Board of Directors
President
Michael Schapiro began working in Haiti in 2001 when he dedicated two years living in the Northeast town of Ferye. He has worked extensively in community based projects in agriculture, education and health. He has maintained a close relationship with his Haitian community, helping to form a local organization to manage the building and integration of aid projects funded by the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation.
Michael has also worked within his own community in the United States. In 2003, he designed a PowerPoint presentation on his Haiti experience that helps with current funding. Through presentations and fundraisers at schools and events in Eugene, Oregon he has built a foundation of support for the ongoing projects in Haiti.
Seeing the importance of Board structure and leadership, Michael is pursuing a career in accounting. His goals are to make available accounting services to less advantaged communities in urban areas of the United States as well as provide a strong sense of accountability and support for the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Treasurer
Ryan McCrory Co-founded HSDF with Michael in 2004 after returning from two years of service for Peace Corps, Haiti. After His return, Peace Corps was pulled from Haiti due to political unrest, and all projects were terminated. This gave motivation to start working on ways to continue the projects that he had invested in. Knowing his unique position and ability to do development work in Haiti, he began the process of organizing HSDF with Michael Schapiro. Ryan graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with two B.S. degrees, one in Biology, with an emphasis on Botany, and one in Environmental Studies, with an emphasis on Sustainable Agriculture.
Ryan now lives in Oregon, where he and his wife have started up an Organic, Bio-intensive farm, where he practices growing a wide variety of vegetables, exotic culinary mushrooms, and tends to his farm animals for food. Ryan interprets/translates for Haitians in Portland with law firms and county court offices, and sells Haitian art and crafts as a hobby and a way to support the many talented artists he has met throughout Haiti.
Ryan assists HSDF with website development, general administrative work, fundraising, and works directly with development projects in the town of La Madeleine, Haiti.
Secretary
Kathy McAllister came to work with the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation after serving from 2002-2005 with the Peace Corps in Haiti. It was with the devotion of her fellow volunteers that the Board of HSDF and its projects began to take shape. As a small business volunteer she focused on community development and administration training. Her 15 years of experience working with a wide range of businesses and non-profit organizations has led to her to wanting to make a difference. She has been a consultant to Blue Earth Alliance and Bridges to Understanding, both non-profit organizations utilizing the arts to raise awareness on issues of social justice and compassion. Currently she is the business manager for the National office Community Voice Mail and interprets/translates for Haitians with the NW Immigrants Rights Project, local court system and immigration. Kathy graduated from the University of Washington with a BA with honors in Visual Art in 1985. She resides in Seattle and travels to Haiti annually to work on local community development projects.
Board Member
Ira Frydman has a B.A. in Environmental Policy from the University of Kansas, and a M.S. in International Agricultural Development for the University of California, Davis. He currently works with CAFF as a Biological Farming Program Coordinator with a primary focus on the Colusa Almond Growers Project that hopes to decrease pesticide and sedimentation runoff to the Colusa Basin Drain via the implementation of BMP’s on orchards in Colusa County. Ira began his formal studies in agriculture at UC Davis where he worked on biological-agricultural engineering of food waste for the production of usable energy. He also worked with subsistence farmers in Haiti during a two-year term with the Peace Corps.