Valerie "Terry" Ellis
Valerie “Terry” is the President and concurrent Treasurer of CEIN. Terry is also the Program Chair for International Peace Education. She began her career as a journalist and then for 20 years worked as Montessori guide with students in preprimary through middle school. Terry currently is working virtually on her master’s degree in Value Creating Education for Global Citizenship at DePaul University in Chicago. She lives in South Florida, U.S.
Fatima de Oliviera
Fatima is CEIN Vice President and North America Region Director. She is originally from Brazil and has lived in the US since 2006. Fatima joined CEIN nin 2011 supervising the translation of materials for forums, conferences, board meetings and website publications. She taught ESL (English as a Second Language) for 20 years in Brazil and the US. Fatima is also a member of the Value-Creating Gardening Program and has recently completed her graduate degree on Human Rights, Social Responsibility and Global Citizenship from Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul-BR.
Kathleen Tracy
Kathleen Tracy is CEIN Secretary and has been a member of CEIN since 2014. She currently lives in Windsor, Connecticut. Kathleen attended the CEIN Costa Rica conference in 2018, where she presented an interactive workshop for the International Peace Education (IPE) program. She also has been certified to create on-line programming. Kathleen is a retired school administrator who has expertise in Conflict Resolution and used Value-Creating Education pedagogy as the basis for her work at the public elementary schools where she was the principal for 13 years.
OFFICERS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Patricia Dupin
Patricia is a psychoanalyst for human potential and a sustainability expert. She loves swimming, learning about new cultures, promoting educational activities for peace. She is the CEIN Chair of the Sustainable Community Education Program. Patricia lives in São Paulo / Brazil.
Sergio Garcia
Sergio Garcia is an English Teacher who has taught in a public high school for many years. He joined CEIN in August 2011 and served as CEIN’s first Secretary. He currently serves on the CEIN Translation Team. He is a member of the IPE (International Peace Education) Program. Sergio lives and works in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Anne Péné-Annette
Anne Péné-Annette is the European Director for CEIN. She lives in Martinica island (FWI), where she teaches, Geography at the University of Antillas (Université des Antilles/FWI) after 20 years living in Paris. Anne joined CEIN and began CEIN's activities during CEIN’s visit to Brazil (August 2011).
Charles J. Greenberg
Charles Greenberg is the Chair of the CEIN Communications Committee. Charles is the Health Sciences Library Director for the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, New Jersey. Prior to this position, Charles was the Founding Library Director (2013-2019) for the Wenzhou-Kean University Library, situated in the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, PRC. Formerly, Charles worked for both Yale and Columbia Universities. Charles is also a part-time Lecturer for the School of Information at San Jose State University and is a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals. Charles is an experienced Fulbright Specialist library trainer, and he created and presented two short courses for librarians in the Republic of Armenia in 2008 and 2012.
Viviane da Silva Lopes
Viviane da Silva Lopes is the CEIN Brazil Region Director. She has a post-graduate degree in education and taught Portuguese language from 2006 to 2009. Currently, she is a military officer in the city of Manaus, Amazon State. She became a CEIN member in 2014 and had opportunities to participate in the activities in Japan and Costa Rica. In Brazil she works on a project called "Environmental paddling” with the aim of removing the waste from the rivers and raising the awareness of the population to keep the environment clean.
Nitika Kariwala Agrawal
Nitika Kariwala Agrawal is the India Region Director. She works as a Senior Educator Researcher in Mumba, India, and joined joined CEIN in 2015. Between 2011 and 2012, she wrote her master’s of philosophy dissertation: “Value-based Institutional Self Evaluation Tool for Higher Education Institutions.” She also worked with students in a Mumbai classroom on a VCE Gardening project that provided lots of learning experiences for the students, school staff and families. This project was shared at the CEIN Costa Rica Conference in 2018.
Michel Nader
Michel Nader is on CEIN’s Development, Innovation and Strategy Committee, sharing his expertise in technology. He was the first director of CEIN Brazil and lives in São Paulo, Brazil. Michel has worked in the IT field in a Systems Analyst role. He also teaches classes on Management Information Systems, IT Management, and Educational Technologies. He has been involved with CEIN since 2006 and has participated in CEIN conferences in Japan and Costa Rica. He also is a member of the International Peace Program.
Abigya Endale
Abigya, CEIN-Africa Director, is an enthusiastic youth with a deep-rooted passion to serve people living in destitute situations through finding innovative, long-lasting solutions that will help them restart their lives and build a better future. She was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She began her law studies in 2018 at the College of Law and Governance, Mekelle University. Then in 2021, due to conflict in that region of Ethiopia, she transferred to the School of Law at the University of Gondar and graduated in 2022. Since August 2022 she has been Assistant Policy and Project Development
Head for Model African Union, Ethiopia. Currently, she is Program Assistant for Col. John C. Robinson Corner at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa. She also is Regional Impact Leader with the Studio Samuel Foundation, an affiliate of the Obama Foundation. In this role, she is an Advocate for Girls. In December 2020, Abigya completed Earth Charter International’s certificate course, Leadership, Sustainability and Ethics, and is active now in the Earth Charter’s youth leadership program. From that time, she also has supported CEIN activities in Ethiopia. Currently, she is Legal Advisor for the Youth Network for Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dr. Tulio Maximo
Dr. Maximo, CEIN-Asia Director, is an Assistant Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design. Tulio aims to bridge people, institutions, and knowledge to improve society collaboratively. His research interests surround intergenerational and inclusive design, mobility devices, sitting ergonomics, design-led social entrepreneurship, healthcare services, and inclusive education. Tulio teaches ergonomics, Capstone Projects, and cooperative projects. He also has created the elective subject, Design Meets Disabilities. Tulio has received numerous awards for his design and teaching, including the University Grants Commission Teaching Award 2022 as an Early Career Faculty Member. He also received the Red Dot Product Design Award 2022 with the design of the Omni Study System for children living in subdivided flats. Tulio’s teaching philosophy is inspired by value creation education, universal design for learning, and employing empathy as a core teaching and learning strategy.
ADVISORS
Susan Zipp
Susan J. Zipp is CEIN’s Development Advisor, sharing her expertise on U.N. and civil society matters. She lives near San Francisco and leads a full life as a professional journalist, global activist, consultant with the United Nations and NGO leader. She has worked in affiliation with the United Nations for more than 40 years. Currently, She is a Delegate for the UN Economic and Social Council representing the NGO Association of World Citizens and works primarily as an advisor and consultant with the Communications Coordination Committee for the United Nations.
Constance Haig
Constance is currently a CEIN Board Advisor. She has been involved with CEIN since 2005. Constance became CEIN’s first vice president and created the first web and wiki sites. She loves to garden and is chair of the CEIN Value-Creating Garden Education Program. She lives in Germantown, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C.
Eyal Seagull
Eyal is the founder and CEO of Késsem Data Science, an information technology company focused on data solutions, including Big Data, Data Analytics and Databases. In the last 40 years - 10 in Israel and more than 30 in Brazil - he has actively participated in the implementation of more than 300 IT projects in the most diverse areas - like Big Data, BI, CRM, ERP, Sales, Marketing among others - in different segments and sizes.
He started as a programmer and instructor of development languages ​​and to this day he enjoys “getting his hands dirty” as well as enjoying every moment as a mentor to a new generation of young talents.
He is married, has 2 children, a dog and a motorbike. Eyal lives near São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
CEIN, INC. FOUNDER
STEPHANIE TANSEY
Stephanie Tansey
Stephanie is the Founding President (2003-2019) of Creative Educators International Network, Inc., also known as CEIN. She began building this global network of friendships in 2003, one person at a time. Her passion for dialogue as a means to achieve a peaceful, just, and sustainable world drew us all together. Stephanie passed away in March 2019 but she remains with us as we work for the future we imagined together.
Here is a presentation created by U.S. CEIN Director Fatima Oliveira for Stephanie's memorial service in Washington, D.C. on April 7, 2019.