SEA Junction has been established with the contributions of the founder and so-called Founding Partners who trusted the initial idea of creating a public venue and knowledge center on Southeast Asia and contributed to its realization.
After the first and half year of functioning, we continue to receive widespread support and we want to recognize that such contributions are crucial to the development of the organization. We have therefore created a new category of Enabling Partners, who like the Founding Partners are individuals who share a passion for Southeast Asia cultures and societies and believe that it deserves greater attention by the global community. Some of them also represent institutions that have a compatible mission with SEA Junction. They too are willing to contribute their ideas, advice, and contacts and to ensure SEA Junction remains viable financially with a donation of minimum US$2,500 or US$900 a year for 3 years. The difference is mainly in the timing of their support since it is no longer for the establishing of SEA Junction, but rather for strengthening its systems and for buildinga strong basis for expanding our programs. Since October, our Enabling Partners are:
Gillian Brown
Gillian Brown is an international development independent consultant specialized in social development and gender equality. Currently she is providing services to (Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerement Mampu (MAMPU) in Indonesia and other DFAT programs in Southeast Asia. Previously she worked shortly for DFAT (then AusAID) as Principal Gender Specialist in Camberra and was with the World Bank for more than a decade as Senior Social Development Specialist. A graduate of Newcastle University, she lives in Devizes, Wiltshire, United Kingdom.
Fred Carden
Fred Carden is an evaluation specialist with over 25 years’ experience in development research and programming. He has written numerous articles and eight books translated into a dozen languages, among others, Knowledge to Policy and Outcome Mapping. From 1989-1993, Fred led the University Consortium n the Environment, a collaboration between Institut Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, University of Waterloo and York University. From 1993-2013 he supported development research evaluation at the International Development Research Centre, the last ten years as Director. Thereafter, he worked in Indonesia on the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI), a bilateral program that promotes better quality public policies that make better use of research, analysis and evidence. In 2015, Fred established Using Evidence Inc., a consultancy that focuses on efforts to improve the use of research and evaluative evidence in decision making. Fred holds a PhD from the University of Montreal and was granted a Fellowship in Sustainability Science at the Harvard Kennedy School (2008). His LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredcarden/
Lin Chew
Lin Chew, 72, is a mother, grandmother, ceramic potter, feminist and human rights activist. Born and schooled in Singapore, Lin joined the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, and lived in communities in Malaysia and Singapore. From 1973, she lived in the Netherlands, where she combined family life with campaigning against human rights violations in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Singapore. In 1987, Lin co-founded the Foundation against Trafficking in Women in the Netherlands and in 1994 the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok. In 1999, she worked with the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, developing a human rights education program before joining in 2005 the consortium “Women’s Empowerment in Muslim contexts” as communication officer for Indonesia. In 2008, she co-founded the Institute for Women’s Empowerment (IWE), with a focus on fostering personal as well as collective reflexive processes for nurturing Feminist Leadership among women in Indonesia. This is part of her broader interest in “mindfulness” as a way for activists to build personal and organizational resilience. Between 1999 and 2012, Lin also served on the Board of Directors of Global Fund for Women and Mama Cash and co-founded the HER Fund in Hong Kong.
Therese Coauette and Chris Elias
Therese Caouette and Chris Elias have been living and working in Southeast Asia since 1982 when they first worked in the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. Therese has continued working with refugees, displaced persons and migrant populations with an emphasis on community development in the Mekong Region. She is currently the Southeast Asia Regional Advisor for Partners Asia, on faculty at Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies and University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies as well as member of several non-profit boards. Chris Elias, MD,MPH, works on a broad range of global health and development issues. Chris is currently the President of Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and previously served as the President & CEO of PATH, as well as Thailand Country Director for the Population Council. Therese and Chris are also our Founding Partners has they have contributed earlier to the establishment of SEA Junction. Special thanks here to them!
Alan Feinstein
Alan Feinstein is the Executive Director of the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF) since 2014, which manages the Fulbright program and other educational exchange programs in Indonesia. He has a long career in philanthropy, education, culture, and development in Southeast Asia having served as program officer at the Ford Foundation, Jakarta (1987-1995); Japan Foundation, Tokyo (1995-2000); Toyota Foundation, Tokyo (2000-2003); and Rockefeller Foundation, Bangkok (2003-2008, the last two years of which as Managing Director of its Asia office). After leaving the Rockefeller Foundation, he worked as a book editor, and translator based in Bangkok, Thailand and did consultancies for UNESCO, and the World Bank. In 2009-10, he was a Nippon Foundation Asian Public Intellectuals Senior Fellow carrying out research in Indonesia and the Philippines for a book on trends in international philanthropy. He received a BA from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, and did graduate work toward MA and PhD (candidacy achieved) in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Alan is also our Founding Partners has he has contributed earlier to the establishment of SEA Junction. Special thanks here to him!
Mandela Gregoire
Mandela Gregoire is an artist of Panamanian & Dominican descent. Born in 1984, he grew up in Dominica, Seattle, Nigeria, and New York. He was heavily influenced by the sights and sounds of the African Diaspora. He discovered his passion for photography while traveling in his teenage years. Mandela studied cinema at the School of Film & Animation at the The Rochester Institute of Technology and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He did a study abroad program in Paris and eventually took a year off to travel and make short films in Timbuktu (Mali), Senegal, Panama, Brazil, and Dominica. After school, he landed a job with Academy Award nominated director John Singleton, working closely with him on a feature film in Puerto Rico called “Illegal Tender.”He went on to work for Rihanna as her personal photographer and videographer, shooting behind the scenes material and creating content for merchandise. Mandela now works on projects world-wide and has produced content for Ralph Lauren, Moet, Men’s Health Magazine, and the United Nations.He likes to travel and is passionate about cinema, international affairs, and the creative economy. For selected work see www.mandelagregoire.com
Benjamin (Ben) Harkins
Benjamin (Ben) Harkins is a migration specialist who has spent the last decade in Southeast Asia engaged with labour migration, forced labour and refugee issues. His work is fueled by a strong personal commitment to ensuring that the human rights of all people are respected, regardless of their nationality or legal status. He was a technical officer for over 5 years with the International Labour Organization’s TRIANGLE project in Bangkok, where he helped to build the evidence base for labour migration governance within Southeast Asia. Some of Ben’s research publications include the Thailand Migration Report 2019, Risks and Rewards: Outcomes of Labour Migration in Southeast Asia, Access to Justice for Migrant Workers in Southeast Asia, Review of Labour Migration Policy in Malaysia, Safe Migration, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Myanmar and Employment Practices and Working Conditions in Thailand’s Fishing Sector. He is currently based in Yangon, where he manages the Decent Work and Labour Mobility portfolio for the Livelihoods and Food Security (LIFT) Fund. Ben received a Master of Arts in International Development Studies from Chulalongkorn University.
Crystal Hayling
Crystal Hayling is since 2017 Executive Director of the Libra Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to progressive causes and movements with a focus on social and economic justice and human rights. Previously, she was managing director of the Aspen Institute’s Environmental Fellowship, where she designed a global leadership program focused on the food system’s impact on the environment. Until then, she lived in Singapore where she built bridges between civil society and emerging donors in Southeast Asia. Before moving to Asia, Crystal was CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation and was also part of the founding team at The California Wellness Foundation. She has served on the boards of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Northern California Grantmakers, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, and Grantmakers in Health. Most recently Crystal was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. She has also lived and worked in China and Mexico. Born and raised in Florida, Crystal is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She and her husband live in the Bay Area with their two teenage sons.
Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III
Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III is an Associate Professor of Global Health at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, the University of Liverpool campus in Asia. He also holds academic appointments with University of the Philippines, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. He has extensively lectured in a number of universities in Southeast Asia where he focuses his researches on the region. Don is the Founder of Global Health Focus (GHF) which aims to develop critical thinkers and leaders in global health through its popular global health courses. His major interests on the region is on health systems and financing, migration and health, disasters, and human resources for health. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Philippine Journal of Medicine, an Associate Editor of Global Health Research and Policy and the International Maritime Health and he sits in a number of international editorial boards. He frequently reviews for many high-impact journals including Lancet. Don is a medical doctor with a PhD in Global Health.
Carol L. Mitchell
Carol L. Mitchell is the regional director for Southeast Asia at the Library of Congress office in Jakarta. The Jakarta office overseas the acquisition of books, journals, maps, music and other library materials for the Library of Congress and libraries serving students and faculty who study the region. Her engagement in the region began when a Peace Corps Volunteer at the Sabah State Library in Malaysia. Interest in knowledge production and libraries in Southeast Asia brought her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her PhD. Before returning to work in Southeast Asia in 2014, Carol lived and worked for fifteen years in Delhi, India and Islamabad, Pakistan. Her work provides her many opportunities to investigate the exciting developments in Southeast Asia publishing.
Natalie Phaholyothin
Natalie Phaholyothin is CEO of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Thailand. Prior to joining WWF, she was an Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation where she managed the Transforming Health Systems Initiative in Asia and was instrumental in the Foundation’s advocacy for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). She has also facilitated the institutionalization of the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance Network (MBDS), a regional network which is now the MBDS Foundation. Previously, she worked as a program officer at the Education Development Center (EDC) where she oversaw the Asia Pacific corporate responsibility programs for Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Early in her career, she was based in Lao PDR and Honduras at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). She holds a master’s degree in international economics from the State University of New York (SUNY-Albany), and a MPhil from L’Institut d’etudes politiques de Paris (SciencesPo) in political economy and she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations from Brown University. She enjoys running and discovering good street food throughout Asia.
Mary Jane N. Real
Mary Jane N. Real has been active in defense of human rights and women´s rights since she was a student. She has drawn on her education as a lawyer and her master degree in development studies to work with the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Southeast Asia Watch, and the Center for Women and Gender Initiatives among others. In 2005, she became a founding member and the first coordinator of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC), which brought together women’s rights, human rights, and sexual rights organisations to support women human rights defenders worldwide. More recently, she was part of establishing Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights Asia and Pacific (UAF A&P), which was launched in 2018 with offices in the Philippines and Australia, of which she has become the Lead for Programmes and Innovation. Jane writes widely about women’s rights in newspapers, reports and policy briefs and she often facilitate meetings and policy dialogues.
Rosalia (Lia) Sciortino Sumaryono
A cultural anthropologist and development sociologist by training, Rosalia (Lia) Sciortino Sumaryono earned her doctorate at the Vrije Universities, Amsterdam with honors. Currently, she is Associate Professor at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University and Visiting Professor at the Master in International Development Studies (MAIDS), Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and Director of SEA Junction, which she founded. Most recently, Lia was IDRC Regional Director for Southeast and East Asia in Singapore (2010-2014), Senior Adviser to the Australian Agency for International Development in Indonesia (2009-2010), and Regional Director for Asia of the Rockefeller Foundation (2000-2007) establishing during her tenure the Foundation’s Southeast Asia Office in Bangkok. Prior to that, she was program officer Gender, Human Development and Reproductive Health at the Indonesia and Philippines offices of the Ford Foundation from 1993 to 2000. Lia has acted as a consultant for international and regional organizations, as an adviser for non-profit organizations, and as a visiting professor at various Southeast Asian and Dutch universities. She has published widely on development issues in Southeast Asia, in particular gender, social health, migration and regional integration in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and ASEAN. A native of Palermo, Italy, she fluently speaks Italian, Dutch, English and Indonesian. In 2017 , she received a medal by the Vietnamese Association of Social Sciences for her contribution to social sciences in Vietnam.