2023 Board Nominees

Election of your new Board of Directors and Office Holders

At our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 6, 2023, the available seats on the Board of Directors and Office Holders will be elected by our members.

Every member of ISCA is encouraged to review the nominees below so that you can make an informed vote at the AGM to elect the members who you believe will be best for the association. You can read their profiles and click to watch short videos, their CV, and other professional information.

How voting will work

ISCA members are eligible to attend the virtual online AGM and vote to have your say in who governs our association.

Each member will vote for one (1) candidate for each office holder position:  Secretary and Treasurer.

Each member will vote for five (5) candidates for Ordinary Board positions. When votes are counted, the candidates who have been elected to Office Holder positions will be removed from the list, and the three (3) candidates receiving the most votes will be elected as Directors.

Meet the nominees

Listed in alphabetical order.

Nominees for Secretary

Kathryn Dilworth (She/Her)

United States

Kathryn is a professor of practice for philanthropy in the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University. She has twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector including higher education. Other sub-sectors ... Read more

Nominees for Treasurer

Mario Marais (he/him)

South Africa

I live in a country with massive divides. Our youth unemployment rate is very high. The money that is available for development by the South African government is appreciable, with job... Read more

Mario Marais

I live in a country with massive divides. Our youth unemployment rate is very high. The money that is available for development by the South African government is appreciable, with job creation as the goal. Unfortunately, most of these funds focus on large infrastructure projects or technologically driven initiatives, of which the latest is the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Our President uses this concept in speeches and the government organisation that I work in, the CSIR (https://www.csir.co.za/), has had to adopt a 4IR strategy.

Given the shocking state of our education system, very few young people will be able to enter the 4IR job market.

The major focus is on the easy technical aspects of socio-technical systems and the “messy” social aspects are boxed into superficial “community participation” and “community development management” efforts.

Sustainable Development has been my research focus for the last 12 years and resulted in a PhD in Informatics. The focus was on the missing component of rural entrepreneur development in a broadband deployment project for rural schools, namely the role of social capital in supporting entrepreneurs supplying ICT-based services in rural communities. The value of the access to resources and the innovation creation via local relationships, is phenomenal.

My research and implementation have shifted to individual and regional level networks since this is where most of development spend occurs. I have joined the Network Weaving, Weaving Lab and Social Mapping communities to learn about facilitating the weaving together of individual personal and entity networks in a region. My mission is to stimulate research in social capital, social mapping and network weaving among global ICT4D and Community Informatics researchers and practitioners. A series of publications is planned. The first was “Network Weaving to Foster Resilience and Sustainability in ICT4D” in 2021. Let us work together!

Nominees for Ordinary Director

You will be asked to vote for the five (5) people who you would like to form the Board of Directors, including people you have already voted for for office holder positions (such as Secretary). If your preferred person is not elected to the office holder position, they can still be elected to the board as an Ordinary Director.

Peter Amarasinghe (he/him)

Sri Lanka

In a public sector career that spanned well over three decades, I had the opportunity to serve at different levels of government in policy areas such as poverty alleviation, education, agriculture, and disaster management... Read more

Peter Amarasinghe

In a public sector career that spanned well over three decades, I had the opportunity to serve at different levels of government in policy areas such as poverty alleviation, education, agriculture, and disaster management. Throughout my career, I consistently emphasized the importance of participatory action in development efforts and leveraging the social capital of the affected communities in their empowerment. For instance, we implemented an action research program called the Change Agents Program (CAP) that promoted participatory rural development. The primary role of CAP was to mobilize economically disadvantaged communities by creating small groups and their coalitions and facilitating continuous engagement amongst them. The goal was to empower communities to identify causal factors behind their disenfranchisement and support their efforts of changing their circumstances, e.g., we helped create a coalition of farmer groups and their empowerment against exploitive and predatory lenders, we helped a community that was displaced from their homes and lost their livelihoods explore other economic ventures. I believe these experiences will serve me well in contributing to the ISCA as a director. I am excited to share my experience in South Asian contexts, learn from other researchers and directors at ISCA, and explore the possibility of expanding ISCA’s reach to South Asia. Further, I believe my experience in serving at different levels of government and experience in policy design, development, implementation, and evaluation will hold me in good stead in contributing to furthering the cause of ISCA.

Tele Amuludun (he/him)

United Kingdom

I am a passionate advocate of social justice. An experienced strategic leader, project manager, and social policy analyst with a background in working with international partners, for local authorities, the independent sector, ... Read more

Tele Amuludun

I am a passionate advocate of social justice. An experienced strategic leader, project manager, and social policy analyst with a background in working with international partners, for local authorities, the independent sector, and the voluntary and community sector. I’m experienced in consulting, Community development, race equality, and diversity, service and management development, education and training in health, social, youth, and community work, counselling, and psychotherapy. And a strong track record in establishing strategic partnerships, project management, and effective use of management information to establish new services that incorporate the views and contributions of service users in the design, planning, delivery, and evaluation of services. I’m also experienced in managing and facilitating work groups, teams, organisational and system change. Currently a Senior Lecturer at Londonmet University.

I have an interest in co-production research methods and intersectionality theorising.

Alice Campbell (she/her)

United States

I have been a volunteer with ISCA even before it became ISCA, officially. I believe sincerely in its tenets and hope to bring an appreciation of social capital to a wider audience and practice. As a board member, I hope to contribute ... Read more

Alice Campbell

I have been a volunteer with ISCA even before it became ISCA, officially. I believe sincerely in its tenets and hope to bring an appreciation of social capital to a wider audience and practice. As a board member, I hope to contribute to the organization's continued development and impact.
I have been a market researcher, a librarian, a sales manager, a counselor, a consultant, and a yoga teacher. It recently occurred to me that the one common thread running through those diverse occupations was the dynamic interconnectedness of individuals within a collective and the power of networked relationships.
Currently, I am a doctoral candidate in Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University where I am researching the bricolage of storytelling, culture, social capital, and mentoring. My dog will be happy when I'm finished and can pay more attention to him!

Kathryn Dilworth (She/Her)

United States

Kathryn is a professor of practice for philanthropy in the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University. She has twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector including higher education. Other sub-sectors ... Read more

Kathryn Dilworth

Kathryn is a professor of practice for philanthropy in the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University. She has twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector including higher education. Other sub-sectors where she has lead organizations, conducted major gift fundraising and corporate communications include healthcare, conservation, museums, and libraries. Social capital is a major element in her research and teaching in the field of philanthropy.

Mario Marais (he/him)

South Africa

I live in a country with massive divides. Our youth unemployment rate is very high. The money that is available for development by the South African government is appreciable, with job... Read more

Mario Marais

I live in a country with massive divides. Our youth unemployment rate is very high. The money that is available for development by the South African government is appreciable, with job creation as the goal. Unfortunately, most of these funds focus on large infrastructure projects or technologically driven initiatives, of which the latest is the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Our President uses this concept in speeches and the government organisation that I work in, the CSIR (https://www.csir.co.za/), has had to adopt a 4IR strategy.

Given the shocking state of our education system, very few young people will be able to enter the 4IR job market.

The major focus is on the easy technical aspects of socio-technical systems and the “messy” social aspects are boxed into superficial “community participation” and “community development management” efforts.

Sustainable Development has been my research focus for the last 12 years and resulted in a PhD in Informatics. The focus was on the missing component of rural entrepreneur development in a broadband deployment project for rural schools, namely the role of social capital in supporting entrepreneurs supplying ICT-based services in rural communities. The value of the access to resources and the innovation creation via local relationships, is phenomenal.

My research and implementation have shifted to individual and regional level networks since this is where most of development spend occurs. I have joined the Network Weaving, Weaving Lab and Social Mapping communities to learn about facilitating the weaving together of individual personal and entity networks in a region. My mission is to stimulate research in social capital, social mapping and network weaving among global ICT4D and Community Informatics researchers and practitioners. A series of publications is planned. The first was “Network Weaving to Foster Resilience and Sustainability in ICT4D” in 2021. Let us work together!

Heather McGregor (she/her)

United Arab Emirates

I am a strong believer that social capital needs to be developed in parallel with human capital in order that people and organisations can achieve their goals and fulfil their potential.... Read more

Heather McGregor

I am a strong believer that social capital needs to be developed in parallel with human capital in order that people and organisations can achieve their goals and fulfil their potential. I am a firm believer in Coleman’s assertion that social capital. can leverage all other capital – human, economic, natural capital all can contribute greater returns if harnessed with social capital. I worked in the private sector for over 30 years before becoming a full time academic in 2016, joining Heriot-Watt (a UK top quartile research university) as the head of its business school, and then moving to the United Arab Emirates in 2022 as the Provost of its Dubai campus. My PhD in 2003 looked at the impact of social capital on how long it took for companies to borrow money in the syndicated loan market. I am presenting myself as a candidate because I passionately believe in the advancement of social capital as an academic subject, but also as a policy consideration, and a management and personal development tool, because it has such transformational effects on people and organisations. I have many years of board experience on the boards of not for profits and public and private companies, and am a chartered management accountant.

Marcelo Siles (he/him)

United States

I hold a PhD in Applied Economics from Michigan State University, where my doctoral dissertation focused on The Role of Social Capital in Michigan’s Credit Markets (1992). Read more

Marcelo Siles

I hold a PhD in Applied Economics from Michigan State University, where my doctoral dissertation focused on The Role of Social Capital in Michigan’s Credit Markets (1992). To my knowledge, it was the first dissertation on social capital in the area of Applied Economics and I have been working on social capital related research since. It allowed me to publish three books, one in cooperation with the United States Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, 2003), along with publications in book chapters and academic journals.

For over 6 years, I was Co-Director of the Social Capital Initiative at Michigan State University, which included the participation of faculty, graduate students, and staff from 8 different colleges and 18 departments. After collaborating for a year, we agreed on a definition of social capital accepted by all the participant’s disciplines.

I played a key role organizing the first two international conferences on social capital, the first one at Michigan State University (1998) and the second in collaboration with ECLAC in Santiago de Chile (2001). The conference in Chile brought more than 400 international scholars and practitioners; as a result, we were able to produce a book on Social Capital and Poverty Reduction in Latin America, both in English and Spanish.

I have taught several courses related to social capital at Michigan State University and in study abroad programs in Mexico, Peru, and Argentina.
I participated in several research projects on social capital, both at domestic and international levels, which produced many papers published in reputable journals. My research experience and publications also gave me opportunities to present at domestic and international conferences.

Based on my background, I have vast experience in social capital related issues, which support why members should vote for my application to ISCA Board of Directors.

Nomination Process

The Nomination Committee established a robust and transparent process for accepting and reviewing nominations for the Board of Directors. More details about the process can be found here.

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