Board of Directors

USA Board • Rwanda Board

Kevin D. Batt, Vice President, Executive Committee

Kevin D. Batt is completing his career as an attorney in Boston, Massachusetts and looks forward to volunteer work in retirement. He serves on the Board of Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy (META), a legal advocacy group supporting the rights of English Language Learners throughout public school systems in the United States. In the past he helped litigate the rights of same-sex couples to marriage. His interest in human rights has now expanded to projects in East Africa since his journey there in 2015. In addition to his service on the board of Ubuntu Center for Peace, he serves on the boards of Move Up Global (MUG), promoting education and public health in northwest Rwanda and of Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), which engages in the front line struggle to protect sexual minorities in Uganda.  

Maurice I. Middleberg, Clerk/Secretary, Executive Committee

Maurice Middleberg’s professional background spans over 36 years of work in the fields of global public health and fighting human trafficking. His experience includes service as Director, Health and Population, CARE USA; Executive Vice President, EngenderHealth; Vice President for Public Policy, Global Health Council; Vice President for Global Policy, IntraHealth International; and, Executive Director, Free the Slaves. 

Maurice currently serves on a number of boards and professional committees, including those of ArtWorks for Freedom; JUST; FISH; and, Congregation Agudath Achim. He also volunteers as a certified Master Gardener at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Garden.

Maurice is a political scientist by training and is the author of numerous publications. He held positions as Adjunct and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

William Campbell

William Campbell is an independent producer, videographer, photojournalist based in Livingston, Montana. Bill began his journalistic career in Africa as a communications officer, photographer and filmmaker with the UNICEF based in Nairobi in the mid-1970’s. By the late seventies he was a staff photographer and reporter with United Press International, based in Brussels and in Nairobi covering Africa and the Middle East. In 1982 he joined Time Magazine as a contract staff photographer. Attached to the Time bureaus in Nairobi and Johannesburg, he documented conflict and social issues across Africa and the Middle East.

Since returning to the United States in 1989, Campbell has focused on the dilemmas of poverty, racism, environmental issues and health care in America and Africa. While in Rwanda for NOW on PBS Campbell met Dr. Jean Bosco in Rwinkwavu. In 2017 Campbell returned to Rwanda to assist the Ubuntu Center for Peace with a video about the Community Based Social Healing project. His current projects include documenting environmental and social issues in the US and abroad.

Sue Jones

Sue Jones is the founder and director of the TIMBo Collective, a nonprofit whose mission is to catalyze women to become positive change makers in the world. As over the past decade she has developed an evidence-based curriculum, a methodology, and a theoretical roadmap to bring rehabilitative mind-body practices to female trauma survivors. She is a leading voice on the subject of mind-body practices for addressing trauma, self-regulation and empowerment. She has trained, inspired, and lead hundreds of women who have taken TIMBo into their work as yoga teachers, social workers, psychologists, advocates, medical providers, teachers, mothers and community leaders.

Her work has spanned the globe, empowering women across the U.S., Haiti, Tehran, Iran and Kenya. Her life and work with TIMBo has been profiled by CNN and numerous publications including Time, Self, The New York Times, Yoga Journal and Whole Life magazine and most recently by Rick Hanson for his Foundations of Well-Being Course. Sue has written two books There is Nothing to Fix and From the Flood: A Memoir.

Edmund Robinson

Edmund Robinson is a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister about to retire, after twelve years, from serving the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Chatham, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He was ordained into the UU ministry in 1999, and served three churches before this one. He has served as Chatham Town Representative to the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, and has served on the governing council of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), the oldest organization devoted to the dialogue between religion and science. He has twice been the IRAS minister of the week on Star Island, NH. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1999.

In addition to ministry, he has also had a career as a trial lawyer in Boston and in Charleston, SC. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Antioch School of Law in 1975, the first year that institution awarded degrees. His undergraduate degree was from Yale, 1970, a B.A. with major in Anthropology. He is married to Jacqueline Schwab, a concert pianist who is most publicly noted for her work on the sound tracks of several documentary films by the American filmmaker Ken Burns. He has two adult children by his previous marriage, one in England and one in Chicago, and two grandsons. His friendship with Kevin Batt goes back to their days at Yale, and Kevin was the best man at his wedding to Jacqueline in 2000.

Leslie Belay

Ms. Belay is an independent consultant, advising foundations, faith-based and community-based organizations in program management, organizational development, strategic planning and foundation relations. Clients call upon her expertise in the areas of executive coaching, dispute and conflict resolution, board training, personnel and executive recruitment, and development of work plans, proposals, and business plans, as well as fundraising and program design and development.

Ms. Belay has many years’ experience overseeing grants programs to support small business development as well as community organizing, youth development, and anti-racism work. As an independent consultant she has worked successfully with dozens of community-based and faith-based social change organizations, both locally and internationally, including overseas consulting assignments in India, Ethiopia and in Uganda. Overseas, she provides management coaching, customized technical assistance, and training seminars to emerging national and local NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) working in the areas of HIV/AIDS prevention, women’s empowerment, and economic development. Locally, she also engages community stakeholders in strategic planning, board development, grant management, and outcome measurement, among other capacity building efforts.

Tatsushi Arai

Dr. Tatsushi (Tats) Arai is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University, USA and holds a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, USA. He previously worked as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda as well as a representative of a Japanese development assistance NGO in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. In addition to being the author of a growing number of research publications on peacebuilding, reconciliation, psychosocial support, and development, Dr. Arai has over 20 years of practitioner experience across 20 plus conflict-affected countries and regions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (Rwanda, northeastern Nigeria), the Middle East, and East, South, and Southeast Asia. 

Dr. Arai has previously served as a United Nations Senior Mediation Advisor on a when-actually-employed basis, and has also worked extensively with NGOs, community-based organizations, government agencies, and international organizations. With Dr. J.B. Niyonzima, he has recently published “Learning Together to Heal” in the Peace and Conflict Studies journal to develop a conceptual framework of the Ubuntu Center’s work. Dr. Arai is a Japanese citizen and currently lives with his tri-national family in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. For more information about his publications and initiatives, please consult his website.

Katherine J. Klein, Ph.D.

Katherine Klein is an organizational psychologist and the Edward H. Bowman Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her current research falls into two streams – one focused on the effects of leader succession on organizational change, effectiveness, and employee engagement and turnover; and a second stream focused on the goals, strategies, impact, and performance of impact investing funds.  

From 2012 – 2022, Katherine served as Wharton’s Vice Dean for Social Impact. In this capacity, she led the Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII) with a mission to build the talent pipeline and evidence base to lead business and capital markets in creating sustainable solutions to social and environmental challenges around the world. She is currently the Faculty Director of Wharton’s Impact Investing Research Lab and the host of the Wharton podcast Dollars and Change.

An award-winning teacher and research scholar, Katherine is a fellow of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.  Her research on leadership, diversity, innovation, team effectiveness, and employee ownership has appeared in numerous top journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, the Academy of Management Journal, and the Academy of Management Review.  

She teaches on social impact, leadership, organizational change, and research methods. Each year, she brings Wharton MBA students to Rwanda for her popular global modular course “Conflict, Leadership, and Change: Lessons from Rwanda.”   

Katherine received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of the board of directors of United Therapeutics; a member of the advisory board supporting the creation and start-up of the Aegis Trust International Peace Institute in Rwanda; an advisor for Impact First Ventures; and a former member of the Rwanda-based University of Global Health Equity Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Board.

K. Danae Pauli

Danae Pauli is a mission-driven business executive leveraging U.S. and emerging markets experience in the Biden-Harris administration, where she works at the nexus of the public, private and international development sectors. She’s currently Senior Advisor, Partnership, Global Infrastructure and Investment

Passionate about leveling the global playing field, Danae joined the new Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment team, where she currently leads a portfolio covering health, gender and agriculture investment opportunities in low- and middle-income countries around the world. Danae initially joined the Biden-Harris administration in 2021, leading policy and organizational transformation at the Minority Business Development Agency in the Department of Commerce. After a detail assignment in the Secretary of Commerce’s office supporting the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework initiative, she transitioned to the Department of State in March 2023.

Originally from Boston, Danae is an experienced operational leader, growing impact-driven companies in the U.S. and Africa, with a particular expertise in organizational culture.

Danae holds an undergraduate degree in Government from Harvard and earned an MBA along with a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was recognized as an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow.

Danae began her career working for non-profit international development organizations across East Africa on issues ranging from post-conflict peace building and health system improvement to empowerment of refugee women and youth. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, she served as East Africa Managing Director for Nova Pioneer, a venture-backed pan-African school network and as a Division Vice President for DaVita, a U.S.-based Fortune 200 healthcare services company.

In 2013, Danae co-founded the Stanford Graduate School of Business Women’s Circles--the school’s fastest growing alumni program--with a focus on supporting female graduates of all ages to thrive personally and professionally, where she continues to serve on the Global Management Board.  She also recently joined Delta Education Collective, a movement to revolutionize rural Uganda public primary schools, as Board Chair.

In her free time, Danae enjoys running, wine tasting and exploring the self-guided walking tours around Washington, D.C.

François Rwambonera, President

Legal Representative François Rwambonera has a long experience in educational planning & administration, project management and participatory/active pedagogy. Currently retired, in the past, he worked in the Rwandan Ministry of Education and later in the Protestant Educational Department. He is a holder of a Master’s degree in Mathematics with other professional certificates.

Dr. Lucien Nzayirata, Vice-President

Dr. Lucien Nzayirata is the vice president of the Rwanda Board of Directors for Ubuntu Center for Peace. He is a Medical Doctor since 2016, holds a bachelor’s degree of medicine and surgery from the University of Rwanda. He has three years’ experience of clinical practice in both public and private institutions and over seven years of public health experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently a Research Physician at Rwanda Zambia Health Research (RZHRG) who works as a co-investigator in clinical trials and ensures that international and local regulations are met for effectiveness and safety of participants. 

Sr. Donatille Mukarubayiza, Treasurer

Sr. Donatille is a respected peace and justice activist, who has been working in the community-based socio-economic development for over 27 years. Religious for over 35 years in the Congregation of Bernardine Sisters, her expertise is in social work, technical education and peacebuilding. In the UCP Rwanda Board of Directors, she is the Treasurer of the Executive Committee.

Norbert Habincuti

Mr. Norbert is social justice lawyer, committed to the grassroots’ right to develop and an expert in Local Economic Development at both Policy Level and practice of project management as well as Small and Medium Enterprises promotion for over 20 years. He holds a Masters of Arts in “Community and Social Development” from Bircham International University, Madrid, SPAIN, a Diploma of Legal Practice from the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD), a Diploma in Philosophy from the Major Seminary Philosophicum of Kabgayi – Rwanda and a Bachelor’s degree in Law, from the Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK). In the UCP Rwanda Board of Directors, he is a member of the Accountability Committee. 

Dr. Niyonzima Jean Damascene

Medical Doctor with over 14 years of both clinical and public health experience, Dr. Jean Damascene worked with Partners In Health, the Rwanda Ministry of Health District Hospitals and American Refugee Committee in Rwanda. Between 2013- 2014, he was engaged in the UN Humanitarian Mission in Haiti as a clinical officer. He currently works with the Rwanda Biomedical Center as a Community Case Management Senior Officer. Dr. Jean Damascene is a graduate of the National University of Rwanda, with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. In the UCP Rwanda Board of Directors, he is a member of the Conflict Resolution Committee. 

Alvera Murekatete

Sociologist with a background of educator, Alvera Murekatete has been working with non-government organizations for over 20 years. After the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, he co-founded “Noyau Pour la Paix” in 2000 for which she has been serving as a coordinator to promote peace including harmony in families and community integration of orphans. Co-founder of the UCP Board of Directors in Rwanda, Alvera is a member of the Conflict Resolution Committee. 

Sr Marie-Josee Maliboli

Sr Marie-Josee Maliboli is a holder of University Diploma (U.D) in Public health, Third World Countries option –Epidemiology Department from Nancy University (France) ; Master in Public Health, Unit of Health Education and Promotion, Faculty of Medecine from Louvain –La Neuve ( Belgium) and Bachelor in Social Workers
-Ethno-psychiatry from High Institute of Social Education and Communication –Brussel (Belgium).

She is HIV infected and affected disclosure Senior Officer at Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC). She has been involved in providing and organizing the psychosocial care of people living with HIV in Rwanda. Starting as the head counselor at the “Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kigali” (CHUK). As the Deputy Head of the TRACPLUS Clinic, she was responsible for quality improvement activities, planning of clinical care activities and coordinating all research efforts and protocols. As the Health Education and Promotion Specialist, she contributed to organize the psychosocial training for trainers and providers connected to Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) HIV/Division, especially related to HIV disclosure to children and integrating mental health services into HIV primary care. 

Laurien Ntezimana

Born October 24, 1955, Laurien Ntezimana is married to Marie Madeleine Karamira. They gave birth to Florian Abikunda (1984), Olivier Bayikunde (1986), Myrtille Bakunde Mukundwa (1991), Sabéa de Carmel Ukwikunda (1992) and adopted Josine Kuza (1992). A theologian by training (Kinshasa and Leuven), Laurien recounts his founding experience in a book written in Leuven in 1990 and published in 1998 by Karthala under the title of Libres paroles d’un théologien rwandais : joyeux propos de bonne puissance. 

Since October 1990, Laurien has been working to awaken the awareness of his fellow citizens to the vertical dimension of life. First through the Theological Animation Service (SAT) that he created in the Catholic Diocese of Butare and where he worked with his late friends Innocent Samusoni (killed on 30.04.94) and Father Modeste Mungwarareba (deceased on 04.05.99 ). For this work at the SAT, Laurien and Modeste received the Peace Prize from Pax Christi International, on November 25, 1998 in Louvain-la-Neuve. Then through the Association Modeste et Innocent (AMI- www.ami.rw ) created on his initiative in 2000 to provide a body for his companions who left too early (to his liking!) and to continue with them but otherwise, in the Rwandan society, the "theology of the clutch" initiated together at the SAT, as soon as a new bishop intended to direct this diocesan service differently.

Laurien danced with death to affirm life, especially during the three terrible months of April-July 1994 when the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda was perpetrated and the massacre of Hutus who, like him, did not agree. In the sequel, he experienced prison because of his outspokenness and his unwavering commitment to awakening people's consciousness. For this commitment, he received, on February 23, 2003 in Esslingen am Neckar, the Theodor Haecker Preis für Politischen Mut und Aufrichtigkeit (Theodore Haecker Prize for civic courage and political sincerity).

He lives today between Belgium where his “nuclear” family has found asylum and Rwanda which is home to his “extended” family and the largest contingent of his companions on the way. He received in Brussels, on December 6, 2013, the Harubuntu Prize for the promotion of humanity in Rwanda through the AMI, an organization which itself received, on March 20, 2014 in Wuppertal, the Ecumenical Peace Prize in the African Great Lakes region.