Marcia Tate Arunga, Co-founder

Is an educator, cultural custodian, enterpreneur and trainer consultant. She holds a B.A. degree in Sociology, Masters degree in Human Development and is pursuing her in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.  She is a professor at the Antioch Seattle campus, where she teaches in the BA Completion program.  As a consultant, she applies human development concepts as a foundational approach to intercultural communications and enhanced ability to navigate the workplace, the classroom and the community.  She is passionate about empowering adults through non-tradtional education strategies. She lived in Kenya for 11 years and returned to her birthplace, Seattle, Washington with a profound love of the African continent, and its rich cultural heritage. She convened the Vision and Planning Team composed of women who represent many areas of expertise and accomplishments that makes Cultural Reconnection a powerful movement. Marcia is responsible for the logistics and planning for all Cultural Reconnection Missions. She is  author of the children's book The Stolen Ones and How They Were Missed.

Alma Lorraine Bone Constable

Mrs. Bone Constable is an entrepreneur, computer software engineer, consultant, wife and mother. In her professional career, her formal training in computer science and artificial intelligence served her well in the six years she spent at Microsoft developing products in Microsoft Word, Publisher and Interactive Television. She has also taught computers, trained office workers, and written technical articles. Currently she is in graduate school working on a degree in Sustainable Business Management. And has developed a collaborative science project to teach solar energy principles to children www.learning-lights.com.  Her other business ownerships have included a desktop publishing company and a business networking organization. She is pursuing Masters Degree at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She has committed her life to the care of vulnerable children.  She is a member of the Vision and Planning Team. Alma  manages delegation in transit logistics and is on the technology team.

Lue Rachelle Brim Atkins

Is a nationally known consultant, trainer, author, inspirational speaker and business owner.  She was Director of Staff Training and Development at the University of Washington for 15 years, where she was responsible for training and organizational development for the 10,000 University employees. When the Washington Legislature was in need of training on sexual harassment, they brought in Lue Rachelle to train 98 elected State Representatives.  She believes that abundance comes helping others after receiving the 2004 Outstanding Alumnus Award from Leadership Tomorrow, Lue Rachelle increased the accompanying $1000 stipend to launch the Alta Brim Kenya Fund (named for her mom) to help finance AAKEWO joint ventures at village schools and Hilltop Orphanage in Kisumu.  In response, the orphanage founders renamed it for he her mother - the Alta Brim Orphanage.  She is an artist, dollmaker and designer. 2009 marked her 5th Cultural Reconnection. Lue Rachelle is the lead custodian of the container joint venture and manages donor relations.

Dr. Dawn Mason
lives a life as intricate as a tapestry and her relationships and how she lives her life tell the story. She is an adjunct professor and former member of Board of Visitors at Antioch University;  Served as a Washington State Legislator where she was awarded Legislator of the Year by the Student Lobby;  Co-founder and President of Parents for Student Success; Emeritus Board member  UW Business Economic Center, and a Past President of First Place an agency serving the education and needs of children living with trauma.  She is retired from Seattle Public Utilities where she was a management systems Analyst. She has a passion for photography and has authored the photojournal "Same Country Different Lens." Her awards and honors are many recently she was recognized by, Women of Color Empowerment for her work on behalf of women and children in USA and Kenya.  She is a mother, a wife, and sister, her own family receives the best of her caring and in turn encourages her work for social justice.  Dawn chairs the Advisory Team for the SenatorObama Kogelo School and directs protocol for Cultural Reconnection and  manages our technology systems. She holds an honorary Doctorate Degree from Institute for Cultural Reconnection.

Dr. Doreen Cato

is Executive Director for First Place. For the last 10 years, the Executive Director has had overall leadership responsibility for the agency, for setting the vision and strategic priorities, for ensuring the financial well being of the agency and for maintaining relations with the Board of Directors, Advisory Board and external agencies, including funders. Dr. Cato has prior experience as a public school teacher and over 30 years of experience in a variety of senior leadership positions including as a major fundraiser for the United Way of King County. She currently is an Associate Faculty at Antioch University; and a member of Washington State Equitable Opportunity Caucus, Cultural Reconnection Missions, League of Women Voters, Seattle University Visiting Committee for the Master's Not-For-Profit Leadership Program, Stand for Children, Children’s Alliance Public Policy; and Chairs Youth, Schools, & Early Learning Committee for Seattle Rotary Downtown Club. She has successfully led teams in multi-million dollar campaigns and organizational strategic system changing efforts. She earned her M.A. in Applied Behavioral Sciences, from Leadership Institute of Seattle/City University; and received her doctorate in Educational Leadership at Seattle University. She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for her accomplishments. Doreen coordinates the Ethiopian joint ventures and leads our fund development.

Mayet Dalia
Ms. Dalila is a founder and one of four partners of IAK (Intra-Afrikan Konnection), a community based business specializing in organizational and individual development.  She has over twenty years of community organizing and training experience in areas such as HIV/AIDS, anti-racism/oppression, infant mortality prevention, substance abuse, youth advocacy and women’s rights issues.  From 1988 to 1996, Ms. Dalila worked for POCAAN (People of Color Against AIDS Network), a statewide community based organization dedicated to providing culturally appropriate health information to communities of color.  She was responsible for many of the operations of POCAAN including administration, budget, fiscal management, board development, personnel, program development, staff supervision, outreach coordinator, fund development and coordination with government agencies.  Ms. Dalila has a dedication to her family, friends and community that stems from a belief that if we work together, we can create limitless opportunities for others and ourselves. Mayet is our chief facilitator, Kwanzaa coordinator and homeschooling specialist.

Dr. Joye Hardiman

Is the reitred Executive Director of The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus, a position she held from 1991-2007. She is an educator, scholar and life-long learner. Dr. Hardiman is a frequent keynote speaker, a sought-after institute and workshop designer/facilitator. She has over 25 years of experience as an engaged and reflective practitioner of Learning Community Excellence and Higher Education Reform. She has been a core facilitator, fellow and resource faculty for the Washington State Community College Minority Student Success Project, the Washington Center/Ford Foundation Cultural Pluralism Summer Institutes, the FIPSE National Learning Community Dissemination Institutes, the PEW Foundation Learning Communities Dissemination Project and the Lumina Foundations’ Achieving A Dream Project. She is an expert in custom designing presentations to meet the needs of College presidents, senior administrators, faculty, staff and students, locally, regionally, and nationally in the areas of Leaning Community Design, Student Recruitment, Retention and Success; Diversity is more than Skin; Curriculum Inclusivity, Pedagogy Reciprocity and Environmental Hospitality; and Institutional Change, Capacity Building and Paradigm Shifts. Joye, plans all delegation itineraries and is key advisor to the the Co=Founder on all areas of Cultural Reconnection.

Benita R. Horn

Ms. Horn is the principal consultant of her human resource consulting firm, Achievement Architects North, Building Human Performance.  For over 18 years, her firm has provided consulting services in leadership and team development, organizational development, capacity building, enhancing cultural competency and creating environments that support equity and social justice.  She works with clients in non-profit, labor, government, education and private sector organizations.  Ms. Horn has over twenty years experience in a major corporation in various positions of management and as an internal change consultant.   She has also been a partner in an LLC that recruited and placed people of color in leadership positions.  Her interests include reading, knitting and writing poetry.  She is currently working on a book that captures the life lessons of women who have experienced significant upheaval in their lives.  Her undergraduate studies were in literature and languages (Spanish and Russian) and she is completing her graduate work in Leadership Studies.  She serves on the Board of Directors of the Washington Health Foundation, El Centro de la Raza, First Place School and a member of the Board Human Resource Committee for the Greater Seattle YMCA. She is Registrar and Historian for Cultural Reconnection.

Lynn Lambie

Has enjoyed a 35 year career i npublic school education, including classroom teaching and consulting for Washington Office of Public Instruction in school performance.  She has worked several years with Black Child Development Institute as a resource for the parent hotline and as a community coach, where she now volunteers as a math tutor for elementary schoo students.    She first traveled t Kenya as a delegate in 2003 adn again in 2006 on the Education Mission.  Her interests include travel, activities that promote good health and excercise, also praise dance at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle, where she also ministers as church Steward  She has recently completed training as a prenatal doula adn looks forward to applying knowledge from her new skill on the upcoming health mission. Lynn manages all donations and financial records.

(The late) Zakiya Mwantatabu Stewart
was an education visionary, an expert in learning styles of all cultures,and life long Pan-African. With these defining elements of her life in place, she used the guiding principals of Nguzo Saba to inform her decisions about the education and welfare children, her most passionate work. The beneficiaries of her work are inumerable and she understood and from this the Delany Learning Center wasin 1997. This sought t adfress those needs of African American children that were not acknowledged nor met by traditional institutions. Following her first Cultural Reconnection Mission to Kenya, she returned and established the Ombogo Girls Academy Endowment. She later led an Education Reconnection Mission in 2006 with 12 other educators and convened a three day teaching practicuum at the Ombogo School. She taught how to be courageous in the face of challenges, her passion for teaching was presenti even in the face of breast cancer and many learned from her about this disease that takes the life of too many women. Even in her passing, Zakiya has assured that we wear traditional African clothing appropriatly and maintain pride in our Africaness in all of our work to reconnect to the African culture.

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