Marie Besançon, Founder / Director
Dr. Besançon founded Homes for Sudan with the late Nader Khalili from the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture and the help of Homes for Sudan's first CFO, Don Lambert, at Harvard. After earning her doctorate in Political Science at Claremont Graduate School, Marie Besançon was a Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government with the Women and Public Policy Program, the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Intrastate Conflict Program, and the Governance Initiative in the Middle East at Harvard. Dr. Besançon was subsequently an associate with the Initiative on Religion In International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School. She was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2008.
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Dr. Besançon's current research interests are rape and war, religion and war, and democratic consolidation and civil society in the Sudan. Dr. Besançon's interest in helping to provide a secure environment for the rape victims of the civil war in Darfur to find healing was the primary motivation behind founding 'Homes for Sudan' and the reasoning behind full community rehabilitation.
Apart from her academic, non profit, and public policy work, Marie is active in her community - working with the local food bank and homeless shelter and as a volunteer tutor for Project Hope. Prior to her political science work, Dr. Besançon worked in medical research where she published some of the pioneering literature on stomach ulcer medications and the binding site of the proton pump inhibitors. She is also an artist who has participated in single and group shows in the Los Angeles area. She serves on the board of advisors for Sentia Group, Inc. and the Olive Cosby and Kermit R. Mason Memorial Scholarship Fund. She is currently serving on an advisory team for the US Africa Command.
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Ambassador Robert Oakley, Director
Robert Bigger Oakley is a retired American diplomat. During his career as a Foreign Service Officer, Oakley served as United States Ambassador to Zaire, Somalia, and Pakistan, and later as a special envoy during the American involvement in Somalia in the early 1990s.
Oakley joined the Foreign Service in 1957 and was assigned to Khartoum, Sudan, in 1958. He first served in the Office of United Nations Political Affairs, Department of State, and later served in American Embassies in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Saigon, Vietnam, Paris, France, and Beirut, Lebanon. He also served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and as Senior Director for Middle East and South Asia on the staff of the National Security Council.
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In February 1977, he became Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs. He later became U.S. Ambassador to Zaire in November 1979, and U.S. Ambassador to Somalia in August 1982. In September 1984, he was appointed Director of the State Department Office of Combating Terrorism. He again joined the National Security Council Staff on January 1, 1987, as Assistant to the President for Middle East and South Asia. He was named as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan in August 1988, succeeding the late Arnold Lewis Raphel, who was killed in an airplane crash along with Pakistan's President, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
Oakley retired from the Foreign Service in September 1991, after 34 years. After retirement, he became associated with the United States Institute of Peace. In December 1992, he was named by President George H. W. Bush as Special Envoy for Somalia, serving there with Operation Restore Hope until March 1993. In October 1993, he was again named as Special Envoy for Somalia by President Bill Clinton, and served in this capacity until March 1994. In January 1995, he joined the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.
* from Wikipedia
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Caryn Peterson, Board Secretary/Treasurer / Director
Ms. Peterson has 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, including research and development, operations, and regulatory affairs. Currently, Ms. Peterson is a partner in Development & Strategic Consulting Associates (“DSC”), a pharmaceutical consulting firm specializing in strategic and development activities in the U.S., Asia and European Union. Prior to founding DSC, Ms. Peterson served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Ascenta Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for cancer. Prior to joining Ascenta, Ms. Peterson served 8 years as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at FeRx Incorporated, a drug-delivery company with a lead product under global
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development for primary liver cancer. As a member of executive management, she was responsible for the development and subsequent execution of a global non-clinical, clinical and regulatory strategy for the lead compound and platform drug delivery technology. Prior to joining FeRx, Ms. Peterson was at Amylin Pharmaceuticals for 8 years where she held managerial positions in both Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining Amylin Pharmaceuticals, she was employed by Hybritech Incorporated for 9 years with increasing responsibilities in scientific positions within the Therapeutics and Diagnostics Divisions of the Company.
Ms. Peterson has authored several research publications and co-inventor on multiple patents. Ms. Peterson also serves as an active member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center of Drug Screening in Shanghai, China, providing significant input to the early design of global development strategies for new drug candidates discovered in China, with an emphasis on integrating both domestic and international regulatory requirements to maximize the value of discovery compounds in the partnering and/or out-licensing activities with international pharmaceutical companies.
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Don Lambert, Co Founder/ Former Director
Mr. Lambert moved to the Asia Bank in the Philippines after working as an Associate Examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Don has a longstanding interest in international development and has worked on projects in India, Tunisia, Bolivia, and Peru. He holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served as an officer in the US Army between his undergraduate and graduate studies.
John Mendlein, PhD, Director
Dr. John Mendlein is Chairman of four privately held biotech companies: Fate Therapeutics (drugs for stem cells), aTyr Pharma (protein therapeutics), Chimeros (polynucleotide therapeutics) and Alevium (drugs for gastric esophageal symptoms). He recently served as CEO of Adnexus Therapeutics (a pioneer of a new class of protein therapeutics), a Boston based biotechnology company, that was purchased in October 2007 by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY: NYSE).
Previously, Dr. Mendlein served as Chairman and CEO at Affinium Pharmaceuticals (anti-infectives); served in a variety of roles, including board member, general counsel and chief knowledge officer, at Aurora Biosciences a biotechnology
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company focused on discovering drugs for g-protein coupled receptors and ion channels (acquired in 2001 by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, VRTX:NASDAQ); and board member of Monogram Biosciences (MGRM), Inc. (acquired in 2009 by Lab Corp, LH: NYSE).
He has worked as an attorney at Cooley LLP, a law firm, in its life sciences and technology litigation practice groups; at Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Ltd., now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), in the Department of Molecular Biology and Protein Expression; and serves as a member of the board of directors and founder of Homes for Sudan, a not-for-profit, scientific advisory board member for The Ocean Discovery Institute, a not-for-profit, and the advisory board of Genesys Capital, a venture capital firm.
He is the author or inventor of over 40 publications and patents. Mendlein earned his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of California, Los Angeles, a J.D. from the University of California Hastings School of Law and a B.S. in biology from the University of Miami.
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Suaad Habiballa, Former Director
Ms. Habiballa was born in the Sudan—the great granddaughter of the Sheik Babiker Bahdri—the founder of the first University for women in the Sudan - Ahfad University. She was educated in Jordan, Dubai and the United States. She is a native Arabic speaker and was active in an organization started by her family that worked to bring closer relationships between the US and the Sudan and to help bring peace to the South. Suaad participated in a delegation to the UN to bring awareness of issues from the Sudan and to foster ties with other NGOs from Southern California and the Sudan.
After graduating from the University of Jordan with an undergraduate degree in Psychology and earning a Montessori Teaching Diploma from London Montessori Center, Ms. Habiballa worked as a
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Montessori teacher. She also volunteered and worked at the Psychiatric Hospital in Abu Dhabi, UAE as a psychologist associate. Suaad received her Masters Degree in business from Hope International University in California. Her family graciously provided the introduction to the Sudan and many of its elites for Homes For Sudan's founder and facilitated the first trips to the Sudan.
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John Thomas, PhD, Director
Dr. Thomas has more than 25 years of experience in new venture start-ups, mergers, acquisitions, capital sourcing, research and development both domestically and internationally. Dr. Thomas is Dean of the School of Business at La Sierra University (sister campus of Loma Linda University) in Riverside, California, where he teaches finance, entrepreneurship and economics and has mentored and developed four consecutive winning teams for the Students in Free Enterprise International Championship, which includes more than 1,000 colleges and universities.
A creative thinker committed to integrity, compassion, and entrepreneurship, Dr. Thomas has mentored many businesses in combining both theoretical and practical acumen
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to solve business problems and is considered by many as a innovative and creative deal maker. His industry experience includes global risk assessment, international finance and international trade development and retailing, franchising and distribution.
Dr. Thomas holds graduate degrees in marketing and finance, and a PhD in political economy. His thesis focused on the behavior of international lenders, and was designed to increase understanding of the nature of lending biases, and their potential contributions to financial crises. Numerous awards have honored his success as a passionate teacher who motivates students to seek and achieve excellence. Among them are the Freedom Foundation's Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education (1998), the Zapara Award for Teaching Excellence (1996), Students In Free Enterprise Hall of Fame, and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce Hero Award for Community.
* from La Sierra School of Business
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