Jim has served on the Board of the Bokamoso Youth Foundation since April 2011. However, he has been a supporter of the exchange program since its beginnings in 2002, hosting in-home socials, hosting at the Dream Breakfasts, and mentoring Bokamoso students during their stay in the United States. Also, he has worked to support the exchange program by facilitating coordination among the various Foundation activities and event volunteers.
He brings decades of international experience in community networking to the Board. Jim says he has always been drawn by the power, enthusiasm and energy of the Bokamoso youth and what they have been able to accomplish in their community through song, dance, drama and poetry.
Now retired, Jim spent his professional career working in small-scale economic enterprises in the developing world, including countries in Central and South America, Asia and Africa (including South Africa). Working for several U.S. private not-for-profit organizations, he was responsible for overall management, fundraising, administration, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of international economic development programs, and supervised more than 50 overseas projects in 25 countries with an average annual expenditure volume of $18 million. The projects included non-traditional agricultural production and export marketing, rural cooperative agribusiness, and producer organization development, community-based natural resource management, community-based health care management, civil society strengthening, and micro-enterprise credit institutions.
Currently, he is the Secretary of the Board of the Southwest Renaissance Development Corporation in Washington, DC. In the early days of the Peace Corps, Jim served as a volunteer in Venezuela and as a trainer and recruiter. In the mid-70s he was again part of the Peace Corps staff in Washington, D.C., and in Chile.
From 1968 through 1973, he taught junior high school in the District of Columbia. Jim received his B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College. He speaks Spanish, enjoys blues music and encourages young people to achieve their goals.
