Our people
Micklina Kenyi
Executive Director
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Micklina Kenyi fled her homeland of South Sudan during the genocide that has claimed the lives of over 2 million people. She came to the United States as a refugee in 2003 and founded a non-profit organization, The Community of South Sudanese and American Women (CSSAW), with the mission of resettling young women from South Sudan to the United States. Kenyi holds dual undergraduate degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in Political Science, and Women and Gender Studies; and earned a master’s degree from CU in Educational Foundation Policy and Practice. In 2008, Micklina became a citizen of the United States. She is the recipient of the Channel 7 Everyday Hero Award, The Community Service Award for Women and Gender Empowerment, and the Award for Women Who Make a Difference Globally. Micklina produced a documentary film chronicling the lives of several of the South Sudanese women who immigrated to Boulder, The Dawn Will Break. Micklina was the chair of the board of the Empowerment Through Education Foundation non-profit she founded (ETE) with the mission to provide K-12 educational opportunities for South Sudanese girls in refugee camps in Uganda and South Sudan. Currently, Micklina is the Executive Director of Girls with Books! (GWB), created from the merger of two small but effective organizations.
Ray Stranske
Board Chair
Ray has worked in the Denver non-profit community for over 40 years and for 27 years he led Hope Communities, an organization that provided affordable housing for many Sudanese refugees arriving in Denver to escape war and violence in their country. Ray was a volunteer and board member for 17 years at Project Education South Sudan, and after its merger with Girls With Books!, is now on the Board of the new organization. Ray was born and lived in Sudan, as well as other East African countries, until age 14, before moving to the US. This early life experience resulted in a lifelong interest in partnership with the country and its people.
Mike Ritter
Treasurer
Mike received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado in Biochemistry in 1981. He worked as a quality control chemist and in pharmaceutical sales before pursuing a career as an educator. In 1984, he received his teaching certificate in science and math and taught those subjects in high schools in Florida, New Jersey and Massachusetts. His family became involved in 2006 with the Sudanese women refugees who resettled in Boulder under the U.S. State Department’s refugee program. In 2007, he joined the nonprofit Community of Sudanese and American Women (CSAW). Mike was elected as board president in 2008 and continued in that position through the transitions of the organization after South Sudan became the newest independent country in the world. CSAW’s mission was fulfilled when the women they served completed individual educational programs and achieved financial independence. The organization changed its name to Empowerment Through Education Foundation and its mission: from supporting the women in the U.S. to providing educational opportunities to girls in South Sudan in 2016. During this past year, he was a member of the committee that worked to bring about the joining of PESS and ETE to form Girls With Books! He has traveled the world, visiting 30 countries to date. He has also lived in three countries outside of the U.S.: Iran (1966-69); Mexico (1975-77) and Italy (2006). He and his wife are looking forward to visiting Africa in the near future.
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Cherri Jacobs Pruitt
Secretary
Cherri Jacobs Pruitt joined the ETE Foundation Board in 2019. Ms. Pruitt has a 30+ year career in maternal and child health policy and systems building work at the local, state, and national levels. In addition to her work with GWB, Cherri is a Family Leadership Training Institute facilitator, a long-time volunteer for both the Center for Partnership Systems and the Audio Information Network, and is a professional musician, performing in the Denver/Boulder area with her husband. Cherri has two adult children and granddaughter, Harmony.
Omunu Abalu
Director
As a human rights activist, Omunu believes in the importance of education as a way to empower young girls in South Sudan and in the refugee camps in Uganda. He is fueled to continuously push for equal educational opportunities for all, no matter ones’ background.
Elizabeth Achulo
Director
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Elizabeth came to the United States in 2006. Before resettling in this country, she was in a refugee in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. She was able to move out of the camp with the help of Sister Luise and Micklina Kenyi, who helped find sponsorship for the Lost Girls to come to the States. She has spent time in an orphanage that Sister Luise founded while going to school in Limuru Kenya. Elizabeth went to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder where she graduated in 2014 and now she is working at the university as Grant Accountant. After, graduation, she have been volunteering with Empowerment through Education (ETE), focusing on education for girls back in South Sudan.
Jim Broyles
Director
Jim is a small business owner who has enjoyed a diverse career. His most memorable work was as a management consultant working with Colorado nonprofits to strengthen their skills in financial management and information technology. He has also worked as a software developer in a rapidly growing technology company and most recently built a successful online agency in the international travel business. Jim has been an active volunteer with Project Education South Sudan since its founding in 2005 and is excited about the future of Girls With Books! He enjoys songwriting and music performance. He has written a successful folk opera and has recorded two CDs of his original music.
Dinah Frey
Director
Dinah works in non-profit program development, focusing on efficiencies and innovation. She previously worked as a teacher and in education policy. Dinah has a passion for social justice and sees education as one of the means to improving economic security. She earned her B.A. in Education & Bible and M.A. in Sustainable Development. She is committed to using her time and experience to support our global community.
Lee Ann Huntington
Director
Lee Ann is an attorney, whose legal practice included over 25 years of litigation experience in federal and state courts. For many years, she was a partner in a prominent San Francisco law firm, where she also served as managing partner. After graduating with honors from Harvard Law School, she began her legal career as an appellate attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. Lee Ann is also an experienced mediator. Now retired from legal practice, she volunteers and teaches in various educational, legal and horticultural areas. She became a Board member of Project Education South Sudan in 2009, after helping her daughter record the stories of many Lost Boys for a high school project. Lee Ann traveled to South Sudan with the PESS team in 2011.
Stella Lunyaramoi
Director
Stella was born in what is now the independent country of South Sudan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and a certificate in Peace & Conflict Resolution from the U. of Colorado Boulder and began studies at American University for a MS in Development Management. In 2014 she was awarded a fellowship at the White House where she worked in Mrs. Obama’s Communication Office. Her experience includes strategic communication, program management, governmental consulting, and client relationship, among others. She previously worked for the Department of Homeland Security where she worked closely with the critical infrastructure community to identify and analyze the most significant risks to our Nation. She now works at CU as the Associate Director for Development & Engagement at the Rene'e Crown Wellness Institute. Along with her passion for social justice, Stella cares deeply about the education and empowerment of women. She enjoys mentoring young women as well as forming partnerships with community members and organizations that are strategically working in impoverished communities. Stella loves yoga and is a plant mom.
Lily Ribiero
Director
Lily Ribeiro lives in Longmont, Colorado, and has had a heart for South Sudan and its people since she was in high school and first learned about the persecution of Christians by the Sudanese government. After South Sudan became independent in 2011, she continued looking for ways to support its widows and orphans. In 2017 she began doing trauma healing work at Kakuma refugee camp with South Sudanese widows. 2017 was also when she learned about PESS, and she joined the board shortly after. She is a pilot and a mom to Noah and Bianca and a one-eyed cat named Mochi.
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Ken Scott
Director
Ken Scott graduated with honors from both the University of Colorado-Boulder and Harvard Law School and has devoted his career to public interest law. He served for twelve years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he investigated and prosecuted some of the Justice Department’s largest criminal cases. In January 1998, Ken moved with his family to The Hague, Netherlands, where he was a senior prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for fourteen years, successfully investigating and litigating cases against thirteen major war criminals, including a prime minister, defense minister and two army chiefs of staff. In recognition of his work in the former Yugoslavia, Ken received the Mostar Peace Prize in November 2017 (previous recipients include Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel and Jacques Chirac). Since returning to Denver in 2011, Ken is engaged in an extensive human rights, war crimes and international criminal law practice. From March 2014 to December 2020, he was the special prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (in The Hague), investigating and prosecuting high-profile obstruction of justice cases. Ken has been extensively involved with South Sudan since March 2014, including as a UN Commissioner on Human Rights in South Sudan. He has served as an instructor or lecturer at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the University of Colorado (both undergrad and at the Law School) and Regis University, concerning international law, human rights, international courts, international criminal law and constitutional law.
Dr. Lawrence Wongo
Director
Lawrence Wongo, Ph.D. has been on the Board of ETE Foundation (formally CSAW/CSSAW) since 2013, later becoming its Vice President. He served in various capacities as a Program Director and Associate Producer of a documentary film, The Dawn Will Break and Rumors of War. Dr. Wongo has also worked on a variety of projects for national and international humanitarian organizations, such as CWAPS, SUPRAID, CARE, ADRA, CRS, AICAD and FAO in developing sustainable solutions to challenges in education and food security.
Heidi Kutcher, Advisory Board Liaison
Advisor
Dr. Peter Van Arsdale
Advisor
Dr. Van Arsdale is recently retired as director of African Initiatives at the University of Denver, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, where he also served as Adjunct Professor. He previously served as a senior researcher for eCrossCulture Corporation, based in Colorado. An applied cultural anthropologist, he has worked in E. Africa, S.E. Asia, the Balkans, Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America, emphasizing community water resources, human rights, refugee resettlement, and humanitarian intervention. He is a noted author, journal editor, and former president of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology.
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Steve Werner
Advisor
Steve Werner is an international development consultant after a 25 year career working with large NGOs, such as CARE, Habitat for Humanity, Water For People, and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. His major focus is capacity building, program development and evaluation, fundraising planning, and board development. He served in Peace Corps – Korea as a two-year volunteer from 1976 – 1978 and Peace Corps Response Volunteer – Georgia from 2016 – 2017. He has served in Rotary, through the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast, since 1989 and still serves at the club, District and International levels as a Water and Sanitation specialist. He has served in Leadership San Antonio, the Kellogg National Leadership Program, and the Salzburg Seminar. He is a past board chair of the National Peace Corps Association. Steve along with other Denver area Rotarians helped to develop the partnership between Peace Corps and Rotary and he is the charter president of Partnering for Peace: Friends of Peace Corps and Rotary. He has three grown children and five grandchildren.