Board of Directors (US)

Tony Maridakis, Board Chair
Tony has over 25 years experience leading teams in the Information Technology sector in a variety of industries. He served on the board of the Family Service Agency of San Francisco prior to becoming involved with the Global Lives Project. Tony has traveled extensively and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina before joining the board. In addition to his work in IT and on the GLP board, Tony is involved in the arts as a painter, photographer and sculptor working towards a degree at UC Berkeley Extension. Tony holds a BS in Computer Science from CSU, Fullerton.

Helen McGrath, Vice President
Helen was raised on a farm in Oxnard, CA, and moved to the East Coast before settling in San Francisco in 2004. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a graduate of the International Honors Program. She began doing community work in New York City through the Public Allies Apprenticeship program, and has now worked in the Mission District with youth and arts programming for 4 years. She shares her time between Streetside Stories and CELLspace, where she supports an urban arts program for immigrant youth (Mission Urban Arts) and the events program for the performance space.

Jason Burwen, Secretary
Jason has several years' experience in the non-profit sector. Besides working with a number of advocacy organizations on environmental and socioeconomic issues, he co-founded and managed projects for Emergency Communities non-profit disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Jason helps support Global Lives Project with his experience on issues of non-profit operations, donor relations, online communications, and fundraising, as well as his community of connections in the philanthropic community. Jason is currently a graduate student at the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley.

Josh Weber, Treasurer
Josh currently works as an Associate for L.E.K. Consulting in San Francisco, CA.  Within the nonprofit sector, he has previously advised Bay Area-based child welfare and microfinance organizations through his affiliation with the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Josh's background in corporate finance and strategy consulting will assist the Global Lives Project as it diversifies funding sources and expands its presence through both online and real-world exhibitions. Josh holds a BS in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.  He is proficient in German.

Jason J. Price
Jason works in anthropology and documentary video.  Originally from Nutley, New Jersey, he received his BA from Middlebury College, then served in Peace Corps Malawi and AmeriCorps in Chicago.  He holds an MA in sociocultural anthropology and an Advanced Certificate in Culture & Media from New York University.  His film, The Professor, is distributed by DER and has screened at festivals worldwide.  Jason sits on the Board of Directors of Friends of Malawi. He joins our Board after having produced and directed the Global Lives Project's third shoot which features Edith Kaphuka in Malawi.  Jason is currently a doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Naomi Ture
Naomi is Senior Producer at KMVT Community Television in Mountain View, CA.  An independent digital artist as well, she employs documentary video, educational technology, animation and installation. Her various pieces include a documentary on leukemia, an online exhibit for the Exploratorium, and an animation of children's existential theories. She has presented her work at the Oral History Association, Harvard Community Design Symposium, FilmColumbia, NeXtfest and Galapagos art space.  Naomi spent the first few years of her life in Japan, loves to travel, and is active in Taiko (drums). She holds a degree in Education Studies from Brown University and a Masters in Electronic Art from RPI.

Duleesha Kulasooriya
Duleesha is currently the Lead Research Fellow at the Deloitte Center for Edge, a Silicon Valley-based think tank focuses researching the boundaries, or edges, of the global business environment where strategic opportunity is the highest. Prior to joining the Center, Duleesha spent eight plus years with Deloitte Consulting mainly focused around corporate strategy, customer and market strategy and change management, managing projects in North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. Duleesha holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Engineering and BA in Economics from Swarthmore College.

Laura Welcher
Laura Welcher is a linguist with interests in the documentation,description and revitalization of endangered languages and in helping promote global linguistic diversity. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley and works with speakers of critically endangered languages indigenous to North America as well as on projects that are helping to bring these languages back to modern, vital use. She is involved with several projects that are working to develop standards for digital language resources and tools to support the use of minority languages on the Web. Laura is currently at The Long Now Foundation, where she directs The Rosetta Project, a public digital archive of all human languages.

David Evan Harris, Executive Director and Founder
David Evan Harris is Executive Director of the Global Lives Project, Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future, and Artist in Residence at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. David is a cross-disciplinary mediamaker, working at the intersection of art, activism and academic inquiry on the politically charged questions surrounding globalization and social justice. His forthcoming book, Você Vai me Servir ("You Will Serve Me," Annablume Publishers, São Paulo, 2011) is a comparative ethnographic study of relationships between domestic workers and their employers in Brazil and the US. His writings and photographs have been published in print and online with the BBC, Adbusters, the Sarai Reader, Glimpse Magazine, Next American City, Focus on the Global South, Alternet and Grist. He has spoken publicly about his work to audiences at UC Berkeley, Stanford, United Nations University, New York University, UC Santa Cruz, Apple, Google, and numerous other conferences and public events. He speaks fluent English, Portuguese and Spanish and intermediate French, and holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of São Paulo.

Global Lives Project   |   info [at] globallives [dot] org   |   +001 415 729 4562

The Global Lives Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the United States of America.
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