Biographies of Tour Leaders for Rwanda: Kimberly Easson and Steven Livingston
During more than thirteen years in the coffee business, Kimberly Easson has dedicated herself to strengthening relationships between producing and consuming countries and helping industry participants generate win-win trading relationships that make a difference. She is currently the Director of Strategic Relationships of TransFair USA, and has played a leadership role in the organization since the launch of the Fair Trade Certified label in 1999. Through her company, JavaVentures she has lead hundreds of coffee industry professionals on tours throughout Latin America to foster better understanding between roasters and farmers. She is also President and co-founder of the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA).
Kimberly is a frequent speaker at trade conferences throughout the Americas, has written numerous articles published in trade press, and has been quoted by the national and regional media in articles about coffee, trade and social responsibility. She served four years as member of the Board of Directors of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and Chair of the Marketing Committee. Kimberly holds a Master’s degree in International Business from the University of South Carolina. She began her coffee career in Costa Rica in 1991 as an International Rotary Scholar, where she spent four years working in all aspects of the coffee industry; including production, roasting, export, tourism, marketing and sales.
Dr. Steven Livingston is a professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs and the Elliott School of International Affairs at The
George Washington University in Washington, DC. He has written widely about media, war, and humanitarian crises. In April and May 1994, he was in Kenya and the Sudan conducting research on the wars and famines in the Southern Sudan and Somalia. Working from Chester House, the base of operations for the Western press for most of Africa, Livingston heard first-hand accounts of the unfolding genocide from witnesses evacuated by relief organizations. He went on the write the media analysis portion of the first comprehensive analysis of the genocide, Early Warning and Conflict Management: Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda (1996), part of the 5 volume study: International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience.
In preparation, we suggest the following books. A must-read account of the genocide and the ill-fated international response is Shake Hands with the Devil, Romeo Dallaire’s brilliant memoir. Dallaire is the Canadian general who led the small, ill-equipped but heroic UN force that valiantly tried to stem the tide of violence in Rwanda. (Gen. Dallaire is the Nick Nolte character in the popular film “Hotel Rwanda.”) The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, edited by Allan Thompson, examines the Western media and government responds to the genocide during its bloodiest moments. One of the tour organizers contributed to this book. He was also in Africa during the genocide and was at hand to learn of its dimensions from the first survivors to make their way to Nairobi. As discussed above, Rwanda is conducting its own trials. Rwanda’s Gamble: Gacaca and a New Model of Transitional Justice by Peter E. Harrell helps us understand the enormity of the task before Rwandans as they strike a balance between the understandable demand for justice and need for reconciliation.