Founding Board of Directors 2008
Lisa Delsante [President]
Lisa Delsante is Principal Legal Counsel at Direct Energy, part of the Centrica group of companies, the largest non-utility retail energy provider in North America. She manages the North American legal department for Direct Energy’s commercial and industrial line of business. Prior to joining Direct Energy, Lisa was an Associate in the Corporate and Securities team of Hunton & Williams, LLP in Manhattan.
While an Associate, Lisa worked on several pro bono political asylum cases for Tibetan refugees through The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), and successfully represented one political asylum applicant in removal proceedings before the U.S. Immigration Court and had her brief selected by Human Rights First as a model brief. Lisa sits on Direct Energy’s Diversity Council. In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Lisa also holds a Master’s degree in Literature.
Lisa grew up in New York City and continues to reside there today. Contact Lisa: ldelsante at saharachildren dot org
Victoria Monchuk [Treasurer]
Victoria Monchuk is an international development economist working with evaluations of programs and projects that provide support to developing countries. Her work focuses mainly on the health and education fields. Among other things her work involves providing training on monitoring and evaluation to policy makers, researchers and project management staff in developing countries.
Victoria has previous experience from the International Monetary Fund where she worked on measuring the efficiency of health and education expenditure in developing and transition economies and providing advice for public expenditure policy. Victoria has also conducted research on the impact of child labor on children’s school attainment in Latin American and on the effect of school autonomy on educational outcomes.
Victoria was born and raised in Sweden. She enjoys traveling, outdoors activities and playing sports. Contact Victoria: vmonchuk at saharachildren dot org
Liz Williams [Secretary]
Liz Williams is the Managing Director of Authentic Morocco Limited, a UK Tour Operator that specializes in tailor-made tours of Morocco. Liz has independently traveled in Morocco for over 20 years and has been running tours since 1999.
Since her first visit to Morocco in 1986, when she hired a car and traveled around with a guide book and map, she continues to be moved by the hospitality of the Berber people and fascinated with the culture and heritage of the nomadic people of the Atlas Mountains and Sahara desert.
Born in UK, and raised on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, Liz spends her time in both UK and Morocco. Contact Liz: lwilliams at saharachildren dot org
Glen DiCrocco [Creative]
Glen DiCrocco is a photographer and web producer living in New York City. His images have been published in Spin Magazine, Guitar Player, The Wall Street Journal, on CDs and DVDs, and featured in the Vis A Vis Gallery (October 2007). He was selected for Px3’s Human Condition traveling group exhibition (2008) hosted by the Farmani Gallery in Los Angeles, Paris, and New York.
Glen serves as web director and photographer for Rockit For Kids, an organization which fosters group music instruction and performance for kids aged 9 to 16.
He is a volunteer in the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Patient to Patient program and contributes to various ad hoc hospital committees. Contact Glen: gdicrocco at saharachildren dot org
Advisers
Alla Bassou [Correspondent]
Alla Bassou ‘Abdoullah’ was born to nomad parents in a traditional home-spun wool tent in the desert region of the Erg Chebbi sand sea close to Merzouga. As a young child, like many nomad children, he would tend the family’s small flock of goats and sheep–leaving early morning in search of fodder and not returning until the day’s end. The family later moved and settled in the desert frontier town of Rissani and Abdoullah was able to attend school. Since leaving school he has worked in tourism and taught himself several languages that he speaks with a good degree of fluency. Abdoullah is keen to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Berber nomadic people throughout the Atlas and desert regions of Morocco and is fully supportive of the objectives and goals of the Children of the Sahara Foundation.
Oren Ipp [Consultant]
Oren Ipp is currently a consultant with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on issues of security sector reform and governance. Oren has been traveling to Afghanistan since 2002, and served as an election monitor in 2004 and 2005. During 2006-08, Oren was based in Kabul, where he directed the national and subnational legislative programs of the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Among his publications is the chapter “Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector in Afghanistan” in the forthcoming volume “Reforming Afghanistan’s Security Sector.”
In the fall of 2008, Oren worked for Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change in Western Pennsylvania as a constituency outreach and field organizer. He is also a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a member of the Geneva-based International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT)—an expert roster on security-sector reform and democratic governance in conflict and post-conflict countries. Oren spent almost two years directing study abroad programs in Central Europe and Latin America. He holds a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.
