Usap Forum 2011 Speakers
The summary biographies of the 2011 speakers are listed below. Select biographies of past Forum speakers are listed immediately after the 2011 speakers.
Jeffrey Brenzel, Yale University
Marichal Gentry, Yale University
Martin Ganda, Seeds of Africa
Jeffrey Brenzel
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions
Yale University
A 1975 graduate of Yale College, Jeff Brenzel has worked as a nonprofit executive, a private sector entrepreneur, a scholar and a university administrator. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, while at the same time founding and developing InterLearn, Inc., an investor-backed venture that used new media and technologies to produce career education and liberal arts programs for adult learners. He returned to Yale in 1997 as the Executive Director of the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA), responsible for university alumni relations, event management, education programming and online services. In September of 2005, he was named the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale. In his new capacity, Jeff is responsible for worldwide outreach to talented students, the selection process itself, and the development of admissions policy. He also holds an appointment as Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Yale, and teaches in the Directed Studies program.
Marichal Gentry
Dean of Student Affairs
Yale University
Gentry majored in political science and French as an undergraduate at the University of the South (Sewanee) and earned an M.S.W. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After beginning his career with administrative positions in admissions at Sewanee and in residential life at UNC, he served as a social worker at the Duke University Medical Center, counseling young people and their families in moments of crisis. He then went on to become a dean at Middlebury College.
Gentry's experience as Associate Dean of Student Affairs and as Associate Dean of the College at Middlebury involved many different assignments, including serving as the College's chief judicial affairs officer, providing leadership for the development of residential programming and serving as a member of the Human Relations Committee. He was deeply engaged with the advancement of Middlebury's diversity initiative through service as Acting Dean of the Office for Institutional Diversity, as adviser to student groups and through the development of initiatives such as a symposium for campus leadership. In 2007, Gentry was named Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Dean of Yale College.
Martin Ganda
Analyst, Goldman Sachs
Founder, Seeds of Africa
Martin was born and raised in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He attended Marist Brothers High School, where he focused on the sciences. He went on to major in Mathematics and Economics at Villanova University, PA. Martin joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2007. Together with his friend Simbarashe Marekera, he started Seeds of Africa, a non-profit organization that works for the improvement of access to education for children in Zimbabwe.
Martin's full biography can be found on The Seeds of Africa website.
Usap Forum 2009 Speakers
Barrett Hazeltine, Brown University
Anani Dzidzienyo, Brown University
Rodney J. Clifton, Brown University
James S. Miller, Brown University
Denboy Kudejira, Brandeis University
Barrett Hazeltine
Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Adjunct Professor of Engineering
Brown University
His teaching and research interests are in engineering management, technology planning especially in developing countries, and teaching of technology for Liberal Arts students, and digital computers. Has experience and has done research and in Africa and in Asia. Has taught at the University of Zambia, University of Malawi, University of Botswana, and at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Other foreign countries in which he has done teaching or consulting are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, The Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
More informartion on Dr. Barret Hazeltine can be found on his website here.
Anani Dzidzienyo
Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Portuguese & Brazilian Studies
Brown University
Anani Dzidzienyo, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, specializes in the study of race in Latin America and the encounters between Latina American and Africans, as well as on the life and work of George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah. He has been invited to present papers, organized and participated in international conferences on blacks in Latin America. He is also a member of the International Advisory Committee, African Diaspora Research Project.
More informartion on Professor Anani Dzidzienyo can be found on his page on the Brown University website.
Rodney J. Clifton
Dean of Engineering
Brown University
Professor Clifton's primary research is on the mechanical response of materials at very high loading rates. Applications include: high speed machining, armor penetration, shear band formation, martensitic phase transformations, elastohydrodynamic lubrication, and dynamic fracture. Principal experimental approach is pressure-shear plate impact. A second research focus involves the measurement of the high frequency, viscoelastic response of soft, biological tissues, especially vocal folds
More informartion on Dr. Rodney J. Clifton can be found on his page on the Brown University website.
James S. Miller
Dean of Admissions
Brown University
James Miller graduated from Brown in 1973 (A.B., American history) and went on to earn a master's degree in communications from Michigan State University. He began his career in higher education as an admissions and financial aid officer at Harvard in the fall of 1978, continuing there as associate director of financial aid and senior admissions officer (1980) and director of financial aid (1983). In 1999, after 16 years as Harvard's director of financial aid, Miller returned to Brown as executive director of capital giving. In addition to his responsibilities for managing relationships with the University's leading donors, Miller participated in a six-month review of Brown's potential to achieve a need-blind admission program. He returned to the financial aid and admissions area first as a consultant on financial aid econometric modeling for The College Board and then, in the fall of 2001, as dean of admissions and financial aid for Bowdoin College. In addition to his work in admissions and financial aid, Miller served as one of the Bowdoin's six senior officers, participating in budgeting and priority-setting across the college, from physical plant to academic planning, fundraising, alumni, student services and public relations.
Denboy Kudejira
Brandeis University
He has worked for the Reducing Vulnerability Programme of Practical Action - Southern Africa for more than 4 years as a Livelihoods Officer. He was coordinating community development initiatives in Zimbabwe's Manicaland Province (Specifically, in Chimanimani District) including Community Based Natural Resources Management, Sustainable Agriculture and HIV/AIDS response interventions. He was also involved in work on climate change adaptation in Burkina Faso and recently completed his Masters degree is Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University .