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Elise
Donovan is IPU’s program director. She is passionate about
the emancipation of African people. Having fought slavery, colonialism
and apartheid, she says, black people now have to emancipate themselves
from mental slavery. “We have internalized too many negative images
and beliefs about ourselves as a people,” she says. Donovan, a native
of the British Virgin Islands, joined IPU in May 2001. Prior to joining
IPU, she was a program associate at the Ford Foundation where she was
instrumental in establishing its environmental justice initiative. Donovan’s
years of experience in international affairs include work at the United
Nations in NY, work as an executive committee member of the Commonwealth
Youth Program, Caribbean region, travels throughout North, Central and
South America, and coordinating activities of the Ford Foundation’s
worldwide group of program staff working in the field of environment and
development. In addition to her work in the Caribbean and the United States,
Donovan has also worked in Liberia, South Africa and Nigeria. She holds
a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University,
NY and a bachelor’s in political science and journalism from Carleton
University in Canada.
Deborah
D. Ladson is IPU’s administrative assistant/office manager
since May 2001. She has 12 years of experience in office administration
and before joining IPU worked for the Bauman Foundation as the office
and building manager for three years. The Maryland native also has experience
at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Commerce.
Relaxation for Ladson comes from reading, writing and spending time with
her husband Delon, the owner of Ladson’s Drywall, and teenage children
Delonté and Chardé. An avid facilitator, Ladson coordinates
many activities for family and friends, and is a major planner for the
annual Goldsmith Family Reunion. Ladson says now that she’s gotten
her family to a point where they can be more independent, she plans to
focus on herself and return to school to pursue studies in business administration.
Amara
Okoroafor is a program associate at IPU where her work has
consisted of lobbying environmental racism/justice issues at the UN Commission
on Human Rights and focusing on the youth agenda of the World Conference
Against Racism. Prior to returning to IPU (she worked with the organization
when it was newly formed), she was a program assistant at the Preamble
Center where she played a major role in organizing the first national
network meeting of black environmental and economic justice activists
to establish the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBJN).
She was also part of the facilitation team mandated to execute the programs
of the NBJN. Okoroafor earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology
with a minor in political science from Wheaton College, Illinois. She
has been a part of numerous national and international forums dealing
with issues of environmental justice, alternative economics, and civic
inclusion and participation in decision-making. Her goal is to work toward
the development of her native country, Nigeria.
Deborah
Robinson, the founder and executive director of IPU, is a Californian
native. Before founding IPU in 1997, Robinson worked at the World Council
of Churches’ Program to Combat Racism, in Geneva, Switzerland. While
there, she worked with churches, ecumenical organizations and movement
groups on issues of racism and minority group rights from around the world.
She was responsible for organizing a major joint World Council of Churches/National
Council of Churches initiative in the United States on Racism as a Violation
of Human Rights. During that campaign, hearings were held in seven cities
and more than 200 people testified on a variety of human rights violations
occurring in the United States. In 1995, a delegation from the United
States presented the findings to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Robinson’s
last major project at the WCC was a covert fact-finding trip to Nigeria
that resulted in the report entitled, Ogoni: The Struggle Continues.
Robinson has traveled to more
than 40 countries and has been involved in a wide variety of social justice
issues. She has visited, worked with and produced educational materials
on the Dalit Liberation Movement in India, the FLNKS liberation movement
in New Caledonia, and the Polisario liberation movement of the Western
Sahara. From 1985-1991, she created and ran the South African Political
Prisoner Bracelet Program. The program involved people wearing a bracelet
in solidarity with one of the then life prisoners in South Africa until
he/she was released and writing to their families.
Robinson received her Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan in social psychology. She taught at Howard
University and currently speaks and writes extensively on the related
issues of environmental racism, economic globalization and human rights.
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