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Ruth W. Messinger, President, American Jewish World Service
Ruth W. Messinger is president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), a faith-based international human rights organization that works to alleviate poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world. In addition to its grantmaking to over 400 grassroots projects around the world, AJWS works within the American Jewish community to promote global citizenship and social justice through activism, volunteer service and education. Ms. Messinger assumed this role in 1998 following a 20-year career in public service in New York City, where she served for 12 years on the New York City Council and eight as Manhattan borough president. Ms. Messinger is continuing her lifelong pursuit of social justice at AJWS, helping people around the world improve the quality of their lives and their communities.
Considered a national leader in the movement to end the genocide in Sudan, Ms. Messinger was among leading anti-genocide, peace and human rights advocates called upon to advise President Obama and the new special envoy for Sudan, General J. Scott Gration, in March 2009. In recognition of her leadership, she has served on the Obama administration’s Task Force on Global Poverty and Development. She is also involved in organizing faith-based efforts to secure human rights around the world, and recently served as keynote speaker at the National Interfaith Conference on Millennium Development Goals in San Francisco.
Ms. Messinger has received honorary degrees and awards from The Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College, Hebrew College and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and awards for her service from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Women’s Funding Network, Union for Reform Judaism and the American Jewish Committee. For eight years, she was among the Forward’s “50 most influential Jews of the year”. Ms. Messinger lectures widely on diverse social and global justice issues, and has served as a visiting professor at Hunter College and Hebrew Union College. She is an active member of her congregation, the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, and serves as a board member and past president of Surprise Lake Camp. She sits on the boards of several other nonprofit organizations, including the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women, Hazon and the Save Darfur Coalition.
Ms. Messinger graduated from Radcliffe College in 1962 and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma in 1964. She began her professional career in public service in Oklahoma, running a child-welfare agency. Her husband, Andrew Lachman, directs an educational foundation in Connecticut, and she has three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Sering Falu Njie, Deputy Director and Policy Director, United Nations Millennium Campaign
Sering Falu Njie is a development professional with over 20 years of hands-on experience working on poverty issues in Africa. He has spent the last 9 years working in the Government of Gambia, where his most recent position was Director General of the National Planning Commission.
While he was Director General, Falu managed the National Planning Commission and was in charge of implementation of all MDG-related activities. He was also responsible for Gambia’s PRSP II. Prior to that, he served as the Coordinator of the Poverty Reduction Programme, where his responsibilities included piloting a Social Accountability Mechanism and Community Score Cards in the health and education sectors. He has done extensive consulting stints with The World Bank in Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Uganda and Rwanda on social accountability.
Prior to his long experience with the Government, Falu has also worked with leading international NGOs including Save the Children and ActionAid in the policy advocacy arena.
Falu holds a Masters degree in poverty reduction and development management from the University of Birmingham in the UK and a Bachelors degree in statistics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
Briggs Bomba, Campaigns Director, Africa Action
Briggs has extensive experience working with civil society organizations in Zimbabwe and other African countries, having served on the Management Committees of the Zimbabwe Social Forum and the Southern Africa Social Forum until 2006. He has traveled extensively on the African continent and internationally, including to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya, Lesotho, and the United Kingdom among other places in Africa and Europe.
Briggs is a frequent guest on broadcast media including BBC, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CBC, Press TV, Al Jazeera, VOA, SW Radio Africa, KPFA and WPFW. He has been a guest on Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Keeping Hope Alive radio show. His commentary has appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus, The Black Commentator, and Pambazuka News, among other outlets.
Briggs’s past positions include Student Representative Council President in Zimbabwe, President of the African Students Union at Wright State University in Dayton Ohio, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Social Forum Youth Council, and National Coordinator of Students Against Privatization in Zimbabwe.
Prior to joining Africa Action, Briggs was the point person for the American Friends Service Committee’s "Life over Debt" campaign in Dayton, Ohio, advocating total debt cancellation for Africa. Before that, Briggs spent a year at the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Briggs serves on the Coordinating Committee (board) of Jubilee USA Network.
Melinda St. Louis. Deputy Director, Jubilee USA Network (MODERATOR)
Melinda St. Louis is the Deputy Director of the Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 75 religious denominations, faith-based organizations, development, environment, and human rights agencies and community groups. Melinda has more than a decade of experience in policy advocacy, communications, and non-profit management both in Washington, DC and in developing countries. Melinda served as Executive Director of Witness for Peace, a Jubilee USA Network Council member organization, where she directed the organization’s education and advocacy programs to influence foreign policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean. Melinda has also worked for the Campaign for Labor Rights and as a consultant for the Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO. She has lived and worked in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and has traveled extensively through Latin America and the Caribbean.
She has testified before the House Committee on Financial Services and has been a spokesperson on numerous radio, print, and television programs.
Melinda holds a Masters of Public Policy in International Policy and Development from the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute and a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University.
