Clare Richardson
CEO, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI)
Clare Richardson is the President and CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, an Atlanta-based international nongovernmental organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitats in Africa. As part of its mission, DFGFI promotes continued research on their threatened ecosystems and education about their relevance to the world. In collaboration with government agencies and other international partners, DFGFI also provides assistance to local communities through education, health, training and economic development initiatives.
Kevin Salwen
Philanthropist and Author
During 18 years at the Wall Street Journal, Kevin wrote two columns, helped cover two presidential administrations and launched two publications. In his last job at the paper, he was National Small Business Editor and a weekly expert guest on CNBC. After leaving the WSJ in 2000, Kevin created several media ventures. He is now the expert on small-business issues for Yahoo! Kevin, his wife, Joan, and their two teenagers are investing money, time and talent with The Hunger Project to help build opportunity for villagers in Africa. Their audacious family project has been featured on the Today Show. Kevin’s book about that project, co-authored by his daughter, Hannah, a junior at the Atlanta Girls’ School, is entitled The Power of Half, and will be published by Houghton-Mifflin in February 2010. The book teaches families how to improve the quality of their relationships through a common purpose to serve others. A graduate of Northwestern University, Kevin serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta, the East Africa Children’s Education Fund and the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Olympic University.
Emily Robinson Cook
Wildlife Photographer
Debbe Gregory-Sugrue
Lawyer and Investment Manager
Debbe Gregory-Sugrue is the Managing Director of Grant Alexander Executive Search, an international recruitment firm owned by BPI Group. Debbe formerly served as a Director and Owner of Hendon & Sugrue, an executive search and consulting firm based out of Atlanta, and brings twenty years of legal and financial services expertise to EACEF. Previously, Debbe has occupied senior level roles with financial companies such as Neuberger Berman and SunTrust Banks. She also formerly practiced law with the Rose Law Firm in Dallas. Debbe holds an undergraduate degree from the Honors College at Western Michigan University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Toledo College of Law.
Leitzel Schoen
Service Learning at Glenn Institute
Andrew Sugrue
President, EACEF
Andrew is the President of the East African Children's Education Fund, Inc. and laid the groundwork for what is now EACEF through his participation in the 2007 Mount Kenya Academy Exchange Program. He returned to Kenya and traveled to Uganda in the summer of 2008 to meet with government ministers and educators while visiting EACEF's first projects. Sugrue returned again in the summer of 2009 to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Currently he leads EACEF as President of the organization while studying as a Robertson Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University. At UNC, he serves as President of SPAC, the student advisory board of the Robertson Scholars Program, and is a member of the Squash and Sailing Clubs. He is currently majoring in International Studies with a focus in Africa and global economics, trade, and development at UNC and Markets and Management at Duke. In 2008, Sugrue was invited to participate in the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford, England.
English Cook
VP of Communications, EACEF
English joined EACEF as its first volunteer in 2007, and after serving as Associate Executive Director, took on the role of Vice President for Communications. In 2006, she worked as both a Communications Intern and the Associate Events Coordinator with the National Monuments Foundation, helping to write and release historical information guides and serving as a personal assistant to the Director during a 2006 tour through England and Scotland. She currently attends Williams College, studying for a degree in Art History, and has collection management and communications experience with both the Millennium Gate, Georgia's most comprehensive, interactive history museum, and the High Museum of Atlanta. In her active college life, she works as the Arts Editor of The Williams Record and is a board member of the Williams College Lehman Council for Community Engagement. Additionally, in Summer 2009 she was the co-curator of the Bank of America's Summer 2009 American Impressionism traveling exhibition, "Transcending Vision: American Impressionism 1870-1940," at the Millennium Gate in Atlanta, GA.
Alexis Mitchell
VP of Community Relations, EACEF
Alexis leads the new EACEF initiative, Engage!, as Vice President of Community Relations, and has formerly worked as Director of Community Outreach. She currently studies Political Science and International Studies at Yale University. Among her many interests, she focuses on social justice as Co-coordinator and treasurer for the Social Justice Network, and writes for Five Magazine, which highlights human rights abuses. Alexis also co-founded the Human Rights Club at the Westminster Schools and has volunteered extensively in the Atlanta community.