Position: President

Caroline is an anthropologist who has been studying and working in East Africa since 1996. She first stepped foot in Kenya as an undergraduate student on the St. Lawrence Kenya Semester Field Studies Program, initially interested in animal behavior and conservation. Intent on becoming the next Jane Goodall, Caroline arranged an internship tracking and monitoring the behavior of Sykes monkeys on the Kenyan coast. She soon realized, however, that she was far more inspired by the lunch time conversations and political debates that she participated in with a small group of hotel employees who shared with her a table, every afternoon, at a local street bar. Ultimately too socially curious to be cooped up in the real African bush, she switched her major and pursued graduate studies and research in the anthropology of development, human rights, and demography. She is one of the co-founders of Africa SOMA and has been a member of the board since its inception. Caroline obtained her PhD from Brown University in 2007. She worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of anthropology at McGill University before obtaining her current position with the University College Utrecht, in the Netherlands. She considers Elangata Wuas, the base of Africa SOMA's activities, as one of her homes. During her doctoral field work, she lived in the community for 2 years, and continues most of her research there.Caroline is greatly passionate about and committed to providing Kenyan youth with the same kind of learning opportunities she was given in life; options and the luxury to try and to change ones mind. She adheres strongly to a philosophy of personal reciprocity. Being part of Africa SOMA is one of her greatest accomplishments.

Name: Joost de Laat, PhD., Assistant Professor of Economics at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) and economist at the World Bank

Position: Treasurer

Joost is an economist who first came to Kenya in 1997 as an undergraduate student on the St. Lawrence University Kenya semester program. A year later he returned, drawn by the generosity, energy, and frankness of its diverse people, this time as a Watson Fellow studying pastoral land management in its vast and complex northern parts. He shared his sleeping bag with a scorpion and survived an unexpected brush with cattle rustlers, but (and?) was determined to come back. That opportunity came in 2002 when his PhD dissertation brought him to study migration into the Nairobi slums. Research informants quickly became friends and teachers, and opened new doors, taking his research to school based management in Western Kenya, land tenure change in Southern Kenya, and community based rural electrification in Central Kenya. They also inspired the co-founding of Africa SOMA in 2005. Since defending his PhD from Brown University in the same year, Joost has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) and an economist at the World Bank.

Name: Name: Allison Rhoades, Law student, McGill Faculty of Law

Position: Secretary / Director of Internships and Canadian Administration

Allison has been involved in Africa SOMA since its inception. She contributes her growing legal knowledge to the administration of Africa SOMA in Canada and Quebec. She brings to the organization her interdisciplinary perspective on development issues from studies in International Development, nourished by diverse field experience in East Africa. Allison has returned to Elangata Wuas time and time again, beginning with McGill’s Field Studies in Africa program and an internship under Caroline Archambault, the founder of SOMA, in 2005. She is happy to be a member of the growing Africa SOMA family. Allison is currently a Director at the McGill Legal Information Clinic and studies at the McGill Faculty of Law in Montréal, Québec.

Name: Sophia Boutilier, Communications Officer, Madrasa Resource Centre, Kenya/ International Development Management Fellow, Aga Khan Foundation Canada

Position: Officer

Sophia Boutilier first joined Africa SOMA in 2007 as an intern through the Arts Internship Office at McGill University, Montreal Canada. Studying international development and education Africa SOMA matched her interests perfectly. During the three-month placement Sophia taught at Elangata Wuas Primary School, conducted surveys on the Elangata Wuas Resource Centre and worked with the women's group supplying and managing the Mayopian Curio Shop. A life-changing (too cheesy? but true!!) experience Sophia was eager to stay involved with Africa SOMA as she finished her university degree and thereafter. Sophia planed a number of fund and awareness raising events in Montreal and presented Africa SOMA programmes to the Canadian Commission for UNESCO to which she is a youth advisor. As the Internship Coordinator at McGill University in 2008-2009, she facilitated pre-departure training and induction of Africa SOMA interns for the summer of 2009. At present she is living in Mombasa, Kenya where she works for an organisation dedicated to advancing early childhood development and education in marginalised communities in Kenya's Coast and North Eastern Provinces.

Name: Jennie Glassco, Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology at McGill University

Position: Officer

After returning from the Canadian field studies in Africa program as a McGill student in 2007, Jennie Glassco had been bitten hard by the Africa bug and the only thing that she was sure about was that she wanted to go back to Kenya as soon as possible! She worked in Montreal for a year and then returned to Kenya as an Africa SOMA intern in the fall of 2008. She was lucky enough to be able to stay in Kenya after her internship to work as a research assistant close to Mount Kenya until April 2009. Jennie is currently working as a research assistant in the Faculty of Anthropology at McGill University. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in Anthropology in the fall of 2010.

Name: Heather Finlay, Physiotherapist Assistant, Lawerence Park Chiropractic and Physiotherapy Clinic

Position: Officer

Heather Finlay graduated from McGill University in 2006. She completed a 4 year B.A. in International Development. She became involved with Africa SOMA while participating in McGill’s Canadian Field Studies in Africa program in 2006. She visited Elangata Wuas with the field study program and then later returned to volunteer with Elangata Wuas Primary School for 6 weeks. Heather is currently living in Toronto working at a physiotherapy clinic and pursuing a career in this field.