Advisory Board

Dee Baecher-Brown

Dolorita "Dee" Baecher-Brown and her husband Richard Brown moved to St. Thomas from New York City in 1995. At the time, Richard was working with Chase Manhattan Bank and had accepted an assignment in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Dee had been the director of volunteer services at the Isabella Geriatric Center in NYC and was responsible for the design and administration of an award winning inter-generational program between the center and a neighboring public high school. She is the author of "The Health Careers Partnership," a handbook used to replicate the program in seven additional sites. Previously, Baecher-Brown had worked in education and program development for children and youth at the New York City Volunteer Corps, and at the Academy for Educational Development.

In September 1995, the USVI was devastated by Hurricane Marilyn. Marilyn provided Dee with an employment opportunity as director of the federally funded St. Thomas/ St. John watergut cleaning project.

Dee has been president of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands since 1996. With a dedicated staff and seventeen directors of the Foundation’s volunteer board, CFVI provided $1.5 million in grants, scholarships and assistance to individuals and non-profit organizations in the past year. The Foundation’s assets have grown to over $6 million.

Baecher-Brown serves on the Governor's Children and Families Council and the USVI Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Committee, and the advisory council of the University of the Virgin Islands Eastern Caribbean Center. She is a member of the St. Thomas/ St. John Chamber of Commerce; the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce; USVI League of Women Voters; the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC); the Annie E. Casey KIDS COUNT Network; and Voices for America's Children. Dee has a master's degree from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Sonia Barnes-Moorhead

Sonia Barnes-Moorhead is the Executive Vice President for The Astor Home for Children Foundation, a community-based, non-profit organization that provides children's mental health services, child welfare services, and early childhood development programs in New York State's Mid-Hudson Valley region and the Bronx, NY, where she oversees all fundraising, communications and public relations activities.

Ms. Barnes-Moorhead previously worked as an Organizational Development Consultant for over nine years. Though based in St. Thomas, USVI, she worked throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Her consulting work was focused on organizational capacity development, research, fundraising, strategic planning, and relationship cultivation and management.

Ms. Barnes-Moorhead's professional experience includes working as a grantmaker for a private foundation and a family foundation (Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in the Philanthropy and Volunteerism funding area); fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund (annual giving and capital campaign); policy analyst; and stockbroker.

Ms. Barnes-Moorhead holds a M.S. in Urban Policy and Management from the New School University in New York; and a B.S. in Business Economics and French from the State University of New York, College at Oneonta. She has completed her course work towards a doctorate from Case Western University, Weatherhead School of Business in Cleveland where her research focus is on “Leadership and Management in the Nonprofit Sector,” specifically investigating the role of “Emotional Intelligence” in nonprofit management leadership.

Ms. Barnes-Moorhead is a native of Jamaica and is married to John Moorhead.

Donnalie Edwards-Cabey

Donnalie is a native of Antigua but resides in the US Virgin Islands since 2004 when her husband became the Assistant Pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. She is a consultant with the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI) on child advocacy issues in the Caribbean and the USVI Kids Count project.

Donnalie has worked in the fields of youth development and faith based nonprofit organizations for the past 20 years. She has designed training workshops on ecumenism, youth development, networking skills, and young women's issues. She has also published articles on youth and has served as a speaker on issues related to engaging youth in the faith based community.

Donnalie is an active volunteer and board member with engagement in several faith based organizations, both in the Virgin Islands and across the Caribbean. She has served as an advisor to the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the executive and central committees of the World Council of Churches (WCC). During the period between 1994 and 1997, Donnalie worked as a program Consultant to the Youth Department of the WCC, based in Geneva, Switzerland. She also served as a Caribbean representative for the Anglican Church during the period from 1998 to 2006.

Donnalie has a strong commitment to Caribbean philanthropic and social organizations, serving as a past board member of the Association of Caribbean Community Foundations (ACCF). She is also the founding president of the YWCA of the Virgin Islands Inc, which was started in St. Thomas in October 2006. Currently, she serves on the board of Virgin Islands Perinatal Incorporated (VIPI), a local nonprofit providing healthcare services to women and children.

Donnalie holds a LLB (Hons) degree in Law from the University of Wolverhampton, U.K. She is married to Lenroy K.Cabey and they have two children, Mandlalele and Makeda-Elizabeth.

Joan Harrigan-Farrelly

Joan Harrigan-Farrelly has been with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for over 10 years and has had the unique opportunity to work in various leadership positions across the Agency. Joan has served as the Director, Resources Management Division in the Superfund Program; as Branch Chief in the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water; and as Senior Advisor in EPA's Office of Homeland Security. Prior to her service with the U.S. EPA, Joan also worked with USAID as a Senior Fellow in the Policy Bureau; and as Director, Coastal Zone Management Program in the United States Virgin Islands.

In her current position as the Director of the Antimicrobials Division in the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) at the U.S. EPA, Joan is responsible for all regulatory activities and science analysis associated with antimicrobial pesticides, including new chemical and product-specific registrations, registration review, efficacy analysis for public health products, and environmental fate and human health analysis.

Joan's vision is to ensure seamless coordination with all regulatory and science partners so that the highest level of efficiency is achieved as AD ensures the use of the best science in its mission to protect human health and the environment in its registration and re-evaluation of chemicals used against microbiological pests.

Joan has also served as First Lady of the United States Virgin Islands from 1991 to 1995. Joan advocated on behalf of children and families, working on literacy programs, teenage pregnancy and removing guns, both real and toy from places where they could make their way into the hands of children. Joan also worked on domestic violence issues and environmental concerns. Joan's tenure as First Lady was certainly one of an activist.

Joan holds a Bachelors degree from Rutgers University and a Masters degree from New York University.

Etha J. Henry

Etha J. Henry is President of the EJH Alliance, which provides consulting services in organizational development.

Previously she was the Vice President for Programs at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in New Haven, Connecticut, where she was responsible for overseeing the program area and its $10 million in grant distribution. At the Foundation, she successfully conceptualized and managed the implementation of the strategic planning process with the Board of Directors and staff to define the Foundation's broad focus areas within the context of the community-building strategy, and was also instrumental in the design of evaluation and capacity-building initiatives.

Ms. Henry has 20 years of experience in helping individuals achieve their potential, starting as a teacher in her native Antigua. She has previously served as Vice President at United Way in New York City and also held positions at the Hudson Guild Settlement House and Columbia University School of Social Work. She has served as an instructor at the Hunter Graduate School and The New School for Social Research in New York.

Ms. Henry holds a Masters of Science degree from Columbia University School of Social Work, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College, and a certificate in marketing from Northwestern University.

Catherine Lockhart-Mills

Catherine Lockhart-Mills was educated on St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, where she graduated from high school. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 1972, Finch College, New York, N. Y. and Masters Degree in Social Work, Administration of Criminal Justice, in 1975, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Upon graduation, she worked for two years in New York City and Washington D.C. as a Social Worker for neglected, abused and delinquent children. She returned to the Virgin Islands Department of Social Welfare in 1977 as a Supervisor. In 1978 she transferred to the then Youth Services Administration, where she was promoted to Assistant Director, then Deputy Director. She held this post until 1987 when she was selected to be the Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Human Services. In 1995 Governor Roy L. Schneider nominated her as Commissioner of Human Services and she was approved by the Legislature. In November 1997, she resigned her position and assumed that of the Deputy Program Director of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program.

The following community organizations have honored Catherine: St. Thomas/St. John Youth Multi-Service Center, St. Thomas East End Lions Club, Dial-a-Ride and the Girl Scouts for her work with youth and the disadvantaged. In 1999 she was selected for the prestigious Impact Award of "Woman of the Year" by the League of Women Voters.

She is a board member of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Board, the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, and is also active in the All Saints Cathedral School Capital Development Committee and its fund raising. Catherine is married to Attorney Don C. Mills and is the proud mother of a daughter, Cori.

William S. Moody

Between 1968 and 2007, William S. Moody was a program officer and a program director at Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation in New York City. His responsibilities included the management of RBF programs in international relations; human rights; rural development and wild land management in Latin America; community action and conservation in sub-Saharan Africa; race relations in South Africa; eco-development in the Caribbean; and sustainable development and civic engagement/democratic practice in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Western Balkans.

In the summer of 2010, Moody began writing a memoir about his career as a grant maker. He is a member of the governing boards of International House-New York; the Belgian American Educational Foundation; and the Woodstock Foundation in Vermont.

Mr. Moody was educated at Northwestern University (B.A.), University of Geneva, Switzerland, University of Michigan Law School (J.D.), and the Institute of European Studies of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium (licence speciale). He has two sons, Scott and John, a daughter, Megan, and two grandchildren, Anne and Will. He and his wife, Susan, live in Princeton, New Jersey.

Tom Olsen

Mr. Tom Olsen joined the UNICEF Barbados Office as Country Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean countries on July 1, 2006. Prior to this appointment, he was the UNICEF State Representative in Orissa, India where he was responsible for program and policy development, monitoring and implementation and succeeded in integrating emergency interventions with long-term cost effective development planning in a state with 37 million people.

Before joining UNICEF in 1999, Mr. Olsen was recruited into the private sector and appointed Head of the Business Logistics Division at the multinational industrial company, Scandinavian Cement Ltd (SCANCEM) were he held this senior position until 1999 when he was asked by the UNICEF Country Representative to Angola, Mr. Anthony Bloomberg to join his team.

Between 1981 and 1996, Mr. Olsen worked with the Norwegian Government and held various positions both at the national and international level. Between July 1988 and August 1992, he was assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium and was a part of the team responsible for providing analytic information to the Secretary General and the member state representatives regarding global political, economic and military developments.

Mr. Olsen is a Norwegian National and a graduate from the Royal Norwegian Navy Academy in Management and Logistics (1981) and has a Master’s in Business Administration from the Kristiansand Business School (1984). He is married to Ms. Fausta Teta Olsen and they have one daughter and two sons.

Michael E. O'Neal

Michael E. O'Neal is Senior Research Fellow at Island Resources Foundation, an organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and the Caribbean, whose central mission is to assist small islands to meet the challenges of social, economic and institutional growth while protecting and enhancing their environments.

Former President of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Dr. O'Neal had previously served as the first Resident Tutor/Head of the University of the West Indies, BVI Centre. In addition, from 1997-2004, he held appointment as Core Professor at the Graduate College of the Union Institute in Ohio, where he supervised Ph.D. students in interdisciplinary studies.

Prior to his academic career, Dr. O'Neal was a managing director of the business enterprises of J.R. O'Neal Ltd (BVI). He has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Public Service Commission, the Development Bank of the Virgin Islands, and as Chairman of the BVI National Parks Trust, 2003-2009. He is currently a director of JOMA Ltd, a closely-held, family-owned real estate management and development company.

Dr. O'Neal is a member of several professional associations and learned societies, and is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (U.K.) and of the American Anthropological Association.

Judith A. Towle

Judith Towle is vice president of Island Resources Foundation, a Caribbean-based NGO she co-founded with her late husband in 1972 to assist small islands in meeting the challenges of social, economic and institutional growth and environmental change. She lived in the Caribbean for more than 35 years before relocating to the Foundation's Washington, DC office. She continues to coordinate the Foundation's programs and activities in the British Virgin Islands.

From 1991 to 2004, Ms. Towle served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mukti Fund, a U.S. philanthropic foundation whose grant making efforts focused on St. Kitts and Nevis. In 2003, the Judith A. Towle Environmental Studies Fund was established by the Mukti Fund in recognition of her work in the Caribbean.

Towle has written or edited publications about the Caribbean for over three decades, focusing primarily on island environments, NGO institutional development, environmental law and public policy, protected area planning, and historical resource development. She is the lead author of a 2010 CPN publication on Caribbean philanthropy law and provides continuing leadership for CPN’s ongoing philanthropy law initiative.

W. Aubrey Webson

Dr. Aubrey Webson, an Institutional Development Consultant for the Perkins School for the Blind since 1992, specializes in management and leadership training and policy formulation. Formerly Dr. Webson was with Sight Savers International and Helen Keller International, where he advised the HKI African and Caribbean development programs.

From 1981 – 1987 Dr. Webson was the Chief Executive of the Caribbean Council for the Blind, and has also served as Adjunct Professor or guest lectured at Wheelock College, East Nazarene College, Boston University, Boston College, University of South Africa, University of Vender and the Uganda College of Special Education.

Dr. Webson was a speaker at the United Nations General Assembly, presenting at the closing of the Decade of the Disabled (1991), and has been a featured speaker of the World Blind Union General Assembly in both 1996 and 2002. He has been credited with developing the Africa Forum (an all-Africa conference on services for the blind), authored NGOs and Ethics (2002) and NGO Corruption and Democracy (2001) and is a member of numerous organizations, such as the Affinity Group for Students of Non-Profit Organizations.

Dr. Webson received his Ph.D. in Management from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, and from the New School of Research in New York he was awarded a Post-Graduate Certificate in Organizational Development and his B.S./M.S. in Management of Non-Profit Organizations. He also received training on constitutional and criminal law and business management, with an emphasis on Caribbean business economics and social work, from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.