy and underprivileged children get enhanced access to the two fundamental rights of human society, most of us take for granted – education and healthcare! He is currently involved in the planning and execution of an Ekal offshoot, Health Foundation for Rural India, or HFRI. Vivek is a PhD Chemical Engineer, with an MBA in Business Economics, and has worked in multiple leadership roles for a global energy company, for whom he works currently as their Performance Leader, helping to improve the overall risk profile for the company. He is also keen to see the key skills and expertise honed at the workplace being applied to make volunteering smart and efficient.

Asif Pirmohammad

Mr. Pirmohammad believes strongly in philanthropy and volunteer service. He currently serves as the Regional Vice Chairman of the Aga Khan Foundation USA and is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty. Over the course of the next few years, he will work with key businesses, non-profit organizations, and community influencers across the southwest region to raise awareness for the Aga Khan Foundation's work in an active civil society to improve the quality of life for all regardless of gender, origin, or religion.

PERFORMANCES

Houston International Folk Dancers

The Houston International Folk Dancers is a recreational group that dances a wide variety of ethnic folk dances from around the world: Eastern and Western Europe, Middle East and Mediterranean, and the Americas.The group’s repertoire includes more than 300 dances from 39 countries. Founded in 1947, HIFD performs and educates the Houston community as a not-for-profit organization.

Kathleen Nguyen

Kathleen Nguyen is a 21 year old aspiring singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas.

BCDQ Cultural Foundation

The BCDQ Cultural Foundation is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization that aims to promote the arts. Their mission is to support the arts and promote artistic identity. With this goal in mind, the Basic Concept, Design & Qualification Cultural Foundation has successfully created educative and social events to help spread their cause.

Soulceptions

Soulceptions is Houston's newest professional dance company directed by Molly Waldner and Holly Austin. The company specializes in, but is not limited to contemporary and hip hop. Soulceptions' main goal is to seek out and create new opportunities for talent of all ages throughout the city. But their dreams don't stop there! They hope to travel the country and even the world. The directors feel that it is important to give the members every opportunity that comes along such as working with local artists, teaching them the ins and outs of the industry and thrives off of Soulceptions.

ATTENDEES SPEAKERS & PERFORMERS

AGENDA

8:15-9:00

Registration

9:00-11:30

Session I

11:45-1:15

Lunch

1:15-2:30

Session II

DATE & LOCATION

Clements High School Auditorium

April 16th, 2016

4200 Elkins Rd, Sugar Land, TX 77479

ORGANIZATIONS

Amigos de Las Americas

AMIGOS is a leader in international youth development, creating a world in which young people realize their full potential as leaders and global citizens. We provide extraordinary opportunities for youth to design and lead projects in collaboration with US and Latin American peers and partner organizations across the Americas. Our strong partner network, built over 50 years, enables authentic engagements in communities across the region. The AMIGOS Houston Chapter recruits, trains, and supports AMIGOS participants and their families from the greater Houston area. Our chapter accepts participants September through December of the fall prior to each summer experience. During the months of January through May, Houston Chapter participants will take part in local training and fundraising events as they prepare for their AMIGOS experience.

Ekal Vidyalaya

Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation provides functional literacy to the children of the villages through single teacher schools called Ekal Vidyalayas. "Ekal Vidyalayas" are non-formal schools with a focus on providing basic literacy skills with an emphasis on Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. The curriculum consists of the following subjects: language, mathematics, general education/science, moral values/storytelling, healthcare, handicrafts, yoga and physical education. Additionally the foundation provides support for communities in order to develop better healthcare, more efficient use of resources, and better social relations.

Hashoo Foundation

Mr. Sadruddin Hashwani, formalised and institutionalised the belief of social responsibility by establishing the Hashoo Foundation in 1988. In his view, it was wise to combine social investment with the modern knowledge and expertise to produce measurable results and impacts. Thus he created a modern, accountable and impact oriented institution, which is managed by a professional team, and governed by independent trustees.The mission of Hashoo Foundation is to enable and empower communities to be independent by facilitating access to opportunities, ensuring and enabling environment whereby people we serve are able to live with self-respect and dignity.

Magic Bus

Magic Bus seeks to break the poverty cycle one child at a time. The Magic Bus program follows the theory that children learn best while playing. This theory serves as the basis of our award-winning activity-based curriculum developed with support from The World Bank. The program addresses objectives in five impact areas – the child’s right to play, formal education, gender, health and socio-emotional learning. Each impact area consists of a set of messages which are delivered during weekly sessions. All of the objectives in each impact area are interrelated and thus promote the holistic development of children.

Aga Khan Devleopment Network

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of development agencies with focuses that include the environment, health, education, architecture, culture, microfinance, rural development, disaster reduction, the promotion of private-sector enterprise and the revitalization of historic cities. AKDN agencies conduct their programs without regard to faith, origin or gender.

United Against Human Trafficking

United Against Human Trafficking seeks to end human trafficking, and they aspire for all people to experience freedom and to live beyond bondage to others. UAHT leads the effort to spread awareness and educate the community and front-line professionals such as law enforcement, healthcare, and social service providers to identify victims of human trafficking. They also serve to support government services that perform investigations, rescues, and prosecutions related to human trafficking. Additionally UAHT supports victim services and protection through the YMCA.

BuildMyIdea.org

BuildMyIdea.org seeks to engage and empower students between the ages of 12–18 through social and technological resources to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and service. Children are the collective potential for our future and will make the important decisions in existing industries. Through a transformative process, they intend to stimulate students to develop their strengths and see the value in others.

Pangaea Network

The Pangea Network is an international non-profit dedicated to empowering motivated individuals in Kenya and the United States with the knowledge, skills and an ongoing network of support in order to achieve their dreams and make positive, life-changing contributions in the communities where they live.