A delegation of OSF in Palermo

A delegation of the George Soros founded organization “Open society” was in Palermo last month.

Four members who serve great causes.

Anne Luzzatto, President’s Committee of  The Arts and the Humanities. Luzzatto served as Obama-Biden Transition Team review lead for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also served as Vice President for Meetings, Council on Foreign Relations. During the administration of President Clinton she served as Special Assistant to the President and White House Deputy Press Secretary and Assistant US Trade Representative for Public Affairs.

Deborah Harding was Vice President of  the Open Society Institute starting in 1996. She oversaw some 30 international foundations in the Soros network. In 2001, she was charged with developing network-wide civil society and Roma programmes.  She retired in 2005.

From 1989-1996 at the German Marshall Fund, she managed the Fund’s Political Development in Central and Eastern Europe program.

From 1980-1986, she was the first executive director of the newly established Peace Corps Institute, the executive director of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and was a consultant in accelerated project startup and strategic planning to U.S. organizations working in Africa.

Under the aegis of Father Ted  Hesburgh and Mrs. Rosalyn Carter,  Dr. Harding directed the Cambodia Crisis Center, part of a successful effort to raise $100 million in support of 19 U.S. private relief agencies operating in Cambodia and along the Thai border from 1979-1980.

From 1962-1979, she served as a technical consultant in 23 sub-Saharan countries to the Peace Corps, served as deputy director in Cameroon, directed the Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Placement in DC, and served as a Special Assistant to two Peace Corps directors.

She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Theoretical Linguistics at the University of California at Los Angeles with an area specialty in the Bantu language group.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on a number of international and domestic NGO boards. She joined the board of the Finca Vigia Foundation in 2012 which supports the restoration of the Earnest Hemingway house and archives in Havana, Cuba.

In 2006, she set up and runs the Liberian Education Trust to help rebuild the basic education infrastructure destroyed by the civil wars at  the request of  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia. In 2013, she was named Dame Grand Commander of the Humane Order of African Redemption by President Sirleaf for her support of the Liberian people over 28 years; and, in 2012 she was honored with the  Knight’s Cross, Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, by the president of Poland for her support of Polish democracy.

She is a resident of Washington, D.C.

Partner with Litwin & Provence, LLC.  He maintains an AV Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell®. He focuses his practice of law in the areas of environmental, municipal, redevelopment, real estate and commercial litigation. He is a graduate of Syracuse University (B.S.) and Harvard Law School (LL.B)

Mr. Litwin is presently the Borough Attorney for the Borough of Keyport, a municipality he has represented in various official capacities for over 40 years.  He has previously served as Redevelopment Counsel to the City of Hoboken and the Borough of Keyport, and as the attorney for the Borough of Sea Bright Zoning Board and Borough of Keyport Planning Board.  He has appeared in over 40 appellate proceedings and is responsible for significant precedents in the areas of land use and environmental law.

He has served for more than eight years as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Meridian Health System and Meridian Hospital Corporation.  Mr. Litwin previously served as Chairman of the Boards of Riverview Hospital and of Brookdale Community College. He is a trustee of the Scherman Foundation in New York City and Mary Owen Borden Foundation in Princeton. He is also a former Mayor and Councilman of Little Silver.

Mr. Litwin is a member of the Advisory Council of Ocean Institute of Monmouth University; Community Foundation of New Jersey, and Whitehead Institute for Bio-Medical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Derrick Wong, non-profit management consultant.  Derrick Wong, having earned an MBA and MA from Stanford University, as well as a BA from Harvard University, has advised public interest institutions for over twenty-five years.

He was engaged in the 2002-2003 creation of DNDi, and subsequently became the Senior Advisor to the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) and the Global Forum for Health Research. His most recent focus has been to strengthen the strategic, operational, and financial performance of international health research organizations in the developing world.

He has previously worked with the MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, MSF Epicentre, Medecins du Monde/Doctors of the World, Human Rights Watch, Soros Foundation, Time Warner Asia, and Time Warner Latin America.