Leadership

The Association for World Education is governed by the International Council. The Leadership of the organization is spread out globally.

Since 2007, Jakob Erle from Denmark has been president, and the current vice-presidents are Christopher Spicer from USA, Edicio dela Torre from the Philippines and Lidia Shkorkina from Russia. The President and the Vice-Presidents are responsible for the overall success of the organization’s vision and mission. They are in-charge of developing the strategic plan for organizational development and growth.

The four UN Representatives are Mary Cattani (NYC), Hans B.C. Spiegel (NYC),  Marjorie Sorensen (NYC), Kirsten Brunn (Vienna) and Rene Wadlow (Geneva). The UN Representatives are responsible for bringing the priorities and agendas of the AWE Networks to the United Nations and to represent the interests of AWE’s global membership as they may pertain to Education, Democracy and Human Rights.

Noël Bonam is the Global Director for Capacity Development. He primary responsibilities include supporting the organizational leadership through strategic organizational development, establishing platforms for the development of collaborative leadership, building self-sustaining global networks that support the AWE mission and working extensively with members and chapters to enhance individual capacity through self-sufficient approaches.

Leadership profiles

Jakob Erle

Jakob Erle is the President of AWE International and he is the founder of the International Academy for Education and Democracy (IAED) which is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. IAED’s mission is to develop, design and execute learning processes relating to democracy at all levels from local to global. He is the creator of EduGame.

Jakob has a ph.D., in Cultural Sociology and he has over 20 years of experience in non-formal adult education, international cooperation and democracy projects. He has partnered and worked with organizations such as the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute, International Council for Adult Education and many others.

Edicio dela Torre

Edicio dela Torre is a vice president of AWE International. He is president of the Education for Life Foundation which combines the Philipine popular education tradition with the ideas of Grundtvig and the Danish folkehojskole tradition. He is also president of E-Net Philippines, the civil society advocacy network on Education for All, and sits on the board of the Global Campaign for Education.

Lidia Shkorkina

Lidia Shkorkina is the Vice-President of AWE International and she is the Chairperson of the Russian chapter of AWE. All of her life she has worked in the area of education and enlightenment except 8 years (1983 – 1991) when she worked as an interpreter at the Flight Research Instition. She has written and co-authored several books and she is keenly interested in the different systems of education that exist in countries around the world.

In 1997, she was awarded the title of Professor by the Euro-Asian Academy of Life for her research and public service. In 2004, she became a member of the Academy of Science of Ukraine.

Kirsten Brunn

Kirsten Bruun is the AWE representative to the United Nations, Vienna and a teacher in Denmark. She works primarily as a teacher for young people between 16 – 25 years old. She has been actively involved in educational projects, especially those that involved global exchange, for several years. Between 1978 and 1999, she was an active member of the school cooperation Tvind in Denmark. For period of 10 years, she worked with young scholarship students fromAngola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau.

Since 2000, She has worked as a teacher at Flakkebjerg Efterskole. Flakkebjerg Efterskole is one of the 250 free schools for young students in Denmark. She is also the international contact person/coordinator for the school.

Mary Cattani

Mary Schnackenberg Cattani is one of the AWE representatives to the United Nations, New York, and is recently retired after 24 years in the field of International Education.  Upon completing her B. A. at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, her M. A. at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and her PhD at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., all in French literature, she taught for several years, mostly at Mt. Holyoke College in So. Hadley, Massachusetts.    Her first position in international education was with Scandinavian Seminar,  where she was College Program Coordinator and then Executive Director, over a 12 year period from 1982 to 1994.  The Scandinavian model of lifelong learning in a residential setting as practiced at the Folk Colleges has remained one of her central interests.  In the early 1980’s she also joined the Folk Education Association of American (later IPEA), and has served on that Board, and as Editor of their journal, Option.   In 1995,  she became Director in the U. S. of the Center for University Programs Abroad in Paris, where she remained until retiring in 2009.  As of 2010,  she is AWE’s Representative to the U. N., and considers this new mandate to bring AWE’s aims and agendas to the on-going peace and social justice mission of the United Nations to be an exciting opportunity, and it is one she eagerly embraces.

Dr. Hans Spiegel is the AWE representative to the United Nations, New York and Professor Emeritus of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter College, City University of New York, where he directed the Graduate Program in Urban Affairs and the Hubert Humphrey North-South Fellowship Program. Dr. Spiegel’s teaching career includes professorships in urban planning and community development at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Springfield College.  He was a Fulbright research scholar in India, and a visiting professor at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Germany, Kenya Institute of Administration, Yonsei Univ in Korea and DeLaSalle Univ in the Philippines.  He served on the Board of Directors of the Experimental Group in the Danish Folk School Movement.

A former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the US Urban Renewal Administration and editor of the three-volume “Citizen Participation in Urban Development,”  Dr. Spiegel was Senior Social Development Planner for the Batanga Port Development Project in the Philippines.

Rene Wadlow

Rene Wadlow is the AWE representative to the United Nations, Geneva, and Editor of the online journal of world politics Transnational Perspectives. Formerly, he was professor and Director of Research of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva,specializing on issues of education and social development, especially in Africa.From 1992 to 1998, he was president of a French child welfare NGO, Partage, actively participating in setting up new programs in Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as strengthening existing programs in Thailand, Bangladesh and India.

He was born 2 October 1934 in New Jersey, USA and educated at Princeton University and the University of Chicago in international relations

Noël Bonam

Noël Bonam is the Global Director for Capacity Development. He has several years of experience in cross-cultural organizational development and collaborative leadership development. He has extensive experience in the public and non-profit sectors, especially in the fields of public health, social services, arts and community development. He is a graduate of the “Senior Executive in State and Local Government” program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Previously, he was the director for the Bureau of Multicultural Affairs for the State of Maine (USA).  He was also the Chairman for the Board of Trustees for the Institute for Civic Leadership in Portland, Maine. Finally, he is also an accomplished visual and performing artist. He was born in Hyderabad, India.