VIHARA FOUNDATION - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Chairman of the Board
• Co - Founder
• Chairman of the Board and Co - Founder, VF
• Co - Founder, Senior Economist, Jamaica 's Ambassador to United Nations ( Ret ) Trustee

Serving as the United Nations Ambassador for Jamaica and the former Senior Advisor to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Byron Blake is an Economist with over thirty-five yea... ars of experience, working at different levels in institution building, policy development and promotion, planning, program and project development and promotion in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM - 1970 -2004). Ambassador Blake has developed projects and programs in agriculture; industry services including tourism, maritime and air transportation; energy; technology, and the environment. His interests include regional integration, development economics, environmental issues as well as international trade, and the role of business in national development. Twice, Ambassador Blake has been responsible for the economic and environmental negotiations for the G77 (Group of 77 and China, a negotiation group for 131 developing countries and member states of the United Nations). Currently, he serves as the CARICOM Chair for the redevelopment of Haiti. Ambassador Blake has experience serving on several Public and Private Sector Boards, including The Caribbean Consultancy Group (Chairman since March 2006); The Board of Directors of The Caribbean Tourism Research Center/ Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTRC/ CTO) (1974-2004); The Board of Directors of The Caribbean Food Corporation (1979-1982); The Board of Directors of the Community Enterprise Organization of Jamaica (1977 -1979); and representative to the Annual Shareholders Meeting of LIAT (1974) Ltd. (1979-1982) read more

Job Titles:

• Honorary Co - Founder

Job Titles:

• Developer
• Founder and Executive Director, Vihara Foundation / Rock Against Poverty
• Master Planner and Project Coordinator / Project Advisor ( India )
• President, Founder, & Chief Visionary

Dennis Ramdahin is an environmentalist and sustainable development practitioner who has worked for almost two decades in support of the poverty and climate change agendas. Dennis' career kick-started the first active introduction of greening by the New York State government (dating back to 1999), with a focus on energy master planning, green building design, and energy life cycle financial modeling, all aimed at supporting the reduction of greenhouse gases from the densely built sector environment of New York City. This led to significant contributions to the US green and sustainable building advancement, including the creative financing. In 2003, Dennis became engaged in sustainable development modeling for poverty alleviation (following his initial trip to North India that revealed the state of poverty confronting that region). In 2006 Dennis engaged the Haitian-New York Diaspora Professionals on "Theoretical Modelling for Poverty Alleviation in Haiti". He brought this work to the attention of the President of Haiti (to no political avail). In 2009, Dennis took the concept of the Haiti Poverty Alleviation Model and applied it in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (North India), which is today one of the largest whole-system thinking business and scientific proposals for scalable poverty alleviation in the world (The Vihar Poverty Project - scoped for 500 sq km range). In addressing creative means for financing scalable poverty and climate mitigation works, Dennis and the Vihara Foundation founded, in 2010, the Rock Against Poverty initiative, which has steadily grown over the years to where it is now. Through the Vihara Foundation, Dennis has been lobbying Central and South American governments to adopt economic diversification measures surrounding agricultural master planning (including scalable industrial hemp) tied to poverty alleviation and climate mitigation. Most recent engagements include 2018 agriculture master planning work in the British Virgin Islands (Post Hurricane Irma and Maria).

Job Titles:

• Senior Hydro - Geologist, Engineers Without Borders

Job Titles:

• Senior Advisor to the President & CEO / Special Advisor

Job Titles:

• Trustee
• Founder, President, and CEO of Ebony Marketing Research, Inc
• Political Advisor

Ebony G. Kirkland is the founder, President, and CEO of Ebony Marketing Research, Inc., one of the nation's foremost marketing research firms specializing in multicultural research for businesses, gov... vernment agencies, and non-profit organizations within the United States and Central America. Under Dr. Kirkland's direction, the firm has garnered an array of Fortune 500 companies with clients such as Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Wal-Mart, and McDonald's. Her firm has established offices in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Miami, and Costa Rica. Before forming Ebony Marketing Research Inc., Dr. Kirkland taught and lectured at New York Technical College where she served as Director and Chairperson of the Women's Program. She later served as the assistant to the Dean at York College. She has traveled extensively under the sponsorship of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., The United States Information Agency, and the Inet Foundation conducting training programs to inspire women entrepreneurs in Russia, Poland, China, South Africa, and other countries. Her lecture portfolio includes: "Starting and Managing Your Own Business-A Primer for Budding Entrepreneurs" presented and published in Beijing, China, and "Changes and Opportunity"-presented in Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Kirkland's most recent publication has been "The Power of a Woman, Embracing the Woman Within", recently released by Professional Women Publishing. Dr. Kirkland has been featured as a guest on several TV and radio programs and has contributed to numerous magazines and publications where she has addressed the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. Despite her success in the business arena, Dr. Kirkland felt drawn into the ministry. She often cited a need to serve God more profoundly, sharing her talents and expertise in expanding and working on behalf of "The Kingdom." In 2003, she became founder and senior pastor of the Church of the Living God, International. In the second year of her ministry she expanded an international ministry through which she was able to adopt and minister to churches in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, Egypt, India, and Africa. Her vision is to expand her ministry, to serve small grass-roots communities within Spanish speaking countries throughout Central and South America. Her innate bilingual language ability enables her to reach out and minister to Spanish communities spreading the gospel read more Dr. Kirkland has pioneered the "Worldwide Association of Small Churches". The mission of the organization is the empowerment, mentorship, and training for small churches (especially in poverty regions... s of the world). In addition, the organization seeks to collaborate and bring forth peace and understanding among the various interfaith denominations, and she is an affiliate advisor to the UNESCO Center for Peace in New York State. Although Dr. Kirkland became an established well-respected entrepreneur, she continues to share her knowledge and experience by designing training programs, market courses and workshops for governmental and non-profit organizations. Her professional affiliations are as follows: Board member of Bronx Initiative Corporation, Chairman of the Bronx Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Advisory Board of the Women Presidents" Organization, Chairman of The Christian Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of the Multicultural Health Chamber of Commerce. She was consecrated into the office of Bishop by the College of Bishops of the Council of International Charismatic Bishops (CICB) to serve as the Presiding Bishop of the Living God Ministries Worldwide in November of 2009. Born of Hispanic heritage and descent in San Jose, Costa Rica, Dr. Kirkland graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Queens College, City University of New York. She furthered her education graduating with a MBA in Administration from New York University. Under her Master's Degree she received a degree in business management from Harvard University Business School. In addition, she received a Master of Divinity (M. Div) from U.T.S. Dr. Kirkland completed her Doctorate of Ministry (D. Min) degree from U.T.S read more

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Co - Founder and Lead Research, the

Dr Vikas Kumar is an environmental research scientist. Vikas is the co-founder of Vihara Foundation's first major poverty alleviation project - the Vihar Project, Ballia, UP India. He is also the founder of partnering NGO Prabhat, registered in Spain and India. Vikas has more than 20 years of research background and more than 30 major publications in reputed international journals and presentations at major international conferences.

Job Titles:

• Economist, Fordham University New York, Center for International Policy Studies

Job Titles:

• Political Advisor, Crown Heights Community, Brooklyn

Job Titles:

• an Honorary Member of the Board
• Honorary Member of the Board

Now retired after a full career spanning 30-plus years, Gourisankar serves in a continued consulting capacity to governments, and in his own capacity as a true humanitarian, benefitting society and the environment. In this context, Gourisankar served as Chief Executive Officer for FXB India Suraksha, a powerful global NGO working on the issues of HIV prevention and intervention, women empowerment, and child welfare and health (in particular those orphaned by AIDS). As a committed humanitarian, Gourisankar has joined the Vihara Foundation as an honorary member of the board to help its noble mission of advancing its creative solutions for the cause of poverty alleviation and climate mitigation read more

Job Titles:

• Legal Counsel

Job Titles:

• Special Advisor to President & Board, Vihara Foundation / Chief Strategy and Relations Officer

Job Titles:

• Treasurer
• Social Architect / Project Administrator ( India )

Job Titles:

• Virtual Reality Event Master Planner

Job Titles:

• Trustee

Pioneer and a distinguished professional in the fields of agriculture and cooperative development.

Job Titles:

• Analytical Scientist / Secretary
• Data Analytics
• Programmer and Coder / Data Analyst

Job Titles:

• Project Advisor ( Australia )

Job Titles:

• Policy Coordinator / Project Coordinator ( Ballia, India )

Job Titles:

• Special Advisor to President & Board, Vihara Foundation / Special Advisor

Job Titles:

• Architect
• Finance

Job Titles:

• Irrigation, Instrumentations and Controls Specialist

Job Titles:

• Renewable Energy Coordinator / Project Advisor ( USA )
• Strategic Business Development Coordinator ( Australia )

Job Titles:

• Strategic Grant Writer, & Tax Advocate / Special Advisor

Job Titles:

• Social Advocate and Journalist / Project Administrator ( London )

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board

Shri Subhash Palekar is considered one of India's foremost and respected Agricultural expert on Zero Budget Natural Farming. Over the last 30 years, he has trained an unprecedented 3 million Indian fa... armers on this concept. Shri Palekar has dedicated his life to helping the farmers of India overcome the capital-intensive and harmful/polluting ways of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which is contributing to a wave of farmers' suicides, amongst diseases such as cancer. Through his research and teachings, he has shown hundreds of thousands of farmers how to increase production and quality of harvest with no use of fertilizers, harmful pesticides, or genetically modified seeds. His work is novel and based on the principles of nature having the ability to care for itself. Shri Palekar has turned away from many proposals of awards for his work, citing that these generally distract from the true mission of the cause. Of the awards he did accept, was the prestigious "Basava Shri" given in the name of a revolutionary Saint Basava. Before him, this award was given to His Holy Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Anna Hazare, and others. Currently, Shri Palekar is sought after for advice by State and foreign governments which included recently, the Bihar State Government, the United States Government, and the Government of Mauritius. Shri Subhash Palekar's role in the Vihara Foundation is to support the mass propagation of knowledge of zero-budget natural farming to the many struggling farmers of India, and other developing parts of the world, more particularly the poverty-stricken Republic of Haiti read more

Job Titles:

• Farmer Cooperative Implementation Director

Job Titles:

• Ground Implementation Director / Project Coordinator ( Ballia, India )

Job Titles:

• Development Communication

Job Titles:

• Attorney at Law
• Chief Communication Officer