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Current Envoys

Robert Alvarez, El Salvador
Robert Alvarez is world renowned dancer/teacher/choreographer. He started his career as a professional dancer with Janet Jackson in the music videos "Nasty Boys" and "When I think of you." He has worked with some of the biggest stars in the industry, including; The Jackson's, Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Joni Mitchell, Julio Iglesias, Amy Grant, Peter Cetera, Donna Summers and Gloria Estefan with whom he traveled the world with "Into the Light World Tour." He has taught at Cal State University in Los Angeles and Louisburg College in North Carolina. In his capacity as a Cultural Envoy, Mr. Alvarez will conduct master classes in contemporary dance with the National Dance School in El Salvador. The classes and workshops will place special emphasis on improvisation techniques and contemporary dance. Mr. Alvarez will also help the students and professors develop a choreography piece that will be part of the school's repertoire, and will be performed for the public.

Toni Blackman, Ivory Coast
A rap lyricist, vocalist, actress and writer, Toni Blackman is the first U.S. Hip Hop Cultural Envoy used by the U.S. Department of State. She is the founder and director of the Freestyle Union which is a New York based organization for hip hop artists and rappers. Blackman's talents are widely recognized, having presented and performed alongside Erykah Badu, Mos Def, the Roots, Wu Tang, the Lilith Fair, Def Poetry, and served as a King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. This former OSI/Soros Fellow, has also received a Washington Area Music Award and an invitation to the White House Millennium Celebration with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Blackman was listed in ESSENCE Magazine's 2000 listing of 30 Women to Watch, and has been featured in the NY Times, SAVOY and Newsweek Japan. Blackman's first book "Inner-Course" (Villard/Random House) was released late 2003. As part of her duties as a Cultural Envoy, Toni Blackman will conduct workshops and discussions and present concerts with local youth in the cities of Man, Odienne, Ferkessedougou, Korhogo, and Bouak in Muslim-majority north of Cote D'Ivoire. In each city, Ms. Blackman will offer small-venue concerts or hip-hop workshops for local youth.

Frank Collura, Honduras
Frank Collura has distinguished himself throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe as a conductor of exceptional talent and musical versatility. His extensive range of experience and repertoire have included Symphonic and Chamber Orchestra performances, Opera, Ballet and Dance productions, Choral and Young Persons' Concerts, Jazz, Cabaret, and Pops events. A graduate of the University of Buffalo and the Manhattan School of Music, Frank Collura began his professional career at the age of 17 as Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, notably the youngest member ever to join that orchestra. As a professor and lecturer in music, Mr. Collura has held academic positions at Buffalo State University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, Niagara University, and Mercyhurst College. In his duties as a Cultural Envoy, Frank Collura will conduct a two-week program with the Honduran Philharmonic Choral Association. The program would introduce the 30 members of the Honduran Philharmonic Orchestra and approximately 30 music students from the public music schools to a repertoire of American music. The program includes two open public concerts to celebrate the 4th of July.

David Furman, Honduras
David Furman is a ceramic sculptor and an Art Professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. He has won numerous awards and traveled widely presenting ceramic workshops in many parts of the world including Latin America. As a Fulbright Senior Artists Fellow in Peru and Costa Rica, he taught the art of clay to diverse marginalized youth groups and adults exploring narrative storytelling. In his capacity as a Cultural Envoy, Professor Furman will jury the Honduras National Annual Art Show, teach sculpture at the art school and present public lectures on American art and his work in Tegucigalpa.

Greg Hopkins, Macedonia
Greg Hopkins is a professor of Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music. Mr. Hopkins has developed several courses in composition and also directs the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, one of the most prestigious performing ensembles at the school. He has published arrangements and compositions with Kendor, Studio P.R., and Tom Crown Brass Publications. Mr. Hopkins works often with his 16 piece jazz orchestra, and also performs regularly with his quintet, and Tim Ray's trio. In Macedonia, Mr. Hopkins will conduct workshops and master classes for young musicians to develop an understanding of American jazz music.

Peter Kalivas, Peru
American choreographer, Peter Kalivas, is a specialist in dance and has traveled as a cultural envoy to Kazakhstan in 2003 and 2004. He is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has danced with the New York-based Sean Curran Company. In addition, he was a Fulbright scholar in Dance Education. As part of his program in Peru, Mr. Kalivas will conduct a three-week dance program that will reach out to young people with disabilities, young dancers, and under-privileged youth in Lima. The program will take place during the International Congress on Challenges and Opportunities for Disabled Children and their Families. In addition to the workshops, the program would include master classes for local young hip-hop dancers and disabled dancers, and will culminate in a collaborative performance.

George Martinez, Bolivia
George Martinez is an award winning artist/activist/educator and founding board member and the chairman of the award winning Hip-Hop Association (H2A). He is also the co-founder of Blackout Arts Collective, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering communities of color through arts activism and education. Blackout received the Union Square Award for Grassroots Activism in 2002 and continues to be a leader in Hip-Hop activism and education. Mr. Martinez is a multi-talented Hip-Hop artist with 25 years of performance experience and over 12 years experience teaching and developing Hip-Hop based curricula. As an educator Mr. Martinez became a Doctoral Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1998 and later became an adjunct professor of Political Science at Hunter College and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Pace University. Mr. Martinez is the former Assistant Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the former Attorney General and current Governor of New York State Eliot Spitzer. He has been cited in over 150 newspapers including USA Today, Washington Post, LA Times, Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press and recently authored "Hip-Hop Politics" in the Journal of Socialism and Democracy. In Bolivia, Mr. Martinez will conduct workshops and master classes for professionals and youth resulting in a collaborative performance. He will lecture on the history of Hip-Hop and the Hip-Hop movement.

Robert Olinger, Turkmenistan
Robert Olinger is a theatre director and graduate of the University of Evansville. In 2001 Robert Olinger was a Fulbright Fellow at the directing faculty of the MKHAT school and worked closely with the famous Russian director Kama Ginkas. In 2004 Olinger directed a diploma production, "True West," which was a hit with Moscow student audiences. In 2005, he directed "Poe on 84th St." in New York and "Noble Glasses" in Moscow. In Turkmenistan, Mr. Olinger will conduct master classes with young actors and work with administrators of the Pushkin Youth Theater.

Dr. Meredith D. Palumbo, Namibia
Dr. Meredith D. Palumbo is a professor of art history at Ferris State University. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Kent State University with an M.A. in Art History and holds a Ph.D. in African Art from Indiana University, Bloomington. In 2001, she was awarded a Fulbright Student Fellowship in Namibia, where she wrote a paper entitled "Gendered Visions: Images of Women in Contemporary Namibian Art." She has extensive experience in both museum management and in teaching fine art curatorial practices in the U.S. and abroad. As a Cultural Envoy, Dr. Palumbo will use her skills and experience to conduct a series of workshops and roundtable discussions in Namibia on topics such as strategic museum planning, educational programs, curatorial practices, and developing art patrons.

Mimi Robinson, Kyrgyz Republic
Mimi Robinson, a San Francisco based designer, has been creating products for retailers such as Crate and Barrel, Target, Zak Designs, Chronicle Books and Design Within Reach that reflect her global outlook and love of diverse culture. She has also worked with the non-profit organization, Aid to Artisans, for the past 10-years collaborating with the craftspeople in small villages in Peru to create products utilizing traditional skills and local materials to help build local and international markets for their work. Most recently, Mimi visited Santa Fe, New Mexico where she toured the renowned Pueblo pottery collections at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. Ms. Robinson will travel to Kyrgyz Republic to lend her expertise in adapting traditional arts to international markets. She will participate in a summit on traditional and modern design and visit craft workshops and lecture on trends and preservation of cultural authenticity.

Mitchell Rose, Kosovo
Mitchell Rose began his career as a New York-based choreographer specializing in comedic work. Eventually he was drawn more to visual media and chose to become a filmmaker, entering The American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow. Since A.F.I., his films have won 49 film festival awards and are screened around the world on television and in locations as diverse as the Getty Museum and the CBS JumboVision in Times Square. The New York Times has called him "... a rare and wonderful talent." The Washington Post has described his work as "in the tradition of Chaplin, Keaton, and Tati -- funny and sad and more than the sum of both. Recently his film Learn to Speak Body had 1.5 million hits on YouTube in two weeks. In his capacity as a Cultural Envoy, Mitchell Rose will present "The Mitch Show," a series of comedic short films intermixed with audience participation performance pieces. Mr. Rose's performance will also incorporate a screening of ECA video art series "U.S. Express." In addition to his performances, Mr. Rose will also conduct workshops with students at the Academy of Arts of the University of Pristina, and also at the Center for Visual Arts Multimedia.

Ricardo Viera, Dominican Republic
Cultural Envoy Ricardo Viera has been Director/Curator, Lehigh University Art Galleries/Museum Operations, and Professor of Art in the Art & Architecture Department at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania since 1974. In addition to teaching museum studies and visual communication courses such as studio design, graphics, history of photography, Mr. Viera acts as a curator and museum consultant. Viera received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, a BFA from Tufts University, a Diploma from the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and he also attended the Summer Museum Management Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder. In his capacity as a Cultural Envoy, Mr. Viera will convey approaches, new technology, and provide research information to renovate historical museums in the Dominican Republic. He will also conduct staff workshops and meet with Ministry of Culture officials and museum professionals from around the country.

Ruth Zaporah, Estonia
Ruth Zaporah, a San Francisco Bay native, is a master of improvisational performance. Using dance and mime, she transforms herself into a range of characters. Her characters have extra-ordinary, archetypal dimensions, illuminated by her unique use of language, gesture and freedom of mind. Ms. Zaporah refers to these specific skills of the performing arts as "Action Theatre." As a Cultural Envoy, Ruth Zaporah will introduce "Action Theatre" to young Estonians and to an international circle of participants - mostly from Western Europe - at the Young Dancers Festival and International Summer School in Viljandi, a city in south-central Estonia with 20,000 inhabitants.