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Joann Geddes is a faculty member of the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Co-Director of Academic English Studies at Lewis & Clark College (L&C), in Portland, Oregon. She has held that position since Joann is a founding member of the L&C Dallaire Scholarship Committee. Currently, she serves a CEA Commissioner. She has also been an active member and presenter in local, regional and national professional organizations including NAFSA, TESOL, AAIEP, UCIEP, and ORTESOL.

Blayne Sharpe has lived in Rwanda for 6+ years and serves as the Executive Director for Bridge2Rwanda (B2R), a nonprofit that works to create opportunities for high capacity students from Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, and the Dem. Republic of Congo to study at universities in the US, Canada, and Europe. Blayne cofound the Bridge2Rwanda Scholars Program which has over 100 scholars that have been awarded over $18 million in university scholarships from 50+ institutions including Harvard, Texas Christian University, Columbia, Yale, Michigan State, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, Abilene Christian, Pitzer, Emory, and Vanderbilt. B2R works very closely with government partners, the private sector, and multinational companies to ensure students are developing a career path that brings them back to Africa.

Carl Wilkens is the Co-Founder/Director of World Outside My Shoes, a non-profit educational and professional development organization committed to inspiring and equipping people to enter the world of “The Other.” A biography at engenocide.org gives some of the personal motivations behind this organization: When genocide broke out in Rwanda in 1994, Carl Wilkens refused to leave Rwanda, even when urged to do so by his family, his church and the United States government. At the time, Carl was a missionary with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, living in Rwanda with his wife and three children…. As a result of Carl’s decision to stand up to genocide, hundreds of lives were saved.…. Carl and Teresa spent a year and a half in Rwanda after the genocide ended to assist with the rebuilding process….. Carl has been recognized with several humanitarian awards, including a 2005 Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Dignitas Humana Award from Saint John’s School of Theology Seminary. He was featured in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Ghosts of Rwanda,” as well as in “The Few Who Stayed: Defying Genocide,” an American Radio Works documentary which aired on National Public Radio. Carl Wilkens believes strongly that “one person can make a difference” and that popular groundswells for change are born when individuals “look outside of ‘themselves’ and reach out” to one another.

Dr. Kurk Gayle is the Director of the English Language Learning Programs at Texas Christian University (TCU). He has done much collaborative work with others in international higher education and helped contribute to "internationalizing the campus" of TCU for which IIE presented to the institution the 2015 Andrew Heiskell Award.

How does TCU go from 0 to 10 Rwanda students (9 fully funded) changing their world in just three years? Who starts this up and how? How is this sustained?

Why would Rwanda host its 1 st Youth Leadership Conference at TCU? “Leadership is responsibility. Leading means you are not alone.” -- Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda at TCU IEP.TCU.edu/KWIBUKA