Who We Are

Founders

Georgette Buseni Safi

Georgette is the co-founder of Hope Sparked and our Kinshasa Program Director. Georgette is a mother of three and lives in the Kingabwa-Yaoundé quarter of Kinshasa near Mabulu. She earned her degree in Administration and Management of Health Institutions, and is continuing her studies in Sciences and Techniques of Development. She works for a local NGO and is an active member of the Focolare Movement. Her husband works as a physical therapist in a nearby center for disabled individuals.

Chris Culver

Chris is the co-founder and President of the Board of Directors of Hope Sparked, and a husband and father of five children. He is an assistant professor of political science at his alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy, where he was a Distinguished Graduate and Truman Scholar as an undergraduate. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. He served as a pilot and deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom along with various other assignments before returning to school to earn a Ph.D. in Political Science and African Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, studying political economy with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Having been blessed with a great education and seeing the difficult living circumstances in several places throughout the world, Chris is committed to a life of public service to help others have the opportunities for education that made such a positive difference in his life.

Staff

Dr. Jean-Luc Balogije Selenge

Jean-Luc runs the Sponsorship Program and advises on health and medical issues for Hope Sparked. He holds a medical degree from the University of Kisangani and is a registered Doctor of Medicine, Surgery and Childbirth on the national Order of Physicians in DRC. He has worked in several health facilities throughout DRC in the public and private sector for a decade. He has experience in the humanitarian sector through working with several international agencies during emergency and development projects. He also has extensive research experience and is currently working in the Center for Scientific Research in Kinshasa, where he is interested in everything related to health and development with a focus on children. He is married and has one child. His interest in the well-being of children prompted him to be a part of Hope Sparked. CV

Mr. Gerard

Mr. Gerard is the year-round dedicated tutor for Hope Sparked students. He helps incoming students develop a basic understanding of the French language they will be expected to know in school as most of them speak only Lingala at home. He helps our current and returning students catch up and keep up with their studies after sporadic school attendance in the past. Other children from the area are also invited to participate in his lessons so we can identify those with the desire and ability to be successful with help from Hope Sparked.

Board of Directors

Dr. Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi

Siko is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School in the Accounting and Management unit. He recieved his Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting at the Penn State University Smeal College of Business. Siko was born and raised in a very poor community in Zimbabwe and deeply understands the impact of the work of organizations like Hope Sparked. He was able to complete primary and secondary school with help from several generous organizations. Moreover, he has since enjoyed great success in higher education because one person, Rebecca Zeigler Mano, believed there should be greater access to academic opportunities for promising students from poor communities. Through her efforts, Siko attended Middlebury College, Vermont on a full scholarship. In 2005, he graduated magna cum laude with double majors in Economics and Russian. After working as a consultant at Lexecon and at CRA International, Siko went on to earn an MBA from Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia before beginning his Ph.D. program. Siko continues to be actively involved with his local community and family in Zimbabwe. Over the last 13 years since coming to the US, he has helped in efforts – very similar to ours at Hope Sparked – that provide financial and other support to students at the primary through the University level. In his spare time, Siko enjoys photography and running. He has completed three marathons, one half-marathon, and several shorter races since 2006. Siko and his wife are proud parents of two daughters.

Clay Noyes

Clay is a husband and father of four children. He is a graduate of MIT with a Master’s degree in Operations Research and is currently employed as a Senior Data Scientist with Zions Bank Corporation. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. Clay was drawn to be a part of Hope Sparked by a desire to make a difference where the difference was needed most. He is an Eagle Scout and a volunteer Cubmaster for the Boy Scouts of America. He also spent two years as a volunteer missionary in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Shannon Smith

Shannon is a mother of five children and grandmother to fourteen. She has a Bachelor of Science in Speech Language Pathology and Elementary Education from Brigham Young University and a Master of Communicative Disorders from Brigham Young University. She worked as a speech therapist for Head Start and for the Fruitland, Idaho School District for six years. After several years of volunteer work while raising her children, she continued to work as a speech therapist and reading teacher, then completed her certification to teach English at the high school level and completed the last 12 years of her career as a high school English teacher. She has spent the last year and a half serving with her husband, a retired dentist, in Australia working as a volunteer teaching and training those in need to acquire job skills and further education.

Shlawna Sikochi

Shlawna is the Legal Services Coordinator for Ascentria Care Alliance in Massachusetts. Her work blesses her with the opportunity to serve and interact with refugees and immigrants from around the world. Shlawna is the proud mother of three beautiful children and currently lives in Harvard, MA. She holds a B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California Santa Barbara and a J.D. from the Richmond School of Law. Shlawna believes strongly in the value and potential of all people, and believes education and opportunity are important factors in developing that potential and providing hope for the future.

Stacey Culver

Stacey is a Speech-Language Pathologist and mother of five children. She completed her undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University and earned a Master’s degree from Gallaudet University where she became fluent in American Sign Language. She worked for four years at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program and as a member of their Cochlear Implant team. After travelling to DRC she recognized the great need to help educate children in less affluent areas.

Dr. Troy Smith

Troy is an Associate Economist for the RAND Corporation. He received a Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at Stanford University, and researches productivity in environments where it is difficult to measure and how the productivity of organizations impacts the markets in which they operate. His current research focuses on business in developing countries by examining the effects of private equity investment on Indian firms and education in the United States by examining the supply of private schooling. Before beginning his Ph.D. at Stanford, Troy worked as an economic consultant at Charles River Associates in Boston, as a research associate at Harvard Business School for the required first year MBA strategy course, and as a researcher at the Small Enterprise Finance Center in the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai, India.