Board Members
Karen Ashmore is the Executive Director of the Lambi Fund of Haiti, whose mission is to assist the popular, democratic movement in Haiti by supporting grassroots organizations that work for economic justice, democracy and alternative sustainable development. She has over 20 years experience in social change philanthropy and has won awards for her activism in human rights, racial justice and women's issues. She and her husband are the parents of six children, including two sisters adopted from Haiti. Karen is a member of the Steering Committee of Grantmakers Without Borders.
A former seminarian at the St-Vincent Foundation in Cap Haitian, Haiti, Bel-Ami d'Estaim de Montreux is a Haitian-American attorney based in Salt-Lake City, Utah. Over the years, he has built a reputation as one of the best criminal defense lawyers in Utah's state and federal courts. His practice consists of complex criminal defense, Constitutional litigation, and Title VII litigation. Prior to becoming a lawyer, de Montreux studied Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M, and Educational Psychology at Westminster College. He also did Master studies in Comparative Literature at the University of Utah. At the University of Utah, de Montreux was also editor-in-chief of the "Utah Foreign Language Review," Senior Editor of the "Journal of Contemporary Law" and the "Journal of Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Law", and editor-in-chief of the Law school's revues "On the Merits" and "The Neo Analyst." He finally worked as an editorial columnist for the "Daily Utah Chronicle" where he was awarded the title of Editorial Columnist of the Year in 1991. A talented poet of French expression, his poetry and work of fiction have been featured in several international revues including "Poèsie I", "Rimbaud-Neruda" in France, and "Le Nouvelliste" in Haiti. He is also featured in several anthologies of Haitian poets.
Dr. John Invy Jean is a Haitian-American Assistant Professor at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT, where he teaches graduate courses in Research, Statistics, and Measurement. He earned both: his Ph.D. in Mathematics Education; and his Ph.D. in Education, Measurement, and Evaluation at Columbia University in New York between 1998 and 1999. Dr. Jean's devotion to education has so far taken him to diverse venues during his young career. He was: Assistant Principal for Mathematics at Chelsea High School between 2002 and 2003 for the New York Public Schools System; Research Associate for the New York City Education Department between 2000 and 2002; and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at Pace University in New York between 1997 and 1998. Dr. Jean is fully devoted to research: this is proven throughout his writings, and paper presentations at the American Educational Research Association in 2006, and the Hawaii International Education Conference in 2005. As a Board Director of the IRSP, Dr. Jean's knowledge and skills in the overall area of scholarly research are of great use and importance.
Kathie Klarreich has been a journalist for nearly 20 years, half of which were spent in Haiti. She has reported for, among others, The New York Times, Time Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, NPR, NBC, ABC and CNN. Her memoir, Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou and Civil Strife in Haiti, was released by Nation Books in 2005.
Johann Wehrle, Esq. is an activist attorney who devotes his time litigating, thinking about, and complaining of consumer and social justice causes, including unsafe food, drugs, and medical devices, agricultural issues like the Animal Identification Act and sustainable farming practices, and electoral and third party politics. At present, he is doing work for Consumers for Dental Choice, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit committed to abolishing mercury in dentistry, and consumer attorney Jim Turner, who has led the fight against alternative sweeteners like aspartame and splenda. When he isn't worrying about the above, he spends his time fishing, playing tennis, volunteering, and catching up on sleep.
Hyppolite Pierre is Executive Director of the IRSP. He came up with the concept for this nonprofit organization back in 2001, and has slowly built it up to where it is now. The Institute for Research in Social Sciences and Politics is now incorporated in Maryland, with a Board of Directors, and is an IRS 501(c)(3) organization. The next step for the IRSP, is to begin research on socioeconomic and cultural issues in Haiti, starting in 2007. Pierre is also a writer and author. His first book, "Haiti, Rising Flames from Burning Ashes", was published April of this year. Among his next projects are a historical fiction about the leader of the Independence of Haiti, with the tentative title of "Dialogue with Defile", and a book about culture and development entitled "As the Drum Rolls...". Hyppolite is adjunct professor of Comparative Politics at the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex and Catonsville, Maryland.
