CEN Project Preparation Team
Some of their bios
Armele Vilceus: Confident that, given the opportunity, many more people in Haiti will be engaged in the development of the country; Armele Vilceus has decided to take leave to pursue a long life childhood desire to make a difference in her country. She has dedicated her time since November 2012 to the preparation of the CEN Program.
During the 14 years she worked for the World Bank, Armele has acquired considerable experience in infrastructure projects, research, writing, presentation, budget monitoring, and conflict resolution. She had the opportunity to be involved in project preparation from design to implementation arrangements. That has awakened her passions for development work and has been for her a renewed privilege to help make a difference in post-conflict countries in Western and Central Africa. In addition, contributing to management meetings reaffirmed her belief that unless the citizens of the country are involved in the development process, the desired level of progress and sustainability will not be achieved. Her goal is to contribute in increasing public awareness of development issues and creating partnership with other actors thru knowledge sharing and coordinated actions.
Armele is founding member of the JJD Academy that provides free education to low income families in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Armele is a core team member of the community outreach program at All Souls Church in DC. She has a Masters Degree in Financial Management and Accounting. Born and raised in Petion-Ville, she lives in Silver Spring Maryland.
Robert (Bob) Johnsen: lives in Washington, DC with his wife of 42 years Linda Gustitus. They have two adult children. His son, RJ, teaches 4th grade at St. Alban's School and is the assistant baseball coach for the High School. His daughter Sandra is in her last year at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, OR. RJ and his wife Sarah have a 13 month old daughter, Lillian. Bob and his wife provide child care for Lillian at their home 5 days a week.
Bob retired in 2005 as Growth Director for the Joseph Priestley District of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). During his eleven years in that position he organized six new congregations, grew the Chalice Lighter program, supported growth in existing congregations and led workshops. Since retirement Bob serves as Chair of the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fund for UU Social Responsibility and continues to organize new congregations. He is a member of All Souls Church (ASC), Unitarian in Washington, DC and a member of the ASC Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) Core Team.
His previous employment included founder and director of the Washington Area Training Center (WATC), founder and director of the Center for Community Organizations (CCO), field operations coordinator for Volunteer: The National Center for Citizen Involvement, director of field operations for the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, community organizing consultant and trainer, and director of three community organizations. He started as a community organizer at the first of those three. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, CA
Rollie Smith:Most of his experience is in Nonprofit, Nongovernmental Organizations providing community organization and development services and support.
He lived in the Jesuit community for 13 years where I learned, wrote, taught in the area of philosophy and social ethics. He finished a doctoral program when enrolled in Saul Alinsky's Chicago Institute for further training in Community Organization. Left Academia to take Community Organizing positions in Chicago, Toronto, and San Jose and led Nonprofit Planning and Community Development Organizations in Hawaii, Cleveland, and Fresno.
Rollie Joined HUD as Community Builder and Field Office Director for 14 years where he honed skills in public-private partnerships, sustainable urbanism, regional development, public and private resource development. Rollie retired from HUD in 2011 and moved to DC to be close to his children and grand children. He now works as a volunteer with All Souls Church in their housing and community development organizations.
Anne Marie Jean-Baptiste: was born in Gonaives, Haiti. She completed her primary, secondary, and initial nursing education in Haiti. She migrated to United States of America in 1981. Since then she had earned her Baccalaureate in Nursing, Masters in Healthcare Management, and Masters in Nursing Education. She is currently a doctoral student. She has been working as a Registered Nurse in United States since 1985. For the past five years she has been an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of the District of Columbia. She had published articles in the Maryland Nurse Journal and Guyana Journal. She has been a speaker at Society Sigma Theta Tau (STTI) conference, and her abstracts have been displayed in National Institute of Health (NIH) Summit and the largest education nursing body, National League of Nursing (NLN).
In February 2012 she, along with two other faculty members, led a Multidisciplinary Students Delegation composed of Nursing, Architecture, and Language Departments to Merger, Haiti. Service learning is her area of interest. She allows her own philosophy to permeate her teaching as gently as a dream touches one’s heart before falling out of the consciousness. She visited her native land after the devastating earthquake and became convinced that, given the ephemeral nature of external assistance, the Haitian community needs to maintain esprit the corps and self- reliance. She wants to devote more of her time helping those who want to gain the intellectual tools to tap into available resources to confront their health risks and take charge of their own fate. After all, the level of societal functionality depends on the state of health of the members of the community.
Ralph Belton: was born on the island of Aruba in the Netherland Antilles. His secondary education was acquired on the island of Grenada, a British colony at the time. He is a founding member of the Joint Endeavor for Welfare Education and Liberation (JEWEL). He traveled to the United State of America for tertiary study receiving a B.Arch. (Cum Laude) and M.Arch from Howard University.
He is currently an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Urban Architecture and Community Planning in the College of Agriculture Urban sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).
He is a licensed practicing Architect in the State of Maryland since 1983. He has done several built project including church building design; historic preservation; office and residential building design; military installations and consultancies with the Embassy of Grenada. Of his many built works the Whitelaw hotel is most significant. This project was conceived by his firm Belton-McGhee Associates, Architects. It is both on the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington, DC register of historic buildings.
He has dedicated a significant part of his life to Education. Teaching assignments are primarily in Design Theory, Architectural History and Structural Design. He has conducted student study tours to Europe and Japan and Haiti.Prior to joining the faculty at UDC he taught at Howard University. He has 34 years of experience in the teaching profession. He is also a member of the Construction Specification Institute (CSI).
Haiti is a significant passion and social justice issue for him. He has visited Haiti on a delegation of the UnitarianUniversalist Service Committee(UUSC) representing All Souls Church Unitarian. Recently he has visited Haiti on a faculty and student delegation of CAUSES on a service learning trip to Merge, Haiti. It is his desire to be of service to the people of Haiti as they seek social justice and improve their housing and environmental standards.
Pastor David Faustin: is a man of God. He has been living in the capital region for over 22 years. He is married to his cherished wife Yolaine Faustin and they have a beautiful adult daughter Sabrina Faustin, nobody in the family has a middle name, his explanation is that they are too busy for that.
He was born and raised in Haiti, in a city on a hill called Pétion-Ville (Try to pronounce that) and spent the first 21 years of his life in that city. He has been preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ since he was 12 years old. At the age of 21 he left Haiti to go to Seminary (Bible School) in the hills of Montego Bay, Jamaica. He returned to Haiti as a missionary for a year and left for Stony Brook, New York to pursue his theological studies. He was married in 1990 in Columbia, Maryland and settled there, he was assistant Pastor for 17 years in a denominational ethnic church. He helped many churches in different states until he went back to school in 2004 and started his own ministry: “Bread of Life Bible Fellowship” in Silver Spring, Maryland almost three years ago. Pastor David likes to read; he came from a large family of eight and was the first male and second child. His siblings live in Dominican Republic, Haiti, Toronto, Canada, Atlanta Georgia and Long Island, New York. He likes to travel and always has speaking engagements throughout the United States and Haiti.
Pastor David is currently working on a project to write a book on how to serve the Lord with your household, it is a biography of Joshua based on his famous statement of Joshua 24:15 “…But as for me and my household we will serve the Lord”.
Katherine Leswing: is originally from Vermont and initially moved to the mid-Atlantic region in 2003 to attend Goucher College, just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. With a degree in Peace Studies and French, Katherine has worked on social justice issues both domestically and abroad. She has considerable experience in educating youth in Baltimore City on issues of civic engagement, advocacy and health and has lived in Turkey and France.
Traveling to Haiti for the first time in 2012, Katherine fell in love with the country and its people. She now serves on the Board of Directors for Haiti Circle of Friends, the organization with whom she initially volunteered. She is also currently pursuing dual graduate degrees from American University in International Peace and Conflict Resolution and in teaching for Secondary Education, respectively.
Paloma Rivera: Is a former Political Counselor at the Dominican Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti. She is a professional social worker with experience in research, statistics, international relations, public policy, project management and humanitarian response.
Both her social work and diplomat post in Haiti; helped her understand the Haitian geography, culture and society. She has many passions ranging from women’s rights, community development, urbanism, politics, environment protection, sustainable agriculture, health and social media.
Ernestine Ward:A renaissance professional, Ernestine Ward, Esq., has extensive community, non-profit, and governmental experience identifying, building, and maintaining relationships and resources to help organizations grow. Ernestine earned her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. from New York Law School. She is passionate about the intersection of law, community organizing and neighborhood development. Ernestine has held policy, fundraising, grant management, and advocacy positions at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and Partnerships for Parks. However, she is most passionate about making a difference in her home community and regularly participates in local volunteer opportunities. Ernestine truly abides by the Ephebic Oath, and endeavors to “not leave my city any less but rather greater than I found it.” Ernestine is excited to learn more and be a part of Haiti CEN.
Alexandra Bernard:Alexandra is a Credentialing Specialist at Health Net, Inc.SheGraduated with a B.S. in Community Health and Human Service. Having graduated, she has worked with various organizations such as Job Corp(WICS) and Covenant House DC helping to redevelop an existing transitional living programfor homeless youth. In addition, Alexandra generously givesher timetothe Bread of Life Ministry where sheis able tominister to theyoung people by spreading the wordof God and providingassistancenot limited to food, clothing and counseling services.Alexandra has a passion for working with organizations who seek to make a difference in the communities andor inthelives of the people who are affected bycurrent economical hardships.
Olga Jean-Baptiste: Born and raised in Haiti, Olga has been an activist and a lifelong Social Entrepreneur since her days as a primary school student in the Petion-Vile community. Sparking imagination and strengthening citizenship in children, she seeks to enable young adults to contribute to decision-making and problem solving in society. For the past fifteen years, she has been working with special need kids at District of Columbia Public School, in what many have considered a hostile environment. She is fluent in French, Creole and English.