Women's Global Education Project

Amy Maglio is the Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Global Education Project. While serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, West Africa, from 1996-1998, Amy identified a church group in the U.S. to fund her village sister to go to school. With her sister’s success and after returning from Senegal, she decided to expand the project and provide other girls in Senegal the same opportunity. She incorporated Women’s Global Education Project as a nonprofit organization in March 2003 with the vision of expanding the opportunity of education to women and girls all over the world.

Amy holds a master's degree from the School of International Service at the American University in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is a gender specialist with several years' experience in the field of international development having worked for nonprofit, business and government agencies. She worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a gender research analyst measuring the impact of the agency's programs on women worldwide. Amy has also managed and designed international exchange programs in women’s business development, NGO capacity building and leadership.

Before joining Women’s Global, Edevina worked for several years in communications and marketing for Access Community Health Network in Chicago, the largest network of community health centers in the U.S. for uninsured and underinsured patients. She also has experience in the field of national service training and development. Additionally, she served with the AmeriCorps program City Year Chicago, first as a literacy tutor for remedial third-grade students and then as manager of education programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in applied communication and public relations from Asbury University in Kentucky and a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Edevina grew up in the Philippines and the U.S.

Emily Fitch

Emily Fitch graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with bachelor’s of science degrees in Political Science and History. While a student, Emily was heavily involved in campaigns and had several internship positions in government offices, including working in the Legislative and Policy Departments for the Wisconsin Governor. Emily also worked with elementary school children with physical and mental disabilities as a para-educator for the LaGrange Area Department of Special Education. Through her coursework and internships Emily became very interested in the fields of women’s rights, education, and international development; and wrote her senior thesis on the disparities between the legal and perceived rights of women in South Africa. After completing her degrees, Emily moved to South Korea and taught English in a rural, public elementary school for a year. Currently, Emily volunteers for VIP, assisting children with mental and physical disabilities to play soccer. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing team sports, and cycling.

Lucy McNichols

Lucy is a senior at Oak Park and River Forest High School. Lucy's travels abroad in France have fueled a passion for discovering other cultures and continuing her education of the French language. After learning more about global social injustice and gender inequality, she has developed an interest in International Developmental Studies and Education. Lucy currently volunteers as a tutor and mentor at Holmes Elementary in Oak Park and also tutors in French. She hopes to use her teaching and language skills, volunteering throughout college and in a career.

Laura Napoli

Laura Napoli is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. She graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2006 with a concentration in entertainment, business, and media studies. She has served as Child Advocate for two unaccompanied immigrant children through her participation in the Immigrant Children’s Advocacy Project, and she recently participated in the Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. Laura also has extensive volunteer experience, from working with middle-school children as part of the University of Chicago’s Neighbors program to tutoring adults in literacy and GED programs with Next Step. In her spare time, Laura enjoys singing and playing the piano. She speaks English and French and has been learning Spanish.

Liz Solem

Liz Solem graduated with a bachelor’s of arts in anthropology in June 2010 from Northwestern University. After studying abroad in Rabat, Morocco, in 2008, Liz has developed a strong interest in international development, education, and international women’s rights issues. This experience shaped her academic focus and served as the base of her honors thesis, Lost in Translation: Overcoming Linguistic Hurdles in Education in Rural Morocco, where she compared the cultural and economic benefits of natal language education in multilingual nations. She is currently pursuing a career in international development. Liz also enjoys singing with the Northwestern University Chorale, cycling, and playing outdoor sports. Liz speaks English and conversational French and Arabic.

Hayley Webster

Laura Wilson

Laura Wilson is a graduate of Georgetown University with a bachelor of science degree in foreign service and a major in international politics and women's studies. She has extensive international travel and community service experience, having taught English to elementary school students and adults in Thailand as well as studying abroad at the Institut de Touraine in Tours, France. She volunteered with two D.C.-area nonprofits, For Love of Children where she tutored remedial public school students, and the Sursa Corda housing project where she mentored middle school residents. She also volunteered with the Obama campaign and served as an intern with Women for Women International. Laura is a keen vocalist who performed with the Superfood A Capella group at Georgetown. She speaks English, French, conversational Spanish, and conversational Thai.

Christopher Dunn manages global within-company pricing for Motorola Mobility. He previously worked in economic consulting services for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago. He has significant experience in development economics and the nonprofit sector, having helped found the Chicagoland professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders and Earth and Its People Foundation, a small family foundation which he also co-directs. Chris’ doctoral work at the University of Michigan focused on development economics, economic demography and international economics, including dissertation research in Brazil. In addition to his Ph.D. in economics, Chris holds bachelor of science degrees in economics and interdisciplinary engineering from Purdue University, which included a semester of study in Australia and a summer in Honduras studying rural development at the Zamorano Pan-American School of Agriculture.

Coming from a long line of educators, Dr. Sonya Anderson has been in the field of education since she graduated from Yale University in 1992. As part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, Dr. Anderson spent two years teaching in rural Mississippi where she taught high school French and history. After her time as a teacher, she served as a Program Associate with the Ford Foundation in New York City where she supported grantmaking in the fields of service learning, higher education reform, and international studies.

Following her tenure at the Ford Foundation, Dr. Anderson worked as a Senior Associate at Creative Associates International in Washington, DC where she co-directed the implementation of education development projects in West Africa and the Caribbean. In this capacity she consulted with Ministries of Education and non-governmental organizations to deliver training and provide technical assistance to teachers, administrators, and curriculum developers on strategies to improve girls’ participation in education.

Dr. Anderson joined the Oprah Winfrey Foundation in July 2005 where she served as the Education Program Director until September 2008. There, she managed the development of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and oversaw the Foundation’s other domestic and international education projects.

Lynn received a master's degree in psychiatric social work from the University of California at Berkeley, and has worked in both in-patient and out-patient psychiatric settings. She has experience in individual, family and group therapy, and has worked in all aspects of the adoption process in New Mexico and Illinois, including counseling with pregnant adolescents, education and counseling with adoptive families, and grief counseling with all members of the adoption triad.

Christopher Boffey, who serves as legal adviser to Women’s Global, has been practicing law for 13 years and is now Legal Director for the PetroKazakhstan group of companies in Kazakhstan. Before this, Chris was a partner in the Almaty, Kazakhstan, office of McGuireWoods LLP. He was also previously an associate in the Chicago offices of law firms Ungaretti & Harris and McDermott, Will & Emery, as well as the Moscow, Russia office of Holme, Roberts & Owen.

Chris is a securities and transactional lawyer by training who oversees legal matters for PetroKazakhstan's upstream and mid-stream joint venture operations including several litigation and arbitration matters. Chris holds a B.A. from Northwestern University, a J.D. from the University of Maryland and an L.L.M. from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow where he was a National Security Education Program fellow.
Chris speaks English and Russian.

Michelle Gavin
Rotary International

Safietou Kane
Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Sociology, Florida International University

Born and raised in Senegal, Safietou received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from the University of the District of Columbia in Washington D.C. She then got her M.A. in African Studies from Florida International University in Miami, and is currently pursuing her doctorate degree from Florida International in Comparative Sociology. Safietou’s research interests center around international NGOs in Senegal that focus on women, health and education. She first got involved with Women’s Global as a translation voluteer, translating reports from French to English and helping to interpret phone conversations between U.S. staff and our partners in Senegal. Safietou sees Women’s Global as a great asset to Senegalese girls and women and to the entire Senegalese community.

Laura Kennedy
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Chicago native Laura Kennedy has 10 years of professional experience in the fields of humanitarian grants administration and international education. Laura has served with the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution program at The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. In Washington, D.C., she also managed the largest university-level Russian language exchange program with the former Soviet Union. Laura lived in Moscow, Russia for more than three and a half years during the late 1980’s and 1990’s. In Moscow she worked with the International Organization for Migration to develop micro-enterprise in Russia. She also managed scientific grants in the former Soviet Union for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prior to joining The Rotary Foundation, Laura worked with a small, Chicago-based non-profit to design and implement short-term educational training programs for U.S. State Department-sponsored groups from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Laura has a B.A. in Political Sciences and Russian Studies from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University. She completed her coursework and exams toward a Ph.D. in Political Science at Emory University before leaving academia for other pursuits.

Abdoulaye Ndiaye has 20 years of government, non-government, foundation, and private consulting work experience in Africa in nature conservation and community development. He currently works with the United Nations Development Program in Senegal as a regional coordinator in biodiversity and international waters for West/Central Africa. In 1999, he joined the MacArthur Foundation as program officer where his responsibilities included grant making for the foundation’s Conservation and Sustainable Development area for Africa, and integrated grant making of the Africa Task Group. Prior to his arrival at MacArthur, Abdoulaye was the Country Director of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) program in Senegal. Abdoulaye has also worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Catholic Relief Services and the Senegalese Government where he started his professional career as head of the Urban Water Supply Unit. Abdoulaye has a B.S. in Physics/Chemistry from the University of Dakar, a Rural Development Engineering degree from the International School of Engineering of Burkina-Faso, and a master’s of science degree in Water Resources Administration from the University of Arizona.

Paul Ndong is the Director of Middle & Secondary General Education with the Senegal Ministry of Education in Dakar. He holds Bachelors, Maters and Advanced degrees in Literature and French from the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. He was a high school French teacher for 17 years, including 12 years as a trainer for high school teachers at Ecole Normale Superieure de Dakar. Paul spent six years as the Education and Cultural Counselor for the Senegalese Embassy in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in French Literature from Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. in 2006. Paul is from the Sine-Saloum region in Senegal where Women’s Global is currently operating and lives with his family in Dakar.

Barbara Rose
S. N. Peck, Builder, Inc. & Case Handyman and Remodeling of Chicago,
Management Cleaning Controls, Inc.

Barbara Rose serves as CEO of S. N. Peck, Builder, Inc. and Case Handyman and Remodeling of Chicago and as Vice President of Operations for national building services firm Management Cleaning Controls, Inc. She has a B.A. in Sociology and an M.S. in Counseling from Purdue University and has designed numerous training programs and seminars for leadership training, management development, and communication skills, especially for people in the construction industry. In addition to serving as an Advisor to Women’s Global, she is on the Board of Directors of Chicago Foundation for Women, Industrial Council of Near West Chicago, Heartland International, and For Global Progress. She has held office in several women’s organizations and has organized, volunteered and led community programs in Illinois and Indiana. She is also a volunteer fundraiser for the Hunger Project and has traveled to many countries in Africa, including Senegal and Kenya where Women’s Global currently operates.

Jennifer enjoyed two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching environmental education in Senegal, where she became aware of how few girls have an opportunity to learn in school in Africa. Jennifer has been a fundraising professional for more than five years. She was Development Director of Bluewater Network and is currently the Development Associate for On Lok, a program for seniors in San Francisco. She is an avid runner and painter.

Julie Stagliano has a firm grounding in international development assistance with more than 20 years experience living and working overseas (primarily in West Africa) and serving in senior management positions for private sector companies in the Washington, D.C.-area dedicated to health systems improvement and sustainable development. She was also involved in strategic business development efforts and managed contracts for the U.S. government and the World Bank.

She served in the Peace Corps in Tivaouane, Senegal, and lived there an additional five years with her family, participating actively in NGO service projects, working for USAID and writing a monograph on the culture and history of Senegal. After moving to Chicago, she directed the Chicago Sister Cities International Program where she developed new collaborations and initiatives for the then 24-city partnerships. She is now President of Heartland International, a non-profit corporation that designs and implements international training and exchange programs that promote social justice and economic development in emerging democracies around the world. Current field-oriented projects include strengthening entrepreneurial skills in Kenya and building NGO capacity in Turkey.

Julie is fluent in English and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Wolof (lingua franca of Senegal) and some German. She is an active member of the Council on Global Affairs, a volunteer with the Casablanca Committee of Sister Cities, a member of the education committee of Chicago Opera Theater, and co-directs Chicago Shares, an organization that serves the homeless.

Bill Taylor
Oakton Community College, retired professor of political science

Bill Taylor taught political science and history at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, for 32 years before retiring in 2004. He began volunteering in 1999 with Seeds of Peace, an organization that brings Israeli and Palestinian teens to a camp in Maine every summer for a 3-week experience in peaceful coexistence, where he served as facilitator of the camp’s daily dialogue sessions. During the school year, Bill also teaches short courses for older adults on such subjects as Islam and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In 2002 he assisted in the founding of Hands of Peace, an organization modeled after Seeds of Peace, but adapted to the urban setting of Chicago's northwest suburbs and has been volunteering with Hands of Peace in various capacities.

He became involved with Women’s Global after hearing founder Amy Maglio interviewed on the Chicago Public Radio global affairs program Worldview.


	Women's Global Education Project
	P.O. Box 617613 ▪ Chicago, Illinois, 60661-7613 USA Telephone: 708.415.7410 ▪ Email: info@womensglobal.org