Who We Are

ADMINISTRATION AND STAFF

 

Marisha Kazeniac (Executive Director) has more than 20 years’ experience as an educator and administrator in the field of international education and intercultural learning. In 2005, she founded Vermont Institute on Cuba (VIC), developing humanitarian and educational exchanges connecting Vermont and the people of Cuba.

Several years later, the Institute extended its resources to community-building programs in the Dominican Republic and became Vermont Institute on the Caribbean, which recently was renamed Vermont Caribbean Institute. Marisha’s work in promoting sustainable development emphasizes local capacity-building and leadership development, environmental stewardship, and an appreciation of place.

“Every day is an opportunity to make a difference.” Marisha Kazeniac, Executive Director

Anjanette DeCarlo   is a Senior Jeffords Fellow at the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy & Security and a PhD candidate (ABD) in Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. Her focus is on environment, women’s empowerment, and conflict resolution as a merged agenda for sustainable development. She is currently working on reconciliation in post war countries as well as the power of trade and commerce to create peace in conflict zones. As a development consultant with 20 years field experience she specializes in Africa, Latin America, and the US. Anjanette received her MA in Geography from Hunter College in 1999 and her BS in Environmental Science from the State University of New York. She was awarded the EF Schumacher scholarship to study holistic science at the Schumacher Institute as well as the Irene P Goldring science award. Prior to her PhD studies, Anjanette was the Program Coordinator at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. With a successful track record of raising millions of dollars, Anjanette reaches the donor community at all levels from small gifts to large grants and contracts. Her emphasis for developing programs at Gund was to bridge the gap between academia and the needs of people on the ground. She has lead USAID development projects and worked for organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the United Nations. 

 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

  Richard Donnelly does market-based strategic planning for business-energy services for Efficiency Vermont. His broad economic development experience includes micro-lending and small business planning, contributing to Burlington’s economic development policy, creating marketing publications that won international awards, and developing pricing and packaging for Burlington Telecom’s services. He and his 13-year-old son took part in VCI’s 2010 Baseball-Cultural Exchange Program, in the Dominican Republic. He notes, “There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about the value and meaning of what we all experienced.”

“Understanding VCI’s mission and witnessing its programs in action really inspired me.” Richard Donnelly
 

 Kathleen Donohue has promoted intercultural awareness and understanding for more than 20 years as a language educator. She now teaches French and Spanish to middle-school students, at Williston Central School, while living in Burlington with her husband, Richard, and their two children. She has traveled extensively through Western Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Her volunteer efforts include being a “family friend” to a Bhutanese family through Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, serving on the Tibetan Resettlement Project’s Steering Committee, and work at the Hogal Infantil in Cuenca, Ecuador. Her broad interests comprise of reading, running, outdoor activities, music, the performing arts, politics, and human-rights issues.

“VCI is making a valuable contribution across cultures in a mutually-respectful way.” Kathleen Donohue

David Edwards has been an attorney in Vermont since 1992. Prior to that, he attended the University of Vermont and Vermont Law School, where he received a JD and an MSL in Environmental Law. He currently practices commercial law with the firm of Lobe and Fortin, in South Burlington, Vermont. David recently returned from a VCI Baseball-Cultural Exchange, to the Dominican Republic, with his 13-year-old son, Jake. The trip inspired David to support VCI and help expand its work. While living in Burlington with his wife and three children, he is an avid gardener and enjoys outdoor activities, politics, and beer-making.

“I had a great experience with VCI in 4/10.” David Edwards, Current Acting Board Chair


Evan Fitzgerald is a fifth-generation Vermonter, who now lives in Colchester, Vermont, along the banks of the Winooski River. He is the principal watershed scientist of Fitzgerald Environmental Associates. After graduating from college, he worked with tropical butterflies in Costa Rica, returned to Vermont to work as an environmental consultant, focusing on storm-water analysis and GIS services for the ski industry. From 2002 to 2004, he and his wife, served as Peace Corps Volunteers along the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where they taught sciences in an agroecology program for high school students, at the Centrol Regional de Estudios de Alternativas Rurales.

“Colleen and I hope that through VCI we will be able to continue to serve the people of Hispaniola.” Evan Fitzgerald

Marta Ceroni 
Professional Affiliations: Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, Department of Plant Biology, University of Vermont, Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security, University of Vermont
Education: 1997 Ph.D. Forest Ecology
Academic Employment: 2010 - present Lecturer, University of Vermont
Current Research Interests: Economic benefits of protected areas, ecosystem service quantification for conservation planning, management and financing; linkages between conservation and development, ecological economics of biodiversity, policy mechanisms for sustainable forest management, environmental and social sustainability of supply chains (focus on plant resources), capacity building and markets for ecosystem services.

Scarlet Cuteo 

Dr. Cuteo is a medical doctor and medical consultant for El Centro de Promoción y Solidaridad Humana (CEPROSH) in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and national specialist in sexually transmitted sexual diseases. Her emphasis is on HIV-Aids testing and treatment. She is one of two physicians who serve more than 4000 patients in the region.

 

ADVISORY BOARD

 
Saleem Ali - Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at UVM's James Jeffords Center for Policy Research. He is also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica).Dr. Ali's research focuses on the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts and how ecological factors can promote peace. Much of his empirical research has focused on environmental conflicts in the mineral sector. His most recent book is titled Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale University Press).

 

Rick Peyser  is Director of Social Advocacy and Supply Chain Community Outreach for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters where he has worked for over 24 years. He is a past President of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the world’s largest coffee trade association, and served six years on the Board of Directors of the Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) which sets the standards for Fair Trade that benefit over 1,500,000 small-scale farmers around the world. Currently Rick serves on the Coffee KidsÔ Board of Directors, the Food4Farmers Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors of Fundacion Ixil which is working to improve the quality of life in Ixil coffee communities in El Quiche, Guatemala.

 

Helmo Hernandez is an art historian and internationally recognized expert on Cuban art and culture, Helmo Hernandez is founder and president of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, the premier arts and cultural organization in Cuba. The Ludwig Foundation is a non-governmental organization created to protect and promote contemporary Cuban artists and culture, develop research works and new technologies applied to the artistic field, and encourage dialog with both Cuban and international cultural communities. Helmo visited Vermont with VCI in 2010 resulting in a Ludwig Foundation/VCI partnership committed to developing mutually beneficial programming and cultural exchange between Vermont and Cuba.

Through all the changes that Cuba has experienced in the past 50 years, he said, “Our culture is still the shell that protects the soul of the nation – that gives the soul the possibility to develop, to grow.”

 

 Carlos Haase Of Mexican-American descent, Carlos Haase was born in Mexico City, where he lived until he came to attend college in Vermont, in 1993. His interests in communications, community and economic development, and the arts, have propelled his career path to include freelancing for Washington-based, Pacifica Network News; acting as WGDR’s Managing Director, a Vermont college-based community radio station; working for the Director of the State of Vermont Air Pollution Control Division; to eventually solidifying his Vermont ties by becoming the Managing Director of the Green Mountain Film Festival; the Flynn Center’s Programming Administrator; and more recently, the South End Arts and Business Association’s Executive Director. Currently, Carlos lives in Montpelier, with his family, provides consulting services to non-profit organizations, serves a board member of the Vermont Arts Council, and volunteers as a translator for Spanish-speaking farm migrant workers in Vermont.