Shared Interest Board of Directors
Sheila Sisulu, Honorary Chair, is Deputy Executive Director at the United Nations World Food Programme. She previously served as the South African Ambassador to the United States. Before that, she was the Consul General in New York. Before her postings in the U.S., she served as Special Advisor to the national Minister of Education and Director of the Joint Enrichment Project in South Africa. Previously she held a number of senior positions with the South African Committee for Higher Education and the South African Council of Churches.
Mangedwa Nyathi, Chair, Honorary Consul for South Africa in Michigan and former Assistant to the Pastor and Liturgist at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, where he has served since 1976. He is also the first Executive Director of Hartford Agape House, a social service agency of Hartford Church. Rev. Nyathi also serves as consultant to churches on the formation of Social Service Programs. He has given lectures and conducted workshops on urban ministry on the local and national level. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, planning committee of the Michigan White House Conference on Families, Advisory Board of United Way Community Services-Children and Youth Division, University of Michigan Faculty Committee on Southern Africa. He is also affiliated with organizations including Religion Action Network (RAN) for justice and peace in Southern Africa, Interfaith Council, National Association of Black Social Workers, Hunger Action Coalition, Board Member and Treasurer of the Interfaith Collaborative for Community Economic Development and the Chairman of Michigan Neighborhood Partnership.
Michael Bennett is Associate Professor of Sociology at DePaul University and former served Executive Director of Egan Urban Studies Center, and Vice President of Shore Bank Corporation where he was affiliated from 1971-1994. He was the first Director of the Neighborhood institute of the bank. Mr. Bennett is a previous commissioner of Chicago’s Economic Development Commission and is currently Executive director of the Egan Urban Center and an assistant professor at De Paul University.
Eddie Bergman is Executive Director of Africa Travel Association. He formerly served as Co-Founder & Executive Director, Miracle Corners of the World, Inc Co-Founder and Executive Director of Miracle Corners of the World, Inc., a nongovernmental organization dedicated to grassroots youth and entrepreneurial development through the empowerment of self-sustainability, with projects in the U.S., Tanzania, and South Africa.
Jean Bond is a writer, editor and political activist. Her work has included articles, essays, arts criticism, political and cultural commentaries, two children’s books and poetry. As an editor and writer, she was associated with FreedomwaysÊMagazine, a leadingÊAfrican AmericanÊjournal of progressive opinion. Her other professional positions have included associate editor of The African Review (Accra, Ghana); arts and entertainment editor of the New York Amsterdam News; coordinator of the Bulletin of the Council on Interracial Books For Children, and director of publications in the Public Education department of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lauretta Bruno is President and Founding Partner of Gramercy Partners LLC, an investment advisory firm focusing on Southern Africa for US and European institutional clients. Gramercy also advises South African & European firms, foundations and universities on US issues. She previously served as JPMorgan’s Africa Area Manager and architect of successful strategy positioning of JP Morgan as a recognized and respected financial partner and intermediary for Southern African issuers and investors.
Norman Buckham is Chief Executive Officer of Thembani International Guarantee Fund (TIGF), Shared Interest’s partner organization in South Africa. He has extensive experience in commercial banking and has served with the UK based Standard Chartered Bank Plc., the French owned and Abidjan-based Banque International Afrique Occidential (BIAO) and later on with the Zambia headquartered Meridien International Bank Limited (MIBL). He has managed and directed development finance and poverty relief institutions in Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and has also worked as a consultant to Microfinance Institutions in South-East Asian countries. He is a member of various international consultative groups focusing on micro-finance and enterprise development.
Ann Burroughs is a Consultant and former Executive Director for LAWORKS. She previously served as a South African communications consultant for the Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to that, she directed Amnesty International’s West Coast public relations work. She also served with the South African Council of Churches in South Africa.
Iva Carruthers is Secretary-General of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference. Previously she served as the President of Orita Circle. She also founded and served as President of Nexus Unlimited, a twenty-year-old information management, training and consulting firm. She is also former Chairperson and Professor of the Sociology Department at Northeastern Illinois University. She also serves as a board member of the Governing Council of Trinity Hospital Advocate Health Care System, the Saltpond Redevelopment Institute and the Harold Washington Foundation.
Price Cobbsis an internationally recognized psychiatrist and management consultant. Pacific Management Systems, the company he founded, consults with organizations on leadership and executive development, diversity as a business imperative, effective communications and the psychology of networking. Among Dr. Cobbs’ writings include; Black Rage, The Jesus Bag, Cracking the Corporate Code, and My American Life: From Rage to Entitlement.
Jennifer Davis is former Executive Director of American Committee on Africa. She also served as interim Executive Director for Washington Office on Africa. Throughout her career, she has researched, written and spoken on economic and political issues in Africa and the U.S. with a special focus on the U.S. corporate role in Africa. She was responsible for conceptualizing programs, building broad working alliances, and interacting with U.S. government members and major policy actors to act towards ending apartheid.
Darchelle M. Garner, is the immediate past Chairman of Shared Interest. She provides consultation to non-profit organizations in Cape Town, South Africa. She formerly served as Vice President of Project Development at The CHEST Foundation, an international health specialty philanthropy, and was Vice President of Education and Community Services at Chicago Children’s Museum, where she guided the development of a ground-breaking exhibit on prejudice and discrimination, and managed a partnership with the South African Museum in Cape Town.
Johnson Kachidza, is Managing Principal at Knox Lawrence International since 2001. Previously, he served as Investment Banker at Merrill Lynch & Co, and as corporate finance generalist for JPMorgan Chase in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has extensive experience in investment banking and corporate finance.
Rev. Harold T. Lewis, PhD. is Rector at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh since 1996. Previously, he served as Interim Rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn and Executive Director of Office Black Ministries of Episcopal Church Center in New York City. He has authored a number of books including the soon to be published “South Africa: Crucible of Twenty-First Anglicanism”. He has also held professorial positions at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Mercer School of Theology and New York Theological Seminary.
Larry Litvak served as Chief Financial Officer of Working Assets for almost ten years, and continues to consult for them. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager for Boston Trust and Investment Management. He currently serves on the Boards of The Tides Foundation, and Prosetta Corporation as well as the Investment Committee for Catholic Healthcare West. He Holds a B.A. degree in economics from Stanford University and a Master of Public Policy degree from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has authored a book, South Africa: Foreign Investment and Apartheid, and co-founded the South Africa Catalyst Project.
Linnie Mclean is Senior Vice President for Trillium Asset Management Corporation and has had an extensive and diverse career in finance and management. Her passion in promoting socially responsible investing and community development is reflected in her commitments including serving on a task force for small business trainers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, serving on the loan committee of the Boston Community Fund. She has received awards from the YWCA of Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers, the Boston Urban Bankers’ Professional Achievement, and the Black Achiever Award from the YMCA in New York City.
Ricardo Millett is Consultant and most recently served as the president of the Woods Fund of Chicago and now provides consultation to foundation and non-profit organizations in strategic philanthropy, planning, program evaluation, and organizational development. Previously he was the Director of Evaluation for W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a Senior Vice President at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. He has an active role in several organizations dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of philanthropy in meeting social justice objectives including the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. He is co-chair of the Governor of Illinois New Americans Policy, and serves on the advisory boards of Hispanics in Philanthropy and New Directions for Program Evaluation. His awards include the 2002 Alva & Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award by American Evaluation Association and Outstanding Immigrant of African Descent by the Ethiopia Society of Boston. Mr. Millett has a Ph.D. in Social Policy Planning and Research from Brandeis University
Jehiel Oliver is a finance and economic development professional with experience in the international and domestic investment banking, corporate banking, private equity and the private sector development arenas. He currently works very closely with the international development consulting firm AZMJ, LLC, as a finance and research consultant. Projects with AZMJ include due diligence analysis of financial institutions for socially responsible investors and sustainability analysis reporting. Prior to working in International Development, Jehiel served as an Associate with both Key Bank and Key Banc Capital Markets. Within these organizations Jehiel worked within the Institutional Capital, Private Equity, Debt Syndications and Pacific Northwest Upper Middle Market business divisions.
Joshua Posner is Founder and CEO of Rising Tide Development, a private development firm focused on the creation of new small-scale, mixed-income residential communities in Massachusetts. Prior to Rising Tide Development, Mr. Posner played a number of senior roles over 12 years at The Community Builders, a leading regional and national nonprofit developer of affordable housing. He has specialized in the construction and rehabilitation of community-based housing, the preservation of affordable housing nearing the end of its regulatory period, and the redevelopment of large-scale dilapidated public housing projects in various locations around the country.
Ron Shiffman is a member of the NYC Planning Commission and former Director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community Environmental Development and the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. He is also professor at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture. Mr. Shiffman has served as a Project Director and Field Study Organizer for the Ford Foundation and a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Beth A. Slagle, a partner at the law firm of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP, maintains an active practice focused on business disputes, insurance coverage and employment law. She is the firm's Hiring and Recruiting Partner, Chair of the Diversity Committee, and Chair of the Insurance Coverage Litigation Group. Ms. Slagle is a frequent lecturer, and her work has been published in magazines, newsletters and journals. Ms. Slagle was chosen as a finalist for the 2005 ATHENA Award, which is presented for achievement, service and assistance to others, and in 2004, was recognized as a "Fast Tracker" by the Pittsburgh Business Times, which honors business professionals under the age of 45 for their contributions to their profession and the community. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Board for Dress for Success Pittsburgh, Vice Chair on the Board of Trustees of the Bradley Center and on the Advisory Board of Summerbridge Pittsburgh. Additionally, she is a Council Member for Duquesne University's Nonprofit Leadership Institute as well as for the Allegheny County Bar Association Federal Court Section Council. She is also the proud founder of Chicks & Chat: A Women's Networking Social, a forum for bringing together women who are business professionals in the profit and not for profit arenas, as well as the educational and artistic community. Ms. Slagle received her Juris Doctorate from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Law in 1990.
Timothy Smith is Senior Vice President at Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust and Investment Management, and President of the Social Investment Forum. He is the former Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. He also chairs the Advisory Committee of the Calvert Social Investment Fund and is a member of the Advisory Committees for Working Assets Common Holdings, Fidelity Bank Social Principles Fund, and Working Assets Long Distance.
David Wildman is Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Racial Justice at the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries. He previously worked as a seminar designer for the United Methodist Seminars on National and international Affairs at the Church Center for the United Nations. He has written numerous articles on economic rights and social change.
Annual Reports