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ContactNote: there's of course a lot more people behind GMin than those listed here - you'll not find any of our many regular members listed below. To see all GMin members, click here.
GMin Directors
Executive Director: David Sengeh
David Sengeh was born in Bo, Sierra Leone- where he grew up and attended secondary school. In 2004, he won a national scholarship to study at the Red Cross Nordic United World College in Norway for two years. After completing his International Baccalaureate diploma, he enrolled at Harvard University where is now a Junior pursing a degree in Biomedical Engineering. David is the co-founder of many other organizations including GMin. Most recently, he co-founded Lebone- a team from Harvard that won a $200,000 grant from the World Bank to "light up Africa" using Microbial Fuel Cell technology. He has done extensive research on aerosolized TB vaccines in the Edwards lab at Harvard and also traveled widely. David wants to be a medical doctor in the future, but at the moment he enjoys playing Club Soccer and jamming with his guitar to his favorite Coldplay songs.
Directors of Internal Relations: Jamie Appleseed (also know as Morten K. Holst)
Co-founder of GMin, serial entrepreneur, born and raised in Denmark. He finished Business High School in the Summer '08, and is currently spending most of his time working on his new business and organizing GMin's internal and external resources. And running.
Jamie was part of GMin's "eradicate malaria" project in 2007 and has especially spearheaded GMin's online activities (both internally and externally).
Directors of Fundraising: Ulrik Trolle Smed
Ulrik Trolle Smed is a student of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. While attending to university at an early age- with great success, he is now taking two semesters off to pursue a different kind of goals and challenges. In 2008, he participated in a student-organized study trip to the Middle East, visiting a wide range of political leaders and religious icons in Iran, Syria and Lebanon in an effort to grasp the root of the ongoing Middle East conflict. Home again, in Copenhagen, he works full-time in a firm fund raising for charitable organizations like Amnesty International and Danish Red Cross. Actively seeking new and variated challenges, he enjoys being an organizer in anything from bands and music events to discussion and networking groups. When good time flies by Ulrik is most likely learning and developing new skills, having a deep and interesting conversation or singing lively in a James Brown-style.
Director of Grant Writing: Elizabeth Nowak
Elizabeth (Ellie) Nowak is a Junior at Harvard College, studying African Studies and pre-medicine. She is part of the Sierra Leone Initiative on campus, and worked with a team in the Pujehun District of Sierra Leone to implement a Youth Empowerment project during the summer of 2008. As part of the project, she taught photography (as a form of art and activism) to a group of students, and is now starting a similar program with youth in the Boston area. Ellie also enjoys teaching English as a Second Language, playing the guitar, and snowboarding during the winter months in her hometown, East Aurora, NY.
Directors of Research: Carlos Meheux
Carlos Meheux is a native of Sierra Leone and was born and raised in Freetown. In 2005 he moved to Maryland USA where he settled with his parents and enrolled at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in pursuit of a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Carlos is currently doing research on nitric oxide modifications of various enzymes and their effects on cardiovascular diseases, at the Garcin lab at UMBC. Aside from doing research, Carlos also enjoys soccer, basketball, and music (almost all genres). Carlos wants to be a medical doctor in the future and plans to go back to his roots and help develop under-served communities.
Director of Malaria Eradication: Jacob Lennheden
Jacob Lennheden grew up in a small idyllic town, some 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen, the Capital of Denmark. He always had a big urge to see the big world and learn about the interesting people and places. In 2005 he got a scholarship to study at the Red Cross Nordic United World College(UWC) in Norway for two years. This experience broadened his horizon a lot, and further sparked his interest for the world beyond his little home in Denmark. During his time at UWC he helped found GMin. After completing his International Baccalaureate he returned to Denmark where he spent half a year working as an elementary school teacher before living out his childhood dream of backpacking through Central America. In the fall of '08 he enrolled at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, to pursue a degree in International Studies.
In his free time he plays soccer, eats Sushi and attempts to learn how to dance salsa (with varying success).
Director of Education: Paul Commons
Paul Commons is an Indiana University senior intending to graduate with an Honors B.A. in International Studies. At Indiana University, Paul runs a chapter of One Here...One There, an organization committed to promoting educational opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa, and works periodically as a research assistant for the Sociology Department. In 2007, he was selected to attend Education Without Borders, an international student conference on e-ducation, where he was first introduced to One Laptop Per Child. This ultimately led him to develop learning environments with 15 XOs in Honduras and 100 XOs in South Africa. Having experienced first-hand the benefits of an XO environment, Paul has continually advocated OLPC as an effective anti-poverty program. In addition to his interest in alternative learning environments and education management, Paul's experience in various management roles has guided his decision in applying to an MBA program. His other leadership positions include captain of a nationally competitive rugby team, a summer stint at an HIV-AIDS orphanage in Honduras, and organizing a housing relief effort in Juarez, MX as a freshman. On his spare time, he is generally in search of funding to appease his addiction to traveling or working to develop Obility, an online multimedia platform connecting problem and solution profiles via personal narratives.
Director of Volunteers: Luke Wassermann
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Luke Wassermann earned his B.A. in Music and Audio Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2003. Before graduating, he received a Phi Beta Kappa grant to document Afrocuban music traditions in Havana with renowned ethnomusicologist Lisa Knauer. Since then, he has studied ethnomusicology at Tufts University, and travelled extensively around the globe, producing documentary audio and video recordings in countries like Ethiopia, Bolivia, and Lesotho. His credits include Volume 20 of Buda Musique's prodigious Ethiopiques series, as well as four DVDs and fourteen CDs for the EarthCDs label. In 2007, Luke completed a seven volume anthology on the traditional music of Sierra Leone, a product of a 17-month residence there. During his time in Sierra Leone, Luke also served as a volunteer with the Salesians of Don Bosco, recognized locally for their rehabilitation program called Don Bosco Fambul, in Freetown, for young boys orphaned during the civil war. Luke collaborated with Foday P. Fofanah, a former resident of Don Bosco Fambul, in producing a syndicated radio program focusing on traditional storytelling and music of Sierra Leone, and before leaving, founded Hot Plate Studio in Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom, a recording studio geared towards the computer-synthesized music popular among the younger generation of Sierra Leoneans.
Director of Legal and Financial Relations: Mathias Esmann (mathias@gmin.org)
Mathias Esmann is a co-founder of GMin and hails from Vejle, Denmark. He was privileged to attend the phenomenal Red Cross Nordic United World College in Norway, where he became friends with Jacob and David. Immediately after finishing his IB diploma, he took a gap year where he taught English in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, worked as a substitute school teacher and became involved with GMin. He organized and participated in GMin's first project in Sierra Leone during the summer of 2007 after which he started his undergraduate degree at Princeton University. He's now a sophomore and he plans to major in Public Policy and International affairs, with minors in French and Global Health.
He tend to be busy 24/7 and sleep very little, but that's only because he wants to to max out the socializing as well as the studying and the GMin work. He loves playing squash, having long conversations, joking around and meeting new people!
Board of Advisers
Professor Peter A. Singer
(MD, MPH, FRCPC, FRSC)
Professor Peter A. Singer is Senior Scientist and Professor of Medicine at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto.
Professor Singer's research is at the nexus of life sciences, entrepreneurship, and the developing world. The core ideas are: How can life sciences technologies move from 'lab to village' in the developing world? How can Canada grow economically by tapping into the 'demand pull' for its life sciences technologies from emerging economies? How can developing countries, particularly in Africa, accelerate commercialization of life sciences for health and economic development? His earlier contributions have included improvements in quality end-of-life care, fair priority setting in healthcare organizations, pandemic influenza planning and teaching bioethics.
To read more, follow this link http://www.mrcglobal.org/peter_singer
Professor Abdallah S. Daar
D.Phil (Oxon), FRSC, FRCP (Lon), FRCS, FRCSEd.
Dr. Daar is Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is also Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, Program on Life Sciences, Ethics and Policy, University Health Network, and Director of Ethics and Policy at the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine.
After medical school in London, England, he went to the University of Oxford where he did postgraduate clinical training in surgery and also in internal medicine, a doctorate in transplant immunology/immunogenetics, and a fellowship in transplantation. He was a clinical lecturer at Oxford for several years before going to the Middle East to help start two medical schools. He was the foundation Chair of Surgery in Oman for a decade before moving to the University of Toronto in 2001.
To read more, please follow this link: http://www.mrcglobal.org/abdallah_daar
Paul Bottino
Paul Bottino is co-founder and executive director of TECH. He serves as an advisor to several startup companies and as a member of the Harvard College Business Advisory Council and on the board of directors of Harvard Alumni Startups, Inc. Paul co-founded and is a director of Medicine in Need Corporation, an international nonprofit organization developing drug and vaccine delivery systems for infectious diseases. Before starting TECH in 1999, he created and managed relationships between Harvard's ten faculties and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Harvard in 1996, Paul practiced law in Boston counseling emerging technology ventures and specializing in technology licensing and other intellectual property matters. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Middlebury College and his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and is an active member of the Massachusetts bar.
Thomas Burke
(MD, FACEP)
Thomas directs the Division of Global Health and Human Rights and is part of the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is also the associate clinical director of the emergency department at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a practicing emergency physician on the faculty at Children's Hospital, Boston, and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Burke has spent half of his career in community practice and half in academia. His many extraordinary experiences include 7½ years in the U.S. Army with several overseas deployments and serving as the doctor for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. He served as director of the emergency department in the U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center during the Bosnian crisis and helped care for 28,000 refugees in Guantanamo Bay in 1995. Currently Dr. Burke is the medical director for two companies that provide expeditions via private jets for international travel. He has served as a visiting professor and lecturer in many countries. Dr. Burke's unique collection of published essays is available online at NotesFromtheER.com.
Partners & Sponsors
Swissnex-Boston Consulate of Switzerland
Swissnex boston acts as a physical and virtual environment fostering closer ties between Switzerland, New England and Eastern Canada in academia, industry and society. It places particular emphasis on the next generation of creative thinkers and leaders, through a network that promotes the exchange of knowledge and generates cooperation in an innovative, inspiring, and rewarding atmosphere.
Swissnex was a major sponsor for our initial activities in 2007 and they have continued their support for us by providing both financial and logistical support for the 2009 project. We are ever so grateful to their team of lovely workers. Click here to learn more about Swissnex-Boston www.swissnexboston.org