Tr Board members
Alana Augello Harris, BS, MS, TEACH Rwanda Secretary, is a 2013 Graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, where she obtained her B.S. in Elementary and Kindergarten Education. In 2016 she earned her Master’s Degree from Lehigh University in Educational Leadership.
Alana taught 5th & 6th grade for 2 years at St. Michael the Archangel School in Bethlehem, and is now teaching 5th grade in the Bethlehem Area School District at Hanover Elementary School. She is also involved with extracurricular activities within the school including the school’s Lighthouse Team Facilitator and Fitness Club Advisor.
Alana has participated in a numerous international mission trips and educational field experiences. Locations include Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany, and Haiti. Alana is passionate about making a difference in the life of a child both inside and outside of the U.S.
Alana joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in the summer of 2016. Alana feels very strongly about and supports all of TEACH Rwanda’s mission and vision statements. She is highly intrigued with the leadership component of the professional development initiatives for the teachers in TEACH Rwanda’s schools. She is looking forward to traveling to Rwanda in the near future.
Alana taught 5th & 6th grade for 2 years at St. Michael the Archangel School in Bethlehem, and is now teaching 5th grade in the Bethlehem Area School District at Hanover Elementary School. She is also involved with extracurricular activities within the school including the school’s Lighthouse Team Facilitator and Fitness Club Advisor.
Alana has participated in a numerous international mission trips and educational field experiences. Locations include Mexico, Costa Rica, Germany, and Haiti. Alana is passionate about making a difference in the life of a child both inside and outside of the U.S.
Alana joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in the summer of 2016. Alana feels very strongly about and supports all of TEACH Rwanda’s mission and vision statements. She is highly intrigued with the leadership component of the professional development initiatives for the teachers in TEACH Rwanda’s schools. She is looking forward to traveling to Rwanda in the near future.
Catherine M. Campanaro, BA, MBA, is TEACH Rwanda's Treasurer extraordinaire. A lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, Cathy is one of the Dharma Drummers whose group held many fundraisers for TEACH Rwanda over the years. Cathy retired in 2022 as an Administrative Manager at Bio Med Sciences, and joined the TEACH Rwanda board shortly thereafter. She is certified as a paralegal, and has a certificate in Strategic Leadership for Growth and Innovation. Cathy's hobbies in addition to African drumming include kayaking, yoga, photography, and reading.
Danielle Johnson, MEd, MPHPhD, is an advocate for high quality, accessible, and inclusive early childhood education that honors the diversity of families' experiences and honors parents' visions of success for their children. Bringing more than 20 years of increasingly responsible program- and systems-level early childhood leadership experience in New York City and now in North Carolina's Triangle and Triad regions. Danielle has taught and trained educators and administrators seeking to make a lasting impact on the families and communities they serve. Following successful tenures in roles as the NC Pre-K Manager and Director of Early Childhood Systems, In August of 2019, Danielle was named Executive Director at Durham's Partnership for Children. She is responsible for providing leadership and oversight for programs within the organization representing annual investments of over $11M. Programs including Smart Start, Early Head Start, NC Pre-K, Transition to Kindergarten, and other collective impact community initiatives that help the Partnership achieve its mission that every child enters school healthy and ready to learn. Danielle is an author, award-winning adjunct instructor at Durham Technical Community College and a sought-after presenter and facilitator at national conferences, with special connections to the early childhood movement in Ghana, West Africa. She received a Master's in Education from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a Master's in Public Health from Hunter College, City University of New York. Danielle holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Danielle serves on various advisory committees such as the Durham Technical Community College Early Childhood Associate Advisory Committee, NC InCK Early Childhood Innovation Committee, and the Durham PreK Governance Committee. She joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in January 2021.
Clare Smith, BS, MEd, TEACH Rwanda Co-Vice President, is a 2012 Honors Graduate of The Pennsylvania State University where she obtained her B. S. Degree in Elementary and Kindergarten Education. She graduated with high distinction and was the recipient of the 2012 Elementary Education Academic Service Award. Clare is also a 2020 Honors Graduate of Lehigh University where she obtained her Masters of Education Degree in Teaching and Learning. Clare has taught in both urban and suburban school settings in 4th and 5th grade. She has unique international teaching experiences including teaching primary students English in Taiwan for a Study Abroad Honors trip and a month-long teaching internship in Rwanda. During her internship in Rwanda, Clare taught English to primary students and mentored genocide orphans, while conducting research for her undergraduate honors thesis, which focused on building resilience in children of poverty and trauma. Clare’s thesis was published by the Schreyer Honors College. Clare’s international teaching experiences not only enriched her life, but also her students’ lives as she is able to teach about diversity while sharing first-hand experiences.
Clare joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in March of 2016 and traveled back to Rwanda later that year to volunteer at TEACH Rwanda’s schools.
After teaching 4th grade for 3 years at St. Michael the Archangel School, she landed a position in the Bethlehem Area School District, teaching 5th grade at Farmersville Elementary School, where she is currently the school’s Webmaster and Digital Media Club Advisor. Clare arranged to donate 36 laptops to TEACH Rwanda schools on behalf of the Bethlehem Area School District. Clare is very passionate about education and TEACH Rwanda’s mission and vision. She and her husband, Co-Vice President Tom Smith, plan to return to Rwanda for more volunteer work.
Clare joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in March of 2016 and traveled back to Rwanda later that year to volunteer at TEACH Rwanda’s schools.
After teaching 4th grade for 3 years at St. Michael the Archangel School, she landed a position in the Bethlehem Area School District, teaching 5th grade at Farmersville Elementary School, where she is currently the school’s Webmaster and Digital Media Club Advisor. Clare arranged to donate 36 laptops to TEACH Rwanda schools on behalf of the Bethlehem Area School District. Clare is very passionate about education and TEACH Rwanda’s mission and vision. She and her husband, Co-Vice President Tom Smith, plan to return to Rwanda for more volunteer work.
Rev. Debora Jackson, DMin, MDiv, ME, MS, BS. The Reverend Dr. Debora Jackson is Director of Operations at All Girls Allowed, a faith-based, non-profit organization that is committed to restoring life, value, and dignity to women by providing resources that promote healing and wholeness. She is responsible for evaluating and determining operational strategies, building a corporate culture of faith and service, and implementing organizational priorities.
Dr. Jackson was formerly the Director of Lifelong Learning at Yale Divinity School and was responsible for developing a robust program to assemble and leverage the abundant intellectual and professional resources of the School for the betterment of churches and other ministries.
Prior to her appointment at Yale Divinity School, Dr. Jackson was the Executive Director of the Ministers Council of the American Baptist Churches, USA, a prestigious and historic organization dedicated to the support of American Baptist clergy. She led the Council from 2012 to 2017, helping the organization restructure and revitalize while securing important new revenue streams. Previously she served for eight years as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Needham, MA, which under her leadership reversed years of decline and flourished as a church known for its engaged preaching, new ministries, and extensive outreach. She currently serves the historic Peoples Baptist Church in Boston, MA as the Minister of Worship. Dr. Jackson worked in business for 20 years, with an emphasis on IT and software engineering, before heeding the call to ministry. Key roles she held during that time included Chief Operating / Chief Information Officer of an e-commerce energy services provider and as Managing Director of a supply chain / IT consulting group.
Dr. Jackson received her Doctorate in Ministry, emphasis in Leadership, and Master of Divinity degree, emphasis in Spirituality, both with honors, from Andover Newton Theological School. She holds a Master of Engineering degree in Manufacturing Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Indiana University.
Dr. Jackson is also a consultant who leads custom, high impact engagements, including strategic planning, conflict resolution, and leadership development, for non-profit and faith-based organizations. As an author, Dr. Jackson has written numerous articles and two books, Meant for Good: Fundamentals in Womanist Leadership (Judson Press, 2019) and Spiritual Practices for Effective Leadership: 7 R’s of Sanctuary for Pastors (Judson Press, 2015), which was the 2016 Illumination Book Silver Medal Award Winner.
Dr. Jackson resides in Newton, MA with her husband, James Thomas, and their son, Jadon.
Dr. Jackson was formerly the Director of Lifelong Learning at Yale Divinity School and was responsible for developing a robust program to assemble and leverage the abundant intellectual and professional resources of the School for the betterment of churches and other ministries.
Prior to her appointment at Yale Divinity School, Dr. Jackson was the Executive Director of the Ministers Council of the American Baptist Churches, USA, a prestigious and historic organization dedicated to the support of American Baptist clergy. She led the Council from 2012 to 2017, helping the organization restructure and revitalize while securing important new revenue streams. Previously she served for eight years as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Needham, MA, which under her leadership reversed years of decline and flourished as a church known for its engaged preaching, new ministries, and extensive outreach. She currently serves the historic Peoples Baptist Church in Boston, MA as the Minister of Worship. Dr. Jackson worked in business for 20 years, with an emphasis on IT and software engineering, before heeding the call to ministry. Key roles she held during that time included Chief Operating / Chief Information Officer of an e-commerce energy services provider and as Managing Director of a supply chain / IT consulting group.
Dr. Jackson received her Doctorate in Ministry, emphasis in Leadership, and Master of Divinity degree, emphasis in Spirituality, both with honors, from Andover Newton Theological School. She holds a Master of Engineering degree in Manufacturing Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Indiana University.
Dr. Jackson is also a consultant who leads custom, high impact engagements, including strategic planning, conflict resolution, and leadership development, for non-profit and faith-based organizations. As an author, Dr. Jackson has written numerous articles and two books, Meant for Good: Fundamentals in Womanist Leadership (Judson Press, 2019) and Spiritual Practices for Effective Leadership: 7 R’s of Sanctuary for Pastors (Judson Press, 2015), which was the 2016 Illumination Book Silver Medal Award Winner.
Dr. Jackson resides in Newton, MA with her husband, James Thomas, and their son, Jadon.
Eric Biribuze, BS, MS, MBA, is a native of Burundi. He attended universities first in China and then the U.S., and speaks five languages fluently. Eric joined Corning in 1997, where he quickly gained recognition for his engineering and business knowledge as well as dynamic leadership skills. He has mentored more than a dozen interns at Corning, and continues to support his family as well as other Burundians to gain their educations. In 2018 he was named the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement. Eric joined the TEACH Rwanda board in 2022, shortly after establishing the first Rwanda LEGO Robotics team through his new organization, STELA (Science Technology Entrepreneurship Leadership Academy) at Bright School. His passion is "to make a positive impact...while solving some of the world's toughest problems and helping transform people's lives." He and his family live in Corning, New York.
Janet F. Brown, BS, MEd., TEACH Rwanda Founder and President, is grateful that she has able to spend her life advocating for high-quality early childhood and primary education as well as teacher mentoring. Early in a career that now spans more than 5 decades, Jan was a preschool teacher and child care director. She worked as Editor of Young Children and Director of Publications for the National Association for the Education of Young Children and then as Editor of Dimensions of Early Childhood. Later in her career she served as a consultant with Art As a Way of Learning® with Northampton Community College and then became Managing Editor for Crayola. After retiring, she regularly volunteered with Head Start in the Lehigh Valley. She has traveled extensively, enjoys photography, and began sharing her passion for social justice through play-based education in Rwanda in 2010. As the on-the-ground leader of TEACH Rwanda, she saw Bright School grow from just 20 children in preschool to, a decade later, 311 students in preschool and primary in 2022. At the request of local education leaders, she, along with Rwandan educators, developed TEACH Rwanda’s successful module system to mentor teachers. Jan and her husband, William Whipple III, are delighted to share 6 adult children, 6 grandchildren, and a growing number of great grandchildren, spread over two continents. She and Bill are shown here with their Rwandan grandson William Brown Ineza (Sweet Pea), on his first day as a student at Bright School in September 2022.
Raza Visram is an invited board member and main point person for TEACH Rwanda's Africa operations. Raza is currently on sabbatical from the board for family reasons. He is a native of East Africa with connections to the land who deeply understands the ongoing intricacies, strategies, and challenges of operating any organization in Africa. He is very well traveled in Africa and brings more than 22 years of experience and expertise of working at AfricanMecca Safaris, an award-winning Africa travel and tourism organization. Raza's simple beginnings and humble family background has made him a passionate and fervent advocate for the rights of the poor and underserved, as well as giving back to Africa using his time, talent, and treasures with the sole aim of making a better tomorrow: an Africa with a self-sustaining healthy economy supported by an educated population and progressive government which is able to solvethe challenges of education, healthcare, conservation, employment, and more. His honest and open communication style has successfully led TEACH Rwanda to operate at its highest efficiency, allowing donor funds to be maximized for the benefit of TEACH Rwanda schools. His connections with the greater business trade in the United States has further allowed TEACH Rwanda to receive support for its non-profit operation. Raza is on currently on sabbatical while dealing with family health issues.
Tom Smith, BS, TEACH Rwanda Co-Vice President, graduated in 2014 with a degree in Communication in Arts and Sciences and a minor in Business from The Pennsylvania State University. Tom graduated from the Allentown Police Academy in June 2020. He is currently a police officer for the Bethlehem Township Police Department in Bethlehem, PA, fulfilling his life-long dream.
Tom served as Head Boys Basketball Coach for 8th grade at St. Michael the Archangel School for 2 years. Tom joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in March 2016 and took his first international trip to Rwanda in July 2016, where he volunteered at TEACH Rwanda schools.
Tom brings unique talents to the Board, such as his business, management and communications skills. He also brings board experience as he formerly served as the Vice President and Chief of Staff for Penn State Berks’ Student Government Association.
Tom is very passionate about the TEACH Rwanda mission and vision and is very driven to see the organization achieve its goals. Tom and his wife, Co-Vice President Clare Smith, plan to return to Rwanda for more volunteer work.
Tom served as Head Boys Basketball Coach for 8th grade at St. Michael the Archangel School for 2 years. Tom joined the TEACH Rwanda Board in March 2016 and took his first international trip to Rwanda in July 2016, where he volunteered at TEACH Rwanda schools.
Tom brings unique talents to the Board, such as his business, management and communications skills. He also brings board experience as he formerly served as the Vice President and Chief of Staff for Penn State Berks’ Student Government Association.
Tom is very passionate about the TEACH Rwanda mission and vision and is very driven to see the organization achieve its goals. Tom and his wife, Co-Vice President Clare Smith, plan to return to Rwanda for more volunteer work.
William Whipple III, TEACH Rwanda Business Representative, retired in 2014 from a 33-year career as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist & Certified Diabetes Educator so that he could go to Rwanda for extended lengths of time with his wife Jan and TEACH Rwanda. Dietetics has a strong diet education component and Bill has had an interest in high-quality education all his life, hearing about it at the family dinner table from his father who was a literature professor and his mother who had an advanced degree in journalism. He finds fascinating the process of implementing high-quality education in Rwanda, where many students, beginning in preschool, still sit quietly and memorize what the teacher says. He understands now that good early education gives a strong foundation for learning throughout life and sees potential for making a strong impact on the lives of children in Rwanda.
He is learning a lot from, Jan, who is the education expert, and contributes his own talents, including communicating in French, a passion for teaching English, mentoring, management, and business skills. He was the onsite coordinator for the first Bright School STELA Future Hopes LEGO Robotics Team. He loves being able to contribute in a meaningful way, even though he is “very old” according to his Rwandan friends, (a term of respect). He misses his children, grandchildren (see Jan’s bio), and friends in the U.S. when spending extended periods of time in Rwanda.
He is learning a lot from, Jan, who is the education expert, and contributes his own talents, including communicating in French, a passion for teaching English, mentoring, management, and business skills. He was the onsite coordinator for the first Bright School STELA Future Hopes LEGO Robotics Team. He loves being able to contribute in a meaningful way, even though he is “very old” according to his Rwandan friends, (a term of respect). He misses his children, grandchildren (see Jan’s bio), and friends in the U.S. when spending extended periods of time in Rwanda.
B. Daniel Dillard served for 36 years as the Executive Director/CEO of the Burn Prevention Network, a 501(c)3 corporation. Under his leadership, that organization delivered a diverse portfolio of fire safety, burn prevention, and burn survivor support services to nearly 1 million beneficiaries annually. Several of these programs have been recognized nationally and nominated for Emmy Awards. Dan is a frequent speaker nationally, and has served as the Chairman of the American Burn Association (ABA) Burn Prevention Committee; the President of the Federation of Burn Foundations; and has led a number of multi-organization national initiatives funded by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). He has been honored by the ABA as the recipient of its annual Burn Prevention Award.
Dillard has extensive experience in strategic planning, board management, staff coordination and direction, fundraising, partnership coordination, and public relations. Mr. Dillard is married, has 7 children, 17 grandchildren and counting!
Dillard has extensive experience in strategic planning, board management, staff coordination and direction, fundraising, partnership coordination, and public relations. Mr. Dillard is married, has 7 children, 17 grandchildren and counting!