Board of Directors
COLETTE RAMM - CO-FOUNDER & BOARD MEMBER
Colette Madishi Ramm grew-up in Kandale, DRC. She served as head of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission for North and South Kivu regions in Eastern Congo during the Mai-Mai Uprising (1997-1998). From 2001-2008, Colette worked with the United Nations in Kosovo, Kenya and Senegal. She holds a master’s degree in International Community Economic and Development from New Hampshire College in Manchester, N.H. In 2010, she founded REVE Kandale and in 2016, she co-founded REVE Kandale Foundation with her husband, Greg Ramm. Colette and her husband Greg Ramm currently lives in Kinshasa, DRC. Colette is fluent in English, French, Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili with working knowledge of Tshiluba.
GREG RAMM - CO-FOUNDER & BOARD TREASURER
Greg Ramm is the Country Director for Save the Children International, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was a Peace Corps volunteer in DRC, when the country was known as Zaire. Greg taught math and physics at Institut Gufwa-Gubila in Kandale in Bandundu, southwest Congo, from 1981 to 1983. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College. He currently lives in Kinshasa, DRC, with his wife Colette Madishi Ramm. Greg is fluent in French and Kikongo.
John Sullivan - BOARD president
John Sullivan is a video producer and former journalist who began his career as a news reporter in Massachusetts. For the past 30 years, he has worked in the United States and Africa, primarily in the area of environmental news. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the former Zaire from 1979 to 1981, teaching English to secondary school students in Katanga Region. He has a B.A. in English from Suffolk University in Boston, MA. John is fluent in French with working knowledge of Swahili.
Julie Martel - Board Vice-President
Julie Martel is a retired senior director in project management at Pfizer Inc. She has 30 years of experience in process control, medical research, and drug development in academia and industry. She holds a master’s degree in Statistics and Biometry from Cornell University. Julie was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Bandundu region of the former Zaire from 1981 to 1985. She worked as a Fish Culture Extension Agent and then served as the Peace Corps Regional Volunteer Leader in Bandundu. Julie is fluent in Kikongo with working knowledge of French.
Pam PeNdleton - Board secretary
Pam Pendleton is a retired teacher who taught for 30 years at the elementary level in Massachusetts. She has been involved in teacher training and mentoring programs for new teachers. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Bandundu region of the former Zaire from 1980 - 1983 where she taught English at the junior and high school levels. She and her husband Tom served as the Peace Corps Regional Volunteer Leaders in Bandundu. She keeps busy with her two dogs and exploring the US in their travel trailer.
Chris Fowles - Board Member
Chris Fowles has over 30 years of experience in community-level economic development work in sub-Saharan Africa. After graduating from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a major in French, Chris served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo teaching English to secondary school students. In the 1980s she was Director of Education, and later Programming and Training Director, for the Peace Corps program in the former Zaire. She also served as Peace Corps Country Director in Burundi. From 1986 to 2017, Chris occupied many leadership positions with the U.S. African Development Foundation that involved extensive travel to more than 30 African countries. Chris retired in 2017 and lives in her family home in rural MA. Chris is fluent in French.
Peter Lane - Board Member
Peter Lane is a national board certified health and wellness coach, and organizational development consultant. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the former Zaire, where he taught English at Institut Gufwa-Gubila in Kandale in the 1980s and piloted a literacy program and small-scale income generating projects on animal husbandry. Peter has a master’s degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He lives with his partner in Takoma Park, MD.
Andre Nzuguta Siamundele - Board Member
André N. Siamundele teaches French language as well as Francophone Studies and International and Global Studies courses at the University of Maine at Farmington. He holds a PhD in French and Francophone studies from Yale University. He has served as co-chair of the University of Maine World Languages Academic Transformation Team. He has also served as The University of Maine at Farmington liaison to the Foreign Language Association of Maine (FLAME). Andre graduated from ISP Bukavu and was a trainer at the Peace Corps Training Center for many years in Bukavu, Congo. Andre is fluent in English, French, Lingala, Kikongo and Swahili.
Robyn Souza - Board Member
Robyn Souza is a retired executive nurse leader and public health professional with expertise in operations management, program development, quality improvement, patient safety and strategic planning. Robyn held a variety of leadership positions in community health centers and academic medical centers in the greater Boston area focusing on improving access to quality health care regardless of ability to pay. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biology, a bachelor's degree in Nursing and a master’s degree in International Public Health. Robyn served as a health Peace Corps volunteer in the Kasai and Kivu regions of the former Zaire from 1983 to 1985 and as Technical Advisor for family planning in Dakar, Sénégal from 1990 to 1991. She lives in Vermont with her wife. Chris is fluent in French.