AMBER BURKHART.

Amber Burkhart has had a strong personal tie to the Harambee Centre for many years. In 2011, she spent a summer in Chwele, Kenya volunteering at the health clinic and conducting research for her undergraduate program. This transformative experience kick started Amber’s passion for improving health care systems both in the U.S. and abroad.

 Amber has over eight years of health care policy experience, and she currently works at a policy-oriented philanthropy dedicated to maximizing opportunity and minimizing injustice. Amber holds a double executive master's in health care policy from the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in international political economy and minor in global health from Colorado College.

 Amber lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband. In their free time, you can find them mountain biking, backpacking, scuba diving or exploring the outdoors with their dog.

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CAMERON KAYS.

Cameron is passionate about transitional justice, conflict resolution, and intercultural exchange. She graduated in 2020 from the University of Arizona with Honors and a degree in International Relations, minor in Cultural Anthropology, and emphasis in American Indian Studies. Cameron also studied International Organizations at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, in 2019 and partnered with The United Nations, The Red Cross, The European Union, and The Swiss Parliament. Cameron has worked extensively with St. Andrew’s secondary school in Kalisizo, Uganda, Southridge High School, and the greater Portland community to conduct cultural exchanges and fundraise thousands of dollars for developmental projects in Matale, Uganda. Cameron has continued to conduct cultural exchanges while facilitating government- to- government relations as a professional Cultural Ethnographer and Research Anthropologist at the University of Arizona on behalf of American Indians. Cameron is also a published author, public speaker, educator, photographer, mixed media artist, and travel enthusiast.

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CHRISTINE MCCULLOCH.

Christine McCulloch, MBA, has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Administration. Her work experience covers healthcare, hotel and restaurant industries and helps mentor small business owners and entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. She serves on other boards in the Lake Oswego community and is the Co-Owner of Counseling Services of Portland.

CRYSTAL LIVINGSTON.

Crystal is a graduate of Oregon State University, and currently works as a systems administrator. She is passionate about bringing people together. Crystal is proud to bring her administrative skills to Harambee Centre’s mission to continue to support Pacific Northwest and Eastern African communities.

DAVID HOLZ.

David has been a board member since 2017. He is currently a Physics / Engineering teacher at Southridge High School in Beaverton, OR.  His main focus  is facilitating with the Sister School Program to provide educational and cultural experiences for students at both Southridge High School and St. Andrews Secondary School in Matale, Uganda.   

EMILY PAYNE.

Emily is a University of Washington student majoring in International Studies with a concentration in African Studies. She has a strong passion for learning about other cultures, human rights, and the interconnectedness of the world. Her connection with Harambee Center started through the Sister School Program where she hosted a student from Chwele Girls High School and went on to help lead the Mountainside High School Kenya Club in learning more about Kenyan culture, connecting with students in Chwele, and fundraising for projects in Kenya. She is excited to learn a lot as well as bring her knowledge to support the important mission that Harambee Center serves.

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GRACE KUTO.

A native Kenyan, Grace Kuto is a retiree of Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) after close to 30 years of service. She is the co-founder and president of Harambee Centre.

Grace is a Rotarian, philanthropic author, speaker, renowned chef, passionate educator, and always a Girl Guide (Girl Scout). Grace has touched the lives of thousands of students, teachers, families, corporations, social organizations, and faith-based communities throughout the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A. and beyond through her renowned, classroom tested, “Africa is Not a Country” curriculum in partnership with the K-12 Global Education Program of World Oregon (formerly World Affairs Council of Oregon) since 1979. She has served as Adjunct Faculty at George Fox University and Lewis and Clark College. Grace has led numerous cultural exchange trips and events across the two continents that have transformed many lives through educational, healthcare, and micro-enterprise outreach.

Grace has served on numerous local, regional, and national boards including American Friends Service Committee, Right Sharing of World Resources, and World Oregon. A consistent and recognized voice in the Pacific Northwest region on African development issues (especially women and children), Grace has also co-hosted the Africa Roundtable edition of the “Africa on Fire!” News broadcast with KBOO Radio.

Though Grace and her husband Paul have lived in Portland for more than 40 years, together with their two daughters, they consistently remain devoted to the call of their villages in their homeland through community development and cultural exchange opportunities. They regularly take volunteers to Kenya for healthcare, education and small businesses projects for women and children, and their families. They have worked tirelessly for over 40 years to educate, connect, give back, and enrich their African and American communities.

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JULIUS MUWULA.

Julius lives in Seattle. He is a senior project engineer for a general contractor. Julius has known Harambee Centre since the early 2000’s, with both his dad and sister having previously served on the board representing Uganda. The Matale community, where Harambee has focused its Ugandan operations, is where his family is from. He received his bachelors in Civil Engineering from the University of Portland and served as President of the Student Body. Julius enjoys running and reading auto-biographies in his free time. He is a builder at heart.

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KELLY LYON.

Kelly is passionate about technology education and has taught programming to kids around the world. With her background in software engineering and education, Kelly is excited to join the board of Harambee Center to further the connection with sister schools in the Pacific Northwest and Africa. 

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KATE SMITH-STOTT.

Kate is a graduate of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and has made a career of helping people. She worked for many years with special needs children and adults. Upon moving to the most beautiful state in the union, she was the hospital Administrator for both Raleigh Hills Hospital working with detox patients and later as Administrator for Riverside Psychiatric Hospital. From that experience, she accepted a position as Vice-President of Behavioral Health Holladay Park Hospital. After 20 years of working with behavioral health sciences, she made a career change and put her experiences to work as an Organizational Development Consultant for Legacy Health Systems and later for PacifiCorp and PGE (Portland General Electric). Her work consisted of consultation with managers in designing more efficient work systems delivering management training programs to high profile managers and soft skills training to employees. In 2006 she fulfilled a life-time dream of traveling to Africa by volunteering with Watoto wa Dunia (Children of the World), a Portland based organization dedicated to development work in Kenya. Their focus was building a school for children orphaned by aids in Kisiyani and maintaining a school in Kibera (a slum of over 800,00 people in the middle of downtown Nairobi). It turned out to be a life changing experience made even richer by the development of a friendship with a nineteen-year-old young man who desperately wanted to go to college and a young, widowed mother of four. Kate subsequently made two additional trips to Kenya to visit these two families and has remained in weekly e-mail contact with them for the past 13 years. She has many colorful stories to tell of her adventures in Kenya and her admiration for its people.