Our Staff and Board

Staff

Executive Director, Northern Nevada International Center: Carina A. Black, Ph.D.

A native of Argentina and a citizen of Switzerland and the US, Carina Black has lived in the United States since 1988. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997 in Comparative Politics. She is the first Executive Director of the Northern Nevada International Center. Currently, she also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council for International Visitors. As a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno, Dr. Black has taught courses in global studies, world politics, comparative politics, democratization, international organizations and Latin American politics. She has also been actively involved in international education for the local community, and support programs for minority groups. Dr. Black is the mother of four children and is fluent in four languages. You can send Carina Black an e-mail message, to: CLICK ME

International Visitor Leadership Program Coordinator: Corazon Padilla

Born in the Philippines, Corazon Padilla grew up in the Reno-Sparks area after moving to the United States with her family in 1990. She is a senior student at the University of Nevada, Reno majoring in both Sociology and International Affairs and minoring in Music and Psychology.  Fascinated in learning about people and their cultures throughout the globe, she initially joined the NNIC as a volunteer at the beginning of 2009 to learn of other ways in which people worldwide can build mutual understandings of one another. Corazon has had the irreplaceable opportunity to work with international students and has travelled to various countries. She returns to the Philippines regularly to visit her family, has travelled to several countries in Central Europe and will be studying in Prague with the USAC program in the summer of 2009. She can communicate in Tagalog and American Sign Language and intends to attain fluency in both languages in the future. She aims to travel throughout her life to continually learn about people around the world and share her knowledge and understanding with others. You can send Corazon Padilla an e-mail message, to: CLICK ME

Education Outreach Coordinator: Natasha Majewski

Natasha has been involved with the NNIC since 2005, where she began working with the first Citizen Diplomacy Summit and Global Kids cultural summer camp. After a two-year backpacking journey across South America, she returned in 2008 and has worked on programs such as the After-School Language and Culture Classes for Kids, the Arabic Language Program for Adults, the Regional Fulbright Conference, Global Kids Summer Camps, Algerian Youth Leadership Programs, Citizen Diplomacy Summits, the FIFA 2010 World Cup Internship, and a Nicaragua International Development Project. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2005 Cum Laude with a duel major in Journalism and Spanish and a minor in Photography. Natasha has lived and traveled abroad in 22 countries, including extensive time spent in Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, and South Africa. She loves learning about all aspects of the world, especially by wandering through it.

You can send Natasha Majewski an e-mail message, to: CLICK ME

Board

Claudia Ortega Lukas       

Why I Serve: I serve on the board of the NNIC because I believe in the concept of Citizen Diplomacy. The power an individual citizen has on foreign relations is amazing. When we meet with our international visitors, we not only make long-lasting friendships, we learn about other cultures and points of view, we learn to appreciate our differences. We build bridges of communication and mutual understanding. And we learn that, as much as we are different, we are also the same: we worry about our future, our children, our planet. We are motivated to engage with the rest of the world — to make a better world!

Background: Claudia E. Ortega-Lukas is a graphic designer in the office of Integrated Marketing at the University of Nevada, Reno. Claudia came to the Reno from Savannah, Ga., where she was the Features and Sports Planning Editor at the Savannah Morning News. She had previously worked for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Claudia was born in Mexico City. Her hobbies are photography and traveling. She and her husband, Tim Lukas, regularly host a myriad of Rotary exchange students and other international visitors traveling under the auspices of the State Department. Claudia graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and obtained her master’s degree in journalism at the University of Missouri.

Paul Dugan

I became aware of the importance of international awareness and cooperation during my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan in the early to mid-70s.  This awareness increased as I continued working in education as a teacher, counselor and administrator.  I believe strongly that our young people need to be exposed to as many different cultures as possible.  As a NNIC board member it is my hope that I can support the work of the staff and volunteers of the International Center in educating our students, at all age levels, in the area of citizen diplomacy.

Bob Fry

Why I Serve:I serve on the NNIC Board, as this is my way to help make the world a better place. Because the NNIC touches so many people from different countries, I feel that my time is well spent.

While it is impossible to calculate the benefit to the world, I know that the NNIC is introducing many ordinary citizens of the world to different cultures, languages, and ideas. The friendships that are created will last much longer than anyone could imagine and that has to make the world a better place for all of us.

 

Karren Smith

Why I Serve: I despair of a country whose citizens do not travel abroad, who do not seek out new people, culture and ideas. i serve on the board to encourage those exchanges, to welcome international guests into our home, to learn from them & to share new experiences. I believe that governments will never resolve differences if their people cannot connect and recognize common aspirations. I also selfishly serve to associate with the fine people who are committed to NNIC, both board members and staff.

Bio: married for 50 years to Michael Smith; 3 married children and 4 grandchildren.

Education: BA in History from UNR; graduate work in Criminal Justice & Hotel/Convention Management.

Career: Unit Manager: Dept. of Adult Parole & Probation; instructor in Criminal Justice at TMCC; adjunct at the National Judicial College; Director of Cultural Focus Tours; conference planner/manager for Nevada Commission on Tourism. Writer, editor, traveler, designer of student internship and volunteer programs, lover of good food, wine, books and theatre.

Jonathan Andrews

Why I Serve: I serve as a board member of NNIC because I believe when people talk to and understand each other peace is inevitable.

Background: I was born in New York City and at the age of six, moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where I was raised by an unorganized community of artists, writers, misfits, alcoholics and agnostics. I attended elementary school in Virginia City, high school at the progressive college preparatory Midland School in Los Olivos, California, the University of Nevada Reno and McGeorge School of Law. I have worked as a Supreme Court settlement judge, chief deputy attorney general, state government administrator, mediator, chef, carpenter, letter carrier, infantry scout dog handler, and combat photographer. I designed and built my own home from recovered flume timbers, field stone and other salvaged materials. I have been married three times, divorced twice and never arrested. My daughter Amy is wise, my son Zachary is clever and my wife of thirty years Laureen is the least neurotic person I have ever known.

Jill Derby

Why I Serve: I chose to become a cultural anthropologist out of my commitment to advancing cross cultural understanding. I lived and worked in the Middle East for three years soon after college, and became clear about the need for Americans to have far greater contact with and experience of people from other nations and cultures. As globalization shrinks the world, this becomes all the more important. In a democracy such as ours, where the understandings and attitudes of citizens influence foreign policy, it is vital that people are informed about the global landscape and knowledgeable about people from around the world. NNIC provides those opportunities in northern Nevada for both education about other cultures and personal experience of people from nations around the world. I am committed to working for a world of the future where cross-cultural understanding and the sense global connection flourish. Supporting NNIC works to that end.

Background: Jill Derby of Gardnerville, Nevada is a cultural anthropologist who received her Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Davis in 1988, with a concentration in Middle Eastern cultures. After four years teaching anthropology at the college level, Derby chose a policy role in higher education and ran for election to the Nevada Board of Regents the governing board for Nevada’s colleges and universities. She served three terms as board chair and worked to advance Nevada’s colleges and universities to better serve the state’s students during a period of rapid growth. She has maintained her role as a cultural anthropologist, developing strong public speaking skills, lecturing to hundreds of groups on topics ranging from cross-cultural understanding and the Arab/Muslim Middle East, to issues in education and higher education governance.

Derby has served 12 years as a Governance Consultant with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. She works with colleges and university around the U.S. and Canada facilitating planning and performance initiatives with higher education boards and leaders.

Derby, a native Nevadan, has been active in Nevada politics serving as the State Chair of Nevada’s Democratic Party between 2007 and 2008. She is a regular political commentator on the Nevada Newsmakers television program. Derby joined the Northern Nevada International Center Board in 2011.

Earlier in her career, Derby was involved in policy making at the state level, serving on the Nevada Supreme Court Gender Bias Task Force, the State Judicial Selection Commission and the Nevada Humanities Commission. In 2010, Derby was appointed by Nevada’s Governor to the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Education Reform which developed important recommendations for legislative action.

Derby was honored in 2008 as a Woman of Achievement by the Nevada’s Women’s Fund, and received the NASS Medallion Award for Advancing Democracy. In 1990 she received the Soroptimists Woman of Distinction award and received special recognition in ceremonies honoring women leaders of Nevada. The Regents nominated her for the prestigious National Trustee of the Year Award in 2002.

Jill is married to Veterinarian Dr. Stephen Talbot of Minden and has two grown children.

Rebecca Gasca

Why I Serve: The NNIC’s programs can be like microscopes- they allow participants to observe and understand the world with a sharper focus. But there is an additional and exciting participatory aspect of citizen diplomacy that turns a person into more than just a scientist. The NNIC’s programs entices the observer to become a part of the experiment; the difference is in the active interaction. This is why I am a board member- because it allows me an opportunity to better know my own community, and myself, through the eyes of others.

Background: Rebecca is a bilingual communications specialist focusing on public policy, non-profit program development, fundraising, and marketing/public relations. As Legislative and Policy Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada (ACLU), Rebecca is the ACLU’s principal lobbyist on Nevada civil rights and civil liberties issues. In addition to professional certificates in grant writing and mediation and conflict resolution, she holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in International Business from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Rebecca’s committment to the NNIC’s mission of citizen diplomacy first manifested in high school during a one month exchange to Japan. That enriching experience taught her the personal and community value of personal connections. She is a former Rotary Goodwill Ambassador to Santiago, Chile with additional short term exchange experiences through Rotary in Thailand and Brazil. During 2010, she was one of 14 young professional Americans involved in public policy and community development selected to serve as an ambassador to Turkey to enhance cross-cultural relations.

Mark Glenn

I have been on the NNIC board for the last 3 years and had gone to their presentations for a number of years prior to that. I first became interested in international affairs when I spent 5 1/2 months in Mexico after my sophomore year of college at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. The following year I spent a semester in Bogota, Colombia, studying and traveling. More importantly, I met my wife Clemencia who ended up going to Rice University for her Master’s. I graduated with a B.A. degree in Latin American studies. We were married in Houston and had 2 sons there, Dan and Phil. I was working as the credit manager for the Neiman Marcus store there when a cousin recruited me to move to Reno in 1979 and go to work in the family real estate development business. In 1994, I set up my own company, Industrial Properties of Nevada, doing real estate brokerage. We have had the good fortune to do a number of international trips, primarily to Latin America, and this has fostered our interest in other countries and international relations. My involvement with the World Affairs Council of the NNIC, has given me a further opportunity to meet people who are involved on a day to day basis in overseas work. At the same time, this has enabled us to share insights with people in Reno who have similar interests.

Steve Mulvenon

Why I Serve: After seeing NNIC from the “outside” I was pleased to be able to accept a board position and contribute from the “inside.” During my tenure with the Washoe County School District, I was able to help with arranging several NNIC after-school programs where students learned a foreign language. We also partnered with the International Center on a summer camp. Now, as a board member, I hope to be able to lend my expertise in marketing, communications and media relations to strengthen NNIC’s visibility in the community and broaden our support base. Today’s young people are growing up in a global society and it’s NNIC’s outreach to those future leaders that motivates me.

Background: For 24 years until his retirement in 2010, Dr. Steve Mulvenon was the Director of Communications and Community Outreach for the Washoe County School District. In that capacity, he oversaw the district’s internal and external communications efforts including media relations, school-business partnerships, publications, volunteer services, the district’s website and family/parental involvement programs. He is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences including the seminars of the National School Public Relations Association, The American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association. Currently, he teaches courses in school-community relations at both the Reno campus of the University of Phoenix and the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2007, Mulvenon was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Sierra Nevada Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. He recently became an associate with Patron Insight, Inc., a Kansas City area firm. From his home in Sparks, he’ll provide communications training and personalized assistance for school districts in Nevada and surrounding states.

Dr. Antonia Neubauer

Why I serve: NNIC is the heart and soul of much that is international in the Reno/Tahoe area – from housing international visitors to running the language bank to bringing world-class speakers on international issues into the community.  I serve on the board because, in today’s global society, we are all tied together and have to be able to reach out beyond the narrow Nevada world to touch other societies and other countries.  NNIC provides a crucial international link.

Background: Traveler, humanitarian, and teacher, Toni is the guiding spirit behind Myths and Mountains, and founder of READ Global, a nonprofit global organization dedicated to empowering communities by increasing literacy and access to education through the creation, advancement and leveraging of a replicable library-based model for sustainable economic development. READ Nepal was selected as recipient of the 2006 Access to Learning Award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Toni also has received the Walk the Talk Global Citizen Award.

For more than 20 years, Toni has traveled within Asia and Southeast Asia, getting to know the people and their way of life. These intimate experiences are the heart and soul of every Myths and Mountains trip, and this is what makes each journey so unique. Toni speaks five languages, holds a Doctorate in Educational Administration as well as a Masters in French Literature, and has visited 57 countries around the world.

Jeff Kirst

Why I Serve: Being involved with the Northern Nevada International Center has been a wonderful way to have an opportunity to help let people from other countries and cultures see what America is really all about. And by being able to meet individual people from across the globe through the NNIC, it has been possible to view the diverse cultures and countries on the globe as collections of individual people, all with their hopes, dreams, and desires and maybe give them a hand in reaching their goals.

Background: After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Kirst was active in the area of finance with banking, the brokerage business, and investing; and in chain restaurant development and operation. He is the author of the youth baseball book “Screwballs, Curves, and Knuckleheads”, and now is a public school teacher of Financial Literacy and Career Exploration. Mr. Kirst is married and has four grown children..

Patricia Idler

Why I Serve: Serving on the board of the Northern Nevada International Center has been one of the best experiences of my life.

Embracing people from all over the world,that are eager for dialogue, has brought me friendships to treasure. To be able to pick up the phone or receive a call from someone in Tajikistan that just wants to share a joy, a dream, or a hope for his or her child or family is an amazing treat.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.” I have found there is a group of people that believes there is a common thread that binds humanity together and we are more like-minded than we are different. It is more important now than ever for Americans and the world to engage in learning together from each other.

This understanding and dialogue shared, needs to be from all walks of life so that we have discussions pertaining to values, families, hopes, dreams, education, jobs, and spirituality. We need to embrace and understand our similarities and differences, then we will be able to see each other from the other side of the looking glass.

Wayne Howle

Why I Serve: I lived for three years in Geneva, Switzerland, as a teenager. The experience had a profound effect on me that continues to the present. I want to share with others the knowledge that there are many different cultures in the world, and the enjoyment that comes from experiencing them.

Jennifer Mahon

Why I Serve: I serve on the NNIC because it is the strongest reminder of the potential of the human spirit and the power of international understanding. In so many different ways, the NNIC works to infuse Nevada with global mindedness. It is hard to explain what it is like to be “infected” by the global bug, but once it happens, it can never be undone. And through every program the NNIC coordinates, we have the chance to be bitten again. We can relive that excitement of worlds unknown, be wonderfully surprised by our human commonalities despite drastic differences in culture and distance, and yet also to face some of the very real and sometimes difficult differences that exist in our world. Of all of the organizations to which I have belonged, I am without a doubt, most proud to be associated with NNIC. It has been an honor to be asked to serve on the board; it is truly made up of some of the most thoughtful and caring individuals I know. I think our board represents what good international dialogue can be. We don’t always agree, and we do not have to, but I think everyone listens and thoughtfully considers other viewpoints, because we all have the same goal in mind…the welfare of the NNIC, and crossing those international borders “one handshake at a time.”

Allison Wren

Why I Serve: Despite the ability of the new social media to connect people around the world, countless millions do not have access and this planet remains riven with suspicion of others’ cultures, religions and motives. Although all politicians claim to want to better their relations with other countries, state diplomacy has proven to be a very slow and sticky tool for fostering better understanding between nations. What clearly works to build these essential bridges is citizen diplomacy – the actions of individuals as they move around the world and talk to those they meet, on trains, in the bazaars and cafes. The NNIC is one of 100 odd organizations that welcome and host 1000s of international visitors a year. This enables the northern NV community to interact intimately with our guests, learning about their lives and sharing much about how we live, our values and how the American society works. These unique and personal interactions add up to a vast and growing network of global friendship and understanding. As a Director of the NNIC, I am personally able to promote citizen diplomacy and help in building a local community that increases tolerance and understanding between all peoples of this world.

Background: I am a British citizen and was lucky enough to spend my childhood vacations visiting all the European countries, even those behind the Iron Curtain that divided the continent then. Those times gave me my early wanderlust and taught me that the commonalities between peoples and nations are so much more obvious and important than our cultural and religious differences. I have lived in Holland and Canada as well as the UK and now America, all the while learning that tolerance and an inquisitive mind create lasting friendships across the globe.

I am an entrepreneur, having started several companies in the UK as well as the USA. From this I have learned that international business (pharmaceutical and medical device product development, stand up paddle board manufacture) is another way to bring the nations together and foster greater understanding.

BSc Pharmacology

MSc Neuropharmacology

PhD Central nervous system pharmacology and depression

PhD 18th century European Philosophers and a New Religious Enlightenment.

Rock and mountain climbing

Stand up paddling

Classical music, contemporary art