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Board of Directors
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Advisory Board and Technical Support
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Details:
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Wendy Blakeley is a
resident of Oakland, California.
Until 1991 and her first trip to
Africa, her life focused the performing arts. She studied acting and
various movement disciplines in college, San Francisco and New York. After
a number of years performing in New York and Los Angeles, she settled in the
San Francisco Bay area and developed a deep love of wilderness. Here she
began teaching performing arts at Full Spectrum Studio and in 1981 was a
founding member and partner of Eighth Street Studio in Berkeley, which
became her home base for 16 years. In addition to teaching Airborne trapeze
dance, she was a performance artist and coached other artists in movement.
As a member of the Performance Alliance she produced the annual Works in
the Works dance showcase series. During these years she was also
raising her son, and Africa was not on her mind.
Then in 1991, her son off to college,
she made her first trip to Africa a safari billed as the Ultimate Primate
Safari. This trip took her overland through 5 countries in East Africa and
brought her face to face with Jane Goodalls chimpanzees at Gombe Stream
Reserve in Tanzania. Having followed Goodalls work for years, she realized
she was seeing chimp faces she could put names to whose life stories she
knew. And then there were those life-shaping moments looking a gorilla in
the eye!
This trip was a change of focus in her life. She
immediately began to seek out ways to become involved in African wildlife
conservation and, in particular, aid in education of African children. She
has now made 5 trips taking her to Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania,
Botswana, Malawi, 4 visits to Zimbabwe, one a year spent at the
Painted Dog Research Project there.
With no formal training in any of the life
sciences, she has put to use her experience and skills as an artist,
administrator, teacher and advocate. She has created unique projects to
help organizations and individual field researchers as well as local
artists, craftspeople and rural communities.
Inspired by Africa, she has turned her artistic
expressions to photography and writing. Her photographs have been in juried
shows. She also continues to work as a theatrical movement consultant in
local productions.
Now she has moved on to the obvious next step by
chartering AFRICA MATTERS non-profit.
She is always available for talks and slide shows
to groups, classrooms and organizations.
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Professor of Chinese History, Retired
Seton Hall University
World Traveler
1998, made extensive cultural and wildlife tour of Zimbabwe
Resident of Oakland, California
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Sandy Olson has traveled widely and many times to Africa and has a deep
love for the peoples, wildlife and lands.
Resident of Oakland, California
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Watershed activist, writer, and radio producer Pamela Michael has spent decades working to integrate environmental and arts education into the lives of children and their communities. Co-founder, with Robert Hass, of the much-honored River of Words organization, her Watershed Explorer curriculum has been used to train thousands of teachers, park rangers, youth leaders and other educators how to connect kids to their watersheds and their imaginations, inspiring them to create stunning art and poetry. She has served as the organization�s executive director since its founding in 1995. Her collection of children�s work, River of Words: Images and Poetry in Praise of Water, won the 2003 Skipping Stones award for Best Nature or Ecology Book. A member of the award-winning Wild Writing Women, Michael has taught writing and poetry to both children and adults, throughout the United States and abroad. She is the travel editor for San Francisco Bay Area�s KPFA-fm, the first listener-supported radio station in the country, and wrote and produced a four-hour series on Buddhism in the United States, narrated by Richard Gere. Michael lives in the Curry Creek watershed on the eastern slope of Mt. Diablo in Northern California.
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Brian Jones has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1972. After spending over 7 years as a practicing CPA, he entered into private industry in the late 1970's. Brian's experience includes large publicly traded companies and smaller emerging growth companies, acting as the company's controller or CFO. Brian first met Wendy Blakely when she shared studio space with Brian's childhood friend, and subsequently was reintroduced to her when she & Brian both worked for a major Civil Rights law firm in the 1990's.
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Phyllis Plotkin has spent most of her life in the arts.
She graduated from University of California at Berkeley with a teaching credential in Drama, then found she would rather be dancing, so spent the next 18 years in modern dance...dancing and choreographing, and supporting herself through music. She has played piano for dance classes, churches, restaurants, theater and weddings, but in recent years she has primarily taught piano. Phyllis continues her own education in music by auditing classes at Cal, and studying the Taubman technique for piano.
She met Director Wendy Blakeley through these activities when Wendy was also active in the performing arts. Stimulated by Wendy's travel to Africa, I also made a trip and since then have longed to return And in the mean time offered to support Africa Matters in its endeavors as a member of the Board Of Directors.
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Joe was born in Germany and came to the US when he was 6. He grew up in the Bay Area and graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University in 1972.
For the last 28 years Joe has been the Director of Public Works in Ceres, California. Ceres is located in the Central Valley adjacent to Modesto.
He loves travel and met Director Wendy Blakeley on my second trip to sub Sahara Africa in 1991. It was a 4 week overland trip through East Africa. Since that time, I have supported the work Wendy has done in Kenya and Zimbabwe and am happy to be newly elected to the Board of Directors of Africa Matters.
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As director of Africa Operations for over 20 years, Allen Bechky guiding Allen Bechky Safaris, operated in association with Mountain Travel Sobek. Allen's safaris are geared for serious natural history enthusiasts who are passionate about wildlife observation and seek an intensive field experience.
Allen literally wrote the book on Africa - his best-selling volumes, Adventuring in East Africa and Adventuring in Southern Africa, are standard references for safari travelers and tour operators everywhere. A recognized authority on wildlife and safari lore, Allen is legendary for his encyclopedic knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for the bush. He is one of Africa's most experienced safari guides and a natural-born teacher; his boundless curiosity and irrepressible sense of humor make him a delightful traveling companion.
Though Allen is most celebrated as an Africa specialist, he has pursued his passion for wildlife on all seven continents, and has now expanded his range of safari destinations to include India and other parts of the world. The opportunity to join ky designed most of Mountain Travel Sobek's outstanding safaris, and led many of them. Now, Allen devotes his expertise to developing and Allen in the wilds on one of his scheduled safaris - or on your own private itinerary - is not to be missed.
Allen joined the Board of Directors, having become acquainted with Wendy Blakeley when she planned one of her trips to Africa with the assistance of Allen and Mountain Travel Sobek.
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Visual and Performance Artist whose Canto
series, an epic spirit play with paper and dance, has been presented around
the world
Participant in
Art Safari One 2000
Resident of Emeryville, California
Website: www.dianamarto.com
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