Panel Discussions
Boston Stands with Haiti will included two sets of panel discussions with Boston University faculty members and outside experts on the issues Haiti is facing. Both panel discussions will take place in the George Sherman Union Back Court, and seating is first come, first serve.
Lineup for Panel I (2 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.)
Lineup for Panel II (4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.)
Panel I: 2 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Gina Athena Ulysse currently serves as an Associate professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, and Anthropology at Wesleyan University. Born in Petion-Ville, Haiti, she is the middle child of three sisters. In her early teens, they all migrated to the East Coast of the United States, where they have lived ever since. Trained as an anthropologist, she is also a poet/performer and multi-media artist. Haiti is the main focus of her works. Professor Ulysse holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her 2007 book, Downtown Ladies, is a in-depth study of Caribbean informal commerical importers and their contributions to the regional, national and global economies.
Charlot Lucien is a leader in the Boston Haitian community. He hosts Télé Kreyol, a Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN) show focused on Haitian culture and issues. He has served as the director of Assembly of Haitian Artists in Massachusetts, and is well known throughout the world as a preeminent Haitian painter, poet, storyteller and cartoonist. Mr. Lucien is originally from des Cayes, Haiti.
Randall Ellis is the Associate Chair of the Department of Economics at Boston University. He has served on the faulty of the Economics department since 1981, moving through the ranks from an assistant professor to a full professor. He is also a Research Associate for the African Studies Center at the University. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology – Sydney, and was an Instructor at Massachusetts Insitute of Technology. Professor Ellis serves in various capacities for the American Society for Health Economists (ASHE), currently as its President Elect.
William Keylor is a faculty member in the Department of International Relations and the Department of History at Boston University. He is also the director of the International History Institute. Keylor has been a Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He was elected to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has been named Chevalier de L’Ordre National du M érite by the French government, has served as the president of the Society for French Historical Studies, and has been the recipient of numerous other awards and accolades. At Boston University, he has received the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Methodist Scholar-Teacher Award. Keylor served four consecutive terms as Chairman of the Department of History at Boston University (1988-2000.)
Enrique Silva is an Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and City Planning in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Boston University. An expert in comparative urbanization and the formation of public sector planning institutions and practices, Dr. Silva’s research into the institutionalization of participatory planning policies in Chile and the U.S. raises questions about the challenges inherent in the democratization of planning and policy-making in general. He has worked abroad in the fields of international development, philanthropy, and human rights, and has several years of professional experience as a city planner and environmental permitting consultant in the Greater Boston area. Professor Silva has first hand experience with the Haitian government, as he has met with the President of Haiti in Port-au-Prince to discuss the future infrastructure of Haiti.
Panel II: 4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Patrick Sylvain
Patrick Sylvain is a Haitian-American writer, educator, lecturer and photographer who lives and teaches in New England. He is currently a member of the faculty at both Brown University and Harvard University. He received his Ed.M. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and has been published in African American Review, Agni, American Poetry Anthology, American Poetry Review, The Best of Beacon, 1999, Butterfly’s Way, Callaloo, Caribbean Writers, Confrontation, Crab Orchard Review, Haitian Times, Kestrel, Massachusetts Review, Open Gate, Ploughshares, Revue Noire and Step Into the World. Sylvain’s work was recently featured in PBS’s Newshour. His latest bilingual poetry collection is Love, Lust & Loss. He is currently working on two collections of poetry: Spirit Chaser and Windows of Exile, and a multidisciplinary book on Haiti entitled Framing Structural Violence.
Jean Elade Eloi is the co-founder of the Hope for Haiti Foundation. Hope for Haiti is a nonprofit Haitian community development organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The foundation was founded in 1999. Eloi is a native Haitian who, from the time he moved to the United States as a young child, felt compelled to help improve the quality of life in Haiti. The foundation focuses on education, medical care and community development, with the goal of equipping and empowering Haitians to change their own nation one life at a time. The foundation believes that the Haitian people are the best resource for change, and it collaborates closely with partners in Haiti to ensure that all development projects are community-based and sustainable.
Dr. Jennifer Furin
Dr. Jennifer Furin is an anthropologist and infectious diseases specialist with expertise in the treatment of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in resource-poor settings. She has served as the Medical Director for Partners In Health’s (PIH) program in Lesotho and as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Furin has been an Associate Physician at the Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital since 2004, and from 2005-2006 she was Director of the Global Health Equity Residency Program. Dr. Furin has also worked at PIH sites in Haiti, Peru, and Russia.
Professor Wes Yin
Wes Yin is an Assistant Professor at the Economics Department at Boston University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Prior to coming to Boston University, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at Harvard University, and was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. His research interests are in the areas of health economics, public finance, and development. Wes Yin’s current research studies the interaction between public and private sector in health insurance markets; the relationship between health, labor productivity, and earnings; and how information, income, and competitive forces impact the delivery of health care in developed and developing countries.
Paul Hare
Paul Hare is the former British Ambassador to Cuba and a professor in the Department of International Relations and the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University.
