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The School of Leadership & Development

Alumni Newsletter


SLD Newsletter - Winter 2009

Welcome to the online newsletter for SLD students and alumni, the place to come and learn about what your classmates and professors are up to these days.  Feel free to read the following articles, and check back for new updates each quarter (3 months).

If you have a story or update you'd like to have shared and included in upcoming newsletters, please contact our Alumni coordinator, Sharlene Joseph-Brown, and she will be happy to assist you (and hear from you!).

jhAlumni Update:
"The Vulnerability of the Poor"

By Ben Runyon,
MBA Economic Development, '09

It was the day after the World Series win and I heard the men there discussing the event when I walked in. “Not to me it ain't,” came a reply from one of the men sitting against the wall, “I stayed inside.” The statement surprised me, but it soon became apparent that none of the men in the room had participated in the celebration the night before and that none of them were overly interested in attending the massive parade that was planned for the next day. I began to realize that what was safe and fun for me was not necessarily safe for the men at My Brother's House... 
Read the full article here

ghAlumni Update:
Jeske Family

MBA Economic Development '04

Adam and Christine came to Eastern’s School of Leadership and Development in 2003.  Their Eastern MBA cohort studied via distance education while they worked in the most polluted city in the world, Lanzhou China, as English teachers.  Their daughter, Phoebe, now six years old, joined their classes at four weeks old in her car seat, and their son Zeke, now four, was born soon after they graduated.  Read about what they have been doing since graduation in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

ytAlumni Update:
Kenya's "Creeping Crisis, Losing Land"

By Chepkorir Mayodi
MA Organizational Leadership, '08

After graduating in '08, Chep has been working on a food security project in the famine-hit communities of Pokot.  After completing a community needs analysis, Chep drew up a project that attracted "adaptation to climate change" funding from Diakone (Germany).  The project aims to increase food output and water supplies for people in arid and semi-arid areas. It is designed to help both
agro-pastoralists – people who grow crops and raise livestock – and pastoralists. The project introduces agroforestry, pasture reserves, and innovative water-harvesting technologies. 
Read the full article here.

Alumni Spotlight: Recent Accomplishments

jStephanie Summers (MS Nonprofit Management, '09) was recently promoted to the position of Chief Operating Officer at the Center for Public Justice, an organization dedicated to public policy research, leadership development, and civic education. 
See article here

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hgIan Scotland's (MS Economic Development, '90) company, Payroll for Nonprofits, which provides Nonprofit and Government agencies with payroll services, was recently exhibiting at the Maryland Association of Nonprofits (MANO) conference.  Learn more about Payroll for Nonprofits here

ghTransformational Development Conference & Alumni Breakfast

This past August we hosted the TD Conference, an event that Eastern cosponsored and partnered with Food for the Hungry.  There were over 180 attendees, 38 workshops, and 4 plenary sessions and 5 working groups. 
Read full article here.

SLD News:

gSLD in Prague for Leadership Conference

SLD recently attended the International Leadership Association (ILA) annual conference in Prague.  In attendance was a strong Eastern delegation comprised of students, faculty, and staff.  Our Organizational Leadership program has evolved into a powerful program which leverages the university's offering of the degree at undergraduate, graduate, and PhD level.

Attending the conference were Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe, Dr. Beth Birmingham, and Dr. Faith Ngunjiri. 

One of the highlights of the conference was that the PhD students won an award at the conference.  We will highlight this accomplishment in a future issue of the newsletter, so look for more information in the upcoming News and Events website page.

Launch of Alumni Chapters

As our alumni family grows, we are amazed and in awe about the good work you are doing here in the US and throughout the world but we also know we have barely tapped into what strength this network can provide to all of you. So, in order to strengthen this network we are developing Regional Chapters, which will provide a better venue for alumni to gather and for us to do a better job with how and when we communicate.

The first Regional Chapter will be located in the US capitol, Washington D.C., and is scheduled to be launched in February 2010. This Chapter will include alumni from neighboring states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina. Further details will be distributed in January to the alumni in the region.

Information about additional Regional Chapters will be included in the next alumni newsletter. Stay tuned!

Hello Uganda!  Africa Residency 2010

2010 will be a big year for SLD as we seek to deliver our degree programs for the first time in Kampala, Uganda.  For more information regarding the program, click here.

Art Auction A Success

SLD held an art auction over Homecoming weekend this past October featuring over 60 pieces from around the world generously donated by our alumni, students, friends and staff. We raised over $1500, which will benefit the “Sponsor a Leader” Scholarship Fund. This fund will support the education endeavors of international and foreign students enrolled in the programs offered by the School of Leadership and Development in the US, Africa and Latin America.

A heartfelt thanks go to all staff, faculty, students, friends and family that contributed to make this Silent Auction a success. Special thanks to Sharlene, Begona   and Ali for all the work leading up to the event.

If you would like more information or would like to contribute to this scholarship fund, please contact our Alumni Coordinator, Sharlene Joseph-Brown, at sjosephb@eastern.edu.

jkLatin America Launched – Spanish Delivery

This past August, we successfully launched our MA in Organizational Leadership (concentration in Development) program in Latin America.  The program, taught entirely in Spanish, follows the same delivery format developed for Africa.  Honduras played host country to 20 students joining us from Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, and Columbia.

bannerFree Classes for Alumni at SLD

The School of Leadership and Development (SLD) at Eastern University has long been committed to our students and their lifelong mission. We recognize that the issues that face us in our ever changing world are constantly increasing and escalating.  The state of our global economy is only one of the most recent examples... (click here to read the article)

hjgAlumni Testimonials – We want to hear from you!

We recently set up an alumni call-in line to take testimonials and comments from our alumni.  Please call and leave a message, a testimony, or just to let us know what you have been doing.  We plan to use some of these testimonies at our December 11 “Milestones” Alumni dinner.  Beyond that we would like to build an audio library, and where possible, video testimonies of our alumni. 
Please call us on our testimonial line on 214-615-6044 ext. 8214

Alumni Campus Events:

SLD 25th Anniversary Celebration & Dinner

25yrsThis year SLD celebrates an amazing 25 years that the Economic Development program has been in existence. The program has graduated students who serve in every continent and has produced professionals, scholar practitioners, advocates, aid and relief workers, leaders and entrepreneurs at every level of development, business and society.

Please come and join us for the festivities as we celebrate 25 years of the economic development program.

Event is scheduled to be held December 11, 2009.

Please contact Sharlene Joseph-Brown for more details.


We'd love to hear from you!  Please send us a message at sld@eastern.edu