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The ICAF Key Staff Members
Ashfaq Ishaq, Founder and Executive Director
Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq founded the International Child Art Foundation
to harness children’s imagination for positive social change. His
belief that creativity and empathy are preconditions for a more just, prosperous
and nonviolent world is based on his seminal research on entrepreneurship
and small business at the World Bank and on military burden and the new
economy at the George Washington University. His familiarity with the power
of the arts as an effective channel for children’s creative and empathic
development stems from his experience as an award-winning child artist.
The Arts Olympiad program he developed to overcome the “4th grade
slump” in creativity documented by E. Paul Torrance is today the
world’s most prestigious and largest arts-based program for children
ages 8 to 12. Approximately three million children participated in the
Third Arts Olympiad (2005-2008). The 2007 World Children’s Festival
he hosted on the National Mall in Washington, DC was reportedly the largest
celebration of children’s creativity and imagination in the world.
Dr. Ishaq secured an exclusive license from the United States Olympic
Committee for the ICAF to use “Arts Olympiad” and related
marks and has obtained support from some of the world’s most creative
companies including Adidas, Disney and LEGO.
In response to the tragedy of 9/11, he worked with psychologists and
psychiatrists to develop a Peace through Art program to reduce the inter-generational
transmission of trauma and hatred.
In January 2005, he led a team of art therapists to develop a healing
arts program that utilized the knowledge and experience gained from the
treatment of child survivors of 9/11 to aid child victims of the Asian
tsunami. Later that year the ICAF volunteers were using their tsunami
program experience to help children affected by Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to his cultural entrepreneurship, Dr. Ishaq has been involved
in business since he started his first enterprise at the age of thirteen.
More recently, he was founder of USA International, Inc., a project development
and consulting company, which played a leading role in private provision
of public services, especially private power projects in emerging economies.
In 2001, he closed down the company to devote all his time and energy
to the ICAF.
An exceptional multi-disciplinary thinker, he has written for diverse
publications and is co-author of Success in Small & Medium Scale
Enterprises, Oxford University Press, 1987. His writings on peace have
been published by the International Network of Museums for Peace in Gurnika-Lumo,
Spain and the UNESCO Observatory at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
His articles have appeared in the International Monetary Fund’s
Finance & Development; the Wall Street’s Institutional Investor;
the National Association of State Boards of Education’s State Education
Standard; the oldest U.S. art teachers’ magazine SchoolArts; the
Arab world’s leading fine art publication Canvas; the Journal of
Conflict Resolution; and the U.K.’s leading medical journal The
Lancet.
Dr. Ishaq holds a Ph.D. in economics from the George Washington University,
Masters in Public Administration from the University of Punjab, and BA
in economics and statistics from Government College, Lahore, Pakistan.
He has received several awards for leadership and philanthropy, including
the prestigious American Muslim Award in 2004. He serves on the program
committee of the Cybertherapy Conference and is member of the International
Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of
the Visual Arts.
Michael Shetzer, Director of Corporate Relations
Mr. Shetzer is responsible for corporate and institutional
sponsorship of the International ChildArt Festival and ICAF's relationships
with
corporations and private donors. Prior to joining ICAF he spent twenty
years in an entrepreneurial capacity analyzing and funding various
business opportunities around the world, with focus on high-tech, entertainment,
promotion, licensing, and international trade ventures. He also served
as Director of Development for the Team Adventure Educational Foundation.
He holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of
South
Carolina.
Katty Guerami, Director of Development
Since the founding of the ICAF,
Ms. Guerami has worked as a volunteer. She has helped develop
global programs and provides marketing and planning oversight to the
ICAF. Ms. Guerami spearheads fundraising efforts as a grantseeker.
She develops
fundraising plans and proposals.
During her school years, she took art courses and studied French and
Spanish. Very much in touch and well informed of her own Persian cultural
history and fluency in the language, she became one of the founders
of the Iranian Cultural Society at the George Washington University.
Her educational and professional backgrounds are just as diverse. Her
fascination
with the sciences and physiology led her to a B.S. degree in biology
from the George Washington University, where she also gained significant
laboratory experience working in botanical and microbiology research.
Later she joined the School of Health Services Administration and Policy
at GWU as a graduate student. She earned a MHSA degree in marketing
and
strategic planning and policy from one of the top programs in the country.
She has developed marketing plans as a consultant and advised on strategic
planning in the health services sector.
Christian Miles, Webmaster and
IT Officer
Mr. Miles joined ICAF in December 2002 and has been responsible
for the design and maintenance of ICAF's websites. A native Washingtonian,
he attended Montgomery Community College but learned website development
largely on his own. He is an avid gamer and does capoeira martial
arts. Mr. Miles is well known for his expertise in capoeira and
samba drumming and appeared in a local TV Channel 4 program on
this cultural
import from Brazil to the United States. He was also invited to
the 12th Annual International Capoeira Angloa Confernce held in
Washington,
DC in August 2006. He participated in the 13th Annual International
Capoeira Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in July 2007.
Rumu Sarkar, J.D., Ph.D., Legal Counsel
Dr. Sarkar is currently serving as Principal and Senior Legal Advisor
to CALIBRE Systems, a defense consulting group based in Alexandria, VA.
Immediately prior to this position, she was General Counsel for the 2005
Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission. Prior to that
she served as General Counsel for the Overseas Basing Commission. Dr.
Sarkar has previously served as Assistant General Counsel for Administrative
Affairs, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and as staff
attorney, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID). She began her career as a litigation associate with
two prestigious Wall Street law firms and she continues to be a board
member for a consulting firm, Millennium International Consulting, Inc.,
based in Fredericksburg, VA. Dr. Sarkar is Adjunct Law Professor at the
Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches an LL.M. seminar,
and has extensively published legal texts and articles on a variety of
subjects. She completed her undergraduate studies at Barnard College,
Columbia University; her law degree from the Antioch School of Law; and
her Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree, and her Ph.D. from Newnham College,
Cambridge University. Her professional career reflects her work in government
administrative and litigation work, development issues related to Rule
of Law and commercial legal reform projects as well as international
business transactions.
Elaine Thomas, Arts Coordinator
- United Kingdom
Elaine Thomas is Head of Art at Tockington Manor School in England, and
is a champion of children’s art and creativity. She has organised
and taken part in many national and international children’s
art projects.
A painter and poet, she works in a variety of media and is a member
of the Hilliard Society of Miniaturist Painters. She was also awarded
an honorary membership by the Society for her work in establishing the
first awards for young artists’ miniature painting in Britain.
These awards were organised by Elaine for ten years, attracting entrants
from many different countries to the Hilliard Society’s prestigious
annual exhibition. Elaine has continued to build bridges with young artists
from around the world in her voluntary work as ICAF’s representative
for the United Kingdom, organising the UK’s participation in ICAF’s
festivals in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and fostering links with schools and
museums across the country. Elaine has also written articles for ChildArt
magazine, and has presented workshops and given lectures at ICAF’s
festivals.
As well as her ICAF work, Elaine dedicates her time to a separate personal
project uniting British schools in a fundraising effort to develop art
projects by young people in children’s hospitals. This has been
a great success, with exhibitions of children’s art from the many
wonderful schools being held to raise money for the Guild of Friends
of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. Elaine also gives an illustrated
lecture on the history of angel imagery in art, entitled ‘Angels
in Art’, in support of the project. Elaine is a firm believer in
the idea that one life touches many, and that creativity is a positive
and inspirational way of uniting the children of the world, who will
be the citizens and leaders of tomorrow.
Managing Editor, Carrie Foix
Carrie spent nine years in publishing working in editorial on a wide-range
of projects: children's picture books, books for young readers, illustrated
coffee table books, cookbooks, literary fiction, and poetry. She worked
at Knopf, Rizzoli, Workman, The New Press, and Marsilio. She has also
done freelance writing and editing for non-profit organizations.
Eager to broaden her horizons, Carrie also spent time in the corporate
world, learning a little about law and finance at a British News Organization.
While grateful for her time and experience in the corporate world, she
is happy to return to her love of art and literature by returning to
editorial work at ChildArt magazine, which is produced by the International
Child Art Foundation (ICAF).
Carrie enjoys reading, writing, traveling,
cooking, baking, and spending time with family and friends.She is a graduate
of Oberlin College in Ohio, where she studied art, literature, and women's
studies.
Francis Adams, Arts Coordinator - Ghana
Francis Adams taught art for six years at Achimota Secondary School in
Accra, before starting a publishing company in 2003. He publishes children’s textbooks,
focusing mainly on visual arts and vocational skills. So far his company, Uneek,
has published 30 books. Both of Mr. Adams’s parents were teachers at the
Achimota School, so he grew up on the campus of the school founded by the British
in 1927. He started drawing as early as 3 years and has been a keen art student
since. His mother was the art teacher at the school, where he was to return later
to teach art. Mr. Adams organized the children’s cultural figurine project
for ICAF in Ghana. He has a B.A. in graphic design. He is married and lives
with his wife and two daughters in Accra.
Representative for Austria and Germany: Isabell Claus
IT Director: Ali Fracyon
Creative Director: Shannon Smith
Marketing Manager: Faith Antonioni
Exhibition Manager: Patricia (Shisha) McKee
Program Officer-Japan: Keiko Iioka, Misa Yakote
Program Officer-Korea: Na Kyung Ahn
Program Officer-Scandanavia: Emelia Newman
Program Officer-Middle East: Krystel Abimeri
Graphic Artists: Suzanne Finn,Karen Goh
Assistant Editors, ChildArt Magazine: Kelley Bostwick,
Amanda Lichtenwalner, Mishri Someshwar
Spring
2008 Interns: Mari Ishida, Anastasia Listiawan, Mohamed Kasim
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