Carolyn J. Aeby, CAE, CMP
Vice President, Membership and Public Engagement, InterAction
Carolyn Aeby is the Vice President of the Membership and Public Engagement team. In her role, she leads the communications team, membership recruitment and retention strategies, and develops programs and services to enhance membership engagement. Her team is also responsible for the biennial Self-Certification Plus process around InterAction's standards and the work on the CEO Pledge on Preventing Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Harassment by and of NGO Staff.
Carolyn has more than 20 years of non-profit experience with expertise in strategic planning, partner and staff development, meetings management, membership recruitment and retention, and working with C-level international board members. She has been a consultant to numerous entities identifying ways to improve meeting ROI; developing performance-driven objectives; partnering with outside sources for enhanced programs and member benefits; creating organizational strategic plans encompassing short and long term objectives; and recommending operational changes resulting in both reduced expenses and top line growth. As a divergent thinker, she has a keen ability to generate innovative, successful solutions and recognize hidden opportunities.
Melanie Furey Baur
Marketing Executive and Student Life Coordinator, International School on the Rhine
Melanie Furey Baur is an experienced communication and marketing professional and she is currently working as a Marketing Executive and Student Life Coordinator at the International School on the Rhine in Neuss, Germany. Prior to this, Melanie worked as the Manager of Programming for the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, an international education non-profit, where she developed, planned and executed programs, lectures, seminars, audio/webcasts, and discussion groups on international topics. As well as, serving as the organizations marketing and media manager.
In the FAWCO world, Melanie is a member of the American International Women's Club of Düsseldorf where she is currently serving on the board as the FAWCO Rep. Melanie has also served as the Vice President and Communications Chair. Melanie holds a Master of Arts (MA) focused in International Relations from Cleveland State University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics from Allegheny College. Melanie, her husband, Joe, and their adorable pup, Moses, have lived in Düsseldorf since 2016.
Morgan Currie -- Tactics of Civic Data Activism
Lecturer in Data & Society in the Department of Science, Technology, & Innovation Studies, University of Edinburgh
Morgan Currie is Lecturer in Data & Society in the Department of Science, Technology, & Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She engages with the relationship between data and democracy, asking how data infrastructures condition the possibility for forms of democratic governance, civic behavior, and political struggle. Her research explores how civil society can use data as a tool to contest political issues and also how new information technologies might open – or foreclose – democratic decision-making.
Katie Graham
Author, the Jess Bishop Series
Katie Graham writes under the pen name of Kierney Scott. Kierney Scott is the international best selling author of The Jess Bishop Series. Originally from Northern California, she now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband and daughter.
Pam Judson -- How Fundraising Works/How to Make Fundraising Work for You
Fundraiser, Consultant, and Trainer
Pam Judson has been working as a Fundraiser, Consultant and Trainer for a wide range of NGOs, and non-profits for over 25 years. She has worked in the USA, UK and in former Soviet States helping organisations build their fundraising capacity in order to raise funds for a variety of causes and projects.
Melissa Kaplan, MS, RD
Registered Dietician and Licensed Nutritionist
Melissa Kaplan, MS, RD is a leading expert in nutrition assessment and dietary planning for optimum health. As a Registered Dietitian and Licensed Nutritionist she has been crafting meal plans for individuals, groups, and corporate wellness initiatives for over 20 years.
She currently works for the University of Edinburgh Medical School in addition to expanding her private practice, Elemental- Nutrition.com. She is passionate about helping people learn how to feel better, have more energy, and add healthful, vital years to their lives through good food choices and proper exercise.
Samira Kitman
Calligrapher and Miniaturist
Samira Kitman (born 1984) is an Afghanistan born calligrapher and miniaturist currently resident in Lancaster in northern England. Her parents fled to Pakistan to avoid the troubles, where they lived as refugees during her early childhood. They returned to Kabul in 2002.
She learned her craft with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation and went on to organise the contract that provided Afghan miniature painting, ceramics and woodwork to the brand new 5 Star Anjum hotel in Mecca which is used by wealthy pilgrims. She employed 15 women calligraphers. She created Maftah-e Hunar, an arts foundation which trained 80 young, deprived women to become artists and make a living. She was voted Afghan businesswoman of the year. Her art has been displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,DC. In 2016 she was featured in We Are Afghan Women, a book by the former American first lady Laura Bush.
Her high profile brought her to the attention of militants, and she applied for Asylum to the United Kingdom and was located by the Home Office in Lancaster. Her application was refused, and an appeal was lodged on 18 March. The Home Office then reversed its decision: “They advised that after reviewing their decision they hadn’t realised the extent of Samira’s profile both in Afghanistan and internationally, and that due to her profile she would be at risk.”
Laura MacNeil
Laura studied French, German and Russian at the University of St Andrews during which time she lived, worked and studied in each respective country. After graduation she travelled for a year. Upon returning to Scotland she worked for 10+ years, driving and guiding coach tours of the Scottish Highlands.
Travelling became a passion and Laura developed a fascination with Antarctica in particular. After completing an MSc in Information and Library studies, Laura combined her tourism experience and newly acquired library related skills in order to finally get to Antarctica! During the Austral summer of 2016-17 she worked for the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) as part of a team of four women. They maintained the Trust’s historic museum and post office at Port Lockroy, welcoming cruise visitors and counting penguins!
Tahitia McCabe -- Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Vital Records: an Introduction to Genealogy for Americans
Course Director, Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Masters degree programme, University of Strathclyde
Tahitia McCabe is the Course Director for the Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Masters degree programme at the University of Strathclyde, based in Glasgow. She is also the lead educator for the Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree Massive Online Open Course hosted by FutureLearn which to date has had over 60,000 students.
In 2002, she came to the United Kingdom on a Fulbright Fellowship to the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library in Norwich, Norfolk and spent two fabulous years as the ‘American Librarian’. She met and married an English man and then moved to Scotland. Not surprisingly as an immigrant, migration is one of her key research interests and she is currently undertaking a PhD focusing on Americans resident in Scotland during the 19th century. She’s also been tracing her American ancestors for years helped by her ancestors’ interest in the subject and verifying this earlier work has been an interesting process.
She is a member of the New England Genealogical Society, the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Tracey S. Roseberg
Author, The Girl in the Bunker
Tracey S. Rosenberg was born in the Chicago suburbs and moved around a lot - California (both LA and the Bay Area), Seattle, Boston, Cork, Dublin, Oxford, Bucharest, and back to Chicago - before settling in Edinburgh. Having always loved Scotsmen with their kilts and gorgeous accents, she ended up marrying...a guy from Seattle. But he did wear a kilt to the wedding, and their cat Perdita is Scottish.
An avid traveller, Tracey's been to (among many other places) North Korea and Easter Island, and is quite skilled at winning grants that allow her to travel. She's grateful to the Scottish Book Trust, Creative Scotland, and the Erasmus staff mobility programme for their writing-related contributions to her wanderlust - as well as to AWCCS, since she was able to attend the FAWCO conference in Morocco when she was president.
Roza Salih
Human Rights Activist
Roza Salih is a human rights activist based in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2005, at the age of 15, she co-founded the Glasgow Girls with fellow pupils from Drumchapel High School. The Glasgow Girls campaigned to stop the UK Border Agency carrying out dawn raids and detaining and then deporting children, successfully preventing the deportation of their school friend, Agnesa Murselaj, from Kosovo.
Roza Salih arrived in Scotland in 2001 to seek asylum. Her family had fled Kurdistan in Northern Iraq after her grandfather and two uncles had been executed for opposing Saddam Hussein, who was still in power.
She attended Drumchapel High School, and then graduated with honours in Law and Politics from Strathclyde University in 2013.
A musical of the Glasgow Girls was co-produced by The National Theatre of Scotland, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Citizens Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions. Written by David Greig and directed and composed by Cora Bissett, it premiered at The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in 2012. In 2017 she was honoured by the Saltire Society as an Outstanding Woman of Scotland.
Alice Thompson -- Keynote Thursday
Co-Founder & Director of Social Bite
Alice is the Co-Founder & Director of Social Bite. Social Bite started out as a social enterprise cafe chain, employing 1 in 4 of their staff from homeless backgrounds, feeding and supporting the homeless community every day. Now, in 2019 Social Bite is also a national scale charity and is on a mission to end homelessness in Scotland by being a thought-leader and positive disruptive force in the industry. So far Social Bite have done this by creating an alternative to temporary accommodation through the Social Bite Village which houses and supports up to 20 people in that community at any one time in low-cost yet dignified accommodation, and using the Housing First model by funding the UK's largest ever Housing First programme (The 830 Homes Campaign), and working with the Scottish Government to implement this. This year Alice plans to continue her Wee Sleep Out programme engaging young people in creating their own fundraising sleep outs for Social Bite's charity while educating them with workshops throughout Scotland on how to use social enterprise to tackle the world's problems.
Lynn Wilson -- Farewell to a Linear Lifestyle.....Welcome to Circular Living
Circular Economy Wardrobe
Lynn Wilson is a designer, researcher and circular economy expert specialising in apparel and textiles consultancy and training. From 2013 to 2017 she was part of the pioneering Circular Economy team at Zero Waste Scotland as the Sector Manager, Textiles (2013-16) where she implemented a national circular economy textiles strategy. Lynn was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship in 2015 and visited Japan meeting textiles businesses implementing circular economy strategies. She is a fellow of the RSA. Lynn is currently studying for a PhD at the Adam Smith Business School, Glasgow University in consumer research and circular economy. Committed to civic duty, Lynn is a non-executive director of Architecture and Design Scotland. Lynn graduated in Constructed Textiles from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1992 and in Fashion and Textiles from Nottingham Trent University in 1994. From 1996-2000, Lynn worked in Botswana funded by a UK, NGO and then as an independent researcher working with the naro san bush people of the Kalahari Desert. This experience formed her work practice and thinking today about how we can reverse our consumption addicted lifestyles and return to creative and cooperative ways of living. Her life moto is "I am the consumer I am trying to change."
Ellen Wong
Principal Officer, U.S. Consulate General in Edinburgh, Scotland
Ellen Wong is the Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, a role she has held since October 2018. As Head of the Consulate, Ellen is responsible for all American Citizen Services in Scotland, and promoting the U.S.-Scotland relationship.
Ellen previously served as the Deputy Political and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and formerly as the Senior Country Officer for Germany.
From 2010 to 2015, Ellen served in Beijing, China and as Special Assistant for East Asia and the Pacific in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. Earlier Department of State assignments included Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Ellen has a BA in Politics and German from Princeton University, and an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.