Nyasha Warren

completed her bachelor’s degree in Biology at Oberlin College, her Masters in Environmental Health Sciences at New York University and her Masters in Education from the Arts in Education program at Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She is an educator and curriculum design consultant, with a special interest in informal education theory and practice as it applies to a variety of settings including, but not limited to, museums and online learning environments. She has taught middle school Science, English and Social Studies, and has also been an ESL instructor for adult learners at Florida State University. She currently works in the Resource Program at the International School of Panama. Her teaching philosophy is: We are all learners who deserve the opportunity to develop a heightened awareness and appreciation for the world through the well focused lens of lifelong learning.

Rebecca Bernard

is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received her B.F.A. in Film and Television Production. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) at Vanderbilt University. She works as both a fiction and music editor for the Nashville Review. Rebecca is particularly interested in crafting narratives which encompass the unique life experiences of individuals of different communities with an emphasis on memory and preservation.

Destiny Birdsong

is a graduate of Fisk University, where she received her B.A. in History and English. She is also a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry), and where she is currently working toward a PhD in Literature. She is a writer and scholar whose extensive research on slave narratives and knowledge about the collection and dissemination of primary sources are valuable assets to the VFOA project.

Lornies Bowen

After graduating from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Caribbean Studies, Lornies Bowen received a Fulbright-mtvU fellowship to conduct research in Panama. Her investigation on Afro-Panamanian identity as reflected in Spanish reggae music produced an audio-visual history of Panamanian reggae to be used for educational purposes in Panama, as well as the documentary Contra Corriente: The Spanish Reggae Movement.

Kari C. Brown

is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and an independent consultant in project management and philanthropy, as well as the creator and designer of Kindred Fashion for Social Change, founder of Tal Como Soy (As I Am) agency for Afro-Panamanian talents, and vice-president of the Arnold Walters Foundation for Cultural Diversity.

Veronica Forte

graduated from the University of Panama, where she is currently a professor in the English Department. She received her Master’s Degree in English at Universidad Autonoma de Chiriquí-Panamá, and her Postgraduate Program in Higher Studies at Universidad Latina de Panamá. At present, she is working on the final project for her Masters in Tourism with an emphasis on Asset Management (Gestion Patrimonial), while also completing a Master’s Program in Curriculum. She has also taught English at the preschool and elementary level.

Forte is president of the Williams-Sanchez-Schuler-Whitmore (WSSW) Leadership Group, a collective dedicated to providing opportunities for improving the quality of life for youth and increasing their personal knowledge, capabilities, and skills. She is also an active member of the Society of Friends of the West Indian Museum of Panama (SAMAAP). In all her work, she tries to promote the afroantillean culture among her students and the people whom she meets.

M. Jean Harris

is a retired anthropology professor with abiding interests in the cultures of African peoples in diaspora and the construction of race, gender, and social class. Having grown up in Seattle’s Yesler Terrace, the first racially integrated public housing project in the U.S., Dr. Harris is currently collecting oral histories to publish in a book that will be entitled From the Terrace.

Verónica Hidalgo

completed her bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science at Panama National University. She has completed graduate studies in Project Design and, has a Master’s in Manager of Projects from Panama’s Inter-American University. She worked as a consultant for the U.N. in the area of nutrition, in a project titled, “Project for the Elimination of Hunger and Malnutrition.” She also participated in the food industry of organic products as well as in health campaigns, visiting poor indigenous populations to provide them with health and information. Veronica also participates in social and cultural activities such as those organized by the Christian Medical Social Panama, Kindred, and Voices from Our America. For Veronica participating in Voices has given her the opportunity to meet wonderful people, and learn about not only the Afro-Caribbean culture but also understand, preserve and pass along to other people everything that involves hearing and respecting the Voices of Our America.

Melva Lowe de Goodin

is an English professor and retired director of the English department at the University of Panama. She is also a former president of SAMAAP (Society of Friends of the West Indian Museum of Panama) and has addressed the issues faced by Panamanians of West Indian descent through her bilingual play, De Barbados a Panamá/From Barbados to Panama.

Karin Whitehouse

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Karin Whitehouse moved to the U.S. to pursue a graduate education. After earning an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Minnesota, Karin joined the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University as a Ph.D. student and instructor of Spanish. Her main interests are Subaltern Studies and Southern Cone’s post-dictatorial literature. She is particularly interested in testimonial literature and production, and the way these genre unveil hegemonic discourses. Karin joined VFOA in March 2010 and has contributed to the processing of Spanish language interviews.

Katherine Zien

is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at McGill University. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama (IPTD) in August 2012. Zien’s pedagogy and research focus on theatre and performance in the Americas; specifically, her research addresses the inter-American travels of performing artists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the ways in which performance practices have contributed to the construction of ideologies, identities, and bodies of memory in North and Latin America. Her scholarship has been published in Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, E-misférica, Contemporary Theatre Review, and  Global South.

Melinda W. Green

Before retiring, Melinda W. Green served as the Vice President of Children’s Futures, a nonprofit organization focused on improving health and development outcomes for children and their families. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology and Early Childhood Education from the University of Michigan.

Patricia Lewis

is principal of the Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal, a primary and secondary school in Panama City.

Felicia Morgan

is a Professor of English with 15 years’ teaching experience at the Universidad del Istmo and over 35 years at the Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal.

Ethel Record

After earning a degree in Primary Education at the University of Panama, Ethel Record has held teaching and administrative positions at the elementary, middle school, and university levels for over thirty years.

Enrique Sánchez

is the Manager of the Purchasing, Warehousing and Inventory Division of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and has worked at the canal for thirty-one years. During the last two decades, he has managed several branches and divisions related to construction, supplies and service contracting, in addition to maintenance and improvement of canal infrastructure. He is a civil engineer with a Master of Science degree from Columbia University in the city of New York. He was one of nine citizens designated to the National Electoral Scrutiny Board for the 2004 presidential election. In May of 2007, the President of Panama designated him to be a member of the National Black Council, tasked with designing and implementing a plan for the elimination of racial exclusion affecting Black Panamanians.

Trevor Sewell

is Professor Emeritus of Temple University’s School Psychology and Psychological Studies in Education. During his tenure at Temple, he also served as Dean of the College of Education He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Myriam Chancy

is a Haitian-Canadian writer of both novels and literary criticism and is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati where she teaches courses in African diaspora studies, Caribbean literature, literary theory, and creative writing. Dr. Chancy holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include Caribbean women’s literature, fiction and memoir, feminist theory, and postcolonial theory.

Lesley Feracho

earned her Ph.D. from Duke University and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and the Institute of African-American Studies at the University of Georgia. She specializes in contemporary Latin American narrative, in general, and the narrative and poetry of Caribbean women and Afro-Latin Americans, in particular. Dr. Feracho’s recent work has dealt with cross-cultural literary texts of women writers of African descent in the Americas.

Lucius Outlaw, Jr.

is a Professor of Philosophy and the Associate Provost of Undergraduate Education at Vanderbilt University. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston College. His teaching and research interests involve social, political, Africana, and American philosophies, including racial matters in socio-political life in the U.S. and in the practices of European and Euro-American philosophy. Professor Outlaw’s publications include Race and Philosophy (1996) and Critical Social Theory in the Interests of Black Folks (2005).

Hortense Spillers

A scholar well known for her work in Black feminist theory, Hortense is a Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor in Vanderbilt University’s English Department. Among her most notable publications are Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture and Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex, and Nationality in the Modern Text. Dr. Spillers holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

Sonja Stephenson Watson

is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Texas at Arlington. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and her areas of interest include contemporary Latin American literature, Hispanic Caribbean literature, the Afro-Hispanic historical novel, and Afro-Hispanic narrative in general. Dr. Watson has published articles in the College Language Association Journal, the Afro-Hispanic Review and the Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal.

Agnes Bryan

is an English teacher at the Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal in Panama City, Panama.

Patricia Lewis

is Director of Instituto Episcopal San Cristobal.

Felicia Morgan

is an English teacher at the Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal in Panama City, Panama.

Mayra Rios

is a teacher and Coordinator of the English program at the Instituto Episcopal San Cristobal in Panama City, Panama.

Lupita Salmon

is a teacher and General Principal of the Instituto Panamericano in Panama City, Panama.

• Maely Urena
• Irlanda Yanguez
• Lizyenhy Linales
• Yaromar Hernandez

• Yizeika Charris and Jose Vergara
• Sonia Yau Zhang and Deryn Smith
• Alexandra Payares, Veronica Rodriguez and Ana Isabel Saavedra
• Franky Tsang

• Nilka Arrosemena, Efrain Cheung, Philippe Hines
• Betzaida Montero, Daphne Macias, Ana Gabriela Chavez
• David Gomez, Stefanie Arosemena, Delia Zuniga
• Diana Espinosa, Carolina Guilbauth, David Joseph
• Jorge Alexander, Andres Culiolis, Jorge Gutierrez
• Sonia Velasquez and Aileen Alegria
• Sary Osorio and Karen Waldemen

• Dora Ferrabone
• Stephan Fernandez

First Year Students:

• Patsy Espinoza
• Dona White
• Suhairah Sadiq

Second Year Students:

• José A. Rodríguez
• Kevin Fragueiro
• José López

Third Year Students:

• Mitzy Gómez
• Maricarmen Lanuza
• Shiara Ocaña

Following a VFOA Oral History Workshop in February, teachers from the Instituton Episcopal San Cristobal’s English Department collaborated with VFOA in the creation of a student competition for Black History Month, where students interviewed members of the West Indian-Panamanian community and prepared group presentations on their interpretations of the interviews. After the April 9-18 interview sessions, twenty-nine 12th grade students submitted their presentations to a panel of judges, who determined the contest winners. VFOA awarded special prizes to the top three winning teams, and formally acknowledged all of the student participants and teachers, as well as the director and sub-director, at the school’s annual Black History Month celebration on May 30th. Participating students said the competition gave them an opportunity to learn about West Indian history through real people instead of books, and that the VFOA project inspired them to want to learn more and they hope to one day be interviewed themselves about how life was when they were younger.

First Place (tie):

• Yizeika Charris
• Ana Gabriela Chavez
• Betzaida Montero
• Daphne Macias
• Jose Vergara

Third Place (tie):

• Efrain Cheung
• Nilka Arrosemena
• Philippe Hines

SAMAAP is a civic non-profit organization, which has as its objectives the support and raising of funds for the maintenance and extension of the work of the West Indian Museum of Panama. In addition, the organization is dedicated to supporting and sponsoring activities that contribute to the social and cultural development of the community and feature the best aspects of Afro-Caribbean culture.

Panama TESOL is the Panama chapter of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc., which was founded on September 20, 1986. They form a very dynamic group whose mission is to strengthen the effective teaching and learning of English throughout the Republic of Panama while respecting individuals’ language rights. Panama TESOL promotes academic achievement, disseminates information, and encourages instruction and research.