GREGORY T. BUIE, M.A.

Executive Director & Co-Founder

An international development professional with a passion for travel, languages, lifelong learning and conservation, Greg has a wide array of experience serving and growing nonprofit organizations that operate in countries all over the world. Aside from building Visions over the past 20 years, Greg previously worked as a development consultant for many (mostly diaspora-based) nonprofit organizations committed to working in the fields of health and education with communities in need globally. His work has taken him to Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia. Greg holds a BA in Political Science: International Relations from the University of California, San Diego, and an MA in International Studies & Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. In addition to his role with Visions, he serves as President of the American Friends of SOAS and as an Advisory Board member of Visions Global Empowerment India. He resides in Orange County, California, is a proud parent of 2 boys and 2 beautiful dogs, lives a plant-based lifestyle, and is an avid traveler.

MEERA PATHMARAJAH, Ed.d., ed.m.

Co-Founder

Meera Pathmarajah is the Co-Founder of Visions Global Empowerment and Director of Blue Brick School (a Visions initiative), and currently works as a Program Officer at the Echidna Giving Foundation. From 2005 to 2009 she worked as Asia Regional Program Manager of Room to Read, designing educational programs with teams in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Meera holds a B.A. in Psychology and South Asia Studies from the University of California, Berkeley; an Ed.M. in International Education from Harvard University; and an Ed.D. in International Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University. A former adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco and UCLA, Meera’s research interests are in international education, gender, teacher education, and learner-centered pedagogy.

 Tamara Lafarga, M.S.

President

Philanthropist, entrepreneur, international health/fitness presenter, real estate investor, artist, nature aficionado, wife, mother and grandmother - Tamara channels her boundless energy and diverse skill set in a myriad of different ventures. Tamara founded CLJ Designs in 1991, built a health and fitness club, was involved in international marketing in Asia, owned alzheimer facilities and has a real estate investment career. She taught health/nutrition in Mexico and Guatemala and high school math and CPR in the USA. Tamara has her BS from the University of Wisconsin, graduate work at University of Wisconsin and University of Nevada as well as a certificate in gerontological counseling form UCSD. She is a native speaker of Spanish as well.

ISMAT ISMAEL, BBA

Treasurer

MARY GRACE HAMME, M.S.

Secretary

A professional speech-language pathologist at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham (MA), Mary Grace has been involved with Visions since 2012 when she first joined us in Ethiopia. She has served as a Visions Chapter Director for both Rochester (NY) & Boston (MA) and has volunteered in Ethiopia several times since then. She holds a B.A. in Communication Disorders from the State University of New York, New Paltz and an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from Nazareth College. She is also fluent in American Sign Language (ASL).

Shahnaz Van Deventer

Shahnaz Van Deventer serves as the Director of Marketing and Development for the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity (MOSAC), where she is spearheading fundraising efforts for an $83 million capital campaign to establish a leading science center in Northern California. Prior to joining MOSAC, Shahnaz held a variety of sales and marketing roles in the non-profit and private sectors. Working for a Fortune 500 company and based overseas, she is experienced in doing business in over 20 countries.

Shyamala nagendran, Ph.d., M.sc.

Having immigrated to Canada more than three decades ago, Shyamala now resides in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with her family. University of Alberta is her Alma mater where she obtained a BSc, MSc, and a PhD in Computing Science and Informatics focusing on medical education. Being a lifelong leaner she passionately believes in education and volunteers in activities related to education supporting underprivileged and disadvantaged children. She is the founder of Natya-Size Fitness/Wellness Club. Established in 2001 and funded by the Alberta government, the club promotes fitness and Wellness within the Asian community in Edmonton. One of her responsibilities is to strategize funding models targeting governments. Shyamala is also a native speaker of Tamil.

SAMUEL EPSTEIN, MBA

Sam Epstein is a Partner at F&F Capital Group where he oversees a broad portfolio of investments in technology companies, from early stage startup ideas through established, industry leading businesses. Sam has over 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur, operator and investor. Prior to joining F&F, Sam worked in the CEO's Office at ICONIQ Capital, a leading investment firm with over $80B in assets under management and a global family office platform serving many of the leading entrepreneurs and executives in the Technology industry. Sam graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations. He also earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

VALENTINE HOLLINGSWORTH, MBA

CAROL HOLLINGSWORTH, B.A.

Brooke Beardslee, M.P.H., M.A.

Brooke is Founder and Director of Mid Century Maroc, an online ‘souk’ selling vintage furnishings found in Morocco. Mid Century Maroc is based in Essaouira, Morocco, where she lives with her husband Aziz. Prior to launching Mid Century Maroc, Brooke held roles in international development, direct service, non-profit management, non-profit board stewardship, and fundraising. Brooke holds a BA from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in Politics, a Master’s in Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Maternal & Child Health/Health Education, a MA from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and is CELTA certified.

Dr. John d. rockefeller, Global health advisor

Dr. John “Jack” Rockefeller JD MPH DrPH retired as Associate Dean, Global Health Solutions at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He was chief architect of a centralized innovation funding and program development model for health projects at the Medical School and in cooperation with all health programming at Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth, he engaged with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, all Hewlett and Packard related foundations, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Jack holds a B.Sc. in Pharmacology from Arizona State University, and attained his graduate degrees in public health from Johns Hopkins University. He earned his Juris Doctorate with honors from the John F Kennedy School of Law followed by a post-graduate research fellowship in law from Trinity College, Dublin, where he headed up the Northern Ireland Negotiation Project. He is a Wharton School Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Wharton’s Advanced Management Program.

Prior to his tenure at Dartmouth, Jack was Senior Advisor to the President’s office at Johns Hopkins University. He was engaged primarily to assist with the Rising to the Challenge Campaign, which was constructed and implemented with his assistance — raising in excess of $6 Billion over 5 years. He has also served as Director of Social Ventures at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Chief Executive Officer at the California Autism Foundation, and the Managing Director of the Nobel Symposium-founded International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study.

Catherine Clark, Au.D., M.A.

For the past 30 years, Dr. Catherine Clark has worked as an Associate Professor, Audiologist and Coordinator of the Cochlear Implant Program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf’s (NTID) Department of Communication Studies and Services at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Clark provides speech-reading and auditory training, performs hearing evaluations, hearing aid fittings and services related to cochlear implants and teaches an interpersonal relationships course. Dr. Clark earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech and Hearing Services from Bradley University, a Master’s Degree in Audiology from the University of Louisville, a Doctorate in Audiology (AuD) from Salus University, and completed her clinical fellowship at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles where she worked in the children’s cochlear implant program.

JOE HILL, B.F.A.

As a filmmaker and arts enthusiast, Joe is now based in New York City where he works as an Associate Producer for VICE on HBO. He is also a Co-Founder of Round Room Image, a creative production company that challenges social narratives with honest representations of stories unheard. Joe, along with other volunteer filmmakers, produced a series of short documentary films for Visions over the past few years in both Ethiopia and India. Joe attended Carnegie Mellon University where he obtained his B.F.A. in Directing from the School of Drama.

PAULA BROWN, Ph.D.

Dr. Brown is a professor of speech-language pathology at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, where she has taught since August 2003. She was previously a faculty member and chairperson of the Speech-Language Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology, and adjunct faculty member of Nazareth College. Dr. Brown holds a B.S. in Speech Pathology & Audiology from the University of Missouri; M.A. in Speech Pathology from Kent State University; and both M.S. in Development & Leaning and PhD in Language & Cognition from the University of Rochester. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, Hungary in 2013, and was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in 2016. Dr. Brown has led several service-learning trips to Ethiopia in partnership with Visions, and regularly supports Visions' work to help empower Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Ethiopians.

Ramoshan Canagasaby, M.S.

An engineer by day and Social Entreprenuer the rest of the time, Ramoshan is driven by his dream of making Jaffna (Sri Lanka) the next Silicon Valley. Ramoshan grew up amidst the war in Jaffna in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He developed a passion for educational development and entrepreneurship ever sine he moved to Silicon Valley in the late 90’s. He has been CTO of the iTEE Foundation and an integral part of Yarl IT Hub – an IT incubator in Jaffna for the past 5 years. He is the Director of Engineering, Systems and Applications at Rambus, based in Sunnyvale, CA. He is also the CEO & Co-Founder of Vetri Holdings LLC, which “intends to become the de-facto integrator for the development of IT-based infrastructure in Sri Lanka.”

Sally Neiser, M.A.

Sally Neiser is a lifelong educator from Huntington Beach, CA. She recently retired from a 25+ year career in public education to help bring education and leadership opportunities to youth that may not have readily-available resources.  With a B.S. in education from Bucknell University and a M.A. in educational administration from Azusa Pacific University, she taught music, language arts, and leadership to all grade levels before transitioning to administration. Most recently she served as the principal of a high-achieving middle school in southern California. Reading to stay current in best educational practices, and volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to foster youth are important activities for Sally.

venita sivamani, m.b.a.

Venita has focused her efforts on educational equity and leadership for nearly a decade. She has a keen passion for international education and closing the achievement gap locally and abroad. Venita is a Teach for America alumnus and recently received her MBA from UC Davis. She has led our Northern California/UC Davis Chapter for many years and has volunteered with Visions in India & Ethiopia. Venita’s leadership and tireless efforts have contributed greatly to the growth of our organization. She recently helped launch a new business venture called Dermveda, which is dedicated to the promotion of high quality, holistic information about skin health and wellness, integrating Eastern and Western medical perspectives through education, research, and product review.