CHAMWINO CONNECT BOARD
CHAMWINO CONNECT VOLUNTEER BOARD
Leadership
DR. PATRICIA SHEHAN CAMPBELL
CHAIR
Patricia Shehan Campbell, chair of the Chamwino Connect board, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. She is published on topics of World Music Pedagogy, the sustainability of music cultures through education, and children’s music, including Music, Education and Diversity, Songs in Their Heads, and Global Music Cultures. She is co-author of articles with Kedmon Mapana on music in Tanzania. She is educational consultant to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the Alan Lomax recordings (Association for Cultural Equity), and the Global Jukebox
GEORGE OBURU
VICE CHAIR
George Okoth Oburu, Vice-chair of CC, senior evaluator of Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning (AI/ML) solutions, technologist, builder, and inventor of quality assurance solutions for distributed and embedded systems. Currently focused on evaluating AI/ML architecture for a personal assistant, Siri. He is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from Northcentral University. Besides being a husband and father to three wonderful kids, he is also a longtime sponsor ChildFund and Compassionate International.
JANET BAN
SECRETARY
Jan is a school music educator in Middle School Choral Activities and General Music for over 40 years.
DR. LAUREL SERCOMBE
TREASURER
Laurel Sercombe is an ethnomusicologist and former archivist for the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, now retired. Her areas of interest include Coast Salish literature and songs, the history of ethnographic research in the Pacific Northwest, and the Beatles. Among her publications are the articles “Native Seattle in the Concert Hall: An Ethnography of Two Symphonies” and “History of Lushootseed Language Instruction.” She volunteers locally with the UW Burke Museum, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and the Lushootseed Language Conference.
Board Members
(in alphabetical order)
DR. WILLIAM J. COPPOLA
BOARD MEMBER
Will is Assistant Professor of Music Teaching and Learning at the USC Thornton School of Music. He is co-author of World Music Pedagogy Volume IV (Instrumental Music Education, 2018) and Volume VII (Teaching World Music in Higher Education, 2020), published by Routledge. He was previously an elementary music director with New York City Public Schools.
BRIAN HICKORY
BOARD MEMBER
Brian lives in Steamboat Springs, CO with his wife and two daughters, and operates a home inspection business. Brian has been involved with Chamwino Connect since 2008.
DR. RAMONA HOLMES
BOARD MEMBER
Ramona Holmes is Professor Emeritus from Seattle Pacific University where she taught ethnomusicology and music education. Kedmon Mapana was her doctoral student at SPU and brought the music and culture of Tanzania to her classes. Her publications include world music for K-12 classes, such as World on a String: A Sampling of Musical Traditions from Around the World. She just returned from teaching as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.
DR. SEAN ICHIRO MANES
BOARD MEMBER
This is Sean's 18th year as a music teacher for the Jersey City Public Schools in New Jersey, USA. In this capacity, he teaches general music, small group voice instruction, musicianship, musical theatre, piano and choir. As a member of the Music Curriculum Revision Committee, Sean was tasked with ensuring further inclusion of world music and social emotional learning (SEL) into the music classroom. As well, Sean was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Medgar Evers College, the African-themed campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) for six years (2014-2020), where he taught ethnomusicology courses. Sean holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington, and is an alumnus of Columbia University and Westminster Choir College.
DR. LENORE RUBIN
BOARD MEMBER
Lenore is a clinical psychologist and retired member of Public Health Seattle King County Childcare Health Team.
CINDY STRONG
BOARD MEMBER
Cindy Strong, Emerita Faculty Librarian, was the education librarian at Seattle Pacific University for 14 years. While working as the Education Librarian, she was fortunate enough to be Kedmon Mapana's librarian. During that time, Kedmon asked her to go to his village in Tanzania and start a library in the local school. In 2012, she made her first trip there to help establish a structure for the Chamwino Secondary School Library. Since that year, she has been back 4 times to work with the library, attend the awesome music festival, and work as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Dodoma libraries. The Chamwino Secondary School Library now has a librarian, lots of books, computers, wifi, and e-readers.
DR. KEDMON MAPANA
CHAMWINO LIASON
Dr. Kedmon Mapana is founder of Chamwino Arts Center, and advisor to CAC on design and implementation of the organization’s projects, as well as central to securing funding for the organization. He is also Chair of BASATA, the National Arts Council of Tanzania, and formerly on the faculty of the University of Dar es Salaam.