Cultural Survival Board of Directors
PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
P. Ranganath Nayak is the chief executive officer of Cytel Software. He has more than 24 years of senior-level management experience in technology and management consulting, and holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
TREASURER
Sarah Fuller is the president of Decision Resources, Inc., an international publishing and consulting firm. She previously served as vice president of Arthur D. Little, Inc., and president of Arthur D. Little Decision Resources.
CLERK
Lester J. Fagen is a partner in the Boston-based law firm Goulston & Storrs, PC. He advises both nonprofits and for profit businesses and has served on the boards of several cultural organizations. He received his law degree from Columbia University.
ASSISTANT CLERK
Jean Jackson chairs the Department of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her books, articles, and teaching focus on medical anthropology, social and ethnic identity, gender issues, and indigenous mobilization in Colombia. She received her doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University.
Elizabeth Cabot has taught English literature and composition at Boston University, Stonehill College, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She currently teaches English as a second language to adults. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston University.
Westy A. Egmont was the president of the International Institute of Boston for nine years. He previously served as the director of the Greater Boston Food Bank and hosted and produced a public television program. He holds a doctorate of divinity from Andover Newton Theological School.
Sally Engle Merry is a professor of anthropology and law at New York University. Her work explores the role of law in urban life in the United States, in the colonizing process, and in contemporary transnationalism. She received her doctorate in anthropology from Brandeis University.
Richard Grounds, Euchee, directs the Euchee Language Project, in which Euchee-speaking elders teach Euchee to community leaders and youth. He is a leading proponent of the International Year for Endangered Languages. He received his doctorate in theology from Princeton University.
James Howe is a professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A specialist on the Kuna of Panama, his research focuses on political and historical anthropology, indigenous-state relations, and the impact of missionaries. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Cecilia Lenk is vice president of information technology for Decision Resources. She has developed numerous national and international Internet initiatives in the areas of science, health, and science education. She received her doctorate in biology at Harvard University.
Pia Maybury-Lewis is a co-founder of Cultural Survival. She managed the intern and bazaar programs until 2006.
Les Malezer, Native Australian of the Gabi Gabi Community, is the General Manager for the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) based in Woolloongabba, Australia. He is also currently serving as Chairperson for the international Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus. Les was instrumental in lobbying governments to support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with the Caucus.
Vincent O. Nmehielle, Ikwerre from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, is an associate professor of law at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law, Johannesburg, South Africa. He currently is on leave while serving as the principal defender of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He holds a doctorate in international and comparative law from George Washington University.
Ramona Peters (Nosapocket of the Bear Clan), Mashpee Wampanoag who lives and works in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is a nationally known artist who has revived her tribes traditional pottery-making techniques. She is a visual historian of her culture, fulfilling this role through various undertakings as a teacher, spokesperson, curator, interpreter, consultant, and indigenous rights activist.
Dinah Shelton currently holds the Manatt/Ahn Professorship in International Law at George Washington University Law School. She previously taught international law and was director of the doctoral program in international human rights law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. She also served as the director of the Office of Staff Attorneys at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and serves as a legal consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme, UNITAR, World Health Organization, European Union, Council of Europe, and Organization of American States. She was awarded the 2006 Elisabeth Haub Prize for Environmental Law.
Stella Tamang, Tamang from Nepal, was Chair of the International Indigenous Womens Caucus at the third session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, is the chair of the South Asia Indigenous Womens Forum, and an advisor of Nepal Tamang Women Ghedung. She founded Bikalpa Gyan Kendra in Nepal to contribute to students education and livelihood by combining academic learning with practical training.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Kankana-ey Igorot from the Cordillera region of the Philippines, is executive director of the Tebtebba Foundation. She is the chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, chairperson-rapporteur of the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, convener of the Asian Indigenous Womens Network, and commissioner for the International Labor Organization World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization
Martha Claire Tompkins serves as the principal of a personal investment management and acquisitions fund in Houston, Texas. She has a degree from Sarah Lawrence College and studied with David Maybury-Lewis at Harvard University.
Jeff Wallace is founder of North Star Management, a firm that manages and develops commercial buildings in Boston. He holds a degree from Huxley College of Environmental Studies in Bellingham WA and an MBA from .. His past experience includes working for a venture capital firm and for an architect/developer before founding his company.
Chris Walter is the founder and president of Yayla Tribal Rugs, Inc., and the founder of Barakat, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that benefits weaving communities and environmental protection in Asia. He is the founder and coordinator of Cultural Survivals Ersari and Tibet projects.
Rosita Worl, Tlingit, is a member of the Thunderbird Clan and House Lowered from the Sun of Klukwan, Alaska, and a Child of the Sockeye Clan. She currently holds a joint appointment as an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. She earned a Master of Science degree and a doctoral degree in anthropology from Harvard University. In the 1980s she was elected to the board of the Sealaska Corporation.