THE LONGITUDE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Longitude’s board of directors has been working together since the summer of 2007. This small but dedicated group meets four times a year to strategize and promote Longitude’s work both locally and internationally.
started the PROFESA Secretarial Academy in 2000 by purchasing 6 hh typewriters and teaching classes out of his dad’s church. Meshach is a highly dedicated member of his community. He also serves as secretary of his town’s city council.
specializes in human rights awareness, advocacy, and intervention. As a member of the Dalit community (formerly known as the Untouchables caste) he has faced oppression and discrimination throughout his life and is committed to improving rights for others.
STAFF BIOGRAPHIES
led Longitude’s first international volunteer expedition to India in 2005. They arrived exactly one year after the Asian Tsunami ravaged the coastal villages of Kothasatram/Indiranagar. Rick currently serves as Longitude’s Director of International Volunteering.
has been a teacher in Providence, RI since 2000. Shawn is a co-founder of Longitude and runs the organization between moments of entertaining his son and writing lesson plans for second graders. Shawn currently serves as President of Longitude.
lives in North Smithfield, RI with her husband and two sons. She is a Professor in the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College, where she teaches primarily in the MSW Program. Her teaching focuses on social work practice and human behavior, and she specializes in qualitative research.
is a travel addict, ultra-organizer and Non-Profit Marketer who met Shawn through a friend in 2007 and has been hooked on helping Longitude since. John serves as Longitude's Fundraising & Marketing Strategist from his current home in London, UK.
first volunteered in the villages of Kothasatram/Indiranagar in 2006. He has since lead the May 2009 expedition to Gummallapadu. He currently serves as Longitude's Director of Communications.
Originally a musician and musicologist hailing from the UK, Emma has volunteered in India three times and, of these, led two trips. It would be no underestimate to say that her experiences in India have profoundly changed her forever. Through her work at Longitude, Emma hopes to continue to change the lives of both her friends in India as well as spread word of Longitude's hugely worthwhile cause by successfully bringing volunteers to where they are most needed.
Emily Haydock has been a Longitude volunteer since 2006, when she first traveled to Kothasatram/Indiranagar. Inspired by the work she saw Ravi accomplishing, she decided to lead a volunteer group in 2008 and has continued helping Longitude ever since. Since December, she has been working in Andhra Pradesh with Longitude and ARV as Director of Development.
An Asian fanatic, Annie has lived in Japan for 3 years and is into teaching her lovely students, hiking, riding her bicycle, and trance music. Upon meeting Ravi and the villagers of KI on a volunteer trip in 12/2007, she fell in love with India and wanted desperately to help her new friends. She hopes to help Ravi achieve his vision of Dalit empowerment and to move to India in the future to help him on a more permanent basis.