ABOUT US
Board of Directors
Billy Giles
Billy Giles is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Geography at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis and is a retired geologist from the Indiana State Environmental Agency. Billy has traveled to Tanzania several times since he became involved with KILEO. He has visited many of the projects that have been supported by KILEO including the Huruma School for Disabled Children and the Uzima Centre for HIV/AIDS patients and families, both in Mwanza. He has also visited the elementary school in Marangu that KILEO supplied with text books and has helped with construction of a playground at a pre-school in Zanzibar.
Bertha Haas
Bertha is President of Huruma Chapter KILEO, also a Maryknoll Affiliate, and lives in in Portland, Oregon. Through the annual Taste of Tanzania, this KILEO chapter supports the Huruma Special Unit. Bertha founded this school for children with disabilities, located outside Mwanza, Tanzania, during her second career as Maryknoll Lay Missioner. “Continued involvement with Huruma children keeps me invigorated,” Bertha says.
During Bertha’s first career, she worked as a school counselor in Oregon, California, Oklahoma and Nebraska, as well as U.S. Department of Defense Schools in Germany. Bertha also raised four children, two of them adopted from Korea.
Fritz Kruggel
Fritz is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and has been working with children and youth who have developmental disabilities as well as their families, teachers, schools, and communities, for over 20 years. He became involved with KILEO in 2012 to support KILEO’s overall efforts and in particular, to advance the availability of supports for the children in need of special education services.
Sally McKinney
Sally McKinney has seen the world from the deck of a sailing ship, from an open-cockpit biplane—even a bamboo raft! While traveling around Tanzania she met informally with students, parents, librarians and teachers to learn more about education. Volunteer work with KILEO has allowed her to say “Asante sana” for the Tanzanian hospitality she received.As a girl growing up in Valparaiso, Indiana, she realized that education was the key to an adventurous—and meaningful—life. After graduating from Valparaiso High School, she earned three university degrees: B.A. in Psychology, DePauw University, B.S. in Education, Indiana University; and M.A. in English Language and Literature, Butler University. After her marriage ended and her four sons left home, she became a travel journalist. Over a lifetime, travel to 46 countries on five continents has given her a unique appreciation for life on this planet. Each day, she feels grateful for the chance to explore a wider world.
Alwiya S. Omar
Alwiya S. Omar came to Bloomington, Indiana from Zanzibar, Tanzania to do graduate studies in Linguistics. She received her PhD in 1992 from Indiana University, Bloomington where she is currently teaching and coordinating the teaching of African languages. She also taught at the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, University of Georgia, and University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in language teaching and learning and promoting cultural awareness. She supports KILEO’s mission of providing educational resources to needy schools in Tanzania.
Khalfan Mohamed
Khalfan Mohamed was born and raised in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He went to school in Tanzania and joined the Russian Friendship University in Moscow, Russia where he graduated with a law degree. He has extensively traveled to Europe, Africa, and the Middle and is a fluent speaker of Swahili, Russian and English. After working in the banking and tourism industries in Tanzania, Khalfan joined Indiana University Bloomington School of Law and graduated with a Masters degree (LLM) in International Law. He is now working at the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University, Bloomington and is also working towards a PhD in Political Science. He also taught Swahili at Indiana University, Bloomington between 1999 and 2007 and at the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign during the summer of 2007. He is a co-author of a Swahili text book (Complete Swahili - Random House, New York, 2007).
Steve and Channa Beth Butcher
Steve and Channa Beth Butcher joined the KILEO team in 2016 after traveling to Tanzania and Rwanda following a life-long dream. Steve is a retired mechanical engineer with a Bachelor's degree from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Channa Beth has a Bachelor's degree from Butler University, a Master's degree in Language Education from Indiana University, and currently working towards an EdD in the School of Education, Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University. She is a retired Spanish teacher and is currently studying Swahili. Both have a passion for East African culture and its people and have set up a small safari company, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Cyd Bown
Cyd Bown is a contemporary artist working in sculpture, installations, and virtual and mixed reality environments, and she is currently based in San Francisco and the Mojave Desert. She was raised in upstate New York and has lived, studied, and worked in North America, Europe, and Africa. Much of her formal education is in linguistics and anthropology.
"I first met Dr. Alwiya Omar when she was teaching at PENN, and I was a Fulbright-Hays fellow under her in Tanzania and Zanzibar. (I had previously lived in East Africa for about a year as a teenager/young adult.) During this time we had a conversation in Morogoro about increasing access to educational materials in East Africa and ways to do this. This is a conversation that continues to be very important to me. I see the act of opening up and increasing access as profoundly valuable."
Through KILEO I hope to connect elementary students internationally via virtual classrooms and student-led projects and to support access to virtual classrooms and educational materials via small library-type outposts. Please consider supporting KILEO. The need is indisputable!