Global citizenship is
both attitude and action.

William (Bill) Melton

Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Internet Ventures

William (Bill) Melton is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Internet Ventures, an Internet Holding Company. For more than 20 years, Mr. Melton has been an entrepreneur bringing technology to the financial industry.

He was the original founder of VeriFone Inc, the transaction automation company that has made credit authorization terminals ubiquitous on retail counters throughout the world. He was also an early investor in America Online and served on its Board of Directors for several years. He currently serves on the Board of several private early stage technology companies. He holds a master’s degree in Asian Studies and Chinese Philosophy.

Patricia Smith

Melton Foundation Co-Founder

Three forces have driven Patricia Smith’s careers and life—the search for the underpinnings of existence, the imperative to create beauty, and the obligation to work for a better world. Each of these aspects must be connected—in communication with the others—for a harmonic world.

At 21, Patricia became the photographer for the Office of Economic Opportunity and created a photo archive of poverty and equity-building programs across the US. She taught photography at the Smithsonian Institution.

Patricia was an award-winning playwright and vintage quilt dealer with her collection of pre-1850 quilts exhibited by the Smithsonian American Arts Museum. In 2002 she founded the first social network non-government organization for women. Peace X Peace (“peace by peace”) connected women in the US for secure private conversations with women in more than 120 nations. She was editor, photographer, and interviewer for the book “Sixty Years, Sixty Voices: Israeli and Palestinian Women” and executive director of the documentary “Peace by Peace: Women on the frontlines” filmed in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Argentina, and the US. The film debuted at the UN and was aired on PBS and throughout the world. Her social work continues now, trying to help threatened people out of Afghanistan.

Her first photography book “Complements eloquence of small objects” launched in July 2021 and was #1 of Hot New Releases of photographic books on Amazon. Learn more at www.complementsthebook.com.

“The power inside is always there, but it is most prepared to do the work if you build your inner resources and outer networks now.” – Patricia Smith. 

Julian Klauke

Chair

Julian joined the Melton Foundation in 2011 and has since founded Project Narratives, a peace-building initiative that uses the medium of personal documentaries to foster empathy between conflict parties. Julian holds a B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Jena and an M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Marburg.

Pia Obro

Vice Chair

Pia Obro joined the Melton Foundation in 2003. She was originally trained as a dentist at Universidad de La Frontera and later pursued an MBA from the University of Rochester and an MPH from Columbia University. She has international experience in healthcare consulting, healthcare management and higher education. She is currently a Healthcare Operations Manager at DaVita Kidney Care in the New York City Metro Area.

Marissa Scott

Secretary

Marissa Scott is the French Language Spokesperson for the Department of State and the Director of the Africa Regional Media Hub. Marissa is a career diplomat and has spent most of her career working in Africa on public diplomacy and media relations. Her previous assignments include Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, Algeria, Niger, and Cabo Verde, where she served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and Acting Ambassador. Marissa has a bachelor’s degree English and Spanish language from Dillard University and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. She also has holds an Advanced Certificate in Conflict Resolution from Syracuse and a Certificate in Strategic Communications and Public Relations from Portland State University. Marissa was selected as a Melton Fellow at Dillard University in 1997.

Andre Reichel

Treasurer

Andre Reichel is a portfolio manager and equity analyst at Schroders, a multi-national asset management firm based in London. He studied at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the London School of Economics. Prior to his current role he also worked in Germany and China.

Pedro Poblete Lasserre

Pedro is a social scientist and engineer interested in the use of IT for social development, Human Rights, and international aid and cooperation. He works as a freelancer for NGOs and other non-profits, developing better technologies that support their missions. Currently, Pedro is associated with the Indigenous Rights and Resource Governance Research Group from Laurier University (Canada), developing online resources for promoting Indigenous Rights, and he is also involved in a Melton Fellows-driven project that promotes sex education in refugees settled in Germany. He has previously worked in multiple NGOs and research institutions in Chile, Canada, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Uganda. He holds a Master of Science in Human-Technology Interaction from Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) and a Bachelor in Social-Community Psychology from Universidad de la Frontera (Chile).

Megan Williams

Megan Williams currently works in Cybersecurity at AT&T. She has worked on various projects including network based firewall, premise based firewall, AWS, and several others. She gained a background in psychology at Dillard University and later earned her MSCS from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She has facilitated several workshops focusing on introducing STEM to underserved youth and continues to work as a STEM mentor. She has a passion for the arts and enjoys creative ventures that include painting, crafting, and learning new musical instruments. Her passion for arts culminated in the start of several small business ventures one of which lead to her work being featured and sold at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She has been a member of the Melton Foundation since 2003 and currently resides in the greater New York City area.

Dr. Roland Bullard

The Vice President of Student Success at Dillard University, Roland is a higher education advocate who has worked or supervised areas such as Adult Education Programs, Community Service and Outreach, and Leadership Programs. He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University-Bloomington, a M.Ed. from the USC- Columbia in Student Personnel Services and B.A. in Communication from FAU. He has served as a higher education consultant and is considered a student development and non-profit management expert, as he has instructed numerous graduate and undergraduate courses in student affairs, higher education, and management.

Dr. Jagadeesh H S

Dr. Millicent Adjei Togo

Dr. Millicent Adjei Togo is a seasoned international educator with over 18 years of academic and professional expertise in higher education internationalization, campus diversity and inclusion management, high impact access, and support interventions for first-generation, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and intercultural training. Dr. Adjei Togo is currently the director of diversity and international programs at Ashesi University, where she drives the diversity and inclusion and internationalization initiatives and policies of the University. She also serves as an adjunct faculty at the Humanities and Social Sciences department, where she teaches a course in Leadership as Service.

In addition to her work at Ashesi University, Millicent consults as a freelance intercultural trainer with higher education institutions and organizations across the world to create opportunities to equip students and a diverse workforce with critical global and intercultural competencies needed to engage effectively for optimum outcomes when finding solutions to problems that confront our world today. She holds a BSc. in Business Administration from the University of Ghana Business School, an MA in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Development in Education from the University of Minnesota.

Qiang Lu

Qiang Lu currently is assistant dean at ZJU-UIUC Institute, a partnership between Zhejiang University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is mainly in charge of academic affairs and student affairs at the institute and also as major coordinator for undergraduate studies between the two universities. Prior to this, he had been the director of information and test center at Undergraduate School, and director for graduate studies at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Zhejiang University for many years. He is specialized in numerical computation and simulation for hydraulic structures, computer programming and database implementation, etc. He has served as a member of the Melton Foundation’s faculty team at Zhejiang University for nearly 20 years.

Vinita Joshi

Vinita joined the Melton Foundation as a Fellow in 2018 and has since been involved with the Foundation in various capacities, both during her tenure as a Junior Fellow and as a Senior Fellow. She is an engineering graduate, and works as a Program Manager at Amazon, with experience in DEI, Supply Chain Management, Operations, and Analytics. Outside of work, Vinita enjoys reading, trying out different activities, and collecting stories from people she meets while traveling.

Rosemary Naa Adei Kotei Buckman

Task Team Representative

Rosemary is an international educator with over 10 years of professional expertise in higher education internationalization, campus diversity, and inclusion programs, creating access and support interventions for first-generation and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In her role as Assistant Director of International Programs at Ashesi University Rosemary leads the global competency building of students and the skills needed to engage impactfully in our ever-changing world.

Dr. Martha Ramírez-Valdivia

Task Team Representative

Dr. Martha Ramírez-Valdivia is a professor, researcher, and consultant with over 30 years of experience in Higher Education, Manufacturing, and Healthcare Quality Management Systems. She is currently appointed as the executive director and coordinator of the institutional tutorship UMCE at Universidad de La Frontera. She also serves as an associate professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Dr. Steffen Bethmann

Executive Director

Steffen joined the Melton Foundation as a Fellow in 2001 and chaired its BOD from 2011-2013. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Max Weber Institute of the University of Heidelberg, and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Nonprofit Management & Law from the University of Basel.

Innocent Farai Chikwanda

Junior Melton Fellow - Board Representative

Innocent Farai Chikwanda is a young thought leader from Ashesi University, passionate about entrepreneurship and building technology-based solutions to problems that cut across cultural and socioeconomic boundaries. He is the founder of Chariot, a digital inclusion start-up that capacitates learners in rural Ghana to freely access and master the internet and digital resources. He is deeply invested in artificial intelligence and its sustainable applications for the emancipation of marginalized peoples within the African and global context. Innocent is also passionate about advocacy and served as the 26th President of the Zimbabwe Child Parliament from 2018 to 2019, where he represented  Zimbabwean children to the Zimbabwean Parliament in child policy formulation. Currently, he is pursuing a Computer Science degree at Ashesi and was awarded the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship. He joined the Melton Foundation in 2022 and has used the opportunity to build networks with problem-solvers across the globe and as a platform to nurture sustainable and globally conscious ideas.

Steffen Bethmann

Executive Director

Steffen joined the Melton Foundation as a Fellow in 2001 and chaired its BOD from 2011-2013. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Max Weber Institute of the University of Heidelberg, and a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Nonprofit Management & Law from the University of Basel.

Alafia Stewart

Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Alafia coordinates the Learning Program for the New Fellows and Junior Fellows of the Melton Foundation. She is also a Senior Fellow who joined the foundation in 2006. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Dillard University, New Orleans, an M.B.A in Human Resources from Universidad Interamericana, Puerto Rico.

An Oakland California native, Alafia is a social activist, entrepreneur, and educator. When not community organizing, she can most likely be found singing karaoke and/or trying all the amazing food the San Francisco bay area has to offer. Alafia lives by the motto: “2+2=4, but so does 3+1. There is almost never just one way to solve a problem so diversity in perspective is vital.”

Patricia Ortiz

Director of Operations

Patricia joined the Melton Foundation in 1996 as a Fellow. She is a Physical Education teacher and graduated from Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, Chile. After graduation she worked in a private school teaching elementary and middle school students. She coached high school track and field for four years in Chile and then moved to Honduras, where she worked for two years as a volunteer teacher in an orphanage with at-risk children. After a short time in Oregon (USA), Patricia began working for the Melton Foundation in various capacities and currently serves as Director of Operations.

Patricia finds that running is a joy and a great way to discover beautiful landscapes for her other hobby – photography.

Lars Dietzel

Director of Collaboration and Transformation

Lars first joined the Melton Foundation as a Fellow in 2002 and has supported our journey in numerous capacities ever since.

Having earned a Master’s in Education and Linguistics from the universities of Mainz and Jena (Germany), Lars has dedicated his professional career to connecting and enabling people from diverse backgrounds to collaborate in order to enrich lives, systems, and society in novel, transformative ways. Prior to joining our team, he did cross-community work in Belfast (Northern Ireland), supported migrants in the Provence region (France), led one of England’s biggest international summer schools (Great Britain), served as a co-founding member of SIETAR Chile, among others.

Born in the former GDR, Lars’ convictions and actions aim for inclusivity, anti-oppression, and human connection. He loves to try different foods and digests them by playing music, riding the bike, or having conversations with friends and family. A glass of wine doesn’t hurt either.

Ashitha Nayak

Head of Marketing and Strategic Communications

Ashitha is a Communications and Media professional with over five years of experience in strategic communications planning, knowledge dissemination, and outreach to key audiences. She is a Computer Science Engineer from BMS College of Engineering in Bangalore (India) and has worked with news media houses, tech startups, and social impact organizations.

Aside from her role at the Melton Foundation, Ashitha is the Founder of Lighthouse Media, a non-profit journalistic venture with a mission to bridge intercultural gaps through storytelling, while highlighting pressing social impact causes.

Ashi, as we like to call her, brings leadership experience from the tech and non-profit sectors and has also built her storytelling for change blog ground-up! She was also awarded the Karel Scholarship by the Rockefeller Foundation, which recognizes exceptional non-profit strategists and communicators. She joined the Melton Foundation as a Fellow in 2015 and has been actively engaged in Communications and Outreach for the organization ever since.

Sonali Keshwa Murti

Program Director

Sonali Keshwa Murti is a global citizen, program manager, gender equality advocate, messy baker and ancient civilization enthusiast. With a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering and Management, from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, her interest in renewable energy led her to begin her career at ABB India Ltd. As a Project Manager, she was at the forefront of the solar-powered revolution that is fuelling India’s energy needs. Having worked with big machines and automated industries, she moved to the other end of the spectrum to work with micron-level measurements and metrology in Anubis Systems as the Indian representative for Brunson USA. After journeying through in the industrial world, she turned to her true passion: working with people for social impact! As a Program Director for the Melton Foundation, Sonali coordinates the Global Citizenship Learning Program and works towards fostering cross-boundary collaborations for solving the most pressing global challenges under the umbrella of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. When she’s not working with diverse intercultural teams, you can find her whipping up her legendary brownies, lost in a thrilling novel, winning (always) at board games, or spending precious time with her loved ones in Bangalore, India, and Thuringia, Germany. She has been a Melton Fellow since 2011.

Eric Nii Anyetei Odonkor

Hub Coordinator