Introducing the Co-chairs of the IHRC/CIDH 2005 Brain Trust:
Ms. Irene Fredericks, Co-Chair of the 2005 Brain Trust, has been particularly devoted to her family and her Native American heritage these past twenty years. Her special focus has been that the portrayal and history of Indigenous peoples in film, television, media, and academia is accurate and/or corrected. She was appointed to several commissions at State level and with various universities to both discern and actively correct errors in the teaching of the history of the Native American.

The past five years, she has donated time to the International Human Rights Consortium as both a teacher of Indigenous protocols and as mentor to the youth participating in IHRC/CIDH’s summer programmes. She has been a delegate on multiple occasions to the United Nations’ Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) in Geneva, Switzerland where she has chaired many roundtables on such issues as, the protection of intellectual property rights and how international norms and policies in formation pertain to Indigenous Peoples Traditional Knowledge.

A multi-award winning artist and educator, Ms. Fredericks also served as a guest panelist at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and later chaired two roundtable sessions at the World Summit on the Information Society Phase I in Geneva, Switzerland in December of 2003. Her work with youth to assist them in experiencing the dignity of their heritage led to a project in which young Native Americans learned how to develop, film and edit documentaries which enabled them to enter into the wisdom and teaching of the stories of the elders that they were filming.

Wilda Spalding founded the International Human Rights Consortium in 1988 to enable her life’s work to survive beyond her lifetime. “Positive People for Positive Change” is more than an organizational slogan - it describes her life. The focus of much of her work has been at the international level, “acting for positive systemic change, globally.” She has developed the "ABCDE Method" which is inter-generational, multi-disciplinary method that seeks effectively to integrate Academics, Business, Culture, Diplomacy, and Excellence. For more than 35 years, she has been a representative for diverse NGOs from around the world within the Human Rights activities of the United Nations (Geneva) with particular focus over the last 25 years on persons living with disabilities, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and a broad range of social, cultural, and economic issues during which she helped to develop the UN International Year of the Child in 1979 and several resolutions on behalf of Indigenous Peoples, and Persons with Disabilities. As a part of her advocacy, each year, she creates and produces the FETE d’EXCELLENCE, which hosts the Gold Medaille d’Excellence.

She has been recognized with numerous awards for her humanitarian work and promotion of human rights, including: the 2004 Lifetime Honorary Membership, Golden Key International Honours Society, CSUN Chapter, the 2002 Messenger of Peace Award, the 1999 Ambassador of Peace Flame, and the 1998 "Woman of Valor" Award from the Raoul Wallenburg Institute of Ethics. She was appointed, in 1998, as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Indigenous Nations Games and in 1993 was awarded the American Indian Spirit Award. For her work on the Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990 she received a USA Congressional Task Force Award. Contiguous to her advocacy work for more than forty years, she as been an international speaker, educator, mentor, and advisor. She earned degrees and did research at several universities around the world. In 1974, she earned the coveted Hons. Lon. Degree from Kings College, University of London (on a full UK post-graduate grant).

Miss Spalding’s media involvement seeks “to amplify voices for global influence”. Through television, she was one of the Creator/ Founding Directors of a 15-year, multi-award-winning TV series "SAME DIFFERENCE" for the UK’s new Channel 4 and served as a BBC-TV Documentary Consultant. Her love of radio began at the age of four when she hosted a children’s program in the early founding days of KPFA. Since then, she has been heard several times on the BBC, Swiss Radio International, Radio 74, KPFK, World Radio Geneva, Radio One, and Radio Lac amongst others. A published author, she also was the Founding Editorial Director for Kevin Mayhew, Ltd. (UK); Editorial Director of Mayhew McCrimmon Publishing (UK); and Consultant to Darton, Longman & Todd (UK), Williams and Wilkins (USA), and others.

Lead Experts, Facilitators, Rapporteurs, and Core Committee:
Sohrab Akhavan is an internationally renowned Writer, Producer & Director, Photographer, Videographer, and Film Editor. While still attending high school, he started his media career as a Master of Ceremonies with Iranian Television. Later, he continued studies in the fields of Directing, Producing with the BBC (England), ORTF (France), MBC (Malaysia), and DW (Germany) and at MSU (Michigan). Producing more than 300 hours of TV productions, he has won many awards for his work. Mr. Akhavan’s popular radio show, Spoon Full of Sugar, airs every Wednesday at 9:15 PM PST on “670am KIRN”. In addition to producing his radio and TV shows, currently he manages his business, www.filmexmedia.com, on the Internet.

Deanna Armbruster is the Executive Director of the American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam, supporting the "Oasis of Peace," the only community in Israel where Jewish and Palestinian families with Israeli citizenship have chosen to live, work and educate their children together for more than 25 years. Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam has received many international awards and repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Deanna Armbruster is also the co-author of the book "Tears in the Holy Land: Voices from Israel and Palestine”.

Maricar “Summer” Bernardo is a 21-year-old senior currently attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN), double majoring in Biology and Biomedical Physics with a minor in Political Science. She is also currently the President of Golden Key International Honour Society, CSUN Chapter and Personal Assistant to the President of the International Human Rights Consortium (IHRC/CIDH). Her aspirations include attending a prestigious law school, graduating with a JD as well as continuing her work in human rights. Ms. Bernardo’s accomplishments include current reigning CSUN Homecoming Queen, Latino Business Association Scholarship recipient, Associated Students Inc. Senator and Dean’s List, just to name a few.

Lead Expert: Donald Colhour, Senior Minister of the Wilshire Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a 20-year veteran of ABC Televison. He holds a B.S. in Journalism from Kansas University and an M.Phil. in Theology and Ethics of Communication from Edinburgh University where he critiqued Marshall McLuhan's 1943 Thesis from Cambridge University. Rev. Colhour’s most recent publication is "McLuhan and an Electronic Ethos" in the 2004 University Press of America release, Critical Thinking and the Bible in the Age of New Media.

Andrew Castellanos is an 11-year-old boy who likes to go to school with his mom. He enjoys spending the weekends accompanying his mother to speech and debate competitions, playing with his nieces and nephew, reading and playing with his play station. Andrew attends Saint Raymond's School where he is on the Honor Roll, plays basketball and is a member of the track team. He is serving as a special assistant to one of the Co-Chairs of the 2005 Brain Trust. Andrew wants to grow up and help people by becoming an attorney or a police officer.

Maricarmen Puente-Castellanos immigrated to the USA in 1975 from Mexico City. She is the mother of five children and three grandchildren. She is a full time student at California State University Long Beach and operates a small office where she assists the public with Immigration, Tax and Real Estate matters. Ms. Puente-Castellanos is the current president of the CSULB Chapter of the Golden Key International Honour Society. She will graduate with a BA in Communications in May 2005. Her future plans include law school and the practice of public law.

Carolyn Cosentino, a recent graduate in European Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz, has an early history of performance arts, which she continues to pursue as an avocation performing with choirs and studying music. Her highly developed social skills enable her to bridge generations and cultures. Although also gifted in the business world, she has recently been accepted to Graduate School in UCLA’s much sought-after Public Policy studies. She does extensive volunteer work and has assisted the development of academic programs in the USA and abroad for the IHRC/CIDH for a number of years.

Mehrnaz Ezzati came to the United States of America from Iran at the age of six. She is a graduating senior at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and Real Estate. Ms. Ezzati is Vice President of Golden Key International Honour Society and a Personal Aid/Intern for IHRC/CIDH. She has been actively involved with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program at CSUN for the past three years. She lives her life on the three basic principles of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.

Menaka Fernando, a native of Sri Lanka, is the first in her family to obtain a college degree. Although she has recently graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a degree in English, much of her college education came from the time she spent working for the campus newspaper, where she was the News Editor. She currently works as a research assistant at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and as a reporter for an online publication for Santa Monica. After completing an international internship in Switzerland this summer, Ms. Fernando plans to continue her education in graduate school, studying international relations.

Joe Gatlin served as a specialist in the nuclear missile field as an expert in nuclear electronics and satellite surveillance as part of his military career from 1965 to 1977. As a consultant and administrator, he worked to develop a major water pipeline project (1993-1997) in Kuwait. While there, he was the only American to help with the release of 856 Kuwaiti detainees held in POW centers during the Gulf War. He has deep commitment to issues of global environment and local community development, consulting as the West Coast Co-coordinator to Dr. Jane Goodall, leading the fund-raising campaign for Cities-in-Schools, Co-Chairing the Save the Tiger project and serving as the American Chair to the 2001 Dalai Lama Fundraising program. Currently, Mr. Gatlin is Vice-President of the San Pedro Neighborhood Council and a Board Member of the Port Citizen Action Committee (PCAT). He has recently launched SPWCR (San Pedro World Community Radio), a 10-channel Internet radio network.

Lead Expert: Brij Lal is a veteran broadcast journalist having worked in the field for over 45 years. His career includes being a correspondent for “Voice of America” (New York and Washington) covering the White House, the USA State Department, and the United Nations (New York and Geneva), 21 years with ABC Radio Network New--among the programs he wrote and produced was the award-winning weekly program “Viet Nam Update”. Currently, Mr. Lal hosts the weekly program Let’s Talk and airs his weekly radio and TV program Bharat Vani (Voice of India) from New York.

Recipient of the precious Ellis Island Medal of Honor for exceptional humanitarian efforts and outstanding contributions to America in 1993, in 1989 the Association of Indians in America’s distinguished service award was given to Mr. Lal in recognition of years of outstanding public service and for promoting Ind0-American friendship through responsible journalism. His career includes interviews with people such as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, several Indian Prime Ministers including Her Excellency Indira Gandhi, Senator Robert Kennedy, Zubin Mehta, Coretta King and many other notables.

In 1999, he received the international Gold Medaille d’Excellence as the Laureate for ‘Media’ in Geneva, Switzerland and most recently added being the first person inducted into the South Asian Journalists Association Hall of Fame at Columbia University to his many international honors, commendations, and expressions of appreciation.

Lead Expert: MR. Wilton Littlechild, I.P.C., C.M., F.P., Q.C.
Mr. Wilton Littlechild acquired his Law Degree from the University of Alberta in 1976. He was the first Treaty Indian in Alberta to graduate with a law degree and the first Treaty Indian elected to the Canadian Parliament. He also graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Physical Education and 1975 with a Master’s Degree in Physical Education. In all his endeavours, Mr. Littlechild has exhibited commitment to excellence. As an athlete, he won more then forty five (45) provincial, regional, national and international championships. For his efforts as a coach and organizer of sports events, he won the 1988 Paul Harris Fellowship Award from the Rotary Clubs of Canada and inducted into four (4) Sports Halls/Walls of Fame. He was a founder of the North American Indigenous Games and is currently working on the World Indigenous Nations Games. For this work, he was awarded the international Gold ‘Medaille d’Excellence’ as Laureate for Sports 1999/2000 in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a Parliamentarian [1988-1993], Mr. Littlechild served on several senior committees in the Canadian House of Commons and was a parliamentary delegate to the United Nations. At the international level, he organized a coalition of Indigenous Nations that sought and gained consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and has recently been re-appointed by the President of ECOSOC to the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In 1999, Mr. Littlechild’s many accomplishments were recognized when he was awarded the Order of Canada and was awarded Queen’s Counsel and Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel by the Legal Profession.

Recent international awards include:
The American Medal of Honour 2003
The International Medal of Honour for Law and Sports 2003

Mr. Littlechild was inducted into Order of International Ambassadors in 2004 as well as being named as one of 2000 outstanding intellectuals of the 21st Century , 2004

Gustavo Martinelli is Sociology major at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Having completed two full years of Law School at UCA University, he left his native Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1989 and started his academic path in the USA completing junior college requirements at Pierce College. Transferring to CSUN, he is a Senior holding a 3.89 GPA in all major related courses. Mr. Martinelli is owner, supervisor, trainer of Syncro Diagnostics, a Mobile Ultrasound Image company. In 2003, Gustavo with his parents and wife, Olga, opened UNO Restaurant and Café in Woodland Hills to bring the best of Argentinian cuisine to Southern California. He joined IHRC/CIDH in February 2005 and is a member of the Consortium’s 2005 Brain Trust Core Committee.

Bernice Novela came to IHRC/CIDH as a volunteer and brought tremendous talent both in the area of people skills and music. She is completing her undergraduate studies while assisting with a family business. Ms. Novela was recently a Personal Assistant to the President of IHRC/CIDH during the six-part “Celebrating Excellence” series at the University of Judaism. Besides her commitment to her family and studies, she donates time and loving care to young children and is developing Project SOLO, Saving Our Little Ones, for addressing the health and basic needs of the most at-risk young people in our communities.

Ruth Broyde-Sharone, a filmmaker and freelance journalist for more than 25 years, and a passionate interfaith activist, was invited to be a presenter at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain, during July 2004. Currently, Broyde-Sharone is booking engagements for her popular film and interfaith program, "God and Allah Need to Talk" on college campuses across America, enlisting students, faculty, and local communities to promote and support interfaith activities. Ruth was also awarded a gold Medal of Excellence by the FETE d'EXCELLENCE at the famed Victoria Hall in Geneva in 2000 for her work in "Cultural Education."

Sameerah Siddiqui is a recent graduate from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelors of Arts degree in International Relations and a minor in Economics. During her undergraduate career, she sat as a judge on the Associated Students of UC Davis Supreme Court and furthered her interest in law by interning at Laura Devine Solicitors in London, England. Presently, she is working alongside her fashion-designer sister towards promoting more humane labour practices in the textile industry, in addition to guiding the fashion industry towards more environmentally-friendly business practices. Sameerah's spiritual and personal beliefs drew her towards working with the International Human Rights Consortium with the goal of making the issue of human rights not just a legal issue, but an issue to be tackled by all facets of society. Consonant with her interests and passions, Sameerah aspires to work for Greenpeace.

Henry Slucki is the Co-Producer and Co-Host of ACCESS UNLIMITED, on KPFK-FM, a weekly talk-radio program on disabilities (Pacifica Radio, 90.7 MHz, Los Angeles), combining cutting edge information and dialogue on issues of disabilities and social justice with special guest appearances each week. Since 1969, Dr. Slucki has been on faculty with the University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Department of Human Behavior, Senior Research Associate; since 1977, he has been with its Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Behavior Therapy Clinic, Senior Research Associate/ Assistant Professor/Behavior Analyst. Dr. Slucki is an internationally respected scientist, widely published, and is President, Founder, or Board member of numerous professional and community organizations.

Jacqueline Solis is a radio/TV producer and host. She is currently co-hosting “Arts in Review” aired at noon each Thursday on KPFK, 90.7FM. She recently volunteered as the Personal Assistant to the President of IHRC/CIDH and represented an ECOSOC NGO during the 2005 United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. For a number of years, Ms. Solis has been a spiritual advisor and practicing energy therapist. Her media work is fully inclusive and encourages people to ‘think out of the box’.

Behzad Tabatabai (www.behzad.com) is a writer, poet, artist and entrepreneur. The common thread to his work in these diverse disciplines is his passion for using art and technology to bring people together, and to empower them to lead extraordinary lives. Mr. Tabatabai’s latest project has been the successful launch of Namak (www.namakmag.com), a non-political, non-religious cultural magazine focusing on the readership of second generation Iranian-Americans.

Lead Expert: Antony Taubman, Head, Traditional Knowledge (Global Issues) Division, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland. Antony Taubman is a Senior Lecturer at ACIPA. He is internationally renowned for his policy work in the field of intellectual property. Prior to coming to ACIPA Antony was Director of the WTO intellectual Property Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Senior Advisor (Strategic Planning and Policy Development) to the Director General, and Senior Program Officer (Asia-Pacific Region), in the World Intellectual Property Organization. He has also conducted training and teaching on IP issues and practice in many Asian countries and has published a number of articles on Asian intellectual property law. In 2002 Antony was asked to head the new Global Issues division of he Intellectual Property Organization, where he is on secondment until 2005.

Lead Expert: Rebecca Gonzalez-Tobias currently lives in Los Angeles and is an interfaith scholar, educator and activist, recently returning from the Parliament of the World's Religions Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Graduating from Florida International University in 1989 with a B. A. degree in Political Science and Comparative Religion, in 1996 she went on to study the ethics, culture and mysticism of early Christianity and Islam throughout Turkey with Professor Muge Aknur and the Catholic Sisters of Notre Dame College. She has also attended the Elijah School for the Study of Wisdom in World Religions in Jerusalem 2003 under Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein who is the founder of the international Elijah Interfaith Academy . Rebecca is the Southern California Educational Outreach Coordinator for the Interfaith Encounter Association of Israel/Palestine. She a Lead Participant for the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics current Muslim-Jewish Dialogue project, and is a founding member of Open Doors LA, an intercultural consulting association. Rebecca also serves on the Board of Interfaith Inventions Inc., and the Ventura County Chapter of the California Pro-Literacy Council.

Jeff Toolan is a recent graduate in International Relations and Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles where he founded the Undergraduate International Relations Society. He is an internationally recognized scholar, recipient of a Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship and as a Fellow with the IHRC/CIDH in Geneva, Switzerland covering sessions at the United Nations’ Working Group on Indigenous Populations and attending the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights with an ECOSOC NGO in 2004. He is a member of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. His extensive research is in the fields of Human Capital, security, and telecommunications. Mr. Toolan has been recommended by the National Screening Committee for a Fulbright Scholarship awaiting final placement to Geneva, Switzerland in the Autumn of 2005.

Hector Vivero, a Political Science major of the graduating class of 2005, applies his academic study and goals and professional expertise as a business owner (Atres Graficas Vivero) to a broad and deep commitment to human rights and dignity. Accepted to the Internship Program of IHRC/CIDH in Geneva for the summer of 2005, he will be bringing his experiences as Group Leader for the Micro-finance Project of Operation Crossroads Africa/Action Humanitaire pour le Development Intégral du Senegal and times with Indigenous Peoples of his native Mexico to bear on his contributions to international public policy formulation. Awarded an International Student Scholarship, Mr. Vivero is the elected Associated Students Vice-President of Santa Monica College and serves as the Administrative Assistant to the Emeritus College Dean giving logistical support to 85 part-time faculty members.

Nelly Farnoody-Zahiri earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from PGSP affiliated with Stanford University and is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Santa Monica Community College. Her current Talk-Show on American Farsi Network, a community-based satellite television program, has a focus on youth psychology and resiliency. As an educator and an activist on the use of community-based media for education and prevention, Dr. Farnoody-Zahiri works hand-in-hand with the Iranian youth to help promote media literacy and advocates building community support and awareness.