Twesigye J. Kaguri
Mr. Kaguri is from Uganda in East Africa. He has been actively involved with nonprofit organizations since 1992. In Uganda, Mr. Kaguri co-founded a human rights organization called Human Rights Concerns to help victims of human rights violations in Uganda and to educate the public about their rights. Mr. Kaguri came to the U.S. more than eight years ago as a visiting scholar studying Human Rights Advocacy at Columbia University in New York. Since that time he has been involved extensively in international community efforts as a Programs Assistant for People's Decade for Human Rights Education (PDHRE International - New York) and as a volunteer for various nonprofit organizations.

Having lost two family members to HIV/AIDS and having watched countless others suffer from losses to this disease, Mr. Kaguri wanted to become involved in efforts to combat the disease and alleviate the plight of those affected by the disease, such as the millions of orphans suffering from homelessness, poverty, hunger, and the lack of educational opportunities.

Mr. Kaguri initiated Nyaka and Kutamba AIDS Orphans Schools (projects of STSAD, Inc.) in a rural village in Uganda. These community schools provide quality education, housing, and support to orphans who would otherwise not have access to formal and informal education. The effort has involved not only Mr. Kaguri's participation in community service activities to help the orphans of Uganda, but has also involved fundraising efforts in the U.S. to heighten the awareness of the cultural issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic for active donors and supporters of this project.

Mr. Kaguri is currently an Associate Director of Development in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University.

Robert Auld
Rob Auld has over 30 years experience in the finance, investment management and banking industries working with Fidelity Investments, Bankers Trust Company, Bank of America and the U.S. Export Import Bank. He has extensive international experience, having lived over 10 years in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Mr. Auld served in the US Army from 1968-1970 as an instructor at the Army Engineer School at Ft. Belvoir, VA.

Mr. Auld also serves as a Director and Treasurer of the Executive Service Corps of Colorado Mountain College which provides management assistance to non-profit organizations in the Aspen, CO area. Mr. Auld is a past Director of The Roaring Fork Conservancy in Basalt, CO which works to preserve and protect the watershed of the Roaring Fork Valley.

Mr. Auld graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, MA in 1964 and from Duke University in 1968 with a degree in economics. He grew up in Charleston, WV and now lives in Aspen, CO with his wife, Carol, and 2 dogs.

Jennifer Thomson
Since earning her Master of International Affairs (MIA) from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in 1997, Jennifer has worked in the field of microfinance and domestic community development finance. Her domestic work focuses on community development credit unions, having held positions at the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union and consulted with the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

Due to her keen interest in Africa, Jennifer managed a loan fund of over $1 million in eight African countries while serving as the Senior Program Officer for the Africa Region of the Hunger Project. Her interest in microfinance began as an undergraduate student while living in Senegal, West Africa, working with African Environment and Development (ENDA) in Dakar.

Originally from the Boston area, she currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and son.

Jude Mugerwa, M.D. FACC - Director
Dr. Mugerwa is a native of Uganda, East Africa. He is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, and Nuclear Cardiology. Having graduated from medical school at Makerere University in Uganda, Dr. Mugerwa moved to Cleveland, USA where he successfully completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland - Case Western Reserve University. He then successfully completed his fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Metrohealth Medical Center - Case Western Reserve University in Cleveleand.

His interests span both academic research and clinical care in the field of HIV and Cardiovascular diseases in the emerging world. He has published some of his previous work in peer-reviewed journals both here in the USA and abroad.

He is currently in private practice as an Invasive Non-Interventional Cardiologist in Pennsylvania, USA.

Dr. Mugerwa’s interests include global networking and technology transfer in the field of health care access, health management and health informatics. It is his goal that one day, the average citizen of Uganda will have access to basic health information and modern health facilities at a reasonable cost.

Dr. Mugerwa is married and they have a son, Junior.

Emma Mugisha
Emma Mugisha is currently the Chair of the Board of Advisors. She is proud to be volunteering for Nyaka. She grew up in a home where she met the HIV/AIDS challenge early in life when several of her uncles and aunts passed away from the disease. Her parents had 5 children of their own but have brought up more than 15 children as a result. Learning to share the available living space and resources, and seeing her parents' sacrifice inspired her to contribute and help ease the suffering of many children in Uganda affected by the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

Emma currently works with Barclays Bank in Uganda as the Country Treasurer. In August of 2007, Emmas a finalist at the prestigious Barclays Chairman's Awards due to her work with the Nyaka AIDS Foundation.

Emma holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and Social Administration (Makerere University), and an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management/Erasmus Graduate School of Business, the Netherlands. Emma has also gone through the Barclays Leadership For the Cutting Edge Programme at Gibbs University in Johannesburg.

Frank Byamugisha
Frank Byamugisha, a Ugandan citizen, was born in Uganda on December 6, 1953, and is married with 3 children. He holds a BSc in Agriculture from Makerere University, Uganda; a Masters degree in Agric. Development Economics from Australian National University; and a Master of Science in Surveying and a PhD in Economics of Land Registration from the University of East London, UK. He worked as Senior Economist and, thereafter, as Assistant Secretary for the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Papua New Guinea during 1980-1983. Since joining the World Bank in Washington DC as an Economist in 1983, he has held various technical and managerial positions there supporting development programs in East Asia, Eastern and Central Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, he is an Operations Advisor and a Land Reform and Administration Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also President of the International Community of Banyakigezi, an NGO that promotes culture and socio-economic development among the people that live or originate from South Western Uganda.

Janis Simon
Janis Simon resides in Glastonbury, Connecticut and Vail, Colorado. She is married for 32 years and is a mother of four children and a host son from the ABC program (A Better Chance). She has her Masters degree in art education from Connecticut. She has taught art in the public schools kindergarten through 12th grade, and pre-school and Kindergarten for the Jewish Community Center. She has been on many boards of directors, including Hadassah, Congregation Kol Haverim, A Better Chance, and Hartwell Soccer.

Besides the Segal Foundation she is presently on the board of Artists in Real Time and The University of Hartford. She has held many board positions, such as President, Vice president, Secretary, Membership, Fundraising, and Event Chair. In addition, she has experience fundraising for the National Epilepsy Foundation and the American Cancer Society. In her free time she loves to play tennis, oil paint and ski. Her education background and organization skills make her an asset to the board.

Diane Goldberg Hunckler
Diane Goldberg helped pioneer the corporate event industry as well as some of the corporate giving/sponsorship programs that have become so meaningful today. As founder and president of Creative Entertainment, a full service event management and entertainment production company based in Chicago, she orchestrated successful events for many of the important names in the non-profit world as well as corporate America. Some of these clients included Apple Computer, Abbott Labs, AT&T, FOX Broadcasting, CS First Boston, McDonalds and The Home Depot.

Diane is proudest of the successful fundraising events she created and produced for many non-profit organizations. The most personally fulfilling of these was The City of Hope, for whom she helped raise $80 million. Longstanding clients, these events ranged from several hundred to three thousand people and took place throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

From multi-city golf tournaments to corporate galas, anniversary celebrations, new product introductions and awards presentations, Creative Entertainment used live events as a medium for strategic marketing. In order to articulate that goal, a team of the finest professionals in the industry was assembled; implementing the production of everything from multi media presentations, negotiation of contracts with big name acts – often for multiple dates, staging, air and ground transportation, on and off premise catering and the set up/tear down of semi- permanent tent villages.

A board member of Steppenwolf theatre in Chicago, Diane believes strongly in the arts and is a great admirer and longstanding supporter of many other theatre groups and organizations. She is also a committed humanitarian who has worked for many causes as well as served on several boards, such as PAWS (Pets are Worth Saving), JUF (Jewish United Fund) and myriad women’s causes.

In 2003, after nineteen years, she decided to retire, trading a successful career to devote herself more fully to her passion of social justice and humanitarian causes, particularly the empowerment of women and children. Wanting to help those that are most disenfranchised, give voice to those whose voices cannot be heard, she spent three months doing volunteer work in the highlands of Peru. Working in women’s prisons as well as with children in orphanages, she became profoundly committed to finding ethical and responsible solutions to the inequities that surround them. As a “free lance volunteer” she would like to operate in partnership with sustainable community initiatives around the globe – helping to build businesses, schools and healthcare facilities.

In 2007, Diane traveled to Sderot,, a border town between Israel and Gaza, working as part of Partnership 2000, trying to learn more about the challenges as well as the opportunities that can hopefully make a difference in the ongoing conflict between the Palestinian and Jewish people. Diane has continued her commitment to this cause, traveling back to the region several times, visiting Gaza and the West Bank as well.

A member of the board of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, and very much involved in all the activities Aspen has to offer, including the ideas festival and the film festival.

Diane Goldberg attended Indiana University and the University of Dijon in Dijon, France.